Ideals vs. Stress

I've repeatedly stated that my goal as a teacher is to deliver dynamic, engaging instruction. This has been my goal from day one, but reality and I have recently begun to fight about it a bit. I do want to engage my students, but when it comes down to daily planning, coupled with the demands of work sample, research symposium preparation, and grading tests/essays, I'm afraid it hasn't been as easy as I originally thought.

As I stated previously, when I'm stressed I tend to fall back into more traditional methods of teaching. Also, when time is short, I'm far more likely to simply borrow an assignment or activity from my mentor teacher when it's offered. Not that his ideas and activities aren't great, they are usually fantastic, but they're not my ideas. Teaching someone else's great activity and teaching one that I have personally invested in are not the same thing.

I have some great stuff planned for the last few weeks of the year. Scott and I have concocted a newspaper project to accompany Animal Farm that is just loaded with authentic purpose and opportunities for students to engage with the material, and Beth and I are going to give students in the acting class an authentic look at the audition, casting, and rehearsal process starting in the coming weeks as well. Right now, however, I really feel like I'm just trying to keep my head above water and survive. I always show up for class prepared, but I sometimes feel like I'm doing so just by the skin of my teeth.

Another thing I need to be aware of: when my stress levels go up my temper creeps into my classroom management strategies. I start to think about punishment and correction rather than trying to find ways to encourage students to not talk out of turn or disrupt class in the first place. I don't like that I react this way, and I need to find a way to continually point myself toward positive reinforcement rather than negative.