Stress/PBIS Blog # 7due by Sunday night October 20th at midnight
I always know when I’m under stress. I come from a family of runners. My Mom, who is 89 and still runs races in my home town, has the biggest trophy case in our family! We joke that when we’re under stress that we all do “marathon sleeping.” Marathon sleeping, in our definition, is when we find ourselves sleeping longer hours, but waking up less and less rested. Has that ever happened to you? Stress definitely affects how we learn as well as how we operate as professionals in the field.
When I teach TED 505 on campus I do the flashcard activity alluded to in the PowerPoint handout for this week. I give a set of flashcards to everyone that have 5 concepts and definitions on them from the chapter we’re reading that week. Students are to memorize the definitions verbatim (the verbatim part is what freaks them out) and are randomly paired with a classmate to do a timed drill on them two weeks later. Oh my! I am actually frightened to go into class that evening because people are so tense! We actually do the drill and the winners get a “free pass” on any assignment for class. Wow! Does stress ever affect how we learn, huh? Unfortunately, we do assignments like the flashcard activity all the time on students we teach. We often give students quizzes, tests and timed drills to see if they comprehend content.
There are two things you can respond to this week. Choose ONE.
Your first choice is to write a response to this great quote by Thomas Merton. It’s a favorite quote of mine and it always makes me pause and reflect on how I am managing my stress and/or how I am saying “no” to people and not taking on too much work. I replace “idealist” with “educator” as I think they’re synonymous <grin> and I replace “activist” with “advocate” as I know that educators advocate for all children.
“There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence to which the idealist....most easily succumbs: activism and over-work....To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands is to succumb to violence. The frenzy of the activist neutralizes his work for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of his own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.”
What does this quote make you think of in regards to your work in the field of education?
Your second choice is to respond to the video by CSUDH graduate Melodi Patterson as she speaks about how she implements Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). How do you (or would you) implement PBIS in your professional setting?