But likely not the way you think – I used to get stressed out all the time about lesson plans. I have always had major user error when it comes to printers. I cannot get those things to work with any sense of regularity. One of the biggest stresses in teaching for me has been the printer. Meaning the fact that I had to use them.
Last year for my birthday, Anthony bought me an iPad. I cannot express what a relief this has been. Rather than printing my lesson plans, losing my lesson plans, getting upset because the printer won’t print because the ink is low or it doesn’t understand something or it is busy entertaining itself by not printing and beeping “ERROR, ERROR, ERROR” I just load my lesson plans on my iPad and go off to class. I am calm when I come into class because I haven’t spent the previous hour and a half freaking out over why the printer won’t print. I no longer worry about it. My life as a teacher has greatly improved through this one change; not having to rely on a printer! I’ve started to just email out handouts ahead of time too because of this. If students want the paper copies, they can print them themselves. Most of them are going to lose or throw away the paper copies anyway though, so removing the stress on me to have to have those copies has greatly relieved my overall stress.
It’s amazing to me how one change has helped me so much as a teacher. It was an expensive change – but one that has more than paid off in exchange for my own peace of mind. Sometimes one little change can do that. Its just a matter of figuring out what to change.
