Wow! 6,025 downloads – so, if each teacher shows 2 classes of 25 students, then 301,250 students watching you running/walking next year… then over the span of each teacher’s career…
This doesn’t even consider the number of teachers who will burn copies for others (I’ve already distributed the lesson via DVD to two other teachers).
I think this speaks volumes about the types of lessons for which we’re looking to incorporate in our classes. I know as a first year teacher next year (just finished student teaching), I’m already spending hours searching for meaningful lessons to borrow/modify/tweak for my classes next year. Keep posting – PLEASE!
Seems to me you’ve found the golden egg… start selling those lessons (even for a buck) and plan for early retirement (or just buy your gf something shiny).
Wow – that’ll eat up your bandwidth bill in a hurry!! Congrats, Dan, that’s quite impressive and really speaks to the quality of the resources you’re putting out there.
Great work. It seems you have something that people are looking for and would like to use. I’ve been reading through your posts and the discussion on how you work and the thoughts of others on the subject. Now, I’m going to offer my 1 cent worth of observation. Your intensity is a great strength. 60 work weeks is not unusual for many starting teachers. The difference between those who burnout and those who don’t is how they spend the remainder of the time and the relationship between what they put in and what they are getting out. It seems to me that you are getting some pretty satisfying returns from your work and that it is paying off in a variety of ways. Having said that, after 16 years of doing the same sort of thing myself, I am now beginning to shift things a bit. I didn’t have the ability to save lessons and such like I can now nor make adjustments with the easy that it takes now. I didn’t have the access to resources nor the ability to mash things like it is possible to do today. The one piece of advice I have is to plan for breaks so that you aren’t doing 60hours every week. As I put in more time as a teacher, I realized that it was necessary to alter this every so often – doing something unusual not only kept me fresh, it allowed me to see things with new/adjusted eyes – not just refocusing but, because of what I had chosen to do, with a new frame of reference. So, whether it’s taking a short community class – I took dancing lessons one time which brought a new “spin” to some of my science and social work – read different material or whatever, do something new to keep yourself fresh. It also keeps the learning connections open which, I believe, help you as a teacher. Don’t worry, you’ll know when burnout is approaching – it’s like fatigue at the gym. At the first signs – loss of appetite, loss of sleep, irritability – take some time off and reassess. Good luck with the last few days and have a great summer.
Reckon if anybody’s acquainted with stress and high blood pressure it’s a teacher/principal. Thanks for the words of wisdom & encouragement, Kelly. As for the relationship between investment and return you mention, I feel like it’s been pretty high this year. I’ve saved everything I’ve created and scanned in the rest. I’ve annotated my slide deck extensively so, y’know, hopefully I don’t botch things the same way I did this year.
Last year I took a self-portrait a day for journalistic-and-long-distance-girlfriend purposes and I liked what it did to my teaching. It kept me loose, kept me interested outside my subject area. I’m not sure I’ll take up dance — I’m just not secure enough in my gender identity — but something different has to happen next year
Thanks, also, to the other commenters for providing the linkage that drove this here download-a-thon. If not for you, I might still have some bandwidth left this month. I owe y’all one. Especially Jenn. Apparently, my girlfriend checks the comments and now wonders why I’m not monetizing any of this site for her sake.
10 Comments
Chris Craft
May 20, 2007 - 11:50 am -Me parece que esta muy popular tu video!
Good work!
Chris
Jackie
May 20, 2007 - 11:51 am -Wow! 6,025 downloads – so, if each teacher shows 2 classes of 25 students, then 301,250 students watching you running/walking next year… then over the span of each teacher’s career…
This doesn’t even consider the number of teachers who will burn copies for others (I’ve already distributed the lesson via DVD to two other teachers).
I think this speaks volumes about the types of lessons for which we’re looking to incorporate in our classes. I know as a first year teacher next year (just finished student teaching), I’m already spending hours searching for meaningful lessons to borrow/modify/tweak for my classes next year. Keep posting – PLEASE!
Jenn
May 20, 2007 - 5:30 pm -Seems to me you’ve found the golden egg… start selling those lessons (even for a buck) and plan for early retirement (or just buy your gf something shiny).
Scott Elias
May 21, 2007 - 5:52 am -Wow – that’ll eat up your bandwidth bill in a hurry!! Congrats, Dan, that’s quite impressive and really speaks to the quality of the resources you’re putting out there.
Kelly Christopherson
May 21, 2007 - 9:00 am -Great work. It seems you have something that people are looking for and would like to use. I’ve been reading through your posts and the discussion on how you work and the thoughts of others on the subject. Now, I’m going to offer my 1 cent worth of observation. Your intensity is a great strength. 60 work weeks is not unusual for many starting teachers. The difference between those who burnout and those who don’t is how they spend the remainder of the time and the relationship between what they put in and what they are getting out. It seems to me that you are getting some pretty satisfying returns from your work and that it is paying off in a variety of ways. Having said that, after 16 years of doing the same sort of thing myself, I am now beginning to shift things a bit. I didn’t have the ability to save lessons and such like I can now nor make adjustments with the easy that it takes now. I didn’t have the access to resources nor the ability to mash things like it is possible to do today. The one piece of advice I have is to plan for breaks so that you aren’t doing 60hours every week. As I put in more time as a teacher, I realized that it was necessary to alter this every so often – doing something unusual not only kept me fresh, it allowed me to see things with new/adjusted eyes – not just refocusing but, because of what I had chosen to do, with a new frame of reference. So, whether it’s taking a short community class – I took dancing lessons one time which brought a new “spin” to some of my science and social work – read different material or whatever, do something new to keep yourself fresh. It also keeps the learning connections open which, I believe, help you as a teacher. Don’t worry, you’ll know when burnout is approaching – it’s like fatigue at the gym. At the first signs – loss of appetite, loss of sleep, irritability – take some time off and reassess. Good luck with the last few days and have a great summer.
Greg Farr
May 22, 2007 - 4:29 am -Dan,
Why am I not surprised??
This is exactly why I’m pointing every teacher to your blog. Keep up the outstanding work.
Just remember, I knew you when.
dan
May 22, 2007 - 4:51 pm -Reckon if anybody’s acquainted with stress and high blood pressure it’s a teacher/principal. Thanks for the words of wisdom & encouragement, Kelly. As for the relationship between investment and return you mention, I feel like it’s been pretty high this year. I’ve saved everything I’ve created and scanned in the rest. I’ve annotated my slide deck extensively so, y’know, hopefully I don’t botch things the same way I did this year.
Last year I took a self-portrait a day for journalistic-and-long-distance-girlfriend purposes and I liked what it did to my teaching. It kept me loose, kept me interested outside my subject area. I’m not sure I’ll take up dance — I’m just not secure enough in my gender identity — but something different has to happen next year
Thanks, also, to the other commenters for providing the linkage that drove this here download-a-thon.
If not for you, I might still have some bandwidth left this month.I owe y’all one. Especially Jenn. Apparently, my girlfriend checks the comments and now wonders why I’m not monetizing any of this site for her sake.Chris Lehmann
May 23, 2007 - 3:46 pm -It’s never a bad idea for a teacher who works too many hours to buy their gf something shiny.
Kat and I started dating when I was in grad school. She’s a very, very patient woman.
And she has a fair amount of shiny. :)
dan
May 24, 2007 - 4:43 pm -Hoo boy. Pretty sure this is why kottke, boingboing, and godin disallow comments.