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Friday, February 19, 2010

Panic-anxiety attacks are never fun


:::One of the best ways to work myself into an anxiety attack is to plan and research things with other people in mind. I love planning for myself - planning for lessons is included in this category, since I'm the one who will be teaching the lessons. But planning for the entertainment and comfort of others makes me want to curl up in a corner and rock back and forth. I guess I don't make a good tour guide.

:::One of the best ways to calm myself down are familiar, repetitive motions. Like folding laundry, or knitting, or sharpening pencils. I love sharpening pencils. However, I don't love it enough to not plan on assigning students to do this chore in my own classroom. It'll probably be a luxury activity to calm my nerves.

:::Really should get back to playing tennis. I stopped going to my usual group because it wasn't challenging enough. I hunted for other groups, but the timing was never right. I might be able to wake up early enough next time to go.

:::That said, I HAVE been playing tennis on my own - against the wall, at the park, and with the tennis trainer on a string. Until my rabbit decided the rubber band that attached the ball to the base seemed delicious and chewed through it.

:::More yoga and other exercising would be nice too. I've been lazy lately, in more ways than one.

:::Job hunting continues. I think I figured out a major application mistake through a friend's more careful questioning of EDjoin's practices: create a separate document that states "Please see credential/resume" for the NCLB compliance requirements. My credential includes that already, but some still do not. And some applications make you prove it separately. Which is an additional step for me, one which I've been skipping. Bogus? Yes. But hey, just because I go through hoops doesn't mean I'm a poodle.

:::Tutoring and art classes continue. I kind of love tutoring. I'm getting really good at working with students one-on-one. Art classes prevent me from forgetting how to handle large groups of students. A nice, albeit slow, increase in my skills, I think. Unfortunately, no matter how good I get at teaching, there will always be those situations/people that result in crying from frustration.

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