The Teacher Toolbox

Happy Holiday Season to all.

Two stories led me to creating this Stressbuster.

Story 1.

After just one year of teaching, a very talented music teacher friend of mine tossed it all in and went off to do ‘other things’. At his farewell morning tea I had a quiet word to him and inquired, ‘So mate, what led you to make this call?’

‘Look around this room Adrian,’ he whispered, ‘look at their faces, there is not a happy soul among them and I feel like I’m turning into one of them. I don’t want that for myself or my family.’

I must agree, I felt pretty much the same as him at the time.

Story 2.

A couple of months back I had dinner with a couple of second year Uni students after they had just finished their prac experience. As the wine flowed they recounted their experiences in staffrooms and how they found them such depressing places.

So are you one of the people who contribute to a toxic workplace, or are you one of the few who make the work environment a great place to educate and celebrate learning?

More Stressbusters

My latest Stressbuster takes its inspiration from the fact that we all need to have a whinge occasionally. But in my experience there are those that need to whinge a lot more than others and they often never offer any solutions. They continue around and around and around on the same treadmill. It gets tiring but we listen politely.

I’m sure you know someone you can print this cartoon out for.

hehehehehe

cheers

Adrian

PS Know full well I composed it ‘just for you’!

I find the funniest thing about this Stressbuster is that it actually happened. Every year one of the schools I  worked at took the kids to sing to the elderly. This one year we noticed that this one elderly guy had his very own minder. When he’d ask questions he was very, very loud and the kids had a bit of a laugh but rose to the occasion.

Feel free to check out more of my Stressbusters

cheers

Adrian

After a momentary lapse in reason Mr Jones realised he had been teaching too long.

I’m not sure about you guys, but I know sometimes I wonder if ‘they’ might really have an ‘a’ in it?

cheers

Adrian

Tonight’s Stressbuster comes from a thought I had whilst a particularly ‘difficult person‘ was treating himself to one of his little tirades a few years back.

Throughout the performance I distinctly remember thinking of possible proactive ways to deal with his personality disorder rather than listening to the trite he was espousing

IN creating the cartoon I thought hard about which book to include on the desk. In the end I chose Dealing with Difficult People because I felt the graphic nature of the cover page added to the mood of the cartoon. The other short listed titles were, ‘Since Strangling Isn’t An Option… Dealing with Difficult People ‘ which gave me a laugh and had me strangely intregued.

The book I believe I will get my credit card out for when it clears is Perfect Phrases for Dealing with Difficult People. This one appears to give you the words that might help.

cheers

Adrian

PS I just remembered that the tirade was about why a cost benefit analysis had not been submitted before free software was installed on the school network

PSS – If you liked this Stressbuster I have a few more that you might like to check out here. Stressbusters.

Today I finally finished a homepage for my Stressbuster Cartoons. If you need a chuckle as term is getting a little stressful then this is the place to be. You might even find something to print out or email to your workmates.

cheers

Adrian

When going through tough times in schools over the years, friends & I developed a protocol whereby we were only allowed one really big ’spit’/whinge first thing in the morning and that was it for the day.

We allowed each other ‘One Dummy Spit’ as a form of catharsis. Anything beyond the first spit was considered self-indulgent and verging on self pity – We encouraged each other to point this out to anyone who wished to take it further.

In the end it was how we stayed sane in a world filled with petty staffroom politics.  A world that resembled an extension of the high school playground pecking order. A place filled with over inflated egos and people who ‘just didn’t get it’.

That said though, negativity only breeds more of the same. Talking behind backs breeds more of the same. Bitching about people = more of the same… rah, rah, rah.

There comes a time when you either decide to seek solutions, make a stand and fight for what you believe in or just sit back and project incompetence.

Just remember that what is best for your students is ALWAYS paramount in informing the decisions you make!!!

Show  some LEADERSHIP people and not just droll management!!!

cheers

Adrian

Dear World,

Meet Ima Swami – he is going to be pointing out many of the things that they don’t teach us at university and a few other life truths

Ahh Grasshopper… beware the teacher who refers to themself in the third person. They inhabit a strange alternate reality.

cheers

Adrian

PS Feel free to tell stories from your life that demonstrate this anomaly .

For me looking on in here in Oz, NECC http://www.necc2008.org/ is the choir i.e. most of the teachers who attend already use Read/Write tools to connect with the world and are aware of the need for a 21st C skillset.

So here is my message to the choir… print this out, leave it laying around so people will take it home to the ‘chalkface’

You’re not a typewriter! You’re not an electronic text book! You’re not an electronic text book! You’re not a games console! You’re not a glorified piece of @$%*ing cardboard!!!

You’re the all seeing all dancing tools that enable interaction with the world!

Adrian

PS Thanks for the inspiration Brad - Language Warning on this one people!