How Not to Quit

Submitted By Katie Aspell

A few weeks ago, upon checking my email, I saw that Dan Meyers had a new blog post entitled “Four Ways to Not Quit Teaching.” It was one of those days, you know, those days where the to-do list seems larger than life and between grading, planning, cleaning, and emailing I didn’t see sleep in the near future. So needless to say, it caught my eye. (I am sucker for articles that have numbered lists anyways.)


Upon reading the post, I realized that it was Dan Meyers commenting on Zach Cresswell's post (which makes sense given Meyers is not in the classroom daily). I normally do not click through to the posts Meyer’s comments on, however, this one had me interested based on the quote, “It’s better for me to do 90% of what I know I can do this year if that 10% I save for myself means I’ll still be a teacher next year.”


Cresswell, in his blog, discusses his four strategies to “leave school at school,” and to show up at work the next day. His basic list includes what to do before leaving work and on the drive home. Both are very practical lists and things that I felt very doable. The two big takeaways were to “embrace the moment” and “understand that you can’t fix everything” which are messages I always need reminders about. Cresswell ends his post with a very practical statement “Take care of yourself and the time you do devote to your students and profession will be more effective.


Check it out, and read the comments of what other teachers do in order to keep teaching because we all do too much and need reminders to give ourselves a break! http://www.zachcresswell.org/4-ways-to-leave-school-at-school/

© ATMIM (Assoc. of Teachers of Mathematics in Mass.)

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