Alien Pedagogy

Tyler Cowen asks what people do to stay sane, and there’s a good list here. Here are some of my strategies for keeping up with my workload:

• Know when you can work – For me, that’s the morning. This is more important than any other thing that I do to add productivity.
• Know when to take a break — for me that’s every fifteen minutes.
• One can of coffee.
• Headphones in the faculty room.
• Things
• Bob Dylan music.
• Finish marking every day and enter grades every morning.
• Water.
• Sleep.
• Exercise.

Mid-November is a tough time at this international school. Here’s why:

• PTA fund raising fair is coming up.
• Exams need to be written.
• End of semester means students want to redo tons of assignments, so marking is high.
• Stress is everywhere. Students, staff, parents, teachers.
• Staff become less professional towards each other as their nerves wear thin (not me of course)
• My inbox is overloaded with non-actionable items. They should be filed, but I feel like I can’t lose them, which is bizarre because my school uses gmail.

Who’s looking forward to winter break?