There are many teachers who are overly concerned with the calculating-self. I'm not finger-pointing or blaming, because I was a slave to my calculating-self this year. I was so focused on surviving this, my first year as an FCAT-administering teacher, that I lost my purpose in being a teacher. I was so concerned with the outcome of that test that I sold myself out. It was a slippery slope - the more I obsessed with "getting ready" for the FCAT, the further behind I felt my students and I were. It was exhausting, and no one, certainly not my students, benefited from this incredible pressure to accomplish the mandates my calculating-self imposed on me.
When my central-self finally assumed control, my countenance, my attitude, and my teaching style were set free. I can pretty much tell you the day I decided to cede control to my central-self. Joy became contagious and eventually began spreading.
I like Rule #6. I am going to keep it. Lighten Up.
I am so glad we have rule breakers in our midst! I am not one of them. I follow the rules - I was too shy in school to break them. Nowdays, I look for loopholes in the rules! I so agree that we get too caught up into ourselves and the outcomes that it is a slippery slop. We lose focus of the main reason we teach - our students.
ReplyDeleteI feel exactly the same way! I am a rule breaker. Rules are made to be broken, right? I do like Rule #6 – Don’t take yourself so seriously. This needs to be posted in every classroom and in every administrator’s office. I chose not to write about this in my blog because I find myself focusing on the negativity of the FCAT in many of my assignments. We need to remind ourselves to lighten up, especially teaching third grade in Florida. I would rather have my good nature and humor show through and be contagious to my students, than my stress and aggravation. Every year, I know that I have prepared my students. I know that I have some that will shine and some that will show minimal growth on the FCAT. I know that I have done my best to prepare the students. Leading up to the test, I have to remind myself to lighten up. It is up to the students now. “The way things are” are the way that they are.
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