Homework Stress In The Nighttime. This is something that I have been suffering with for almost every night over the month of this April. December and April are the months that make me go extreme insane in college because all my work piles up in endless amounts in these months. When I have too much work due at one time,my head feels like it is going to explode. When I am stressed, waterworks are constantly happening in my eyes, and it is not a pretty night time sight. There was one specific night last December when my stress reached a whole other level. I felt like school was not for me anymore because of the stress I was having. This was the night before my building brains final, and I am here to tell you my #messyandstressy story about it.The date of this night to be exact was December 7th,2017. I decided to meet my friend Brianna from my building brains class to finish up all of our assignments due at the grueling hour of eight am the next morning.From meeting each other at the Campbell library at 4 pm, I did not see the outside world again until the clock struck exactly midnight when it closed . From being busy with work and endlessly typing other school assignments there was just no previous time to sit and work on these intense assignments. Sitting at a table on the second floor with honey roasted peanuts and hot chocolate, my stress level was piling up by 6 p.m. “I can’t handle finishing these assignments, I do not know what I am going to do.” These were the words that I said to my friend about three times in that hour in a panic. With tears piling in my eyes because my stress was so high, I began to feel incredibility overwhelmed. The sick feeling of nerves in my stomach was distracting me from my typing my work. It was truly a terrible feeling to have when your planner kept reminding you in highlighted letters that three assignments were due the next morning. ‘'I will be right back”, I said to my friend with tears dripping down my face. "Are you okay?" Brianna said. With a fake smile on my face, I said "I am fine, just need a breather." Rushing to the bathroom for the break was the instant thought in that moment. My heart felt like it was pounding out of my chest and it was a fact that a break from my work was a must. Sitting near the bathroom, the first thing done was to call my mom. My mom is like my best friend, and she always helps me when I am feeling extra messy and stressy from my school work. "Breath deep Vicky, everything will be alight, I promise", my mom said. Calming methods gave me the courage to head back to my dell laptop to work more on my awful assignments.She told me something very wise during our talk too. These were to do one thing at a time and to write down everything that needs to be done! Thepositivityblog quotes on their blog that, "You’ll feel better and less stressed if you just do one thing at a time and Then you don’t have to worry about forgetting. And you will free up your mind for focusing on other things than remembering." (p.1)This thought did not even hit my mind because since I was so stressed, my thoughts were running a mile per minute in my head. After washing my face with iced cold water and grabbing yet another hot chocolate from the one and only Rogo, I rushed back tom Brianna to follow my mom's tips. My stress began to vanish a little bit thanks to my mom's helpful tips. Still, staring at a computer screen for the next few hours was torturous. Adjusting my ten page lesson plans to fit onto Microsoft word took up a good hour of my time as well. Trying to revisit the tips helped, but the work was still so stressful to complete. By eleven o 'clock, I felt that I did not have a single wave of energy left in my body. The homework was finally almost coming to an end, FINALLY. The next day was about to hit and I was finally able to hit that "shut down button on my computer" with finished work. Even though there was a sigh of relief , I still had a final to worry about in just eight measly hours. At this point, I felt that the best thing to do was to get a good night’s sleep for my brain to feel alive again the next day. Feeling like I could not keep my eyes open equals feeling more stressed and I did not need this before using my pencil to write endlessly in a blue book tomorrow. Work was finally over for at least a few hours, and my stress was slowly fading away from this awful night. This was thanks to what I learned from these helpful helpful tips. Let's all learn how to take the messy and stressy out of our night time's doing homework ! xoxo vicky. Categories All Early Twenties Night Time Stress Relief Stress Managment Teaching
0 Comments
As us messy and stressy readers are all aware, being in our early twenties in college makes us want to pull our hair out in ten different directions. In my life as a Rowan University Student, writing countless education papers and stepping into multiple schools is incredible, yet challenging. Even though this is all true , making sure children have a smile on their faces in the classroom and having them call me ‘Mrs. Rubinson” is still my desired career path. Getting ready to put on that “teacher face” for the rest of my life is exciting, but can be VERY messy and stressy sometimes. There have been many days where I have had a bright smile in the classroom, and other days where I come back to my apartment to wipe countless tears out of my eyes. This is the story of an extreme messy and stressy situation of a time that my stress level was at its highest peak so far working in the teaching field. The situation that made my stress level feel ten times worse than usual while being in the teaching environment would most definitely be in the field experience that I had this spring semester. Every Thursday this semester, I had the privilege of stepping through Dorothy Bullock Elementary doors at eight am sharp. The date of this day that caused me to feel like a hot mess occurred on April 12th to be exact. I was already feeling a bit shaky on the start of this bright, sunny morning. Usually, I never pour myself a cup of coffee before going into field, but today was a different story. That is because the famous “WAWA Free Coffee” sign was hanging proudly from my local Wawa today. I also noticed in the mirror that I had extra tired bags under my face, so coffee was a much needed thing on this very morning as well. Today was also a VERY big stepping stone into my teaching career for. Today was the very first time that I would take a hand -written lesson plan and conduct it into a real lesson on clouds for third graders. As you all can probably tell, I do not do well with situations that are out of my comfort zone. Creating cloud books for multiple hours the previous night before was not helping my stress this morning either. Setting up my cloud books, demonstration where food coloring dips down from shaving cream, my hands began to sweat immensely. It felt like there was an actual cloud around my head because my thoughts were all over the place. Therefore, my tip before walking out the door was to get everything for my lesson organized. I have learned personally and from my therapist that organization is the key to putting a smile back on your face when stressed! Placing my books and notes in an organized manner, my body began to feel at peace again. I learned that this was an amazing way to manage stress. Flash forwarding to the moment after the students closed their foundations book, the stress began to flood my body much more then before. It was now time to attempt to hold some of the stress back and begin the lesson. The cloud over my head was suffocating me because the students would not stop calling my name over and over again. Then, I decided to take a step back for a moment. "Hey Tori, would you mind helping me out and showing the students how to put their clouds on their projects?", I said in a pleading voice. This caused the lesson to go ALOT smoother. Therefore, I learned that asking for help is an excellent tool to use in the classroom. Unicheck.com expresses that "Teachers and school authorizes encourage them to have a dialogue about stress management." This caused my emotions to relax a bit. After this occurred, chanting of students still not understanding clouds surrounded me. The stress was piling up again and my heart was beating a mile per minute. All of these negative thoughts were bringing my confidence down and my stress level up even more. Then, a thought popped into my head about a tip to help these feelings dissipate. Coolcatteacher.com states that a great tip to help teachers reduce stress is, "Interupt negative thought loops and replace them with others." (p.1) Positive thoughts rose into my body and I began to explain the directions in a clearer manner to help the students.The negative thoughts began to erase, and the students understood what I was teaching them better! Walking out of the school and jumping right into sweatpants at 3p.m allowed me to reflect on my messy and stressy day. Teaching a lesson for the first time is like riding a bike for the first time without training wheels. It is hard, but eventually, you will be able to manage it on your own. With the help and guidance of stress relieving tips, I was able to "flip" my emotions and have a successful lesson in the end! Comment down below how you manage stress in the classroom.I would love to hear some of your tips so I can use them as well! Let's learn how to take the messy and stressy out of our teaching lives! xoxo Vicky Categories: Stress, stress Management, teaching, positivity.All Early Twenties Night Time Stress Relief Stress Managment Teaching For the last two semesters, I have been observing and interacting with different students for my education classes. Waking up to get into “teacher mode” for the day has always been a bit difficult for me. Usually, the night before a field, I would be sitting in the student center talking about the planning of future events in my programming committee meetings. Due to the fact that these end when the sun is down each night, my brain is always super foggy and my tired bags are over whelming when I hear the “lovely” BEEP,BEEPs waking me up early the very next morning. Stress in the mornings before field is a very common reoccurrence for me. However,usually, I am able to “tackle” my #messyandstressy mornings and step my feet right into the classroom with a smile on my face. However, there was one special occasion where my stress level was off the charts. Putting on my dress pants that are a size to big and red shirt on a day when I usually do not attend field. This was a make-up day for me because I missed one when Ernesto's tire decided to flatten the night before field a few weeks back. On December 6th, I was planning to only step into one of the two fields that I usually attend because I did not want to be late from changing from a teacher into a RAH employee later that day. Just as I was grabbing a mint chocolate chip protein bar to leave for the day, I began to feel like I was missing something VERY important. I did a quick checklist in my head. “Field binder-check, Ham and cheese sandwich -check, fob-check, car keys….. "Where the hell are my keys?!" were the words I started to say over and over in a panic. Running back to my room to search aimlessly for fifteen minutes, they were no where to be found. Since my room was a pigsty and my eyes have endless tired bags under them, it was extremely hard to focus on finding them. Running around and moving endless piles of clothes and papers around was not helping me find my key.The stress started to invade my body. I could feel my body shaking like a leaf. My heart was racing a mile per minute. My thoughts were not making any sense. I felt like I could not go to field because first, there was no way to get there and second, my stress was making me feel ten times more like a walking zombie. "Tick, Tock", The clock was hitting seven-thirty, and it was almost time for me to “leave”. Something that my therapist Vicky taught me to do when there is a very stressful moment in my life is mediating. The logging onto my headspace account was the next thing to do. After doing this for about five minutes, my stress level decreased a little bit. My thoughts became a little clearer. Something else that Vicky always encourages me to do is to listen to music. I also chose to listen to my stress relief playlist I made on Spotify for five minutes to ease my stress, and made my body relax too. Then, after my stress calmed down about fifty percent, I instantly then made the decision to pull out my rose gold I phone seven. Hey Rachel, would you mind driving me to field please, I cannot find my car keys anywhere!” Learning and understanding from this expeirence that asking for help stressed is one of the smartest things to do. According to truestressmenagement,"You’re not superman or superwoman. You’re just a human being, and like every other human being, sometimes you need help. It doesn’t make you weak or vulnerable – it makes you human." (p.1)Dialing Rachel's number was the best decision that was made that morning to reduce my stress to get to field. This morning was mentally and physically draining, but with helpful tips, I was able to make it through to step into the classroom on time! Let's take the messy and stressy out of our mornings and all include these tips into our daily morning routines! X0 Vicky If you would like to check out the playlist I use to reduce the stress in my mornings, click right here! Comment below what you thought of it and if it helped you! Categories: stress, stress management, mornings.All Early Twenties Night Time Stress Relief Stress Managment Teaching AuthorWelcome to Messy and Stressy! I am a 21 yearly college student who is learning to reduce the Extreme stress in my life. This blog will be about my struggles with stress and how one can reduce their stress in their early twenties and as a teacher! Enjoy!! |
Categories: stress, stress management, mornings.All Early Twenties Night Time Stress Relief Stress Managment Teaching |