If You’re Nervous, That’s a Good Thing

By Jose Vilson | September 7, 2009

If You’re Nervous, That’s a Good Thing

By Jose Vilson | September 7, 2009
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insane_eyes_babyAnyone whose too confident in their first day of school is an absolute liar and has hypnotized themselves into thinking they’re too cool for school. Even those of us who spent all of the summer planning whole units for the year and / or already have all their lesson plans from years past memorized and honed should always have a sense of nervousness and even anxiety about their craft. I’m not one to make such bold statements, but follow.

In the areas of performance, nervousness and anxiety usually indicates either a negative or positive attitude towards an event. It obviously means that they actually care about the result of the event. They’re also thinking about whether their actions or inaction led to that next event happening. Now, if people do prepare and prepare well, there’s no escaping that bit of nervousness because they care enough about the result to have prepared for what might happen. Those that don’t even prepare, though, have a less likely probability of actually caring about the result (at least until after a negative result happens).

So it goes without saying, I’m a little jittery. Last week, I’ve been preparing for my fellow teachers to come and prepare their rooms. Due to the latest stipulations dealt by the Department of Education, they had less required days to show up. By my informal estimates, about 13% of teachers came in a week before to prepare their classrooms. I personally couldn’t partake too much in classroom preparation as I had to prepare for this new role I’ve been racking my brain about.

In the meantime, I’ve also tried to exude a lot of confidence about my latest journey (with a tint of swagger). I’ve prepared a syllabus and an agenda all for the first two days. Thus, I can’t help but get nervous about what may or may not happen. Let’s hope the next 182 school days are my most successful ever. Just the thought alone makes me jittery.

Jose, who almost didn’t even tag this blog knowing I need to start ironing …


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