We never knew we would be so happy to see a Monday! We’re hitting the reset button today because last week made us thankful that Halloween happens only once a year! And it was on a Monday?! Come. On! Talk about a “thrown-off” week we had! Today we’re sharing some tips on how to refocus in the classroom after a stressful week.
Spending time with your family. Each of the Double Dose ladies love spending time with their families and love to fill the weekends with family events. Some of our favorite winter events include picking out and decorating our Christmas trees, driving around to look at holiday decorations, snuggling up with our kiddos to watch Christmas movies, and baking cookies with our moms. Teachers live, breathe, and sleep education all days of our lives so it’s necessary to spend time with your loved ones and refocus!
Setting a goal. Us special educators are all about setting clear, achievable goals and finding ways to help our students meet them. That practice should reflect in our lives too! Setting a goal for the week helps us stay motivated during those trying times. Your goal may be something as small as preparing all your materials for next week before Friday, or it could be as large as touching base with each of your students’ parents. Just remember, that they need to be achievable! How can we expect our students to reach their goals if we can’t either?
When all else fails, look forward to something. This week we have no school on Friday, which means a three-day weekend for us to get all of our last minute holiday preparations in. That’s a teacher win in our book! At times it’s difficult to think that our plans, our class management, our rewards, etc. aren’t working, but we have to remember that there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel. And this week, that light is a three-day weekend!
Pamper yourself! Take the time to go get that mani-pedi that you’ve been thinking about for the past week, grab a coffee and head to your favorite hair salon, or find time for that massage that you’ve been long overdue for. A little “me” time goes a long way in helping refresh your mindset…even if that just means a little longer than usual shower with a fresh face of makeup after!
Consult your teacher bestie! Use the emotional advantage of having a friend down the hall at its fullest when you have had a rough week. Plan something together with your classes to look forward to-perhaps a Friday afternoon movie on the Smart Board after finishing a coordinating chapter book read aloud. Plan to bring each other your absolute favorite coffee the following week. Plan to have your lunches align so you can decompress and talk to someone that really gets it!
LOVE what you do. LOVE your school, LOVE your coworkers and LOVE your kids. This may seem literally IMPOSSIBLE at times, but try to reflect on why you even began this career in the first place and just how far you have come as an educator. Whether this is your first year or fifteenth, there is a whole classroom of kiddos who need you, who make you the center of their world for 7 hours a day—even if they show it in the most unloving of ways at times. Take a couple of minutes to reflect on the quirkiness, uniqueness, perseverance and strength that each of the tiny humans who call you “teacher” every day has and the joy that they bring to you when you are able to be 100% present to them.….and maybe, tomorrow your mind will be a little more at-ease, and you can continue on being the rock star teacher that you are! 🙂
