Have you felt like you have so much to give or do but really do not have the strength? You walk into the classroom or office depending on what you are doing as a profession and you sit down wondering why on earth am I in this job? If situations like these are not looked into it would produce a ripple effect with not so fancy results.
Most of my life has been spent in the teaching field either am teaching in a bible school or teaching in a secondary school or university. Sometimes I find myself facilitating seminars dubbed teaching teachers how to teach. Most times the onus is on how to better improve our approach to teaching those we teach which is very good. Today I want us to look at the man or woman in the mirror. Your wellbeing truly matters.
Wellness is the complete integration of body, mind and spirit. The realization that everything we do, think, feel and believe has an effect on our wellbeing ~ Greg Anderson
Areas that affect our wellbeing are spiritual, physical, emotional or psychological, intellectual and economical.
If we are to look at each area that affects our well-being we would come to the conclusion that there is the constant need to monitor and evaluate ourselves to ensure we are completely well in our beings to be best at what we do especially as teachers who educate.
When we teach, we are impacting lives and when lives are impacted positively society gets transformed and reformed. Education is the wheels of development for any nation and it starts from the womb all through to the tomb so we who are agents of transmitting information and knowledge need to be in the right state of mind and being to perform this noble task for the truth is Teachers make every profession.
Your well-being as a teacher truly matters. How do you keep yourself in the right state of mind so that the gems in your classroom feel loved and appreciated by you, to the extent that your students are reluctant to leave the classroom at the end of the day and so eager to come to class the next morning?. The same applies to you as a teacher you just cannot wait to get into class the next day. Let me ask you as a teacher do you feel reluctant to go to that classroom the next day? Do you feel you have to drag yourself to classroom? Yes you know you are a teacher, you are teaching because you love to teach not because you have to teach but for some reason of late you just feel it’s a drag to go into the classroom? That is what this write up is about .How can teachers be the best version of themselves so that they and the jewels in front of them feel fully fulfilled?.
First is to ask yourself, do you have the most recent information concerning what you are teaching? Has the curriculum changed and have you changed with it? Are you using 21st century skills or you still feel nothing has changed?. As you are contemplating these questions ask yourself what are your strengths and weaknesses as well as what opportunities do you have available to you to improve .There are so many online free courses you can exploit to develop your competences from your phone so you do not need to say you do not have a laptop.
Secondly you need to set smart, measureable, achievable, realistic and track able goals so you do not feel swamped under the weight of being an excellent teacher.
Thirdly take a break so that you do not breakdown and by taking a break I mean rest over the weekend. Sometimes just do not do anything over the weekend so that you can be able to get back stronger. Please avoid as much as possible procrastination especially if you have a large class because you would be buried under the weight of scripts to mark. So the next time you sense you need to take a break please do so that you do not have a break down.
Our duty as teachers is to keep our students interested in what we are teaching, get involved in what they are learning from us as well as get and feel inspired to pursue their own ambitions and become well informed because its only when they are well informed would they be transformed and that transformation would lead to the reformation of society .Let’s not forget as teachers and educators we are change makers.
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