[Little Me]

I need something. I don't know what that something is. Feeling ok too. Seems like something is lurking inside ready to jump out or there are monsters under my bed and in my closet.
It's hard to describe and certainly silly. Suddenly too tired to think straight..... I will try to get some rest now.
Unstable but my act is always stable!

[Little Me]

Now I'm not ok. Maybe slept an hour. Got up at 1am. I have to teach all day with fun, crazy, testing teenagers all day and then I have a long drive home. I've been falling asleep. I'm scared to start the day off. The slightest goof by me or saying the wrong thing in class can set certain boys in motion and then we have conflict. I Hate conflict.
Ugh.

[roads]

Teenage boys on too little sleep--that alone would be a nightmare.

Lots of deep breaths for you, Little Me. Make it a day of slow motion, in thought and action. Look everyone in the eye before speaking to them.

By making eye contact, taking that extra breath before speaking, you'll be giving yourself a split-second extra to evaluate the situation and compose yourself before getting involved--& this can held ward off potential conflict.

I had that nebulous "monster" feeling last week, no reason just a feeling that something was gonna git me!! All gone this week & without basis. I'm sorry this is your week. I've picked up some coping skills here from the generous folks here--post a lot, keep coming back, eventually some of these tools you'll try and a few will work. Eureka!

Roadie

[Little Me]

thanks, made it through 1 class... the toughest I think. So tired and not feeling good and don't know how I'm going to do this but I know that as long as I keep focused. I have so much work to keep me busy.

Roadie has a good point that I hadn't thought about in a while but I'll mention here. It is extremely important to learn to look kids directly in the eye. If you have problems with it, practice it and practice it all the time. A lot of kids take NOT looking them in the eye as a weakness, particularily if they are challenging you, and if they look at you as weak your problems with them will grow exponentially. I didn't do this the first few years of teaching and had all kinds of problems. Then, I was told this by a co-worker. Once I learned to do this (and it was extremely difficult at first), my students had more respect for me and many of the behavioral problems went away. It won't make things perfect, but it does help a lot.

[Little Me]

Good, no great point. I do work on that. I hate it when I'm not looked at. I have improved the past couple of years with learning to not confront the boys in such a harsh way. Kindness in the face of mean, rude and ugly is very hard. I worry because it is so hard to be kind while being firm when you are exhausted or having other personal issues!