The Not-So-Secret Diary of a Teacher

Fiona Forman is co-author of Weaving Well-Being, formerly a primary school teacher, now a well-being and Positive Psychology trainer, speaker and author.

I’m loving my new role since I left my teaching job in December to concentrate on my well-being work full-time. I completed a Masters in Applied Positive Psychology – the science of well-being – in 2017, so that’s my area of expertise.  I’ve now set up my own business, Fiona Forman Well-Being, so I do a lot of school, conference and parent talks on well-being and resilience. I also deliver training on the Weaving Well-Being programme and I’m currently writing a second level programme called Wired for Well-Being. It’s a 3-book series for Junior Cycle and the first year book is due to be published this month.

My alarm goes off…

Usually it doesn’t!!! The best thing about my new role is not having to set an alarm!! I set my own timetable now so I usually have a nice relaxed morning, catching up on emails and doing some writing. Then I usually have a school talk in the afternoon and often a parent talk in the evening. Parents are really interested in learning how to help their children to become resilient and to thrive and flourish despite the challenges of life, so that’s the theme of my parent talks!

I am responsible for…

Running my own business, which is completely new to me! I’m hitting the ground running though and I’m enjoying it so much. Although I have no past business experience, my years in the classroom have served me well, as I’m used to multi-tasking and juggling a lot of things at once. In fact, I think teaching was a much more challenging job than the one I’m doing now. Although teaching is a short day it’s incredibly intense and demanding. Teacher well-being needs to be taken a lot more seriously.

My typical day…

Sometimes I start off with emails and planning ahead – I’m fully booked with talks until April now and then I’m travelling to Australia in May to deliver a number of talks at the Hawker Brownlow Teaching and Learning  conference in Melbourne, so I can’t wait! Weaving Well-Being has recently been launched in Australia so I’m looking forward to promoting it there. I’ll be travelling all around Ireland in the coming months doing my talks so there is no such thing as a typical day really!

The best part of my job…

I really am living my dream now so I have to pinch myself sometimes to see if it’s real! To be able to work at what I’m most passionate about is so fulfilling. It gives me a great sense of purpose to feel that my work is having a positive impact on the lives of children in some way. I also love meeting new people and I’m really enjoying all the travelling at the moment too.

The most challenging part of my job is…

Working on my own is a challenge and I really miss the social side of school life. I loved seeing and interacting with my friends and colleagues every day and especially having a laugh together. I really miss the children I worked with so much too. I plan to drop into the school regularly to see everyone and catch up on all the news!

I am inspired by…

I’m incredibly inspired by the children I have worked with over the last number of years. I worked in Special Educational Needs so I was working closely with children with a variety of challenges and their courage, strength and determination is absolutely incredible. They inspire me to keep going – it was such a privilege to work with them.

After work…

My family life is very busy – I have a daughter who is 23 and a son who is 20 – they are both in college so they still live at home with us. It’s great to have the chance to spend time together whenever they’re around. I’m also lucky to live near the sea in Donabate – I love walking on the beach whenever I get a chance, it does wonders for my own well-being! I love the cliff walk in Donabate too – it’s so beautiful and it’s one of my favourite places in the world.

The motto I live by…

I love this quote from Brené Brown:
‘Joy comes to us in moments – ordinary moments. We risk missing out on joy when we get too busy chasing down the extraordinary.’
I have a lot of pretty big goals and plans at the moment, but that quote reminds me that well-being really is all about enjoying and appreciating all of the little things.

You can contact Fiona via

fiona.forman@gmail.com

Twitter @FionaWellBeing

Instagram @fionaformanwellbeing

Facebook @Fiona Forman Well-Being

www.fionaformanwellbeing.com

See www.otb.ie/wwb for more information on Weaving Well-Being.

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