Managing The Overload in Our Lives

As previously posted, in 11PE we are learning about self management, and strategies we can employ to increase our self management skills. One of the strategies has been stress management. Many people know what stress management is, but often don't take the time to consider what actually stresses them out, or how to recognise stress.

I feel stress management is something we all need to take the time to think about in our crazy busy lives. I know right now I am feeling very overwhelmed with everything, like my to do list is getting longer rather than shorter. I'm even writing this blogpost in procrastination of ticking off things on the to do list! But reflecting and sharing like this calms and focuses me a little - a resolution or management of my stress.

The students today needed to create their own stressor trees to identify the things in their lives which stress them out, how they recognise they are stressed and what they can do to manage stress. This reflection time enable students to analyse how they can manage their stress levels to ensure a balanced wellbeing. I recommend anyone complete this simple activity because I think it helps to reduce and control stress levels. 

Other strategies for self management we have discussed have been SMART goals, self control, motivation, resiliency, and feedback & feedforward.

Moderating a Twitter Chat

About six months ago I blogged about joining Twitter. Until a few people encouraged me to join, and then it was part of an MDTA Friday, I had no desire to join up as I thought it was just another social media. However, I was incredibly wrong. Twitter is a great place for networking, sharing resources, and finding interesting readings/articles, so I have learnt so much since I joint Twitter.

Twitter chats are incredibly insightful and thought-provoking, and there are soooo many out there! Some PE related, others around digital technology and some purely about education and learning. If you would like to join Twitter, or engage in chats please flick through these slides.

Although the chats are interesting and I take a lot away from them, I started to feel the presence of BTs was low. I suspected this may be due to the feeling of inexperience, thus thinking one cannot share thoughts and ideas. I know I feel that way! So, my friend and I decided to develop a Twitter chat for New Zealand BTs - #NZBTchat.

Tonight we (Mallory Bish and I) have completed moderating our fourth chat. Our topics so far have been BT support, a 2016 reflection, classroom culture and behaviour management, all things we know we like to talk about, as we are both BTs. The aim of the chat is to bring BTs across NZ together to share their ideas and resources, as well as network with other people in a similar boat, going through similar challenges - which I think we are starting to achieve!

By moderating I feel I am learning so much by interacting with others and providing challenges questions in response to those engaging in the chat, so my critical thinking skills are increasing. I also feel proud that we are giving back to the community, and attempting to start a place where like-minded people can chat!

Hopefully the chat picks up a little more as the year progresses! Check out some of the things we have talked about by reading through the chat here.