Zac Shiner, derelict blogger, and Shira Helft, a fellow graduate from Stanford’s new math teacher cohort last year, have a great list of questions running at Building Our Classroom they’ll be taking on over the course of the summer. Zac elaborates at his blog:
Even though it’s the middle of summer, my job as a teacher seems to be unavoidable in my day to day life. I’m not just talking about the unavoidable questions of “so what do you do for a living,” but the places my mind drifts to when I have nothing else to think about. During silences in conversations, or when I close my eyes at the end of the day thoughts of my soon to be classroom are constantly filling my mind.
Zac eats, breathes, and sleeps this job.
7 Comments
Jen
July 15, 2011 - 3:55 am -That can be a problem. In other cases, we call it perseverative thinking. It’s pretty common when you’re starting any new job or doing it a new way or in a new place. But if you don’t end up being able to keep your brain from always returning to the same spot after a couple of years…
Well, you end up leaving. Whether it’s to (ahem) grad school, or to being some sort of an administrator, or to another profession entirely, one that doesn’t demand all of your thought space.
While it’s a great way to be in many ways — to be that devoted, it’s also not really sustainable at that pitch if you want to have a life that includes other people or children or even your mental health!
Dan Meyer
July 15, 2011 - 4:01 am -Ahem.
peyer
July 15, 2011 - 5:55 am -I have a similiar problem. My thoughts are constantly in motion! While lying on a serene beach, pieces of a surf lesson drift past my ears and I am instantly thinking if how to integrate the science and math of surfing into problem based learning for sixth grade students.
Teaching content through life skills is what keeps my students motivated and engaged……
Daniel Schaben
July 15, 2011 - 5:56 am -I wondered what was wrong with me and why I have few friends :) When I am in the thick of the battle in the middle of the school year, I can’t even escape it in my dreams.
Garth
July 15, 2011 - 7:32 am -Can we get workman’s comp for this? We get paid for 9 months yet think about the job for 12. Something wrong there.
Alex
July 15, 2011 - 9:53 am -Re: Jen: Whether it’s to (ahem) grad school, or to being some sort of an administrator, or to another profession entirely, one that doesn’t demand all of your thought space.
Yeah, because it seems as if Dan and Chris Lehmann (grad school, administrator) think about this job LESS now that they aren’t in the classroom.