| Eat a full,
healthy breakfast. We always preach this message
to our students, but often fail to follow our own advice.
If you frequently find yourself rushed in the morning, keep
fruit and nutritional snack bars in our kitchen. Throw a
few bars and apples into your bag as you leave in the morning.
You can munch during your commute. |
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Pack a healthy lunch and skip the fast food. You'll save
money and live longer. Hit up the salad bar in
the school cafeteria. (This will do double duty by also
setting an example for students.) There are also a lot of
healthy microwaveable meals that can be stored without
refrigeration. Check out your grocery aisles. |
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Keep healthy snacks stored in your classroom. Just be sure to
use tightly-sealed containers, and never eat in front of
students. Trail mixes, full of peanuts and dried fruit,
are a great source of energy. |
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Love coffee but tired of the
caffeine jitters and
bad breath? Try switching to iced tea. The lowered
caffeine content will keep you alert without overdoing it. Even
better, iced tea refreshes your breath. You can brew your own at
home in your coffee maker, placing tea bags (about two bags for
every three cups) in the basket where you normally place a
coffee filter. Once the tea has brewed, take it off the burner
to cool down. Add sugar or artificial sweetener (10-15 sweetener
packets will do the job on a pitcher of iced tea). Fill up your
travel bottle and off you go. |
| Create a relaxing classroom
environment.
Bring in a plant or two. Studies of office workers show that
being in view of plants makes them happier and more productive.
A plant can help both you and your students. Just remember to
water it! If you are really ambitious, you could even try
setting up a fish tank in your classroom. Consider
decorating your tank based on your subject matter. For
example, an English teacher might decorate the tank's bottom
with the graves of deceased writers--a sort of fish world "Dead
Poets Society." |
| Beware of hidden allergy triggers.
Apart from changing the garbage, washing the boards, and
sweeping the floor, janitors do not do much cleaning in
classrooms during the school year. This is for many
reasons, including the desire not to disturb the classroom.
This means that from late August until June, dust is free to
build up in every corner of the classroom. With up to 200
students walking in and out of a classroom on a given day, this
equates to a lot of dust. Do your best to keep surfaces
clean. Keep an old-fashioned feather duster in your room
and use it daily. If it is within your budget, acquire and
use an air filter. |
| Keep common medicines handy yet
secure. Organize a first aid box for personal
use. A standard lockbox is ideal. Fill it with
ibuprofen, allergy pills, and whatever else you routinely use. |
| Get plenty of rest.
This should go without saying, but... If you have to be at
the school building by 7:30 A.M., and it takes 1 1/2 hours for
you to get up, get ready, and get to the building, you have to
be awake by 6:00 A.M. This means going to bed by 10:00
P.M. in order to get eight hours of sleep. So get a DVR to
record your favorite late-night television programs and watch
them when you get home from work, or catch up on the weekends. |
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Keep air
fresheners and sanitizers handy. Schools are full of
germs and viruses. There is no reason to recount the reasons bad
odors might creep into classrooms (just never spray during
class, let alone near the flatulent student).
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