When I first became a teacher, I thought that every lesson had to be really complex, and every class period had to accomplish many things. And, not surprisingly, I found teaching "mysterious and difficult" (87), as Boice calls it.
Then, one day, someone came in and observed my teaching. And her main feedback was that my class was great, but I could do less. Do less? What did she mean by this?!?!? Aren't I a great teacher because I do MORE?
I held onto this belief for a while, until I found myself in a position where I had 3 jobs, 60-70 hours of work a week, and no time to "do more." I learned to cut corners, have good classes without lots of prep, and put a lot of the work on students.
And you know what? I started to like teaching even more. I learned to pace myself. Not stress out as much. Do planning in brief daily sessions.
Hmmm...(you'd think I would have realized this by now). So, I found a way to not have teaching stress me out, and I found a way to be comfortable and fluent in the classroom. And I used many of Boice's methods: talk to others who do the same thing, work in brief sessions, plan and prewrite, pace yourself, wait, start before ready, etc.
Maybe using these similar methods for my writing would help. Hmmm. I'm still having trouble differentiating between my "writing" and my "teaching." They're so connected.
Also, in response to the self-assessment exercise, I've taken his longer version (and posted it to the wiki under the course schedule for today). I found out that I struggle with writing apprehension and perfectionism. The other categories don't seem to catch me up too much. I'd love to chat more about ways to not struggle with these issues as much.
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