I don’t have many 1-on-1 relationships that I need to do this work on. However, I do realize that I have a lot of negative thoughts about myself, along with a lot of thoughts around “I should be doing this…” I tend to look at what I don’t do, instead of all the great things I do do. This blends into how I look at others as well. I realize the first part of each exercise is to work on myself, but I’m wondering if I can do the whole exercise internally for the first week in order to learn to be kinder to myself, and then be kinder to others. I tend to have a lot of high expectations of myself and others, in other words huge manuals.

Next, I want to work on my reactions to my students. When they don’t follow the classroom norms, or meet the basic expectations of the class, I tend to get frustrated with them and sometimes angry. This is especially true with repeat offenders and towards the end of the semester. I know that they do need to follow these norms (be on time, turn in work, participate, etc.) just like at work. I don’t want to allow unprofessional conduct. I’d like to be able to work around getting so frustrated with them, but instead setting the boundaries and kindly sticking to them. So, can I have my students be the ones I work on in a week?