7 Tips for Avoiding Teacher Burnout This School Year

Whether caused by long days, inadequate lesson prep time, difficult parents, or lack of management support, teacher burnout is a growing problem in the U.S. Teachers are nearly twice as likely to experience job-related stress as the general population. Chronic stress has also led to high turnover and a nationwide teacher shortage.

For example, in Illinois, 88% of school districts reported a shortfall of certified teachers. While addressing the root cause of teacher burnout is a job for education leaders, teachers can take steps that may help reduce their stress.

This article covers tips from veteran teachers on avoiding burnout.

What Are Signs of Teacher Burnout?

Burnout is a type of exhaustion caused by being overwhelmed and unable to keep up with the demands of work. Teacher burnout can have these major symptoms:

• Mental and physical exhaustion. Feeling tired and having trouble doing simple tasks can be burnout symptoms along with absentmindedness, anger, anxiety, and depression.
  
• Self-doubt. Teachers may criticize their performance and wonder about the effectiveness of their lessons. As burnout sets in, they may question if they have the skills to teach or if anything they do makes a difference.
  
• Withdrawal. Persistent feelings of apathy, dissatisfaction, and feeling incompetent or that work is ineffective are more signs of burnout.
  
• Cynicism. This includes a sense of isolation and pessimism, feeling detached, and not enjoying life.
  

7 Tips to Avoid Teacher Burnout

Some ‌causes of teacher burnout may be systemic and need to be addressed at the district level. For example, education leadership can implement policies that affect the time teachers spend on administrative tasks.

But there are steps that educators can take to help set boundaries, reduce stress, and avoid burnout.

Recognize When You Need a Break

Consider walking away from work when you begin to feel burnout. For example, instead of working into the night, you can make a list of things you need to do and highlight three or four top priorities to tackle first the next day.

You might also reduce the amount of essays and homework you assign to minimize long nights spent grading papers. When you leave school in the evening, try not to think about work. You can read, enjoy an excellent dinner, hit the gym, and get a good night’s sleep.

Take Care of Your Health

Adopting healthy habits can help reduce stress and get your mind off your worries. Here are some of these healthy habits to consider incorporating into your routine.

• Commit to a schedule and work out daily or every other day.
  
• Avoid the temptation to skip lunch and work.
  
• Get a good night’s rest. You’ll think more clearly and may even lower the risk of becoming ill.

For comfort during long days in front of the class, you can buy supportive shoes that cushion your steps.

To calm your mind, you can explore a relaxing activity like meditation, yoga, or tai chi. If you’re feeling anxious, a few minutes of deep breathing can be calming. Taking a walk, reading, and taking a nap are other activities that can help relax and refresh you.

Keep Things Fun With Students

Consider lightening the mood in your classroom with funny stories, jokes, or riddles. Here are five ideas for making learning fun.

• Make it a game. With a little creativity, you can turn almost any activity into a game. You can create a counting game with connecting blocks. Students can practice penmanship on colorful sentence slips, then combine the words into a funny story. Consider letting students play a game with oversized dice for hands-on practice in counting and addition.
  
• Customize lessons for your students. Once you get to know your students, you’ll understand how long they can focus before they take a break. For example, after 30 minutes of instruction, younger students may need to take a short break and move around. Also, try to tailor rewards to their interests. For example, an unfocused student may finish an assignment to earn a colorful cap eraser.
  
• Make it practical. Try to use hand-on activities to reinforce concepts. For example, see how magnetic fraction circles make it easy to understand fractions.

Find Someone You Can Talk to About Stress and Burnout

If you’re feeling frustrated, chances are your peers have faced the same challenges. Consider finding a teacher with years of experience and making a coffee date. An experienced teacher may empathize and let you vent. Your colleague might also share good advice and coping strategies. If not, you’ll still be able to commiserate or just laugh at the absurdity of the situation.

Communicating with your peers can help establish friendships with co-workers and is a great way to help reduce burnout.

Stay Organized With Your Work

Being a teacher sometimes seems like a juggling act, and it’s not just balls you’re keeping in the air — it’s flaming batons. Meticulous planning can help.

Consider these ideas for staying organized.

Find a home for everything

You can buy organizers for your desk to help keep your supplies and files orderly and accessible. Make a list of the teacher supplies you need, then use storage racks and bins to help keep things tidy.

A label maker can be used to help make materials easy for students to find. Your first-aid kit is one item that everyone should be able to locate. Consider using wall organizers for students to turn in homework or access worksheets. You can place equipment that’s not used daily on rolling carts and move it in when needed and out of the way afterward.

Make a planning routine

Consider choosing a day of the week for lesson planning and make it a routine. You can create lesson plans during the week to present the following week. Just don’t leave it for the weekend. If you do, you may wind up worrying about it on Saturday and working on Sunday.

Your lessons can be planned down to the detail before you walk in the room. Consider using a printing service so that you have enough handouts. If needed, you can get same-day printing. To fully prepare, try to have your materials ready, anticipate questions, and figure out how long each part of the lesson will take.

You can also map out the school year with a teacher’s planner like customizable TUL Discbound note-taking systems.

Try Something New With Students

If your students seem bored and low-energy in class, you can shake things up with new activities.

• Games. Have a spelling bee or a math bee.
  
• Mystery. If you’re introducing a new module, you can give students clues each day and have them guess the topic.
  
• Use technology. Students can use tablets for gamified learning. You can use software for math games or have students go on a scavenger hunt researching the answers to questions.
  
• Reference pop culture. Where possible, incorporate references to pop culture in your lessons. For example, your students likely know what happened in the latest Spiderman movie.

Redecorate Your Teaching Space

If you’re trying to fight burnout, why add another task to the list? Because updating your classroom can help make your workspace more pleasant and inviting.

Rearranging the desks can help make students more productive. You can cluster them for group work or separate talkative neighbors. While you’re making changes, keep your comfort in mind. You can get a desk fan to help keep cool on warm days. Ergonomic chair accessories, like back supports and seat cushions can help alleviate discomfort while seated at your desk. 

You can use bulletin boards and dry-erase boards to post assignments or classroom rules. A simple addition like a step stool can help younger students reach sinks or counters independently. Consider decorating the classroom to make it bright and inviting.

Here are some more tips to consider when it comes to classroom decorations.

• Avoid clutter.
  
• Use visual aids like charts and maps to reinforce lessons.
  
• Display students’ work.
  
• Feature inspiring role models.
  
• Uncover windows to let in natural light.

Here are some things to consider avoiding with classroom decor.

• Overly colorful or busy decorations can distract students.
  
• Don’t display student scores or grades. This may demoralize students who are struggling.
  
• Don’t cover all the wall space. Keep 20% to 50% of the wall clear.
  

Look for Tools to Help You Teach

Teacher burnout is a common problem, and some of the root causes are out of teachers’ control. Poor funding, inadequate preparation, and overemphasis on standardized tests may need to be resolved at the district level or higher.

There are some steps teachers can take to manage their classrooms and help reduce stress. These include planning ahead and creating lesson plans that include group work and innovative activities. It can also be important to begin the semester with a well-stocked classroom that includes school supplies and classroom essentials to help keep the classroom productive and clean.

About the Author

Lauren Jiles-Johnson is a tutor, mentor, and Board President of Waukegan to College, a college-readiness organization in Waukegan, Illinois. Waukegan to College helps fifth- to 12th-grade students achieve their dream of being the first in their families to attend college.

All content provided herein is for educational purposes only. It is provided “as is.” and neither the author nor Office Depot warrants the accuracy of the information provided, nor do they assume any responsibility for errors, omissions, or contrary interpretation of the subject matter herein.