Blog Post #3 The Flowers Flourish when the Gardener Does

It is easy to know that a teacher's energy is a key factor in the energy of the classroom, just as a gardener's enthusiasm is key in the success of his or her garden. The difficult aspect is keeping that energy, so relied upon, throughout the entire day. All 5-7 different classes or different ups and downs.

How does one avoid falling under teacher memes such as this:

This is a concern I have had as I approach student teaching, let alone becoming a student teacher. That utter fear at burning out and letting my students down because of it. This concern took me to the inter web, and my guilty pleasure, Edutopia, where I came across a post titled;

"Twenty Teacher Tips for Beating Fatigue"

At first I thought this wasn't what I was looking for, this was just some advice on what she does to beat fatigue. I wanted someone to outright tell me how to be super teacher, she who never falters! One can dream, right? As I read it though, I realized it was a start to what I needed. A gardener would tend to their garden with tenderness, compassion, and excitement, but wouldn't let it consume them. An idea that aligns with teaching as well!

As I read through this post, there were four main points that really stuck out to me:

1) Notice the moments when you're not tired;

    -It is so easy to let the dull moments of the day to consume us, but we can't let those sunless moments or days that effect our gardens dampen all moments of our day. We need to aspire to our focus on those sun filled moments that leave the mind, heart, and soul brightened!

2) There is a future beyond the immediate fatigue;

    - Looking forward to that next lesson, next unit, or even next school year. It was our dreams and our excitement about knowledge that lead us into teaching, so we need to keep looking forward and look over those spells of fatigue. This will demonstrate to our students that there is more beyond the now as well! 

3) Talk with someone about something other than education;

    - Teaching is important to all of us, our lessons, our students, our work, it is consuming, but we cannot lose ourselves in it. That will burn us out faster than that first quarter passes. It is okay to not think about your teacher life 24/7, in fact, the more you allow yourself to think about things beyond the realm of education, the more experiences you gain access, thus more ways to make connections in the future. Though the main point is to give yourself a breather!! Fatigue is natural, but it doesn't have to grow into utter dread. 

4) Eat healthy and be healthy (A summary of multiple points);

   - A gardener who's body is fighting against them has an even more difficult fight with happiness and motivation. This gardener's flowers will pay the price. I'm not by any means saying one has to give up that Friday pizza, or taco Tuesday, but a healthy body, leads to a healthy heart, mind, and soul. This provides more opportunities for those sun filled moments and helps you be ready for the never ending span of students, assignments, and planning. 

These pieces of advice resonated with me, and made me think about my own life perspective a lot more as well. It is important that we, as teachers, flourish as people as well. Not just to maintain our energy, but to set that example to our students. The darker moments may be there, but they can make the sunlight for themselves!

Is fatigue unavoidable? Where does one start in their venture to beat out those drab moments? How do we flourish, so that our students will?

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/teacher-tips-beating-fatigue-elena-aguilar