An article I found on Edutopia.com was focusing on teacher burn outs. It listed some of the reasons mainly new teachers face burnouts during the school year. I found this article really interesting and connected to it because juggling on campus life and classroom life has gotten easier, but exhausting as the semester has progressed. This article gave five helpful tips that were refreshing to me.
1) Maintain Your "Other" Life
2) Be a Stakeholder When Changes Are Made
3) Find Lessons and Opportunities in Everything
4) Nurture Peer Connections
5) Keep It Light
These tips really stood out to me and made me realize it is okay to take a step back from it all, every once in a while and breathe. There is life outside of the classroom (at your clinical site or on campus). I also read some of the comments left by other educators to see how their schools counteract teacher burnouts. Strive to be the best teacher you can be, but don't let your career swallow your entire life. Your students will sometimes better relate to you because of your life outside of the classroom, and that is okay because it may spark interest for their life inside your classroom. For an example, this week when I facilitated their spelling test, I had connected with a student discussing sports and his love for baseball. He told me he was pitching that upcoming weekend. One of their spelling words was "strike". To make the spelling word fit in a sentence, I used "When (So and so) pitches this weekend, he will throw a strike". It got the whole class' attention and his face lit up with excitement because I remembered something about him.
I think this article ties in best with NCTCS number one because teachers should understand the healthy balance of life and career. They should continue their learning, but should also keep it fresh. A good teacher leader should not only give advice and take leadership with their words, but their actions should also model it.
Jessica,
ReplyDeleteIt's great that you got to give your first spelling test by calling out the words to the students. I think it's GREAT that you are getting more and more comfortable with your CE and the classroom. I also liked the 5 tips that you included for new teachers that face burnouts. These are some times that I will for sure have to consider as a student teacher and my first year of teaching. My main concern is maintaining my "other" life... I want to be able to juggle it all and not get consumed with stress and other things that will affect my "other" life. Great blog!
Jessica,
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad that you are becoming more comfortable with your class and that your teacher is giving you more responsibility. It is so good to make connections with your students! Like Lacey shared, I think my biggest concern this semester and next semester is maintaining my "other" life. This semester I have already had to set aside time and say "This is me time." I have struggled doing that because I know that there are other things that I could be doing, but I have realized that if I do not take this time for myself I will go crazy and that wouldn't be good for anyone! I think finding a balance between work and real life will be something that I will really have to work on next year as a first-year teacher as well.
I love that you were able to use a student's love for baseball in the spelling test. I bet you that not only that student but the other students as well perked up and became interested. I know that in our education classes they talk about how relating the material to the students is a way to gain their attention and get them interested in what they are learning. I think that the baseball student may remember how to spell "strike" because of your example. Teacher burn-out does happen, and I love that you found that article. I think that it is neat how the very first thing that it says is to maintain your "other" life. That is so very important because it is very easy to get totally consumed with what you are doing.
ReplyDeleteJessica,
ReplyDeleteAs I write this, my eyes are glazed over and I'm dreaming of sleep! However, I'm glad you're getting to do more in your classroom! It really is exciting to see a dream become a reality, and many people who aren't in the profession just don't understand. Making things relevant for students makes it that much easier to understand and make connections to the content you're teaching. Half of the time, that's what I have to do for myself to reach a greater level of understanding, so it's great that you did that! Plus, it makes it that much easier for you to bond with them. That will increase their respect for you by volumes, and you won't have to be "that teacher" when it comes time to be their full time teacher. Good post!
Jessica,
ReplyDeleteGreat points this week! We, including myself, need to unplug from time to time so we can recharge. This is a great point for student teaching too. However, in order to get to this point, we all have to develop a strong organization system and then stick with it!
Jessica,
ReplyDeleteThis is great post! Teacher burn out is a real thing, and I think that as first year teachers we need to address this problem head on. I am so glad that you are doing good in your CE placement, and maybe these are some strategies that you can provide your CE with sometime.