10 Questions To Help You Become A Better Teacher This School Year, Part 6

6.  How do I respond to stress?

Ha. What stress?

Kristie was just talking about how I never stress out.

I attribute this to my father.  Particularly his youth spent down south.  My dad was like molasses: he moved slowly, spoke slowly, and just took his time with everything.

More than his eyes and nose, this is what I've inherited.

And it's great because it keeps the stress level low.

I remember baling hay with my brother-in-law back around 1989.  It took Dad and me most of the summer to bale two solid cuttings.

For one of those cuttings, Arnie, my brother-in-law, helped us out.  I had never worked like that before!

If we were in a hurry and  had to drive across the field to get a new trailer, Dad would put the tractor in third gear.  But when Arnie was there, he baled in third gear!  And if he had to hurry across the field to get a trailer, he put the tractor in fifth gear!

So to be completely honest, I simply respond to stress the same way as I respond to everything else: in my own sweet time!