In our first book, “Keep the Fire Burning: Avoiding Teacher Burnout,” seven classroom teachers give an unparalleled look into their everyday life in the ‘pressure cooker’ known as a classroom. While some of the teachers survived tremendous pressures, others decided it was time to change what it means to them to work in education. Throughout the book, these educators provide real world strategies for overcoming burnout, becoming the best professional you can be and sustaining yourself as an educator. This book will help you refocus your teaching and encourage you as a true expert in your field.
To honor all of our faithful readers of our site, we are giving away 5 copies of the book to 5 teachers!
Giveaway Starts:: February 28th, 2013-
Giveaway Ends: March 15th, 2013 12am EST
Requirements:
- MANDATORY:Leave a comment below and tell us your “symptoms” of teacher burnout.
- OPTIONAL: Share this giveaway on Facebook and tag us on Facebook (The Educator’s Room)!
This book couldn't have come out at a better time. After teaching for 14 years I am feeling burnout badly this year…lack of new ideas, enthusiasm for going to work each day gone, trouble with remembering student names…all I feel are symptoms of burnout!
Standardized Test Prep Time + cold, rainy, snowy days = CRANKY teaher.
It’s the time of year you long for spring break, but don’t want to take the time off because you’re prepping for a test which will be tied to your evaluation! My burnout symptoms kick in Feb-April, until countless tests are finished. Then with little to no medical care I’m happy, the kids are happy and we’re back to our lovely selves again! Can’t wait til spring!
I've begun needing anxiety medication, I get home and need an hour just to recuperate, I don't care like I used to care, and I feel like I'm drowning in it all; every new to-do feels like a mountain to me. I'm tired, I'm tired, I'm tired! The life is sucked out of me.
In my 3 years of teaching I haven't missed a day of school unless I went to a conference. Now I'm finding my patience is running thing, I'm falling behind on my work, my urge to take a mental health day is increasing, and I'm beginning to feel like nothing I do is good enough. Especially with my recent evaluations that seem to nitpick everything with little feedback for improvement.
Symptoms of teacher burnout: The upcoming 4 straight months (March, April May and June) of work with only Good Friday and Memorial Day off… No control over vacation time.
I'm hitting my 5th year of teaching and also feeling burnout badly this year. Some symptoms include:
* Feeling like not going to work or actually missing days
* Having difficulty in concentrating on tasks
* Feeling overwhelmed by the workload and having a related sense of inadequacy to the tasks given to them
* Withdrawing from colleagues or engaging in conflictual relationships with co-workers
* Having a general feeling of irritation regarding school
My point of burning out is when I get to that point where I've done a million and five IEP's, and I still have a hundred more to go….and then I just sit down for five seconds to rest and I don't want to get up and do anything! All I want to do now is throw every single IEP I see right out the window! So. Much. Work.
Lack of enthusiasm, tiredness, can't remember why I'm doing this,
I have been teaching for 16 years and this is my only year where I feel burned out. my district has us Fountas and Pinnell test 3 times a year, MAP assessments three times a year, and ISAT state testing, and a Words Their Way spelling test. On top of that I now have to complete a separate ELL report card as well as my other report card, lesson plan, and update student assessment binders. I need my own secretary….GRR!!!! So overwhelmed.
I know I am approaching burnout when I constantly have stress-aches in my upper back and shoulders. Even though I love my job, when I start daydreaming about what it would be like to be in another job, I know I have to release some stress. After my 5th year of teaching (into year 30 now), I seriously explored other options. It took an entire summer break to decompress and make me realize I really did love teaching. You have to reach out to people for support.
I have been teaching for a dozen years, and while I generally love my job, it is hard not to feel run over by all the new educational guidelines and policies being implemented by our politicians. What makes it worse is the incredible disconnect between what lawmakers think can and should happen in the classroom and what I think might actually be possible. I feel like Smith in 1984, having to simultaneously profess to believe in the official guidelines while secretly despairing that most of what they want can ever really be done.
My burn-out symptoms:
*Dreaming about taking a "sick day" just so I can be alone in my house
*Feeling irritated by everything and everyone at school (even those who I really, honestly like!)
*When grading takes three times as long as it should because I am so easily distracted to do ANYTHING other than grade
*Counting down the days, hours, minutes until 2:40pm on a Friday
I really DO love my job, but this year (my 4th year) has been the hardest of all of them. Why? Teacher Burn-Out! I just can't care about my students more than they care about themselves any longer. It is sucking the life out of me.
My burn-out symptoms.
*My reflux is acting up.
*Thinking of all the ways I could call in when my alarm goes off.
*Short patience.
I need this book, so I can remember why I teach and learn how to cope with the stress in a healthy way.
I am really trying to find my purpose this year. I have seriously considered finding another profession.
Too much is piled on us without time,. support or money, yet the expectations keep rising.
Symptom of Teacher Burnout: Having difficulty seeing growth in students even though I know I am teaching them something, just feel like I'm spinning wheels but not getting anywhere. Feeling like I'm doing all this work but seeing no reward, looking for another job that isn't in the classroom, even though I cannot imagine doing anything else.
Too many preps! I love the variety, but it gets difficult to focus on 1 or 2 classes and do them well.
So many teachers have such a negative outlook. Whether it's from being bogged down from the work load in general or the gossip pool, I'm not sure. All I know is that I put 110% into each day for each child so I can make a difference. Education is not a one man army… Maybe there's another reason teachers burnout. It's easy to feel alone or misunderstood in the battle we fight.
I began constantly lesson planning in my mind and became utterly convinced that my work as a teacher will never be done even when it is for the day/week/year!
My symptoms of teacher burnout: feeling angry with my students in the morning before I even see them (related to me feeling that I am somehow putting more work into their work than they are), experiencing mild anxiety attacks where I can't catch my breath, feeling very irritated with things that usually do not irritate me, and observing my negativity about my job seeping into interactions with friends and family. It is scary. I do not like when these symptoms emerge and I often think about switching careers.
I am actually new to teaching (under 5 years) and am feeling the pressure of a school in disarray. The closet dwellers make life mizerable along with Senioritis coming way too early. I love what I teach but have a problem if I can't get the students to believe it's importance in the real world. I am always complaining of lack of time to utilize any cool things I've learned that would engage the kids. I am constantly wondering if this is for me and how I can improve myself and my teaching with no time go do it in.
I'm in my 12th year of teaching and I'm completely burnt-out. This is no longer a family-friendly career as I'm finding it impossible to balance the demands of my 7th grade classroom with those of my own elementary school aged children. I've spent my teaching career in a low-income Title 1 district, where it takes 2-4 phone numbers to get to a parent (if any of those numbers work), who then doesn't even speak English. This school year I've experienced anxiety, where I wake up at 4 or 5 in the morning, thinking of school, and can't get back to sleep. Between RTI, CCSS, SIOP, or PBIS meetings, and a student load of 140 kids a day, I do my lesson planning and grading after my kids go to bed and on the weekends. I've lost my enthusiasm and creativity for lesson planning. My patience with some of my students has run thin. I haven't received any feedback from my administration or colleagues, positive or negative, on my lessons or how I run my classroom. Although I know I'm a great teacher, I'm seriously considering leaving the classroom & looking for a job with more flexibility and less demands. I've hit the wall……….
After teaching for 18 years there are days I still second guess myself, and still wonder how I will get my kids where they need to be! testing pressures are heavier every year and become more and more important for the powers that be. I’m a mentor for many new teachers to the profession and am alarmed at how we expect them to come out of college knowing everything it takes to be an effective teacher. It takes years to master this craft, and new teachers are being scared away by the work and pressure of it all.
I 've been working in the same district for the last 23 years…. in the last 3 years there has not been enough money for staff to receive an adequate raise in pay and we work hard! If I could find something to make my co-workers feel a little better or to help them not feel so overwhelmed it would be very helpful.
I am in my 11th year of teaching and like other educators I am often overwhelmed and appalled by the ever-increasing demands and pressures to "pass" standardized tests. I work very hard, but it never seems to be enough. Always feeling inadequate as an educator is what burns me out most.
While I have been in the field of education for students with autism for over a decade, this is my first year as a lead teacher in a Montessori/Project Based Learning environment. I never could have imagnined the pressure and constant stress of taking over a classroom by myself. I have worked with so many challeneging cases but I really had no idea how difficult this challenege would be. I love teaching and always will but I have come to the reality that I have just begun the journey of figuring out how to balance being a teacher and living life. Some days are so difficult that I need to take moments to regroup outside of the classroom. It has been disheartenting at times what those who are not educators say about the teaching profession that is almost to the point of bullying in my opinion. I hoping for a great end of the year and having the time to regroup and figure out what I can do better next year. But without a doubt I can see why so many quit within the first several years and even with so much experience behind me, I have had those fleeting moments of leaving, knowing this is where my passion lies, it makes me sad.
Signs of teacher burn-out include being fuzzy brained / unable to focus on the task at hand – can’t think as clearly as you did a year ago / forgetfulness / trouble putting things into order of priority . . . shifting from one task to another so much that little gets finished in a timely manner / feeling ineffective and inefficient / being tired all the time / not having time for anything or anyone else in your life / work piles up faster than you can get it done!
Symptoms of Teacher Burnout: Tears. Your husband (also a teacher in the same school) shows up in your room because the kids tell him the you went nuts in class. Heart palpitations. Having a discussion with your students about treating each other (and teachers) as if they were human beings DAILY. Your daugthter constantly reminds you that you shouldn’t talk about school so much. Knowing that no one understands except other teachers. Wondering if retirement money is really worth staying 17 more years with 15 years already your belt. Getting up every morning and trying again anyway. That’s a teacher burnout or no burnout.
I'm finishing up my 38th year of teaching. I don't feel like I'm burned out, I just want to do other things. I'm fortunate that I'm finishing up my teaching career when I still feel good about it.
I love teaching, but putting in 11-13 hours daily is just a little too much. I want to be able to get planned quickly and efficiently and well, but how is the well possible with so many preps. I'm usually the one to make the new games, make the SMARTboard lessons, get the vocab, etc. and I usually have a blast. Last week – barely anything with the feeling of, "I can't do it all and I'm tired." Oh Yeah…year 28! I'd love to continue teaching, but I'm ready to get out. I'm not really sure our government wants teachers to be successful which is really sad for our country and our future.