In rereading the last about teacher burnout, I was struck by a handful of things that my reader mentioned in the email. I thought it was powerful enough that it was worth digging into deeper, and yet I didn’t want to dilute the conversation that might come as a result of the emotional impact of the reader’s email.
With that being said, here are 20 insights from a 17-year veteran teacher about things that teachers ought to be doing.
- Take care of your body
- Avoid whiners
- Get more sleep
- Accept imperfection from yourself
- Don’t expect to make everyone happy
- Don’t abuse your sick days, but do use them
- Relax more
- Have trusted friends who can smack you upside the head when needed
- Be sure you have long term disability insurance in place before you need it
- Have some sort of adequate health insurance
- Don’t waste time worrying
- If you’re single, take some risks
- Always have a backup career plan for if things don’t work out
- Don’t be too proud to seek advice from others
- Sometimes writing things out is among the best therapy
- The logical solution is often the best, but not always
- Don’t make monumental life decisions in periods of emotional distress
- Don’t let Christmas, spring break, and summer be your only down time
- Have patience with yourself and others
- Not every situation in life requires an immediate diagnosis and prescription
Wow. What an awesome list. #18 really hit home with me: Don’t let Christmas, spring break, and summer be your only down time. I’m still trying to unwind from the school year and I’ve been off for three weeks! I was using my weekends and evenings to gear up for the following day/week instead of what they should be for: me time and family time. This tells me I should probably take a closer look at the rest of the list and make sure I am doing the other things!
I remember reading somewhere—or being told by my mother, a teacher—that the determining factor between whether or not a teacher made it past the 5-year mark was “Do you have a hobby or passion outside of teaching?”
I suppose that since I became intensely uncomfortable at the first half (in particular) of this list, I need to really evaluate some things.