Conquering Teacher Tired and Burnout Series: 5 Things to stop doing TODAY

There’s been a lot of chatter about what teachers need: more support from administrators, an increase in salary, more school supplies, less paperwork…while all of these things would be nice, most of them are either pipeline dreams or will take a long time and intense negotiations to change. None of those things are going to help with current teacher burnout.

I’ve spoken to a lot of administrators lately who acknowledge that their staff is burnt-out and are dedicated to doing what they can to help them–many using PD days to do something fun or wellness based. While that’s a great step in the right direction, it also won’t help heal teacher burnout.

Us teachers are in control of our wellness. The district you work in may have new initiatives coming up, the paperwork may still be at an all-time high, and your students may be less engaged than you would like them to be. So in the midst of all this, we need to start controlling what we can control. Here are 5 things to stop doing TODAY to help ease your workload so you have more time to take care of yourself.

1. Saying yes to things you don’t want to. I know we all want to be there for our schools and students, but if we aren’t passionate about advising that club or coaching that team, no one is actually going to benefit, you’ll just be a body. So stop saying yes to the things that don’t feed your soul. Remember, every time you say yes to something you don’t want to do, you’re saying no to something you are interested in doing, which includes taking care of yourself.

2. Making yourself available 24/7. I know it feels like you should be available to your students all day every day now with virtual classrooms and the ability to check everything from your phone but you don’t! Set parameters around when you will respond to parents and students and make sure they know your boundaries. Making students aware that you will check your email until 7pm and then not again until you get into school the next day forces them to plan accordingly and ask questions they may have about an assignment earlier. I know a lot of teachers say they feel badly about that, but you don’t feel badly about leaving a meeting at your contractual time, do you? Think of it that way–the fact that you’re responding to emails at all out of your contractual time is enough, you don’t need to do it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You deserve to unplug too.

3. Grading everything. This is a tough one, and I completely understand. I struggled with this for a while, wanting to give feedback on everything I gave out because if I didn’t “how would they learn”, but it’s isn’t necessary. Not every assignment needs to be graded, and not all assignments need to be graded entirely. Grade with purpose: look for a specific skill set on an assignment or ask your students to choose their two best responses and maybe one they struggled with and only look at those. Few assignments require you to read every single response, especially when you have 80-130 students.

4. Reinventing the wheel. Just because you’re starting a new unit doesn’t mean you need entirely new activities. If you have go to assignments that work well, repurpose them to fit your new unit. Chances are if you think they work well and your students like the activity, they’ll continue to enjoy your class. We’re all creatures of habit, they may enjoy the predictability of the assignments as well.

5. Doing it all yourself. Teaching is amazing but it can also be lonely. I worked in a district where I was the only one teaching most of my courses which meant I had no way of collaborating with others. This felt extremely lonely at times and was also pretty overwhelming when I was creating new units for multiple classes. Whether you have teachers you can collaborate with or not, you always have your students to work with. Give them the opportunity to come up with a final project idea, create rubrics as a class, or brainstorm activities they would like to do. You could also have your students be responsible for specific lessons. This is not being lazy–this is being innovative. It also shows your students how much you respect and trust their opinions. By giving your students a larger role in the creation of your class, they will be so much more committed to the work and your class as a whole.

So start today. Try one or do them all today–every small action you take towards freeing up more time in your day gives you more time to take care of yourself. You’ve got this!