Teacher burnout can peak in the darkest, coldest days of winter. It rears its ugly head as we recover from the holidays and feel the physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion caused by the prolonged stress. The overwhelming workloads, lack of support, and the emotional toll of working with students day in and day can break you down.
It is easy to get caught in the feelings of frustration, helplessness, and a diminished sense of personal accomplishment. While systemic changes such as providing adequate resources, reducing class sizes and workload would go a long way, those changes are not coming anytime soon. In the here and now, these nine tips can restore your faith in the work and the profession. These are the things that have sustained us in the classroom.
ACKNOWLEDGE REALITY
When new teachers ask for my best advice for sustainable teaching, I immediately say, “Learn how to be okay with leaving some work undone.” Consider my current teaching assignment:
160 AP Lit students, 31 Dramatic Writing students (submitting scripts for film, television, and stage). In my school, we are required to enter at least one grade weekly which is reasonable, but multiply that by 190 and consider the time to 1 – post the assignment in multiple classes on a LMS, score the assignment (giving feedback is entirely different), record grades in Infinite Campus because our LMS doesn’t always sync. That alone is a full time job. Add to this in no particular order: submit lesson plans two weeks in advance in a laborious template, notify parents of failing grades, meetings up meetings, keep track of tardies, email, submit lessons that incorporate STEAM specific components, make up work, late work, revisions – and the list goes on and on. Oh and I teach students for the majority of the day. I simply cannot do all of this – and I am a high capacity person. I do what I can do and have grown increasingly comfortable leaving work undone. The trick is knowing what work falls into what category. — Susan
WIN THEIR SCOREBOARD, THEN CREATE YOUR OWN
I went through a seven-year period in my career where I was hyper-focused on improving my test scores. I didn’t have kids at the time, so my energy was devoted to getting better. I spent a lot of time participating in online communities and learning from teachers. I was on my laptop each night researching the works I was teaching. While walking my dog, I thought about my lessons. I don’t regret it a bit. It was the most creative leap of my career, and my scores rose by 30% over that period. But winning is ephemeral. I learned this from Phil Jackson, the great coach of the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers. He promotes an idea adapted from Maslow, which is that the sacred is in the ordinary. Winning brings a high that exists at the moment and carries through to the next day and the next. But soon, you’ll wake up and you’ll come down. What’s more sacred are the things found in one’s daily life, in one’s neighbors, friends, and family, in one’s backyard. Win on their scoreboard, then create your scoreboard. — Brian
ARRIVE EARLY OR LEAVE LATE — NOT BOTH
Aim to be the first teacher at school or the last left but not both (or either). Mr. Sullivan and I are always the last ones to leave the 8th street lot, but spots 7 and 8 are empty until around 8 each morning. And the idea here is more about setting and sticking to limits at work than what time you clock in (yes, I actually clock into work). I used to play the game of bringing work home every night; this just felt like what teachers should do – especially English teachers. You would be hard pressed to find me sitting at one of my own kids sporting events without essays in hand. Even if I never got around to grading at night, I toted papers to and from school for their nightly sleepover. This felt very teacherly of me – always have the work at hand because there was always work to be done. I actually felt guilty if I wasn’t working. I was the perfect teacher martyr. But then I realized that I could – and should for my own sanity – step away from work without feeling any ounce of guilt. Separating ourselves physically from work is much easier than separating mental boundaries, but we must push to do so. Now my work bag holds my lunch container and coffee thermos at the beginning and the end of each day, and the papers are just fine spending the night at school. — Susan
FIND YOUR FASCINATION
Students don’t want to hear how late you are staying up to grade their assignments or how your weekends are spent at the kitchen table planning the week’s lessons. It doesn’t elicit admiration. Instead, you are communicating that you are sacrificing your life for their benefit. You’re the martyr. Instead, have them marvel at the life you lead. Be fascinating. Pursue interesting hobbies, passion projects, and personal crusades. One of my colleagues is ranked in the Top 50 in crossword-puzzlers and competes each year at the national tournament in Brooklyn. Another uses every major break to travel the world. Another spear fishes and surfs. You can certainly bring the classroom into your life, but you also have to bring your life into the classroom. — Brian
PLAN FOR CLASSROOM EBB AND FLOW
I just finished Hamlet and a lot of days were hands-on bell-to-bell engagement with my students in order to accomplish what we needed to do. This, however, cannot happen day after day week after week. While some days are heavy teaching days, also plan for days for students to read (It’s okay for students to read in class!!!), work independently, or do group work. Varying the pacing and work load (for teachers and students) throughout a unit, over the course of a semester, and throughout the year is a teacher trick that is not explored enough. This change of pace is beneficial for both us as teachers and students! — Susan
NEVER BE AN ISLAND
This career will throw things at you, and you won’t be for many of them. You will put your foot in your mouth. You’ll have the highest hopes for a lesson and it will bomb. Administration will selectively pluck what they want to see in you and ignore the rest. Students will pass away. You can walk through this darkness alone or you can have a few good teacher friends light the way. — Brian
CELEBRATE SMALL, DAILY WINS
I don’t have a gratitude journal, but I like the idea behind it. Teachers, if we don’t celebrate ourselves, we most likely won’t be celebrated. You made a minor tweak in a lesson which made a huge difference. Students crushed an exam. A parent sent you a thank-you email. Now is not the time to be shy – share it out with your colleagues. And ask them to do the same. Teachers can create a culture of celebration and recognition even if our schools and system won’t. I have taken this idea to the classroom and have my students share something good at the beginning of the week for our attendance question. — Susan
BALANCE WEALTH
No teacher I know ever became financially rich off their classroom paycheck. Many have lived modestly comfortable lives. I want you to think about wealth in more expansive terms, though, one that not only includes finances, but also encompasses health, relationships, knowledge, emotional, and time. If you can balance these, teaching can provide a rich and fulfilling life. We risk burnout when we allow one domain to dominate our lives. Grading throughout the weekend? Then you’ve lost your time. Eating quickly at your desk? You may be damaging your health wealth. You’ll achieve more by being consistently reliable in each of these areas than by being occasionally extraordinary. — Brian
GRIPE SESSIONS
I may get pushback on this, but there’s something to the phrase “misery loves company.” My disposition in general is bent to the positive, but I can just like everyone else enjoy time set aside for an airing of grievances. This helps me feel seen and less alone in the drowning sea of work and lack of appreciation. After all, who else knows what it feels like to have a student turn in work a month late only to be followed up by a parent email 30 minutes later asking when the grade is going to be in? Our faculty has a standing Friday afternoon “professional development” meeting at a historic Atlanta tavern to officially kick off the weekend and get some things out of our system while still enjoying our jobs and each other. Finding a healthy balance of expressing frustration but not letting it become a mindset is the key.
Brian (a high school teacher and basketball coach on Long Island) and Susan (a high school teacher in Atlanta) met on Twitter (#rip) over a decade ago and became fast friends bonding over teaching literature, building classroom culture, and the importance of a good cup of coffee. Their book, 100% Engagement: 33 Lessons to Promote Participation, Beat Boredom, and Deepen Learning in the ELA Classroom, is forthcoming from Corwin in May.
