You were undoubtedly full of excitement and passion when you decided to become a teacher, motivated to improve lives and make a difference. However, one thing you may not have anticipated is how difficult teaching may be, particularly after two years of virtual and blended education. It’s no surprise that several teachers leave their professions each year, given the mental exhaustion of shaping the next generation. Fortunately, burnout isn’t the only possibility for a committed teacher. Here we shall be discussing 5 tried-and-true tactics for reducing stress and avoiding teacher burnout.
What is burnout?
Before moving on to the discussion of how to prevent burnout, let us first know what does it mean to be burnt out?
Undue and upheld stress can lead to burnout, a state of emotional, biological, and cognitive weariness. Burnout symptoms include losing interest in and motivation for the role you took on in the first place. Being burned out saps your vitality and lowers productivity, leaving you feeling helpless, sad, cynical, and resentful. Burnout has negative consequences in your life, including your home, career, and social life. It can also lead to long-term changes in your body, making you more susceptible to illnesses such as colds and flu.
Ways to avoid burnout
Since we now understand the ramifications of being burnt out and how it can hurt our lives, let us now explore ways to avoid it in our teaching lives.
Work-life balance
One of the most common challenges teachers face while teaching is the inability to strike a work-life balance. Lack of work-life balance affects your mental health and may also lead to significant teacher burnout if it is not addressed. As a result, you must establish clear boundaries between your work and personal lives. Many well-known people have spoken out about the importance of learning how to say “No.”
It is essential for you to unwind; therefore promise yourself not to bring work to your home. This makes your life easier and provides you with more time to relax and begin each day with a pleasant mindset.
Take time off
Thinking about work all the time makes teachers likely to succumb to burnout. We teachers often spend our holidays and weekends planning and preparing for work ahead. Avoid this and plan something to rejuvenate yourself that brings joy to you. Whether that’s a walk in the park to enjoy the sunset, brunch with friends, or just being curled up on the couch with a good book, scheduling in you-time on your holidays will help you refresh and recharge!
Take help
As teachers, we have to multi-task. In this scenario, taking help from family, friends, and colleagues helps to reduce work-related stress. Teachers worldwide have experienced less stress as a result of sharing the workload. You can collaborate with your fellow teachers to organize lessons, group students across two classrooms, give the same assignments, and troubleshoot problems.
Having a colleague to plan with will have a significant impact, and you will not experience the same level of burnout.
Celebrate your accomplishments
You recognize your pupils’ achievements, but why not remember yours as well? Teachers are continuously doing extraordinary things, whether it’s mentoring a kid, developing an outstanding lesson plan, or even assisting another teacher, and these accomplishments should be recognized.
Have you ever seen a teacher perform anything exceptional? Tell them, and others, about it! It will not only put a grin on your colleague’s face, but the joy it will spread will be contagious! What better way to lift everyone’s spirits and combat teachers’ burnout than with a little party?
Tech-power
When it comes to technology tools, more isn’t always better. Use tech solutions that integrate with your Learning Management System (LMS) so that you and your students have everything in one location. You won’t have to deal with the terrible multi-tab browser, paperwork, or multiple account passwords. With ed-tech playing a great role in education today, you can rely on technology to do a lot of work on your behalf in less time.
If you are not comfortable with technology, take the help of your colleagues and students to get conversant with these tech tools and see the magic happen as you weed out the negative burnout symptoms.
Final Note
Teachers burnout is a real-time issue that has to be addressed quickly. You need to take good care of yourself to avoid mental exhaustion. Thankfully, you have a solution in your hands. Platforms like Classplus can help you by making your work life simpler. For example, if you spend hours grading papers and preparing report cards, you can use the data analysis tool of your own customized app to reduce your burden by grading for you!
Use resources that offer pre-made lesson plans that can be quickly changed to your classroom need to save even more time on lesson prep. A lot of tailored features, designed keeping your needs in perspective, will save time and make learning exciting and engaging for students. Win-win!
