Reflection+6

Explore- This is the link to the article that we found that informs teachers about wellness: []

Explain- We came up with the fallowing open-ended questions: 1. Why is it important for teachers to maintain a healthy lifestyle, and how can that effect teachers input for student learning? 2. How can teachers develop a mind of self-responsibility for their own well-being and not blame students while performint their job under stress? 3. Since the Dimensions of Wellness model was developed in 1977, is it still a realiable source for teachers to use with the expectations teachers are faced with today?

Elaborate- 1. How can teachers get and keep a healthy perspective? Teachers can meditate, listen to soothing music before and after work, and eat healthy lunches to maintain a healthy diet. 2.How can humor be used? Teachers can use humor by joking with the students once in a while, and by incorporating humor into activities such as funny rhymes, similes, riddles, and silly poems. 3. How can you interview your potential jobs to understand they kind of work environment and culture that is at that school, and how that would fit with your own personal needs for success? Teachers can go to different school sites and interview the principals, and teachers and ask questions such as, what kind of programs they provide for teachers and students, and their school philosophy.

Evaluate- 1. As a group, reflect on what you have learned today about becoming a healthy educator and maintaining work-life balance. What will it take to keep YOU a healthy, happy professional educator? Engaging in personal hobbies? • Remaining involved in your church? • Planning time to see friends? • Getting up at 5:30 to run every morning? • Continued professional development on areas that spark your curiosity? • Making a commitment to getting work done at work and not bringing it home? <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">What choices will you make? Where will you draw boundaries? How can you beat the odds of 1/3 of teachers leaving the field by the 5-years point?

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">2. We learned different strategies that we can use to help us reduce stress in order to perform better as teachers. It is important for us to be able to be patient, energized, organized, enthusiastic, and productive to ensure that we are performing our jobs to the best of our abilities. Also, m<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">ental health should be an important aspect to keep in mind, that way stress would not become an interruptive part of a teacher’s input when teaching students. An observation that we all agreed we could use as a good example, was the fact that one of the cooperative teachers uses meditating music throughout the day (whether the students are working individually or when they are out of the classroom.) Using small strategies like this, can help make a difference in an educator's mood and position for teaching. However, a sense of commitment should also be cultivated to battle stress. It is educators' own responsibility of taking care of their mind, body, and spirit. We all disagreed with the fact that getting work done at work would be impossible our first year as teachers. Many of us also feel that we would rather go home, rest, and then get some stuff done there. We also felt that getting up ealry for a jog everyday is not particularly our solution for reducing stress, in fact, we felt it would only reduce our hours of sleep and enhance our stress level. We know we learned because we were able to discuss different strategies that may pertain to each one of us to help us reduce stress. We also shared with each other the teachniques we have seen our cooperating teachers use and how effective they are.