13 Comments
User's avatar
Carlos Díez's avatar

Te lo escribo conscientemente en español.

Muchas gracias. No sabes lo importantes y oportunas que han sido para mí estas palabras tuyas.

Expand full comment
Pam Brett's avatar

Beautiful strategy. “Who do I need to be for these kids today.” This mindset shift takes tenacity.

Expand full comment
Denise Halliday's avatar

A typical day in the classroom that most teachers will recognise! A lovely post and especially the coping strategies mentioned. Journalling - fantastic!

Expand full comment
Kyle James's avatar

I'm two years out of the classroom, but this brought me right back into it. Thank you for this Dylan. Your ability to self-reflect and recognize your "temperature" going into a class is definitely a teaching superpower.

Expand full comment
Dylan Kane's avatar

Maybe. I often look at teachers who are naturally more patient than me and think they have a superpower.

Expand full comment
David Fu's avatar

Lots of empathy from someone who also struggles re patience and managing to not project frustration because others will pick up on that energy and is trying to learn how to manage this similarly as a parent with just 1 kid who seems to be misbehaving, acting out, throwing things, hitting, let alone a whole class full…

Expand full comment
Dylan Kane's avatar

I'm not a parent and I have so much respect for parents. I can prepare myself to be positive for 49 minutes with my second period class and often follow through. Parents are always on. It takes a different type of endurance.

Expand full comment
Cheryl C's avatar

Sounds like you were a fly on the wall! Great advice.

I think this came from Dave Stuart's blog: Never perfect, always trying.

Expand full comment
Dylan Kane's avatar

Never perfect, always trying. Love that!

Expand full comment
Benjamin Riley's avatar

Do you do this before our phone calls too?

Expand full comment
Dylan Kane's avatar

Always

Expand full comment
Connor Wagner's avatar

This is a great peek inside the mind of a middle school teacher. One way I tried to combat the exact feelings and frustrations you so poignantly share was to start each class with a dad joke. It was a very simple way to reset and start class off on a fun note.

Expand full comment
Dylan Kane's avatar

I love dad jokes. I don't have enough good ones to share every day though...

I still have former students come up to me when they see I got a haircut and say, "hey, did you get a haircut" and I reply "several!"

Expand full comment