When I started my career I went to a “Beginning Teachers Conference,” the excitement, hope and energy permeated the air. Fresh out of university I was one of those eager beavers ready to embark on my first contract. In one session they told us (and showed us with a fancy little graph) that our first year would be a roller coaster of: anticipation, survival, disillusionment, rejuvenation and reflection. After twelve years of teaching I have found that this cycle is not restricted only to year one; it is every year. This is a career of high HIGHS and low LOWS. It is rewarding, it is exhausting, it is heartbreaking, it is exciting. I regarded my teachers; the ones who I remember vividly, the ones who made a lasting impression on me, as saints. I wanted to be just like them –to make a difference! It has taken over twelve years (and a pandemic) to realize one very important lesson.
I HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF MYSELF AND MY OWN WELL-BEING BEFORE I CAN BE EFFECTIVE. TEACHING IS NOT ABOUT SACRIFICING EVERY FIBRE OF YOUR BEING UNTIL THERE IS NOTHING LEFT.
Ultimately, your ‘tank’ needs to be full and constantly replenished before driving along the road of teaching and learning with your students. As teachers, we constantly worry about our students emotional and physical wellbeing but we are reluctant to think about or worry about our own; because we feel guilty. We feel guilty for taking an hour long break from our marking to go and take a Yoga class with a friend or we feel guilty for declining to coach a sports team because we need some extra time at home with our own families. So we acquiesce and give too much. Sometimes I feel like I am doing a crappy job at 100 things but I really want to be able to do an excellent job at 10 things. We have to start practicing self-care. Otherwise, we will burnout out, we will leave a profession we love (minus the bureaucratic BS), we will end up damaging important relationships in our lives, we will sink into depression and we will fall victim to compassion fatigue.
The longer your tank is on empty the longer that disillusionment stage will last. It will never completely go away because we will get frustrated. That is understandable, we work with so many children, parents and policymakers all with different ideas about what education (and your job as a teacher) is and should be. We are forced to reconcile all those ideas on top of all the other tasks we perform both inside and outside of the classroom. If we focus on wellbeing as part of the process of teaching rather than at the end when we are in a negative, broken place we can mitigate the disillusionment.
For a stark wake up call about the state of teacher mental health, feel free to check out this article: How COVID-19 Has Influenced Teacher’s Well-Being
For teachers looking to manage their stress and invest in themselves and prioritize their well being check out Natalie McCully’s Pinterest Board