Carla Arena

Three Powerful Mantras for Tired Teachers

—

by

Carla Arena
in , ,

We can easily picture educators who suffer from an ongoing, cronic burnout. No motivation, no strength, happiness in the eye, passion. Many become the complainers, resistant, tired souls that simply let life pass by, waiting for the day they can retire.

I’m an optimist at heart and truly believe that if one decided to become an educator, there’s always a passionate soul that is dormant somewhere out there. It is just a matter of refocusing, finding a new purpose, meaning to what we’re doing. It’s about finding opportunities to ignite that passion again.

Rouge Passion

These are, then, my three mantras for those who have no escape but to seize the day, become happier, self-fulfilled educators touching students’ lives in very meaningful ways:

1. Learn, learn, learn something new                                      
In my case, I’ve decided that this is the QR-Codes month. I want to test pedagogical uses for them with my adult group. I’ve read about it, asked around, saw videos, and checked wonderful PPT with educational ideas for them.
So, just set up a XXXXX month. What are you going to focus your learning efforts on this month?

2. Try, fail, try again in class                                                     
Learning is not enough. Practice really makes perfect. Test with a plan.
I learned about QR-generators and found powerful free QRreader apps to encourage my students to download them.
I planned a shopping activity with QRCodes to practice talking about things that are too expensive and a bargain.
I invited my students to download the app to their cellphones (I gave suggestions for either Apple and Android smarthphones)
I feel ready to try. Here are the colorful QRcodes I prepared for the activity.
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1_N-ykajXMynurxERnk3E3ZBAkjt-b6JDUBMwn6fkTBg 

3. Share, share, share your successes and failures                  
I’m already sharing my ideas here with you, but I still want to go beyond and share how the activity went once I get my feet wet with my students. Can’t wait!

What would be your mantras to keep your passion for teaching and learning alive?

Comments

6 responses to “Three Powerful Mantras for Tired Teachers”

  1. GilMattos Avatar
    GilMattos

    As usual, inspiring to say the very least!
    Thank you for sharing. You are such a generous, resourceful soul.

    Reply
  2. Patricia Marie Budd Avatar
    Patricia Marie Budd

    These are three very positive ways of helping the veteran Educator keep from burning out and giving up. For me:
    1. I just got a promethean board in my room so I want to find creative ways of using it inside the high school LA room
    2. I have never tried having students do reading circles so I plan to try and fail and try again with this concept! : D
    3. Share, share, share has always been my motto as an educator and I believe that educational communities benefit most when teachers share their lesson plans with others. Each teacher brings a whole new perspective to the plan offering themselves and others new ways to improve their work.
    I also agree with the idea of sharing what doesn’t work in the class room for your failure may easily be rectified by another’s perspective. Just because the lesson didn’t work the first time doesn’t mean it can’t work with another try. Asking a colleague to consider what you did wrong could well be the means of finding your way through the door of success!
    Thanks for sharing these three motivators!
    pmb

    Reply
  3. Mrs.Robertson Avatar
    Mrs.Robertson

    My mantras that would help someone burned out?

    1. Laugh with someone every single school day over something.

    2. Imagine the students are all related to you; blood relatives. Wouldn’t you want the very best for them? Mantra… blood relatives deserve the best as do these kids!

    Reply
  4. Justine Arena Avatar
    Justine Arena

    Carlota,

    I loved your post! Simple, beautiful and inspiring. Matt Cutts talks exactly about one of your mantras: try something for 30 days.

    Below is the link for his talk:
    http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/matt_cutts_try_something_new_for_30_days.html

    Reply
  5. Carla Arena Avatar
    Carla Arena

    Dear Gilmar, I’m glad you liked it, and I’m sure you’re inspiring the ones around you with your own mantras.

    @Patricia great that you know already the kind of learning you want to focus on. One way to get started is to look for groups that are already using and sharing resources for interactive white boards, for example. Here’s a great place you could get started: “http://groups.diigo.com/group_mana/search_groups?keywords=iwb”

    @Mrs. Robinson, your mantras are perfect to keep us moving forward and learning. The one about the students is really powerful and it makes a difference in the classroom and way beyond it.

    Just, I’ve heard About Matt Cutts’s TED Talks, but now I’ll listen to him. I’m convinced! So what’s your challenge for the month?

    Reply
  6. Carla arena Avatar
    Carla arena

    Dear Vânia,

    Thank you for your kind words, and I am sooo glad to have you around in the Webtools4Educators group. I know we´re always running against time with so much to do, but I´m sure that you´re getting the idea and will use it professionally, one way or the other.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *