- [<] Status Log - created:: 2021-07-18 - status-updated:: 2022-03-18 - current-status:: #used - [S] Marketing - purpose:: Intended to expand on [[The Difficulties of Teaching Notetaking]] & [[Tt2021-04 Managing Things]] ```ad-done title: [posted 2021-05-23](https://twitter.com/EleanorKonik/status/1396628130031353856) THREAD START Thanks to my involvement in the #ObsidianMD community, I've been talking to more first year teachers than usual. The advice I have for them usually isn't about notetaking or even teaching notetaking, though, because that's hard. --- Sidenote: I wrote a whole article about The Difficulties of Teaching Notetaking — https://eleanorkonik.com/the-difficulties-of-teaching-notetaking/ — that I really wish people would read, so they can forgive their teachers for not teaching them adequate notetaking skills. --- When I started, I was a mid-year hire following a long-term sub. It was HARD. The thing that saved my sanity was feeling empowered to slow down and focus on classroom discipline / management and not just plowing through the material. --- Students aren't learning if they aren't listening, so you might have to go to "back to basics" to ensure you're conveying material in an engaging way... & also that you're protecting your students from things that hijack their attention with a quick serotonin hit. --- Managing attention is hard — https://eleanorkonik.com/3-theses-3rd-thursday-managing-things/ — for teachers & for students. Building the skill to pay attention to important things in the classroom (off-task behaviors, etc) takes time. --- Give yourself permission to be imperfect. Some things will fall thru the cracks, that's inevitable, it's going to happen, you're not going to be as good in your 1st year as you will be in your 5th. (This applies to everyone, not just teachers) (esp the #pkm folx) --- For teachers in particular: the MOST IMPORTANT THING you can do for your students is preserve your mental health & ability to function. Teaching is a long-haul gig. Your mood & energy matters more than how fast you hand graded papers back. Please get enough sleep. --- It's easy to feel guilty because you're not doing the "most you could be" for each individual kid, but big picture, you're going to benefit more kids if you're still around and teaching in six years, than if you burn out killing yourself to try and solve one problem. THREAD END ```