Showing posts with label teacher burnout. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teacher burnout. Show all posts

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Burnout Week 5 term 3

As a new teacher we have to cope with a lot of things.. The kid with the difficult home life, the aggressive learner, physically agressive students, bullying and social issues between students, unachievable aspirations of students, students with low self esteem, politics between teachers, goals of the school, TEE, the list goes on.

And sometimes you feel it is all a bit too much. You grit your teeth and look forward to the next break. This is especially prevelent in term 3. You can see it even in the senior teachers as they confide they are not coping. I think to myself if they're not coping, how can I do it?

Then you stop sleeping and eating.. You get a little grumpy.. classes stop responding to your teaching methods. You're not as quick at coming up with alternate responses to poor behaviour and end up being the teacher you said you would never be.

At this point, talk to someone you trust - hopefully a team member that has gone through it all before. Don't pick someone struggling that will reinforce your issues, but someone that is doing well. Listen to what they do and why they are having success. Ask for some time out. Don't talk to your line manager - my past experience is that their responsibility for performance causes an imbalance in their judgement as they look at the now and only have time for a quick fix rather than investing in the whole picture.

I suppose the main thing is not to burn out. Your classes can suffer for a little while whilst you slow down a little. The profession needs you - three years from now you can laugh at what caused you such grief before, even if sometimes you can think it doesn't care. At the end of term four you can reap the rewards and next year be recharged. This is the hump - know this and just get over it the best way you can.

At least I hope so.