Tag: classes

Praise to men who have no king – 6th January 2020

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Prudence – behaviour that is careful and avoids risks
Courage – the ability to control your fear in a dangerous or difficult situation
Justice – fairness in the way people are dealt with
Temperance – control of your own behaviour

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to have enough money in my hand and enough time in my schedule to be able to buy myself a coffee.

From commonplace book

Dreaming is the ability to see something that doesn’t exist yet.

Mel Robbins (?)

To-do list

  • Call Hayden and congratulate him on doing some fundraising. ✅
  • It’s Monday. Classes will be tough. You are mentally prepared! ✅
  • You will deal with any emotional challenges calmly. Do not speak until later. ½
  • Run after work.
  • Prepare files for Jochen. ✅

It’s Monday and the classes were tough! But I was prepared for the feelings of frustration. I dealt with it as best as I could and felt pretty good about all the classes by the end of the day.

I managed to talk with Hayden after a missed call earlier in the day and we chatted for a good half an hour. He seems quite enthused with ideas at the moment and seems to be on a better path to planning his future. I did congratulate him on his fundraising activities. He’s not just thinking about himself during these times of crisis in Australia and has found a good way to apply himself in the circumstances.

No real emotional challenges came my way today but I did catch myself complaining a couple of times. It feels like a very fine line between stating some facts about events and complaining about them. At least I’m catching myself – now I just need to catch myself before saying anything.

I have a bit of a chest cough today and time ran out for us to go running too. I had the will but was still a little exhausted from driving so much yesterday.

So I took the time to prepare mp3s for Jochen, uploaded and emailed. I think the final results could be quite fun. It will be fun to put together anyway.

My self-control was fully tested in my classes today and, although I did well, I can still do better.

Tomorrow will be a test as we have a meeting about something that we haven’t really been told about and are apparently supposed to be prepared for. It is quite a normal situation these days so that is something that I am OK with.

I’m expecting that this thing is supposed to be on a weekend though and already prepared for a discussion about attendance as I have already warned them that I will not work on weekends under any circumstances.

Blank slates – 19th December 2019

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to be around my students. They are almost blank slates, learning as they go, testing things trying things, growing their brains. It’s great to watch, and inspirational to observe as I can learn to have my mind as open as theirs again. The teacher must always be a student in order to teach.

To-do list

  • Compliment one of the other teachers (I have trouble with this one!).
  • Be prepared for difficult IEC class where students have to work in groups on a mini project.
  • Go out and play with kids at lunchtime.
  • Talk to Mohan about looking at the grade 6 books and consider if you can do that job happily.

Did it list

  • Complimented Jimmy on his shirt.
  • Today’s lessons went well – the kids had a bit more freedom and they respected that. I was worried about this yesterday so this was a nice surprise. About 90% of the students got themselves fully involved. I’ll try and incorporate more work like this in future.
  • Played soccer with some of the students.
  • Read a bit online, cleared emails and tabs.
  • Wrote to Lachlan – his article made me think a lot.
  • Talked to Mohan about getting grade 6 books.
  • Supported some students with positive feedback. Maybe I do this normally and don’t notice it too much but I feel like I need to do it more – to offer more encouragement. It’s difficult to do in a class situation as there are so many students and noise and the same with one-on-one!
  • Many interactions with many students. I enjoy engaging with all students – not just the ones in my classes. I feel like the students appreciate that.
  • Stayed off Facebook until I got home.

The bigger things – 16th December 2019

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Today I asked Kru Tam how she thought I was doing at my job. She gave me positive feedback saying she could tell how much I cared for the students to learn. She did imply that sometimes I have to pull back a little – I think that is more related to my expectations than to my lessons.

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for the beautiful sunrise I see every morning before school. It’s a reminder of the bigger things, the slow, slow movement of the universe. Nothing we can do but get on with it.

To-do list

  • Most important * Be mentally prepared for the toughest classes of the week.
  • Try to write email to Aaron during school hours – subject: books and kids.
  • Clear all the Daily Stoic reading windows.
  • Congratulate the kids on good work and good thinking.
  • Compliment one of the other teachers.
  • Follow up with Andrew about contact with Indra.
  • Clear some emails.
  • Study Thai for 30 minutes.

Did it list

  • 30 squats and 30 weightless shoulder press
  • 30 minutes study Thai – mostly prep
  • Maintained calm and happiness through two of the three tough classes today
  • I forgive myself for losing it for a second in that last class. How to stop from getting into that situation again? Maybe need to make my lessons more practical. I’m hoping the ClassDojo ideas lessons work out well for those classes.
  • Asked Kru Tam for feedback on my performance – she said she could feel that I was really keen to help the students.
  • She also advised me to try to give them more time and maybe make things a little easier.
  • Sorted some more files for TCRAH
  • Have an idea for TCRAH – to share the music files with a friend and get them to comment on the music, then incorporate that into the actual show.
  • Read some more Daily Stoic articles and closed a few more Chrome tabs
  • Unsubscribed from a blog – content was ok but I’m at the point of having to choose the ones I like best.