Handling the Overwhelm in First Years of Teaching and Beyond.
I am sure like me, you have been driving home from work, your head buzzing with what you’ve been trying to digest from the school day, and you had a thought, “Is what I am doing sustainable? Can I continue doing it for year and years?” The answer was probably, “Oh my gosh! It’s insane…” You probably have been waking up early like me at 5:30 a.m. for the fifth day in a row, feeling absolutely exhausted, dragging yourself to the kitchen to gobble your breakfast and empty a cup of coffee into your stomach in less than twenty minutes. You probably felt like calling off sick, but then you thought, “What’s the point? I feel like this every day.” You felt anxious and overwhelmed by the idea that today you have to teach 120 teenagers from 8: 00 a.m. to 3 p.m. with some breaks for an awkward lunch at the desk filled with papers to grade. After your lunch, you probably sat there in awe at the number of things you need to do starting from filling out absence reports, grading class participation worksheets, evaluating projects, planning for the next week, uploading lesson plans into the system, completing necessary documentation on MyLearningPlan and so on and so forth. I have had those mornings and those thoughts too. And although I see myself getting a better grip at my profession and having better control of all the things I need to do as a teacher, I often think about the race I feel I am part of and whether this lifestyle is sustainable to me. The question about the sustainability of my profession comes up more often when I evaluate how much time I spend on the things I ought to and how much time is left on the things I am fired about. The things I ought to do come as part of my responsibility as a teacher: create a better learning environment, build communication with my students, redesign materials in a way that they serve my students more effectively, develop professionally, take thousands of decisions a day at the cost of tremendous mental power. Although we, teachers, don’t see the fruit of our labor right away, there are these rare moments in the classroom while communicating with students and changing their lives that make me feel proud, happy, inspired. And these moments are only a tip of the iceberg. The reality of the day-to-day grind is much less empowering and often exhausting both physically and mentally. Although I am convinced that expertise in teaching comes only through experience, I nevertheless committed to figuring out early in my career the ways to overcome the overwhelm, make me more productive and having time for other interests. Some of the ideas I am sharing here, I believe, will resonate with many teachers and can become the first step towards claiming your freedom and well-being.
1. What we think is what we project into our reality.
There is no doubt for me that the way you see your day and the feelings you project into the outside world shape and determine your reality. Working with children makes it even trickier because kids become a reflection of yours. Students in your classroom are masters at figuring out your mood within five minutes of your presence with them. And then, they masterfully reflect your mood back to you. I had “difficult” students as well. And I know how it feels to dread seeing those disruptors, having to teach to a group of students who have everything else on their mind but learning. I’ve dealt with deficient energy and effort level in a classroom, and I know how demotivating it can be. I know how a new week’s paperwork may put you in a bad mood, or a never-ending flow of grading and planning can squeeze all the juices out of you. But here is what I have to say. Face your fears. Prioritize important things. Have an open mind about things that can be learned in your profession and relationships that can be improved or developed with your students.
How to fight negative thoughts about workload:
1) You don’t have to deal with all the paperwork at once. Handle one thing at a time.
2) Don’t focus on perfection when planning. You will modify the lesson plan and the activities as you go.
3) Do grading only during specified slots of time once all the students submitted their work. Use rubrics for easier and faster grading. Assess one skill at a time. Evaluate one skill at a time.
4) Show your interest in co-workers. They may have a bad day too. Offer help. Encouragement builds a relationship.
5) Don’t stress out because of mistakes. Every mistake is an opportunity to improve.
How to fight negative thought about students:
1) The most disrespectful students are the ones who need most attention, care and understanding. They might be fighting a battle in their own lives. Be the teachers who shows concern about their personal lives.
2) Try to be closer to students whom you “dislike” most. By breaking the barrier, you will open a channel for communication they need so much.
3) Ask students questions about their families and their interests. Build connections. It will pay off through improved behavior.
4) Always acknowledge students’ struggles. For example, say “I understand you feel tired, but you have made so much progress for the past two weeks. You can do it!” or “I know it is difficult sometimes, but English is your second or third language. You have to be proud of what you have accomplished!”
5) Take it easy. There may be 120 students you are teaching, and there is only one you. You are just a human.
2. Brain dumping.
I know how stressful it can be to keep dozens of thoughts in your head about what you should, must, have to do, accomplish, plan, change, attempt, modify, compete, review. Don’t put any additional stress on your mind by not “dumping” all the ideas into your planner or on a piece of paper. By writing down everything you keep in mind, you will be more productive and relieve a lot of pressure of your ever-working teacher’s brain.
Steps of brain dumping:
1) Write down everything on your mind on a piece of paper.
2) Categorize all the tasks as “Immediate Action”, “Within a week”, “Within a month” completion due times.
3) If there is more than one “Immediate Action” item, handle them one by one.
4) Arrange “Within a week” tasks over a period of one week in your calendar, tackling more urgent tasks in the first half of the week, and less urgent – at the end of the week.
5) Arrange “Within a month” tasks over a period of one month into your calendar, tacking essential tasks on the days with most productivity.
3. Too much on the agenda is a bad agenda.
It happened so many times when I would bring tons of work home with me hoping to do it over the weekend. I would end up doing nothing of what I had planned, which would leave me with a terrible feeling. Besides, I would spend my weekend hating to look into the bag with a pile of papers to grade or notes on the unit to plan. My mistake was I was doing too many things during the work week, which was inefficient and overwhelming. Trying to fix things, I would bring work home. The result – I did nothing at home and created more stress for the following week. I knew I needed a change. I already wrote about my attitude shift toward how I prioritize my work tasks and leisure time. Read about it here, in “Why so un-serious?” post. I also made dramatic changes in the agenda I have for every work week. Here are the things that make my weekly agenda more simple:
1) Learn one teaching technique a week.
2) Grade one set of papers (one class) a day.
3) Plan on Thursday for a Monday class. On Friday – for a Tuesday class. On Monday – for a Wednesday, on Tuesday – for Thursday and Friday classes. On Wednesday, write down modifications that need to be made after you taught for two days. In my experience, two days of teaching clearly show me what adjustments are necessary for my lesson to make the material more effective or differentiate more.
4) Handle two types of paperwork required from administration per week.
5) Reclaim your Saturday and Sunday. Don’t spam these days with the school work. Let them be relax days.
4. Less is more.
The first thing I learned about the principle of “Less is more” is that less work for me in a classroom converts into more work for my students. I analyzed my most effective lessons and what I saw was that students felt more motivated, were more engaged, and showed more responsibility when I acted less as a teacher and more as a facilitator; when I utilized a technique my students knew, so I spent almost no effort organizing my students to handle a task; when I gave students more opportunities to speak and provided fewer straightforward answers but rather prompts. When I realized that giving more initiative and questions to ponder to students has shifted the dynamic of my lessons, I started using the same principle with all the other things pertaining to my profession. In doing fewer things, prioritizing, and reflecting I saw a significant change in my productivity and effectiveness as a teacher. These are some tips:
1) Learn one aspect of your work per one marking period. For example, during marking period 1 my priority was classroom management, marking period 2 – writing learning and language objectives, marking period 3 – more efficient and time-saving assessment, marking period 4 – collecting and reflecting on 5 techniques of teaching that worked.
2) Chose one aspect of teaching to work on and master it throughout one year. For example, my second year of teaching I focused entirely on classroom management.
3) Don’t overpack your lessons with activities. Choose only those that can deliver the best academic value to students.
4) Teach with less paper. Not every activity needs to be a print-out.
5) Spend less time thinking about what hasn’t worked, but instead, think about what can be improved.
5. Keep the balance between your professional and personal life.
Teaching is notoriously known for absorbing all the time and energy a person can have. Teacher’s burnout happens within five years of being a teacher as well as can occur after 20 years of teaching. Teaching can be invasive into personal life and exhausting mentally and physically. To avoid the worst case of “I don’t think I can do it any more” scenario, be intentional about keeping a balance between teaching and everything else in your life. It’s so important! And remember, it does not make you a bad teacher when you claim you weekends back and do nothing during a spring break. Give yourself a piece of mind: teaching and planning happen only in a classroom and at other times that you thoughtfully allow yourself to. Be intentional about taking care of your health, your physical and mental health. There is nothing worse than an exhausted teacher for students and a grumpy mother and wife at home. Shift your mindset. Teaching can be productive and be skillfully managed. Here are some tips to start a shift toward personal freedom:
1) Reclaim your weekends back. These days are to give rest to your body and mind, energize for the week ahead.
2) Continually learn about the tricks and tips that can make teaching more effective and less time-consuming.
3) Don’t set unachievable goals: mastery in teaching does come with experience. Give yourself 4-5 years to learn the basics.
4) Pursue your other interests in your free time. Remember, a person with a hobby is always inspired and energized.
5) Don’t take on a mission to change every single student’s world. There are successes and there are failures. Be the best teacher you can, and teach students to take responsibility for their learning.
Every teacher deserves to be appreciated and to feel happy. Teaching is probably one of the most demanding careers in the world although some people don’t want to accept it. No matter how hard the situation you are currently in, whether you are a new teacher or an experienced teacher, you need to remember that you are enough, you don’t need to be more and give more than you already giving. You just need to be smarter about how to deliver value to students without compromising your personal integrity, your health, your freedom.
Download this reminder “How to Fight The Overwhelm for Teachers.”
Talk to you later!
