Caring for teachers in uncaring schoolsby Charles Kowalski (Tokai University) |
I have never worked in a coal mine, or a uranium mine, or on a herring trawler, but I know from experience that working in a bank from 9:15 to 5:30, and once in four weeks the whole of Saturday, with two weeks' holiday a year, was a rest cure compared to teaching in a school.- T.S. Eliot (1950, quoted in Kyriacou, 1998, p.2)
"Teacher stress becomes problematic, and potentially harmful, when the challenges teachers face outpace their perceived ability to cope, or when they perceive that important needs are not being met." |
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Effects of teacher stress[ p. 54 ]
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Teachers caring for each otherLet us not so much seek to be consoled as to console, nor to be understood as to understand.- Attributed to St. Francis of Assisi
Ten minutes into [a clearness committee meeting], I feel certain that I know what is wrong with the focus person and how to fix it. But after two hours of attentive listening, I am appalled at my earlier arrogance. I see now that I did not understand – and even if I did, my abstract concept of the problem is meaningless until understanding arises within the person whose problem it is. (p. 154)
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Teachers caring for themselvesLife is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.- Charles Swindoll (1982)
. . . perhaps the most effective strategy for reducing stress is knowing one's own stress points and practicing the coping techniques that work best." |
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