Stress related to teaching more than one section
I have an instructor who teaches 4 sections of the same class. A few quarters ago - she and I had to come up with a "stress-reducing" plan to help her better facilitate her four courses. She found that when she went into her first and even second section - she was feeling "fresh" and ready to tackle the discussion board, grading, etc. However, depending on the issues w/students in those first or first two courses, she found herself feeling stressed out thus losing energy for the 3rd and 4th session. We eliminated this "snowball" stress by coming up with a great time management routine - she would do 2 classes, then take a break, and come back and go into the two other courses. This helped a lot.
Thanks,
Toni
I think that stress is obviously unavoidable but anything that we can do for ourselves or to help someone else is worth the success of the organization
She might also not attempt grading in each class every day. She might answer emails in all classes and concentrate on grading in two classes one day and two class another day.
I check email in all classes daily--trying to hit that twice during the day, then I grade journals daily and try to do discussions early in the week. The assignments I often leave until the end of the week so that I have a bigger pool of those to grade at the same time. It can be very difficult to have four classes of the same subject to tackle each day. Assignments can get very difficult if you have graded several of those. I tend to divide those into smaller groups of five or six at a time and then switch to some other task to give myself a mental break if not a physical break.
I like your approach Billie! It's a great idea to divide large tasks into smaller ones. Dividing your large pile of homework into smaller groups can make it far less daunting. And it's great to have milestones to be driving toward and accomplishing as you make progress toward your larger goal.
I once encountered this same situation. Having the same class four times in a row can become redundant and monotonous. I found that ever-so-slightly altering the starting and stopping point in the material that i covered for each class worked well. In other words I would try to not start and stop at the same exact point for each class or I started to sound robotic. By slightly altering my starting and stopping point I was more challenged to stay attuned to the information I had to present.
Again breaking down tasks and making a list of priorities makes the schedule manageable.
Interesting approach Nicole! I would find it very stressful to keep track of the multiple starting points...but if it's working for you, go with it! Everyone is different and has different needs. It's about learning what works best for you and sticking to it!
if we can get all of our team to work together, that alone can cut down on alot of stress.
Yes, I agree with this approach of dividing up heavy assignment grading into smaller components. Taking a break and staying mentally fresh. I also think the diversity of teaching different sections also keeps things varied.
What if you don't know what works best for you yet. I just started teaching midway through this phase and am still getting acclimated to the school, the program, etc. But I am nervous about the 6 classes I have to teach. They are all time consuming classes and I only get 2 hours per class to teach for that day (and it's a once a week class). There is so much material to cover, how can I feel completely thorough.
That's a great question Chaelle! The truth is, it takes time to learn about which methods work best for you. When you're just starting out, you might have to try a couple of different things to figure out the right approach for you.
