HOW TO FIGHT SCHOOL-RELATED STRESS

Although developing a positive outlook and turning problems into opportunities are effective tools in the battle against burnout, they are not enough to stop the cycle of self-defeat. To avoid the damage that burnout can cause, you also need to be proactive; you must prevent the buildup of the small stresses that eventually lead to distress and burnout. Consider some of the following strategies when you create a proactive plan to prevent toxic stress from consuming your life.

·        Place great value on your personal time. Working long hours every day is a sure path to burnout. You need time to just be yourself. School will always be there.

·        Allow yourself time to make effective transitions from one class to another. This is particularly difficult when you have many classes each day. One way to manage this is by having an opening routine that your students can do independently. This will free you to make the mental, emotional, and physical switch from one group of students to another.

·        Keep a flexible attitude. Get into the habit of looking for solutions instead of dwelling on your problems. If you are open to alternatives, you will be able to assess your options much more quickly.

·        Everyone benefits when you delegate responsibilities. Decide who you want to do a task, clearly explain how you want it accomplished, and then step back and allow the people you selected to get busy.

·        Plan ahead. When you know that you are approaching a tough time at school, find opportunities to prevent or solve problems and not just suffer through them.     

·        Take good care of yourself. Teachers tend to be nurturing people who focus on
the needs of others. But to succeed in taking care of others, you must take care of your own needs. Allow yourself time to rest, relax, have fun, exercise, eat well, socialize and enjoy life.

·        Slow down. Stop rushing from one responsibility to the next. Here are some ways to slow your life down: take time to eat lunch, allow yourself at least ten minutes to relax with colleagues at some point during your day, and use a journal for reflection.

·        Put some fun in your instruction. Plan activities that you and your students can look forward to. Few teachers experience burnout while they are having fun.

·        Pace the intensity of the work. Learn to plan your instruction to allow for some less arduous teaching periods. For example, you should not be “on” day after day. Instead, allow your students time for independent work, small group work, or even activities such as viewing films related to the subject under study. Being “on” all the time will quickly exhaust you.

·        Add structure to your life. Routines will prevent many stress-inducing problems.

·        Start to put together a network of supportive and positive people who can help you. Being connected to others is an important way to avoid the stress that can make every day miserable.

·        Take command of as much of your school life as you possibly can. Establish realistic long-term and short-term goals for yourself and then strive to achieve them.

·        Think before you act. If you plan your responses to unpleasant situations you will prevent many problems. Situations that you should think about before you act include dealing with incomplete homework assignments, angry parents, defiant students, cheating incidents, tardy students, and other frequent classroom disruptions.

Two Quick Tips for Successful Conferences

With spring comes warm weather, student restlessness, and the potential for stressful conferences with parents or guardians to discuss problems that may have been simmering all year. Whether the problems are academic, behavioral, or a combination of both, productive conferences can be powerful ways to resolve issues as the academic year moves towards a close.

Here are two simple ways to ensure that the conferences you will have this spring are positive and productive.

1. Never surprise a parent or guardian with unpleasant news during a conference. By the time a face-to-face meeting is necessary, be sure to have made several phone calls home, sent emails, and contacted counselors, administrators, and other appropriate staff support personnel in an attempt to resolve the situations that are keeping students from being successful. Document those efforts and take that documentation with you to the conference to indicate that you have done all that a professional educator should do in advance of a conference. Ideally, a conference should just be the final step in creating a solution.

2. During the conference itself, allow parents or guardians to speak first. Allow them plenty of time to express their concerns and opinions. Listen attentively. Until parents or guardians have had the opportunity to say everything they need to say, then--and only then--can they listen to you or work on a solution. Listening respectfully to the concerns of parents or guardians signals that you are willing to work together with them and that you value their insights.

Overcoming the Dreaded February Funk

“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.” ~Carl Sandburg

The signs of February Funk are obvious: you find yourself flipping calendar pages counting the days until Spring Break, petty workday annoyances multiply, routine paperwork turns into overwhelming stacks, and each school day threatens to become drudgery.

If February finds you struggling with February Funk, you are not alone! Many teachers agree that even though the calendar may say differently, February is really the longest month of the year. Winter’s gloom seems to last forever as leaving your warm, snug bed each morning to face a chilly classroom becomes a harder-than-ever challenge.

One of the best ways to overcome February Funk is to be proactive in how you spend your time at school. Gaining control of the time you spend on your school chores will enable you to be productive through the dreary winter days of February. When spring break finally arrives, you will be able to relax and fully enjoy your hard-earned vacation.


Tips for Managing Your Time at School

Overcome your February Funk with these tips for gaining control of the “coin of your life." (Most of them have been adapted from First-Year teacher’s Survival Guide.)

1. If a task will take less than three minutes, do it right away.

2. Plan how to manage routine tasks such as taking attendance or making lunch and other counts. While you may have to tweak your plan occasionally, routines will save time, increase accuracy, and decrease stress.

3. Keep you calendar or planner in an accessible spot so you can refer to it often. Use it to record tasks, appointments, and other information you’ll need to remember as you plan your workdays. Be diligent in writing down your tasks and you will soon be more efficient.

4. Use a “To Do” list to keep your days organized. If you would like a template of a list other teachers have found useful, please email Julia with your request.

5. When you plan a unit of study, make up the tests, quizzes, and other handouts as quickly as you can so that you can photocopy them well in advance of when they are needed.

6. Assign each student a number corresponding to the number on your class roster. Teach students to put this number beside their names when they head their papers. When you are ready to grade papers, just put them in numerical order so that recording grades is a simple task.

7. Remember to use your biological clock whenever you can. If you are not a morning person, don’t set aside time in the morning to accomplish detailed work. Do it later instead.

8. Create a template for parent contacts so that you can record the details of each contact right away. If you would like a template that other teachers have found useful, please email Julia with your request.

9. You don’t have to grade every single paper your students complete.

10. Deal efficiently with mail. Act immediately on items that require a written response. Throw away or recycle junk mail. File catalogues for later use.

11. Few things are as tempting and as time-consuming as checking email. Work out a schedule where you check email only at certain times of the day. Most teachers find that checking email three times a day is enough to stay informed without wasting time.

12. Set up equipment early just in case there are problems.

13. Share materials, handouts, tests, and other instructional resources. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Find instructional materials and lesson plans on the Web or talk with your colleagues about what they have used successfully.

14. When you need to distribute different types of materials, spend time before class begins filling containers (plastic bags, plastic cups, coffee cans…) with the materials so students can pick up a container with all the materials at once. They can then get started right away without fuss.

15. Be sure to use electronic files to save time and paper whenever you can. Being able to electronically edit and then reuse handouts and tests will save you hours of time.

16. Consider keeping a binder in which you store your hard copies of lesson plans, handouts, and other materials for each class. If you have this all together, you won’t have to waste time searching for missing papers among your scattered files.

17. If you have daily class routines that require verbal instructions, put the directions on a transparency so that you do not have to repeat them each day.

18. Delegate as much as you can. Even very young students can accomplish many routine tasks such as putting up posters, distributing materials, tidying the room, emptying pencil sharpeners, or keeping the supply area clean.

19. Use your planning time well. Group your tasks so that you do not have to make repeated trips to the copy room, office, media center, or other areas.

20. Reward yourself when you set and achieve your goals. Too often teachers are so busy taking care of their students that they overlook the importance of taking care of themselves. Celebrate your achievements!

If you have a time management tip that you would like to share with your colleagues everywhere, please feel free to submit it! Just click on the Discussion page to get started.


Use Small Blocks of Time Wisely

One of the frustrating aspects of a teacher’s life is that there is never enough time to accomplish everything. While the general shortage of extra time seems to be a problem, large blocks of time are in especially short supply. Interruptions and schedule changes fill a teacher’s days.

You can cope with this by learning to be an expert at accomplishing much in small moments. This is possible with determination, preparation, and practice. Those minutes add up.

Still not convinced? Here are just some of the things a focused teacher can accomplish in just a few minutes.

In fifteen minutes you can:

• Grade the objective portion of a set of test papers
• Create a quiz
• Create a review sheet
• Answer e-mail
• Create anticipatory sets for the entire week

In ten minutes you can:

• Call a parent
• Write a lesson plan
• Grade some essay questions
• Average grades
• Check homework papers

In five minutes you can:

• Create a dynamic closing exercise
• Write a positive note and send it home
• Use the hole punch on a set of papers
• Write a positive comment on at least five papers
• Review key points in a lesson

In three minutes you can:

• Record grades
• Drill your students with flashcards
• Put stickers on a set of papers
• Praise a class for good behavior
• Have students write an evaluation of the day’s lesson

In one minute you can:

• Erase the board
• Display a cartoon about the day’s lesson
• Have students tidy the room
• Select the student of the day or week
• Write an inspirational message on the board

Sometimes You Just Have to Let Go

It’s a hard lesson, but it’s important to realize that you are not going to win every battle you get into with your students. A while ago, I was asked to help a teacher who was in an absolutely awful situation—four weeks of school left, and she had just taken over as a long-term sub after several other subs had come and gone.  If you have ever been in this miserable position, I bet you just shuddered at the memory.

               The kids were pretty much running the show. There were not many procedures in place and no clear expectations. Students were doing the parts of the assignment that they felt like doing. They were off task. They were argumentative. They were acting like kids do when there is not someone to guide them. It was unpleasant to be in that class—for the kids and certainly for their teacher—who, even more heart-breaking--was brand new to teaching.

               As I talked with the teacher to help her create some sort structure for her class, I realized that she was not taking in anything I had to say. She was so focused on an unpleasant incident involving a disrespectful student that she simply could not listen. All she could focus on was that a student had been rude to her and had refused to apologize when an apology was demanded.

               Instead of talking about what she could do to make her classroom more productive, our conversation kept circling back to the rude student. Even worse, the incident had happened two weeks earlier. For two long weeks, this teacher had been mentally replaying the incident. She wanted to resolve the situation in such a way that she won. No matter what I said, I could not convince her that she was not going to win this battle. Not ever.

               You have probably done something similar. You’ve taken the unpleasant parts of your school day home with you or lain awake worrying over something that went wrong in class. Working with students of any age can sometimes be discouraging and stressful. You just can’t take any of the bad things that happen at school personally. Sometimes the only way to really win is to just let go. Focus on what you can change. Let go of the rest.

Six Sure-Fire Strategies that Will Help You Make It until the End of the School Year

School is almost over for the year. If you are like most of us, your students’ plans for the school day are vastly different from yours. While you are thinking of lofty goals such as success on standardized tests and productive learning until the very last day, your students are focused on absolutely avoiding all work, playing around in class, and annoying every adult within sight. Those children you found so lovable in January are now unmotivated, bored, restless, whiny…and you are out of patience.

Since snarling threats just does not seem to be an effective deterrent for most students, it’s time to make a solid plan to make it through to the end of the year without losing your enthusiasm and sanity.  Try these strategies to see if you can’t redirect those end-of-the-year impulses into more positive school experiences for your students and yourself.

Strategy One: Reduce distractions. The old image of restless students staring dreamily out of the window has much truth in it. Students of all ages are always able to entertain themselves by paying attention to distractions rather than focusing on the teacher. Some obvious sources of distractions might be windows, desks too close together, doorways, pencil sharpeners, trash cans, bees or other spring bugs in the classroom, graffiti, or—the most enticing one of all—other students.

Strategy Two: Monitor constantly. Monitoring your students is of primary importance for the smooth running of your class for a variety of reasons, not just for efficient time use. Walking around the classroom instead of sitting at your desk will allow you to help students while their problems are still manageable.

Strategy Three: Become supremely organized. If your students have to wait while you find your textbook or a handout, that is a poor use of their time. Make it a point to be so organized that you will be able to keep yourself and your students on task. Now is not the time to expect students to wait quietly while you rummage around trying to find more handouts.

Strategy Four: Have a backup plan for your backup plan. If a lesson isn’t going well, if a guest speaker cancels, or if the equipment you need to use isn’t working, you will need an alternative way to teach the material you planned to cover. And, since warm weather has a way of knocking out even the best back up plan, be sure to have another one handy.  Keep in mind that since students are so easily bored this time of year, you will need to offer several small activities instead of one or two longer ones.

Strategy Five: Take a door-to-door approach. Engage students in learning from the time they enter your classroom until the time they leave. Many teachers make the mistake of thinking that students need a few minutes of free time at the start of class and at the end of class to relax. Although students do need time at both ends of class to make effective transitions, they do not need free time to do this. Free time and the end of the school year is a miserable combination destined for trouble.

Strategy Six: Assign enough work. If students finish a task, there should be another waiting for them. For example, students who sit around after a test waiting for others to finish before going on to the next activity are obviously wasting time. Always make sure that your students know what they are supposed to do after they finish their current assignment. Keep them engaged.