Comments on: Career Crisis #1 (of 2)

By: Johan

Johan — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 08:23:52 +0000

Have to say the post sums up how I felt for most of last year, 07-08. Having gotten smart boards for our school, and having decided to write my masters thesis about the use if them in physics teaching I had to plan and create all (well, almost all courses) for the year in the stride of working out the last bits of my studies, what with lab work and of course the thesis. Waking up at six and going to bed at two isn’t very healthy, no.

Since then I’ve finally finished my own studies and hopefully this year will be a little easier. At least I can focus completely on the job now..

By: dy/dan » Blog Archive » Bring Me Down

dy/dan » Blog Archive » Bring Me Down — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 00:56:14 +0000

[…] So as promised over in cc#1 I woke up an hour earlier than usual and hit my coffee shop up for some leisure time before the sun was up. During an hour I’d have ordinarily spent sleeping, I read some, I blogged a bit on another forum, I e-mailed some friends who were getting just a little too used to my non-presence. Replying to Lori’s comment in cc#2 was the closest I came to anything work-related. […]

By: Chris Lehmann

Chris Lehmann — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 13:23:59 +0000

Well, one of the things about believing in an ethic of care (and this is what Thomas Sergiovanni talks about much better than I do) is that it can’t just be teacher to student. If I want my teachers to care about my students as people, then I *have* to care about them as people too.

By: dan

dan — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 05:35:43 +0000

I’ve either read that last line on your blog or you told it to me once before. Either way, at the time I thought you were just being poetic. You aren’t kidding, though. That’s almost … paternal … of you, Chris.

By: Chris Lehmann

Chris Lehmann — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 04:53:42 +0000

TMAO, I agree completely… and I’d argue the last year and a half of my life has been a full-on sprint without let up — more so than any time in my professional life — but even with all that has gone on (and let me tell you, if anyone ever tries to tell you that starting a school and having a baby at the same time is a good idea, tell them they are lying to you) — I’ve really had to watch for burnout. Now, I also have to watch for it in my staff too… and when you’re starting a school, it’s easy to feel like every moment, every day is of the utmost importance. But I still have to kick teachers out of the building some days, just because I think they need to go home.

By: dan

dan — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 03:54:13 +0000

Lately my movement feels unfocused, uncoordinated, and sleep-addled but, yeah, that really captures the immediacy of this year for me.

By: TMAO

TMAO — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 03:08:38 +0000

I heard a very smart woman speak about a year ago and she affirmed the notion that much of teaching is a marathon, but then she said, and I’ll paraphrase: “There are times for sprinting. There are times when a goal is in sight, and what is required is focused, self-aware movement toward that goal, because not all windows remain indefinitely open.”

To which I say, word.

By: dan

dan — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 18:33:33 +0000

Burnout with a whimper, not a bang. I’ll keep an eye on it but so far I’ve had too much fun revising old lessons, improving the flow, adding window dressing, to worry too much about stagnation.

Your last note is the real complicated one there, Steve. I imagine a large crowd of teachers would bristle at the designation of “entertainer” you impose on them. I don’t know the answer to your last question, but that penultimate sentence there is about the most accurate description of this job I’ve read.

We’re the entire cast and crew of a show that’s struggling for ratings. But as much as the workload has been killing me lately, this job has never — not once — been boring.

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 11:24:17 +0000

Hey Dan,

There is always the threat of burnout, but what does it look like? A week in bed with a killer flu? A deer-in-the-headlights daze of a daydream that cannot be broken? Or is it a general slowing down after a couple of years. You’ll have a ton of material, ready to go; you may not think anything more needs to be tweaked or added. Having run the race for two or three years you’ll find that you have lost the fire you had at the start. Burnout without a bang, but a whimper.

On a different note, I can say from experience that no one in the outside world has any idea of the extent of your task. From idea to finalized digital product, you research, write, produce, direct and perform the equivalent of five shows a day, five days a week. Is there any job that requires more than the creative, digital teacher?

By: dan

dan — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 23:46:30 +0000

Maybe I’m delusional, but I’ve got the idea that this year is just the initial leg of the marathon where I jockey for position and find my stride. If I thought the rest of the marathon would be this arduous I’d adjust immediately.