stress

What makes you happy?

Hi there,

Welcome to this week’s newsletter. I want to explore the first of my four big questions.  What makes you happy?

Honestly. Have a think about it.

It took me a long time to figure this out. I had to intentionally slow down and filter through the noise; the expectations of others and the things that I’ve been told would make me happy.

After much soul-searching, I have discovered that it’s truly the simple things in life that bring me the greatest joy.

  • A long uninterrupted lunch with my wife.
  • Reading a book to my two little girls and giving them big cuddles for (just 5 more minutes!) before bedtime.
  • Laughing over a meal at our big dining table with our oldest friends
  • Seeing a project I’ve worked hard on succeed.
  • Starting my day with a long run.
  • Watching my students fully engage with the lesson in my classroom.
  • Helping someone, a friend, acquaintance or stranger, in a meaningful way.

What about you?

Maybe you have not asked this question in a long time? Maybe you’ve never asked this question?!

One thing that I know is that we all deserve to be happy. No matter how busy or hectic life may be, taking the time to ask yourself this question will help you prioritise some things. You deserve to do more of the things that make you happy! Not just for your own sake, but for the people you love and for your students.

So take this moment to stop and think. Switch off your phone, close your computer and think back to the things you did today, this week or this month that made you smile or laugh or forget the stress of everyday life. Now go and do more of THAT!

I wish you well on your happiness journey.

Cheering you on,

Mathew 

 

Posted by Mathew Green on February 09, 2021  /   Posted in looking after yourself, Rest, stress, working with others

Big questions for 2021

I don’t know about you but I have never worked so hard, cried so much and felt so challenged professionally as I have in 2020. I have also never felt more in awe of the teaching profession. And from my chats with parents and carers who homeschooled for the first time during lockdowns, I know I’m not the only one!

I watched as millions of teachers, across the globe, abruptly transitioned their classrooms from face-to-face to online learning within days. You have put on a brave face for your parents and students, You have found creative ways to engage your students and you have valued them whether in-person or virtually.

Despite its challenges, 2020 has impressed upon me the strength and resilience of the human spirit and the immeasurable value of the men and women who educate the future generations. I have never been prouder to count myself as one of this community.

MY 2020 WAS WILD

Last year was a significant one for me personally. With the arrival of our beautiful baby girl, my wife and I adjusted to having TWO kids under 3-years-old. We also had a family member go through a life-altering medical emergency – the repercussions of which we are still walking out. Navigating these new challenges has stretched me mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically! Honestly, without the support of my amazing wife, my steadfast friends, incredible mentors and my teacher community, I don’t know where I’d be on this side of 2021.

My experience and our collective experience of 2020 has caused me to think deeply about what REALLY matters. Though I’ve not written many articles (I promise to get better at this)I have thought about and talked about you (fellow teachers and loyal readers) a lot.

BIG QUESTIONS

How have you coped with the rapid changes and new challenges of our profession? How have you adapted and grown? In what ways have you struggled? How close have you got the end of yourself and have you found your way back just yet? Are you happy? Are your relationships in tack? Are you well? Is it well with your soul?

These are big questions! What better time to check in with yourself than the beginning of a new year. This is what I’m asking myself and trust me, there’s much more learning and work to be done!

WILL YOU COME ON THE JOURNEY WITH ME?

Many of you subscribed to this newsletter as new teachers or because we connected in person or on another platform. I started I’m a New Teacher because I was sick of seeing so many brilliant, talented new teachers burn out and leave the profession. That hasn’t changed. I’m all too aware, however, that the complexities of life and our profession only increase with time and experience.

To continue our conversation about teaching and living, I’m launching a NEW Podcast, The Art of Teaching with an interview with award-winning speaker, bestselling author and world-renowned thinker, Richard Gerver. The longer I work as an educator and the more people I talk to about our profession I cannot shake the conviction that we as teachers should be the most vibrant and passionate people on the planet. We are tasked with the enormous responsibility of inspiring generations of world changers! We need to be the best at what we do and I’ve learned that this does not mean just working harder. We’ve all tried that and it just does not work.

It starts with you, the teacher. So allow me to reframe my questions above…
What makes you happy?
How can you cultivate flourishing relationships?
What does your body need to thrive?
What nourishes your soul?
I hope you will come on the journey with me to explore these questions and more! I have already recorded a number of interviews with fascinating guests and I have many more to come as I explore this new way of connecting, sharing and learning together!

I know that your inbox is most likely full of all sorts of emails and I truly appreciate you taking the time to read this one. This mode of communication will become more and more important as I share with you what I’m learning and continue the conversation.

And finally, I’d love to hear from you. Write to me with your experiences, your stories and your thoughts on these big questions.

Cheering you on,
Mathew

Posted by Mathew Green on February 01, 2021  /   Posted in looking after yourself, Rest, stress

‘I’m busy, really busy….’

We live in a full world. We rush, we run, we shuffle papers, we attempt to multitask and we are all over-committed. We have a lot on our plates and it can sometimes feel overwhelming trying to keep them all spinning simultaneously. I get it, I truly do. The other day I was on my way home from school and I called into my local shops to pick up something for dinner. When I had decided what to buy I walked to the checkout. There a young man, probably in late teens, served me. I asked him how his day had been and before I had finished my sentence he responded ‘busy, really busy, you have no idea how busy.’ I was taken aback. Nevertheless, I wished him well and proceeded to walk to the car and head home for dinner. As I was driving I couldn’t get his response out of my head ‘busy, really busy….’ I don’t mean to sound archaic or insensitive, but what would a young working casually (I assumed from his school logo that was visible under his nametag) know about being busy? I began to get defensive and thoughts like ‘…what would he know about being BUSY? I’ll give him one day…one day…in a classroom and see how he copes with being really busy!’

After I had returned home, and settled down, I began to be a bit more apathetic about what had happened at the checkout. I realised that when you ask people how their day is going quite often the first response is ‘busy’ or that they are ‘tied.’ It is a response that we can’t help giving, it is automatic and it is a response that is ingrained into our twenty-first-century lives

Now busyness and tiredness in the twenty-first century is a far greater topic than we have time for in this short post, but it did get me thinking. I decided that for  thirty days that I would try an experiment. For thirty days, when someone asked, despite how tired, overwhelmed and stressed out I felt, I would search for other adjectives that ‘busy’ or ‘tired’ to describe my mood and my day. As a result, some interesting things happened:

  1. I had to pause and think about how I was actually feeling – instead of just blurting out how I felt I actually took the time to stop and listen to how I was feeling.
  2. I had to expand my vocabulary further – I had to search deep into my reservoir of language and find more suitable descriptive words like complex, full, challenging and intense.
  3. I felt less tired or stressed the less that I used those words.
  4. I learnt that my the words that I used had a powerful influence on my mood.

The words that you use have a power influence  on your mood, your emotions, and your mental state. I encourage you all to take the Thirty Day Challenge and please let me know  how you go.

Posted by Mathew Green on June 06, 2016  /   Posted in looking after yourself, stress
Whether you’re a casual teacher, permanently employed, working as a support teacher or on a temporary contract with your school, you are directly involved in educating, training and shaping some of the greatest minds that this world is yet to see.
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