Not Dead Yet

[learnteach]

Actually, I'm feeling better....
<lj-cut>
No bonus for you, watery tart, if you don't know the reference.  Time to see that one again!    Right, Tim?

Sleep study last night, which mainly consisted of a small oriental nurse (chinese/philipino, I believe) smearing me with electrolyte past and then taping sensors to my head, chest, and legs, then telling me to sleep on my back (which I hardly ever do.)   Wish I'd gotten a picture, but it's a common enough procedure.  Lie on your back, and follow the instruction so they can check the electrodes--move eyes up and down, side to side.  Oh, and there's bands around the stomach and chest, to monitor your breathing and a tube in your nose.

I should have trimmed my nose hair ahead of time.   That would have reduced the tickle factor.

Due to the Lenten caffiene fast (gave up caffeine for Lent) I fell asleep easily, and dozed in and out of uneasy dreams of being tied to a tree a la Odin.  One of the sensors is very close to the left eye, and I had some trouble opening and closing that eye.    Then, after waking up a couple times, they put me on the CPAP, which was more restful than I had anticipated.

Still, must get back into working out.  Had an enlightening discussion with Vytas about core strength and fighting.  Makes me want to DOWNWARD DOG! more.

And a thoughtful discussion about the desire for perfection, and how it can get in the way of a beginner.  Hmmm.

off to generate cirricula;

Comments

[korwyn.livejournal.com]

Nah, you are going to snuff it any moment.

[ermine-rat.livejournal.com]

I find that if you can attain perfection at the outset, you tend to not value that skill, and you will gravitate to more challenging things. It's been true for me in several things...fencing was to easy to me and I blazed through the ranks in a short time and quit completely after college, heavy fighting I had no natural talent for and I stuck with that over 20 years now. Calligraphy was totally un-natural and I'm still at it after 15 years. I weep to think of the many talented calligraphers who naturally wrote beautifully out of the gate, and never touched a pen again after that one piece.

I think natural talent actually is a disadvantage to the learning process.

Exactly.

[learnteach.livejournal.com]

So, in truth, I'm naturally talented as a teacher--and my classes in general have been very good. I teach very well in the work environment, and get the various types of learning, etc.

Teaching in HS is much, much more difficult. On a number of levels. And I've been incredibly frustrated by it. Now, part of this is the fact that I'm so good elsewhere, so I feel like a failure here. And part of this is the fact that I'm getting no help; in fact, I'm net providing help in teaching science; I'm still really good at it--compared to other teachers, who are drafted from other departments. And when I asked for help in the network, I ended up giving help; when I ask for it from the more senior teacher here, I get blown off. WHICH SUCKS. (Going to either her or the principal hasn't helped at all.)

Sooo...bad place, etc....but one of the big frustrations is my high expectations based on my desire for perfection and my past success.

(Another is that this school, in reference to me, sucks. If I cared less, it would be easy to just turn the packets over and roll...)

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

When do you find out the results of the sleep test?

They take a week or two

[learnteach.livejournal.com]

to interpret it; there were over 15 sensors on me for 8 hours, so that's a LOT of data. Of course, I think it's more just the scheduling of the doctor vs. the tech's time, so they fill the queue fairly full...but two weeks. Fine by me!