Dealing with Teacher Burnout
- Apr 4, 2017
- 5 min read
Spring break is upon us (or just past), you are refreshed and that end-of-the-year finish line is only weeks away, BUT, you are still feeling wiped out. It usually takes a couple of days (sometimes even 1 day) before the dread of meetings, grade-leveled collaborations, obnoxious students, even more obnoxious parents, grading, and the negative chatter seeps in. Not to mention that it is now officially testing season.
Testing time is a stressful time for teachers and students. I know first-hand that anxiety feeling of between “not caring” and “caring.” On one hand, you want to seem indifferent. You want to feel like “whatever” I did this best I could with what I had to work with. However, just as soon as you try to believe that, the perfectionistic side comes barreling in with “I need to have the best test scores! I need for people to know I’m good, effective, amazing, and irreplaceable!”
So as you’re struggle begins, you may get caught in the crossfire of stressful occupational conditions, mostly brought on by your panic thinking and wanting to be accepted, respected, and revered by all. Then what happens? Your pent up energy comes crashing down and you slowly begin to burn. You have
sleepless nights which make you tired and grumpy at work. You ate way too many powdered covered treats or pasta/potato comfort food that leaving feeling like a stuffed pig of guilt. You drank WAY too much (and I don’t mean water) and now not only do you have an aching headache, you begin to doubt yourself as a true professional.
Nobody fully understands what teachers go through, except teachers themselves. The truly best of the best go through the emotional rollercoaster of this love-hate relationship, while the ones who really don’t care get off free of pain because they really just don’t give a shit about kids, it’s just a job, so you end up resenting them in addition to everything else.
So what to do? Well, first of all you need to examine the prime indicators that are causing you to stress out. These include low self-esteem/morale, low efficiency, high withdrawal/absenteeism, and constantly thinking about a new job or retirement. Additionally, if you are engaging in the negative school chatter of “what’s wrong with this” then you are definitely in the gropes of teacher burnout. What this means is that you are currently unable to deal with the stressful components of your job.
Low self-esteem or low morale: Even after a week or more off of a much needed vaycay, you dread Sundays at 5 and have a difficult time getting out of bed in the morning. You have recurring thoughts of not being good enough, underappreciated, or disrespected. Everything you do at school is an uphill battle.
Low efficiency: You’ve lost that spark you once had to create new lessons or share ideas. The thought of going to another worthless and time wasting meeting is beyond annoying and exhausting. You have no desire to listen to a bunch of cackling hens preach about how great their lesson are especially when it comes from the TOSAs or your teacher mentors who have lost touch with reality of what it’s like teaching in the classroom in the 21st century because the last time they taught in the classroom was 1991.
High absenteeism: You only show up to work because you don’t want to waste your sick days on stupid illnesses like strep throat, IBS, migraines, or even the flu because you know when you come back it’s just going to be extra work for YOU! So what’s the point?
Retirement: Do you resent the teacher that is counting down the days to freedom? Are you counting down the days or even the hours until your next holiday? Do you stay at your present position because at least you have the summers off? Does thinking of these things make your more exhausted or rejuvenated?
Negative chatter: You hang out in the staff or copy room before, during, and after school bitching and complaining about what’s wrong knowing you have no control. Instead of leaving the bitch session, you feel worse because now you know you’re right since everyone is in agreement with you. Instead of going back to your room and doing actual work you procrastinate or worse you throw half the shit in the trash.
If you answer “yes” to at least one of these issues, you are susceptible to teacher burnout. The more yeses you have, obviously the more burnout you are. Being aware of these characteristics is important to getting you back on the right track. Here are some quick fixes you can do to help alleviate teacher burnout.
T - Tighten your fists, while inhaling then release and exhale (3x)
E - End the negative self-talk with “cancel, clear, delete!”
A – Act as if…A “fake” smile goes a mile or more.
C – Classroom fun! Just stop what you’re doing and dance!
H - Heal with Mindful activities 10-15 min. a day.
E – Engage in daily journal writing: focus on what’s “right”.
R – Relieve with roaring music: Rock n’ Roll, Rap, or whatever gets you through the night.
S – STOP and STAY! Avoid anything negative and stay in your classroom.
There are many types of mindful ways to get in a good space, but at the end of the day you just need to develop better habits. Stop and stay away from anything or anyone who is NOT in your best interest.
Most principals and the like will tell you to interact, but how would they know? Your journal is your best friend, not the wine bottle or your teacher neighbor and DEFINITELY not your principal. Love everyone, but trust no one. Testing is not the most important thing in this world, human connection is. If you’re stressed, your kids will be stressed. The years that I stopped “preparing for tests” and did decompressing activities instead (breathing, coloring, playdough, music, dance, art, journal writing, theatre) were the years my students did best. Remember when Fridays were fun?
Mindfulness is described as a peaceful way to pay attention or stay in the present moment without judgment (Chiesa et al., 2010; Mapel, 2012; Shonert-Reichl & Lawlor, 2010). Using mindfulness meditation benefits this process by meditating through meaningful and deliberate breathing using an upright body position to develop profound contemplation and awareness (Kabat-Zinn, 2011). The uses
of Mindful Awareness Practices (MAPs) are exercises that assist people in being aware and mindful of their senses and surroundings as well as having focused attention of moment-by-moment experiences (Flook et al., 2010). Mindfulness allows individuals to practice the art of breathing to focus attention and senses on certain target objects and to be mindful of when the mind wanders and bring the attention back to the target object (Flook et al., 2010)
The bottom line is this: Only YOU knows YOU best. Not your principal, not your fellow teachers, not your spouse, not drinking buddies. Do what makes YOU happy. If it doesn’t feel good, then don’t do it. So you may not have the best test scores, but you’ll have the healthiest and happiest mind, body, and soul. I think you’ll find that your students will love you for it.
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