Anxiety, worry, and stress

This happened to me:

I was behind on my lesson plans by a week, and had two weeks of grades yet to be inputted and finals were right around the corner. There were no issues with the students—they knew where they stood, parents were informed, and everything had been graded. But the gradebook had not been updated in some time, and I knew my administrators knew it.

This created tremendous feelings of anxiety, worry and stress.

The administrators that we had at the time were not what you would consider supportive.

Nope.

And therein lies both the problem and the solution.

I have worked in places where I came in late and the first thing asked was, “Are you alright? Is everything ok?” I have worked in places where everyone sits in on everyone’s classes because everyone’s stealing everybody’s great ideas and implementing and improving and expanding them. I’ve worked in places so full of joy that many of those coworkers are my friends now, these ten-plus years later.

Then I have worked in places where I never got a key to my classroom, where I was evaluated every single week, where the staff meeting was so absent of humanity that many teachers chose to get written up week after week instead of sitting through another meeting. The ironic thing is, because of the feeling you get in this environment, you end up feeling on edge—which increases the likelihood of mistakes, which means you are more likely to face the people who are not supportive, and so the cycle goes.

And the other ironic thing is, the one subset of humans who should know this…is the subset of humans whose job it is to educate and inspire the future of the world.

But cutthroat is cutthroat, you know.

I think you know the solution: figure out where the happy places are and work there.

I’d love to be able to say, “Shine your light and your environment will change”.

Nope.

You can’t change this situation. This was here long before you arrived. And because you are new, you’re not acclimated to this new normal. For whatever reason to which you are not privy, the veteran teachers are fine with it (if they were not fine with it, they either would not be there or the behavior would not be there) and there isn’t enough motivation or momentum to change it from others. And for some other reason, the system in that environment is set up to allow it. Your complaints are not the first time they’ve been uttered, I promise.

The solution is, if you can’t or don’t want to leave, then don’t get acclimated. Learn the skills that will help you level up, do your very best with your whole heart with your total focus on the students until you leave, and be respectful. Bring your full game as best as you can. Do your job.

And just your job.

When you make mistakes, fix them and don’t take the criticism personally. It isn’t personal. They are likely getting it from their higher-ups as well and they are choosing this method as the way to address it, which says something about them, not you. (It doesn’t make the treatment right, this and forever.)

And then you’ll move on.

It’s amazing how when you do that, no matter what, how the right opportunities find you, and quick, too.