The Bad Teacher

Seriously, it’s that easy.

During my time as a novice teacher coach I watched so many first and second year teachers work themselves to the bone. Eventually breaking down into tears or becoming what I like to call “stress cadets”. Ultimately, they were way too focused on what was happening inside their classrooms and not nearly focused enough on themselves.

If you’re a teacher, you know how exciting it is to plan a kick ass lesson and watch your students have fun while learning important topics. That’s one of my favorite parts of the job, but you know what you don’t need to do? Spend your weekend planning 47 of said kick ass lessons because you want to make sure the kids are engaged at all times just in case admin does a surprise walk through or a drop in observation. You know what barely ever happens? Having an admin walk through during the lesson you literally put your blood, sweat and tears into. You know what will always happen? Burn out and exhaustion when you’re not spending time focusing on yourself.

You are not less of a teacher because you need to take a mental health day. You are not less of a teacher because you lost your voice and need to use an audio recording for today’s read aloud. And you’re especially not less of a teacher than Molly May down the hall who planned a virtual field trip for her students instead of the movie day you planned. We’re allowed to have off days. I know, what a concept right? But it’s true, you do not have to be on at all times. The more human you are in front of your students the more respect and rapport you will have with them.

Teachers, especially new ones, put an unrealistic amount of pressure on themselves to show up and be the next freaking Ms. Frizzle. You know what that is going to get you? Burn out. I’m not saying be lazy and plan a movie day every Friday, and do textbook work every other day of the week (ew, don’t get me started on textbooks). But I am saying that there is a fine line between a teacher that is doing way too much and an engaging one and it’s very easy to go way too hard and ruin your love for the career very quickly.

When I was teaching my novice seminar, I had a new teacher talk to the group about how his partner would tell him something like, “you come home from work still stressed about the day and you spend the entire evening talking about the students and what happened.” I can’t say for sure whether this was causing a strain in their relationship, but I knew for a fact it was causing a strain on this teacher’s love for his career. I gave some pretty profound advice to him that day, unfortunately, I can’t take credit for this advice because it was actually told to me by another veteran teacher.Either way, I said, give yourself 30 minutes. 30 minutes to vent to your partner about all of the shit that happened that day and then enjoy your evening. Don’t let work live in your headspace 24/7. All that will do for anyone is ruin the love they have for it.

I had a miscarriage last April. This seems like a wild venture into left field (and maybe an overshare) but I have a point. This miscarriage was the defining moment of my career. It was when I realized that I needed to find a way to continue to teach in the least stressful environment I could find. I wanted another baby, and I was not going to be healthy enough mentally in the place I was at in my career. I took a week off after I miscarried. A week. During prime testing season and when behaviors ramp up because the weather it getting nicer and for some reason that makes kids feral (don’t ask me why it’s just science). Never in the seven years I had been teaching did I imagine I could ever swing an entire week off. But I spent that week focusing on my time with my husband and daughter and not once did I think about my students. Not once did I worry about how time was ticking down on the school year and I really wanted to finish the unit my students were on. It was the most relaxing and enjoyable time of my life. Well, maybe since college at least. I guess what I’m saying here is if you take the time off, really take it off. Don’t spend the whole day dwelling on the fact that you should be at work or wondering what insane behaviors your students might be showing to the sub. Enjoy your time off. Soak it in.

The last real point I want to make about this is that you will feel it when you start to get burnt out. You will have less patience for your students, your family, your friends. You’ll constantly be stressed about your lack of time or how much you have to do. I’m telling you, when you start to notice these things, stop, and prioritize what’s actually important. It’s okay if you don’t have copies for next Friday, if you need to take a break and worry about those copies on Tuesday do it. You will survive and your students’ will be none the wiser. Give yourself a gut check every once in awhile and decide if you’re unnecessarily stressed out about things you can control! Make a to do list in order of importance if that helps you organize your mind. But please, for the love of all that is good in this world, don’t get burnt out.