Teacher Burnout
I am in my third week of teaching this school year, and this is about the time that the magic is starting to wear off – the assignments to be graded are piling up, the after school meetings and extra curricular commitments are beginning to be scheduled, the kids are getting antsy to get out of their seats and back outside in the waning sunshine of summer-fall. Admittedly, I’m a little antsy to get out of my classroom and into that sunshine as well.
I mean, I finished grad school in May of last year, and my wedding (in October) is almost totally planned! I only have one prep this year! I should have nothing but time on my hands! But in this, my third year at my school and my fifth year teaching, I find myself adding more responsibilities, becoming more committed to the school community, and amping up my grading and lesson planning, giving things just a little more oomph. All this just after a year during which I was questioning just how much more oomph I had left to give.
Teacher burnout is an important area of study, and one we don’t hear much about while we are working in this profession. Yet, I know quite a few people who have left the profession because they just couldn’t handle the work-life balance that teaching brings. And it is an extremely difficult balance to manage: all-night grading and planning sessions, weekends taken up with work-related activities, early morning and after school tutoring sessions, extra-curriculars, constant worry about that kid in your class who just isn’t getting it or who is having trouble at home. Let’s face it: As a teacher, you cannot just leave your work at work.
I have been extremely fortunate as a teacher in this respect. My mom is a teacher, so I grew up watching her. As far as bringing your work home, I sort of knew what to expect, and I knew what caliber of work made a good teacher. (My mom is, hands-down, one of the best teachers I know.) I’ve also had a string of awesome bosses who understand that, sometimes, you’ve got to deal with your personal life in order to deal with your professional life, and if that means putting the grading away for a weekend, then so be it. It’ll still be there when you get back, and the students can definitely wait. But that’s not to say I haven’t felt burnt out at times. During the summer of ‘09, for example, I taught summer school from 8 AM – 1 PM four days a week while I was taking 8 hours of graduate classes in 8 weeks. I had two weeks off at the end of that, and then launched myself back into another school year during which I was also writing my Master’s thesis. By the end of last year, I was totally burned out. Heck, by the second month into last year I was totally burned out!
So I just did what I could. I took lots of weekends away when I had the chance; I tried to schedule my time better and schedule little breaks into my day; I spent some time blogging which cleared my head; I got to the gym as much as I could. Sometimes, I had to just put the grad school and the high school work away and just sit in front of the TV for a little while each day.
Fortunately, I’m back for another year. I wasn’t cut due to budget issues or performance, and also very fortunately, I was able to take this summer off. I did not take any classes and I did not teach summer school, and I was even able to go on a vacation, so I was able to start this school year refreshed and ready to go. And even though the magic is starting to wear off just a little bit at this time of the year as we all settle into our routines, I know it will come back, and I know that, even when the going gets rough throughout the year, I have a stack of things I can do to prevent burnout from making me a less effective and less enthusiastic teacher.
So, tell me – what do you do to prevent your teacher burnout?
I made the most of every moment I was at school so I would have less to do after hours. From the time I showed up until the time I left I was “on”. I socialized less during school hours with colleagues unless it was during a time when there was nothing else to do.
I’m just wondering because I often do the same thing: Teaching is a very social profession, lots of sharing and talking to each other. That sort of seems to be part of the process. Do you ever feel like you’re missing out on some of that? I know I do!
This is part of the reason I left teaching. That balance just wasn’t there for me. I’m still working on getting balance back into my life, and I left the classroom in June!
There are so very many factors that can influence teacher burnout! You have named a few in this post.
I did some research on this topic for graduate school. I interviewed people who had left the profession. I found several factors that caused people to burn out. On of those was having many, frequent assignment changes. Another was having too many committee or union obligations. Unfortunately, many of the people I surveyed reported a sense of isolation, and often poor working conditions.
So, that being said – the best things you can do are to
1) Keep yourself resilient. Take care of yourself! (not as easy as it sounds)
2) Build a network of friends both inside and outside of your profession
3) Cultivate interests outside of teaching, that are not for the purpose of enhancing your teaching (although they inadvertently will)
It sounds like you are working very hard to keep your work life balanced with your personal life. Good for you!