Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label exhausting

Direct Teaching is Exhausting

Original Drafting March 2021 For the past nine weeks, I've completely overhauled my classroom approach, abandoning the familiar flipped model in favor of intensive, direct instruction. This shift, driven by a desire to bolster student success, has proven to be the most draining period of my entire teaching career. Over winter break, I meticulously analyzed student performance data and survey feedback from the fall semester, searching for patterns and insights that might illuminate areas needing improvement. I reasoned that a more structured, teacher-led approach could address the identified gaps. However, the sheer effort required to maintain this direct teaching model is staggering. Every lesson is meticulously crafted, every concept painstakingly explained, and every student interaction demands focused attention. I'm essentially doubling my workload – creating detailed lecture materials, designing in-class activities that reinforce learning in real-time, and providing constan...

Strict Scheduling as I Spiral

      I am not ok.     I want to be, but I am not ok.     As the last, precious minutes of a weather induced 4 day weekend draw to an close, I sit in numbed silence trying to piece the mangled pieces of my life into a semblance of order.     I am not ok.     My heart aches for a world that existed once.  My soul bleeds for the chaos that faces so many in our country.  I keep hoping that I am overthinking it; I just don't feel that is true.       I am exhausted, and I am not ok.     No wonder the retreat of my precious home offers the only comfort lately.  Here, in contentedness, I can script my hours.  I chose music or movies that feed my soul.  I prepare healthy food to nourish and heal my body, and I shut out any and all intrusions with swift deliberations.     Exhaustion can do that.  It can blind reality.  Maybe it's my age or the unbearable weight of res...