March 16, 2023 • 18 mins
RCTLE is excited to present a new podcast series, The Faculty Roundtable: the podcast where faculty discuss faculty development. In each episode, a group of Embry-Riddle faculty members will discuss their most common classroom concerns and share innovative solutions and strategies.
In episode three we build on the topics covered in the V-FLC: 8 Dimensions of Wellness. Panelists Amani Francis (Adjunct Professor for the College of Arts and Sciences) and Jeff Otterstetter (Adjunct Professor for the College of Business) join hosts, Sharron DeRosier and Alyssa Dewees, to discuss work-life balance, managing stress, and bringing grace and kindness to the classroom. Each panelist also shares tips for saving time, managing multiple jobs, and making time for family.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:03):
I'm Alyssa DeWees, and I'm Sharron DeRosier and this is
Faculty Roundtable, the podcast where faculty
discuss faculty development. This is a production
by the Rothwell Center for Teaching and Learning
Excellence. Each episode will feature a new group
of Embry-Riddle worldwide faculty members discussing
teaching strategies and innovative solutions to
common online classroom concerns.
(00:27):
In this episode of Faculty Roundtable, we
referenced the eight dimensions of wellness
discussed in the fall and spring, virtual faculty
learning communities. The dimensions are social,
emotional, spiritual, intellectual, physical,
environmental, financial and occupational wellness.
This virtual faculty learning community will run
again March twenty seven through May 7th. So keep
(00:49):
an eye out for more information. So thank you guys
for joining us. I'm going to let our guests
introduce themselves. So Amani Francis, I am a
Louisiana native, born and raised in Baton Rouge.
I've been an English professor for about 20 years,
full time and adjunct. Right now, I'm teaching as
(01:09):
an adjunct faculty member here at Embry Riddle.
And I'm also enrolled in the doctoral program at
Baylor University and Learning and Organizational
Change. And my study focuses on mindfulness
interventions. My name is Jeff Otterstetter and I
work in the field of business. I teach accounting
and finance courses at every little university,
(01:31):
and I work as a controller in a family owned
lumber yard, as well as previous positions in at
Ford Motor Company and other privately held
businesses. Alright. I'm Alyssa DeWees, senior
instructional consultant at RCTLE and also
an adjunct in the College of Arts and Sciences.
(01:51):
And I'm Sharon DeRosier, a senior instructional
consultant for RCTLE. So we asked each of
you to review the eight Dimensions of Wellness is
a self-assessment before coming here today. And I
want to know if you if that led to any insights
for you. Well, I'll chime in on that for me.
Working on my dissertation, I have been struggling
(02:12):
with the whole physical wellness aspects and the
need for proper sleep, especially I find that my
nutrition I try to stay on top of things. I am
into all types of holistic supplements, but with a
lack of sleep. Sometimes all of those things that
we know are the proper and correct things to do
(02:33):
for our wellness, they kind of go out of the
window. So I've really been struggling with
balancing, getting enough sleep, maintaining a
healthy diet, trying to squeeze in exercise as
much as I can, you know, to balance things out.
It's been interesting to think of my thoughts on
the wellness wheel or it's it's interesting. My
(02:55):
reflection was that having worked for more than 30
years as a professional and business, I'm actually
comfortable with almost all aspects of the wheel.
I've been responsible financially throughout my
career, my physical wellness I take care of
through yoga with my spouse, and which leads me to
(03:16):
good sleep. My occupational position is one that
I'm actually very comfortable with at this point
in my career, and my intellectual wellness is
stimulated by my work with every little university.
So I take what I do for my job and I get to share
it in the classroom and I find that very rewarding
and fulfilling. I'm on the I'm curious, when you
(03:38):
were looking at the wheel, what would you consider
your strengths on that wheel and how do you make
sure that you are incorporating that with your
busy life? I think that in all of the other areas,
I'm very strong and I'm typically strong in the
physical wellness area, too. I just think that now
with this barrier and having to do a lot of heavy
(04:01):
writing and, you know, with no real guide as to
how to get it done, as far as you know, other than
being told you just have to do it, you know,
that's something that I have to kind of figure out
for myself. But I'll say this one way that I do
get balance is just being on the land. So my
husband and I, we're a forest preservationists, so
(04:24):
we have a lot of clearing and things like that
that we have to do in the forest. And so one way
that I do balance things out is just by going
outside and just getting engrossed in the land and
doing the things that I need to do around here,
whether it's clearing, cutting trees down, whether
it's controlled, burning, all of those things that
(04:44):
we do to maintain the forests kind of help me to
stay grounded and balanced. And then I bring those
things into everything I do from my study. So my
dealings with my students to interactions with my
children who also practice mindfulness because
they're they're very heavily involved in karate.
So, you know, working with them, even
(05:04):
conversations with the sensei, all of these things
help me stay balanced. So I think that in all of
the other areas I'm balance. I have to work more
on the physical wellness component. So you guys
are hashtag goals right now.
I mean, I know I looked at that wheel and I.
(05:26):
Actually, they're the one area that I realized I
hadn't been thinking much about was the
environmental wellness. My desk at work is a hot
mess
and I I did sit down and I was like, you know, how
how is my environment conducive to my well-being
(05:49):
if this is so disorganized and I've got papers all
over the place and they're spilled coffee, I mean,
is this conducive to organized thoughts and a
happy state of mind? No. So I was inspired to
clean my desk
and actually my house. The little thing I'm
(06:11):
wondering, I mean, I know another area where I, I
personally struggle being an adjunct and having a
full time job is in finding that work life balance.
And it seems like you guys kind of have you guys
have some of it down. So I want to hear I mean, if
you have any similar struggles, what you do and
(06:32):
what are some of your tips for finding that
balance? I think it's interesting that perhaps 15
years ago I would have struggled to answer this
question. But over the years, I feel like I've
gotten into a groove where I manage my day job
differently than my night job. I understand my
responsibilities with my teaching position, and I
(06:55):
have a repetitive schedule where I kind of start
early in the week getting ahead of my
responsibilities and then stay on top of it
throughout the week so that by the time the
weekend comes around, I don't have a lot of things
that still need to be done in order for me to meet
my obligations for the week. And I think I
(07:17):
approach most things that way where I get started
early and try to stay ahead of my obligations this
time. And for me, just being organized, keeping a
calendar, you know, I have young children are one
young child remaining. You know, my children are
spaced apart, but I have a six year old. So that
(07:39):
requires me to have a lot of energy, you know, and
then my children are very involved in all types of
activities. So I think for me, balancing that
family life with my work and then my other
responsibilities is what I have to stay cognizant
of being extremely arrogant. And it's keeping
everything in the calendar and on the schedule,
(08:00):
checking it when I wake up in the morning. So I
don't forget things just being organized the way
that I think that I manage work and life. My
husband travels a lot for work, too. So that's
another piece of my very busy schedule because he
was active duty in the military and then he got
out. He's an engineer and still works for the
military, so he still travels like nothing really
(08:22):
changed. So you have to always balance that out.
People are always like, how do you do that? When
he's gone for a few months? I say, well, when he
was in the Navy with six to nine months, two or
three is way better. I know how to handle this.
Yeah, my fiance is currently deployed, so I hear
(08:46):
my husband's home, but I feel like I still
struggle so that that organization component is
true. That is so critical for me, especially in
keeping that balance between my full time job and
adjunct in the evening. I actually I make I have
to make a daily checklist to and definitely for a
(09:08):
beginning of the week, really getting a lot of
things done because, one, our our students really
need their feedback. And it's really not the best
practice to wait until Sunday night to give them
just this teeny tiny amount of time to look at it
before they have to submit their assignment. So
I'm actually just marking off what needs to be
(09:28):
done every day. And sticking to that is how I also
get through time, how I also how I also thrive,
not get changed by language. Powerful. Yeah. So
along those same lines, when those tasks just
start piling up, what are some things that you do
(09:51):
personally to help manage the stress of just being
overburdened? I'll chime in on that because I
think Jeff mentioned he does yoga. So I practice
yoga too. I do all forms of meditation, chakra
balancing, silent meditation. I do walking
meditation as immersion and bathing, all of these
different things to try to help me connect with
(10:13):
nature, because I find that being in nature really
does kind of affirm cement and kind of it just
acts as a great companion to me trying to write to.
The better person that I can be for my family, for
my friends, for my colleagues, for my students,
for my community, I think the nature of peace is
(10:33):
one that is often not focused on enough the
importance of actually just making those
connections in the natural environment. I agree.
By the time I spend in the yoga studio is
certainly time away from my other obligations,
time away from the to do list that's piling up. So
(10:53):
I'm able to and I really find it beneficial to
compartmentalize things to the extent that I can
and not let my concerns about my either my job or
my adjunct responsibilities, not let them filter
into the time that I spend trying to for my
mindfulness and my well-being. Yes. So that's
(11:14):
really the key to me that I find to be the most
important aspect of managing. An overwhelming list
of things that have to be done on certain
occasions is to really try to keep things separate
and dedicate specific focus time to each thing on
a prioritized basis. And knowing that it's easy to
(11:34):
cancel my yoga session, but it's not the best
thing for me. So I try to keep that in mind. I was
telling my co-workers the other day, my new mantra
is if I do this today, tomorrow you will be happy
for it.
And you're the earlier comment about organizing
your desk I think is interesting, because I find
(11:57):
that once I get organized, I'm more productive the
following days and I sometimes find difficulty in
balancing all the areas of my life, like if my
desk is clean, my house might not be. And then if
my house is clean, my car might not be. And if my
kids are behaving at the moment, then my cats are
(12:19):
not like nothing at all at the same time. But I
think that's also just part of having teenagers
and working full time and being married and
running a house. So sometimes sometimes you just
have to do that give and take with the different
areas as well. I certainly agree because like
we've all mentioned, there are definitely
(12:41):
different areas of our lives that that require our
time and attention. And it's really hard to
predict which one of those things is going to
bring something on you that you didn't expect and
that needs your immediate attention. And I agree
that kind of remaining calm and knowing that
you're capable of doing whatever needs to be done,
you know, remaining positive is an important part
(13:02):
of balancing your both your stress level and your
sanity against your your life objectives in your
your own happiness. I'm just thinking in the
moment I wonder if there's any way that you're
able to bring these healthy and balanced
perspectives into our classrooms and share some of
(13:23):
this amazing advice with your students. One thing
I do is I utilize discussion forums and also
announced announcements to share different things
that I may deal with in my personal life that I
think could be beneficial to my students. So I'll
find like interesting mindfulness, our wellness
blogs, our podcast that they can listen to, too,
(13:46):
and then I'll post those. So it's not anything
that's mandatory, but it's just something that if
they have time, they can take a look at. Another
thing that I do offer it to my students are
suggestions about different technological
mindfulness, our wellness tools. Yeah, we know we
don't want another piece of technology. We're all
kind of overburdened with that. But just, you know,
(14:07):
things like remembering to use some of the tools
we have, like our apple watches that have the
breathing notification, simple things that
sometimes we'll forget to do, even though we have
those in the different apps that will remind us to
drink water are different mindfulness apps where
we can take a few minutes and just sit and
compartmentalize. Also all of the different
(14:28):
various videos on YouTube that have to do with
wellness or meditation like sound, both healing
and therapy and things of that nature. So there
are so many tools that are out there that we can
take advantage of this with. Just this
conversation is generating for me an I get to
maybe create a list for my students of the
(14:50):
different types of wellness tools that are free
and available online. It's interesting, you know,
as I think about how I manage my workload, I think
it's really consistent that my message to my
students is very is almost the same thing. It's
start early. Understand what's in front of you and
schedule dedicated time to accomplish what you
(15:14):
need to get done. And the objective of all of this
pre planning scheduling is to avoid stressful
situations and last minute deadlines that. That
you are struggling to meet, it's really about
avoiding the last minute, I'm under a great deal
of pressure and I have to get this done because it
(15:35):
just does not lead to your balance, to your best
work. It's an unenjoyable experience rather than
something that you can take pride in. Be proud of
what you've got done and know that it's your best
work. It's avoiding putting yourself in those
failing situations that make you feel terrible
about yourself. I know that's that's really
(15:56):
important for the course that you teach, because
that accounting course, I know students are often
taken by surprise by the workload with it being a
beginning level course. And that's a good reminder
for them, too. I've taught I've been teaching
accounting for many years, and I find that I often
have to explain that this is a very defined system,
(16:18):
that you're going to have to learn the terminology,
the categories and the classifications in order
for you to be successful. I used to tell my sixth
graders that it is easier to keep up than catch up
and that just writing give on the opposite end of
the spectrum of accounting. But the same rules
apply, you know. Yeah. You don't want to be trying
(16:40):
to write an essay at the very last minute right
before that's going to cause undue stress worry.
And it's just it's very avoidable just by starting
early, like Jeff said, starting early, you know,
working on it a little bit every day, taking 30
minutes a day is better than having to cram four,
five, six, seven hours. I think one thing that you
(17:04):
know is you're talking I was thinking I, I have to
try to remind myself to be compassionate toward
myself when I am, especially when I'm teaching,
you know, things happen and sometimes I'll set a
goal. And I don't exactly meet that goal. And, you
know, and I have to remind myself, this isn't the
end of the world. Like, if I was my friend right
(17:24):
now, what would I say to myself? I don't need to I
don't need to be beating myself up about this
small thing. I can you know, I missed it, but I
can I could start again tomorrow, like, start
fresh. We'll get this we'll get this tomorrow. And
I also try to bring that attitude toward my
students, allow them that, you know, sometimes
people do need a second chance. People do need a
(17:46):
little bit of compassion and know our students are
often working adults. They've got priorities and
tough things going on in their life. And and I try
to I try to extend that compassion where I can.
That's a beautiful concept, extending grace to
yourself and to others. I completely agree. That's
a very healthy perspective to offer yourself as
(18:07):
much grace as you do others and know that no
matter what happens today, tomorrow is going to
come and you're going to have another opportunity
to make it right. Thank you guys so much for
joining us. We've been here with Amani Francis and
Jeff Otterstetter, and this has been a faculty
(18:27):
roundtable.
I'm Alyssa DeWees, and I'm Sharron DeRosier and this is
Faculty Roundtable, the podcast where faculty
discuss faculty development. This is a production
by the Rothwell Center for Teaching and Learning
Excellence. Each episode will feature a new group
of Embry-Riddle worldwide faculty members discussing
teaching strategies and innovative solutions to
common online classroom concerns.
(00:27):
In this episode of Faculty Roundtable, we
referenced the eight dimensions of wellness
discussed in the fall and spring, virtual faculty
learning communities. The dimensions are social,
emotional, spiritual, intellectual, physical,
environmental, financial and occupational wellness.
This virtual faculty learning community will run
again March twenty seven through May 7th. So keep
(00:49):
an eye out for more information. So thank you guys
for joining us. I'm going to let our guests
introduce themselves. So Amani Francis, I am a
Louisiana native, born and raised in Baton Rouge.
I've been an English professor for about 20 years,
full time and adjunct. Right now, I'm teaching as
(01:09):
an adjunct faculty member here at Embry Riddle.
And I'm also enrolled in the doctoral program at
Baylor University and Learning and Organizational
Change. And my study focuses on mindfulness
interventions. My name is Jeff Otterstetter and I
work in the field of business. I teach accounting
and finance courses at every little university,
(01:31):
and I work as a controller in a family owned
lumber yard, as well as previous positions in at
Ford Motor Company and other privately held
businesses. Alright. I'm Alyssa DeWees, senior
instructional consultant at RCTLE and also
an adjunct in the College of Arts and Sciences.
(01:51):
And I'm Sharon DeRosier, a senior instructional
consultant for RCTLE. So we asked each of
you to review the eight Dimensions of Wellness is
a self-assessment before coming here today. And I
want to know if you if that led to any insights
for you. Well, I'll chime in on that for me.
Working on my dissertation, I have been struggling
(02:12):
with the whole physical wellness aspects and the
need for proper sleep, especially I find that my
nutrition I try to stay on top of things. I am
into all types of holistic supplements, but with a
lack of sleep. Sometimes all of those things that
we know are the proper and correct things to do
(02:33):
for our wellness, they kind of go out of the
window. So I've really been struggling with
balancing, getting enough sleep, maintaining a
healthy diet, trying to squeeze in exercise as
much as I can, you know, to balance things out.
It's been interesting to think of my thoughts on
the wellness wheel or it's it's interesting. My
(02:55):
reflection was that having worked for more than 30
years as a professional and business, I'm actually
comfortable with almost all aspects of the wheel.
I've been responsible financially throughout my
career, my physical wellness I take care of
through yoga with my spouse, and which leads me to
(03:16):
good sleep. My occupational position is one that
I'm actually very comfortable with at this point
in my career, and my intellectual wellness is
stimulated by my work with every little university.
So I take what I do for my job and I get to share
it in the classroom and I find that very rewarding
and fulfilling. I'm on the I'm curious, when you
(03:38):
were looking at the wheel, what would you consider
your strengths on that wheel and how do you make
sure that you are incorporating that with your
busy life? I think that in all of the other areas,
I'm very strong and I'm typically strong in the
physical wellness area, too. I just think that now
with this barrier and having to do a lot of heavy
(04:01):
writing and, you know, with no real guide as to
how to get it done, as far as you know, other than
being told you just have to do it, you know,
that's something that I have to kind of figure out
for myself. But I'll say this one way that I do
get balance is just being on the land. So my
husband and I, we're a forest preservationists, so
(04:24):
we have a lot of clearing and things like that
that we have to do in the forest. And so one way
that I do balance things out is just by going
outside and just getting engrossed in the land and
doing the things that I need to do around here,
whether it's clearing, cutting trees down, whether
it's controlled, burning, all of those things that
(04:44):
we do to maintain the forests kind of help me to
stay grounded and balanced. And then I bring those
things into everything I do from my study. So my
dealings with my students to interactions with my
children who also practice mindfulness because
they're they're very heavily involved in karate.
So, you know, working with them, even
(05:04):
conversations with the sensei, all of these things
help me stay balanced. So I think that in all of
the other areas I'm balance. I have to work more
on the physical wellness component. So you guys
are hashtag goals right now.
I mean, I know I looked at that wheel and I.
(05:26):
Actually, they're the one area that I realized I
hadn't been thinking much about was the
environmental wellness. My desk at work is a hot
mess
and I I did sit down and I was like, you know, how
how is my environment conducive to my well-being
(05:49):
if this is so disorganized and I've got papers all
over the place and they're spilled coffee, I mean,
is this conducive to organized thoughts and a
happy state of mind? No. So I was inspired to
clean my desk
and actually my house. The little thing I'm
(06:11):
wondering, I mean, I know another area where I, I
personally struggle being an adjunct and having a
full time job is in finding that work life balance.
And it seems like you guys kind of have you guys
have some of it down. So I want to hear I mean, if
you have any similar struggles, what you do and
(06:32):
what are some of your tips for finding that
balance? I think it's interesting that perhaps 15
years ago I would have struggled to answer this
question. But over the years, I feel like I've
gotten into a groove where I manage my day job
differently than my night job. I understand my
responsibilities with my teaching position, and I
(06:55):
have a repetitive schedule where I kind of start
early in the week getting ahead of my
responsibilities and then stay on top of it
throughout the week so that by the time the
weekend comes around, I don't have a lot of things
that still need to be done in order for me to meet
my obligations for the week. And I think I
(07:17):
approach most things that way where I get started
early and try to stay ahead of my obligations this
time. And for me, just being organized, keeping a
calendar, you know, I have young children are one
young child remaining. You know, my children are
spaced apart, but I have a six year old. So that
(07:39):
requires me to have a lot of energy, you know, and
then my children are very involved in all types of
activities. So I think for me, balancing that
family life with my work and then my other
responsibilities is what I have to stay cognizant
of being extremely arrogant. And it's keeping
everything in the calendar and on the schedule,
(08:00):
checking it when I wake up in the morning. So I
don't forget things just being organized the way
that I think that I manage work and life. My
husband travels a lot for work, too. So that's
another piece of my very busy schedule because he
was active duty in the military and then he got
out. He's an engineer and still works for the
military, so he still travels like nothing really
(08:22):
changed. So you have to always balance that out.
People are always like, how do you do that? When
he's gone for a few months? I say, well, when he
was in the Navy with six to nine months, two or
three is way better. I know how to handle this.
Yeah, my fiance is currently deployed, so I hear
(08:46):
my husband's home, but I feel like I still
struggle so that that organization component is
true. That is so critical for me, especially in
keeping that balance between my full time job and
adjunct in the evening. I actually I make I have
to make a daily checklist to and definitely for a
(09:08):
beginning of the week, really getting a lot of
things done because, one, our our students really
need their feedback. And it's really not the best
practice to wait until Sunday night to give them
just this teeny tiny amount of time to look at it
before they have to submit their assignment. So
I'm actually just marking off what needs to be
(09:28):
done every day. And sticking to that is how I also
get through time, how I also how I also thrive,
not get changed by language. Powerful. Yeah. So
along those same lines, when those tasks just
start piling up, what are some things that you do
(09:51):
personally to help manage the stress of just being
overburdened? I'll chime in on that because I
think Jeff mentioned he does yoga. So I practice
yoga too. I do all forms of meditation, chakra
balancing, silent meditation. I do walking
meditation as immersion and bathing, all of these
different things to try to help me connect with
(10:13):
nature, because I find that being in nature really
does kind of affirm cement and kind of it just
acts as a great companion to me trying to write to.
The better person that I can be for my family, for
my friends, for my colleagues, for my students,
for my community, I think the nature of peace is
(10:33):
one that is often not focused on enough the
importance of actually just making those
connections in the natural environment. I agree.
By the time I spend in the yoga studio is
certainly time away from my other obligations,
time away from the to do list that's piling up. So
(10:53):
I'm able to and I really find it beneficial to
compartmentalize things to the extent that I can
and not let my concerns about my either my job or
my adjunct responsibilities, not let them filter
into the time that I spend trying to for my
mindfulness and my well-being. Yes. So that's
(11:14):
really the key to me that I find to be the most
important aspect of managing. An overwhelming list
of things that have to be done on certain
occasions is to really try to keep things separate
and dedicate specific focus time to each thing on
a prioritized basis. And knowing that it's easy to
(11:34):
cancel my yoga session, but it's not the best
thing for me. So I try to keep that in mind. I was
telling my co-workers the other day, my new mantra
is if I do this today, tomorrow you will be happy
for it.
And you're the earlier comment about organizing
your desk I think is interesting, because I find
(11:57):
that once I get organized, I'm more productive the
following days and I sometimes find difficulty in
balancing all the areas of my life, like if my
desk is clean, my house might not be. And then if
my house is clean, my car might not be. And if my
kids are behaving at the moment, then my cats are
(12:19):
not like nothing at all at the same time. But I
think that's also just part of having teenagers
and working full time and being married and
running a house. So sometimes sometimes you just
have to do that give and take with the different
areas as well. I certainly agree because like
we've all mentioned, there are definitely
(12:41):
different areas of our lives that that require our
time and attention. And it's really hard to
predict which one of those things is going to
bring something on you that you didn't expect and
that needs your immediate attention. And I agree
that kind of remaining calm and knowing that
you're capable of doing whatever needs to be done,
you know, remaining positive is an important part
(13:02):
of balancing your both your stress level and your
sanity against your your life objectives in your
your own happiness. I'm just thinking in the
moment I wonder if there's any way that you're
able to bring these healthy and balanced
perspectives into our classrooms and share some of
(13:23):
this amazing advice with your students. One thing
I do is I utilize discussion forums and also
announced announcements to share different things
that I may deal with in my personal life that I
think could be beneficial to my students. So I'll
find like interesting mindfulness, our wellness
blogs, our podcast that they can listen to, too,
(13:46):
and then I'll post those. So it's not anything
that's mandatory, but it's just something that if
they have time, they can take a look at. Another
thing that I do offer it to my students are
suggestions about different technological
mindfulness, our wellness tools. Yeah, we know we
don't want another piece of technology. We're all
kind of overburdened with that. But just, you know,
(14:07):
things like remembering to use some of the tools
we have, like our apple watches that have the
breathing notification, simple things that
sometimes we'll forget to do, even though we have
those in the different apps that will remind us to
drink water are different mindfulness apps where
we can take a few minutes and just sit and
compartmentalize. Also all of the different
(14:28):
various videos on YouTube that have to do with
wellness or meditation like sound, both healing
and therapy and things of that nature. So there
are so many tools that are out there that we can
take advantage of this with. Just this
conversation is generating for me an I get to
maybe create a list for my students of the
(14:50):
different types of wellness tools that are free
and available online. It's interesting, you know,
as I think about how I manage my workload, I think
it's really consistent that my message to my
students is very is almost the same thing. It's
start early. Understand what's in front of you and
schedule dedicated time to accomplish what you
(15:14):
need to get done. And the objective of all of this
pre planning scheduling is to avoid stressful
situations and last minute deadlines that. That
you are struggling to meet, it's really about
avoiding the last minute, I'm under a great deal
of pressure and I have to get this done because it
(15:35):
just does not lead to your balance, to your best
work. It's an unenjoyable experience rather than
something that you can take pride in. Be proud of
what you've got done and know that it's your best
work. It's avoiding putting yourself in those
failing situations that make you feel terrible
about yourself. I know that's that's really
(15:56):
important for the course that you teach, because
that accounting course, I know students are often
taken by surprise by the workload with it being a
beginning level course. And that's a good reminder
for them, too. I've taught I've been teaching
accounting for many years, and I find that I often
have to explain that this is a very defined system,
(16:18):
that you're going to have to learn the terminology,
the categories and the classifications in order
for you to be successful. I used to tell my sixth
graders that it is easier to keep up than catch up
and that just writing give on the opposite end of
the spectrum of accounting. But the same rules
apply, you know. Yeah. You don't want to be trying
(16:40):
to write an essay at the very last minute right
before that's going to cause undue stress worry.
And it's just it's very avoidable just by starting
early, like Jeff said, starting early, you know,
working on it a little bit every day, taking 30
minutes a day is better than having to cram four,
five, six, seven hours. I think one thing that you
(17:04):
know is you're talking I was thinking I, I have to
try to remind myself to be compassionate toward
myself when I am, especially when I'm teaching,
you know, things happen and sometimes I'll set a
goal. And I don't exactly meet that goal. And, you
know, and I have to remind myself, this isn't the
end of the world. Like, if I was my friend right
(17:24):
now, what would I say to myself? I don't need to I
don't need to be beating myself up about this
small thing. I can you know, I missed it, but I
can I could start again tomorrow, like, start
fresh. We'll get this we'll get this tomorrow. And
I also try to bring that attitude toward my
students, allow them that, you know, sometimes
people do need a second chance. People do need a
(17:46):
little bit of compassion and know our students are
often working adults. They've got priorities and
tough things going on in their life. And and I try
to I try to extend that compassion where I can.
That's a beautiful concept, extending grace to
yourself and to others. I completely agree. That's
a very healthy perspective to offer yourself as
(18:07):
much grace as you do others and know that no
matter what happens today, tomorrow is going to
come and you're going to have another opportunity
to make it right. Thank you guys so much for
joining us. We've been here with Amani Francis and
Jeff Otterstetter, and this has been a faculty
(18:27):
roundtable.
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