TheTeachersOasis

My Top 5 Achievements of 2006

I thought January would be the perfect month to reflect on my top 5 achievements of 2006. So here goes:

1. Working in a part-time teaching job that I love and that allows me time to build my business. Teaching English Literacy to adults is such a joy! Why did I teach Business Studies for 14 years? It's just so easy to get stuck in a rut isn't it?
2. Buying two investment properties. One painlessly and effortlessly with Passive Investments! More about this in future posts.
3. Deciding to be mentored by the fabulous Nicola Cairncross of The Money Gym. It's sometimes making that initial first step that's the hardest thing to do but it was the best gift I could have given myself.
4. Building my TeachersInDistress website with Nicola's guidance. It's been a steep learning curve for an internet newbie like me but more about this in future posts.
5. Joining singing and dancing classes at the Horniman Museum. After all the years of living in south London, I had never visited this wonderful resource before with its beautiful gardens. I also realised how much I missed singing and being in a choir. Raise the Roof - led by the anarchic Melanie Harrold is a giggle and most of all stress releasing. All those magical musical vibrations coursing through my body must be having some calming effect.

   Likewise the Nzinga Dance company's African dance lessons. We were a mixed group of ages and nationalities learning the dance moves to the fantastic drumming that accompanied us throughout. I'm not a lover of fitness gyms, so this workout had me sweating, laughing and completely switching off from the constant mind chatter. And, of course, oh my aching limbs!

6. Oops - I know I said 5 things but I'd forgotten that I ran the 5 km Race For Life in Hyde Park in June. My friend and I met every Sunday morning at 7.30 for running practice for three months prior to the event. This was no mean feat for me. I hadn't run like this since I was 16. I was very proud of myself. Note to self: sign up for the next running or walking challenge.

Here's to happy, energised and financially secure teachers!

Julia

Welcome

Having experienced work-related stress at first hand and also being surrounded by lecturers who were just teetering on the edge, I’m familiar with the mindset of educators.

We did a lot of complaining but seemed powerless to change what was happening to us. I’d been a lecturer and manager within a large multicultural, inner city London College for 14 years, feeling battle weary from government initiative overload and yet another organisational restructuring and the conflicting demands of my job.

Looking back now, my low level stress was always evident and it occasionally reached crisis point but I would ride it out and just accepted it as part and parcel of the job.