Many teachers in the US and globally are stressed, exhausted, and burned out teachers.
Classroom
Stressed, Exhausted and Burned Out Teachers (14 Reasons Why)
Many teachers in the US and globally are stressed, exhausted, and burned out teachers.
For most educators and teachers, they entered into the teaching profession either because they have a real love for a particular subject and want to impart their years of study and expertise on it to others or because they are passionate about working with children and young people to help mold them into bright young adults with excellent prospects in life.
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Stressed, exhausted, and burned-out teachers
Most educators do not consider the emotional, financial, and physically taxing issues that often come with the job or dealing with children and young adults daily.
It can be unbelievably stressful and exhausting (here are 14 reasons why)
- No one would accuse teachers of having an easy job; dealing with kids from kindergarten to high school is no easy task.
- It is often a thankless job, but everyone knows it is crucial in our society.
- Knowing that you are helping shape the country’s future adults should be rewarding. However, there are many stressful areas a teacher must navigate through.
- It is worth remembering that kids are hard work. While many will behave in class, there will always be a class clown that disrupts and annoys everyone, including the teacher.
- Dealing with these children can be exhausting, especially if there are more than one or two in a class.
- There are also exhausting conversations that must be had with children who are bullying others. But without the disciplinary clout of a parent, this can often go unheard by the child.
- Sometimes this can also result in a child having personal grievances with the teacher, manifesting in pranks, disruptions, and other negative behaviors that can wear down a teacher’s mental health.
- As well as dealing with the children, teachers often have to have frank and sometimes difficult conversations with parents, which can sometimes not have the intended effect.
- Parents often become emotional and defensive of their children, and agreeing with a parent about their child can be very delicate and emotionally draining.
- A less-than-stellar work-life balance further emphasizes the stresses that teachers face.
- While the hours appear to be pretty great, many do not account for the fact that teachers often work late into the night and through breaks to get grading completed.
- Reading through mountains of essays, tests, and assignments daily takes significant time, so 9 to 3 jobs regularly becomes 9 to 10 or worse.
- And those summer holidays everyone is jealous of? They are usually spent working in summer school, camps, or tutoring to make up the money that is frequently spent out of their pocket all year round.
- All this doesn’t even cover the year-round financial aspect of teaching. Wages are much lower than you would expect for their work, and they use their money to buy classroom essentials when needed.
What can we do to help teachers in this position?
- Remember that teachers regularly teach out of love; whether for children or the subject, they want to be there, which is important.
- Record numbers of teachers are leaving the profession due to depression, job fatigue, and financial issues, and something must be done to stop this decline.
- A good way to help manage stress and burnout in school is to ensure a great staff room culture where teachers can chill out and address issues they have with one another.
- It can also be a place where all the teachers meet up during the week for a staff meeting on ways to combat the burnout and stress they have been experiencing.
- Burnout, stress, and mental health issues are tackled much better as a team than alone.
- Frequently other people notice and recognize the signs of burnout and even depression long before the person experiencing it and can help each other by talking through the issues.
- Teachers who reach these levels of burnout need to help each other recognize the signs of stress and burnout and perhaps seek help from the school or even from a professional
