Are You Suffering from Springtime Teacher Burnout? Here Are Some Tips

(Shutterstock)

For homeschooling parents, as well as for many teachers in private and public schools, spring is the last lap in a marathon begun months earlier. The excitement of a new school year has long ago withered along with the winter’s grass, and the eagerness with which these educators began their race back in the late summer has by now all too often given way to fatigue and burnout. The days grow longer in spring, and for many teachers, they are longer than they are for the rest of us.

“Tired teacher syndrome ” is the designation some have given this phenomenon. The challenges of spring include students restless with the warmer weather, end-of-year testing, and nagging doubts as to how much has really been accomplished. “In the Spring,” wrote Lord Alfred Tennyson, “a young man’s fancy turns lightly to thoughts of love”—but an exhausted teacher’s fancy turns to the halcyon days of the still faraway summer, when, at least for a season, lesson prep and grading are but dim memories rather than a daily reality.

So what are worn-out teachers to do? How do they stay in the race? Here are a few suggestions.

Take a Backwards Look

If you’re part of the tired teacher brigade, pause every once in a while to remember where you and your students were last September. Is your homeschooling 3rd grader a better reader? Has your 12-year-old plowed through scores of pages in his Saxon math book? If so, kudos to you and the kids.

If you’re teaching in a classroom, ask the same questions and look for your accomplishments. Have your 5th-graders gotten some solid knowledge of American history? Are those AP Lit students looking ready for that exam in May? It’s only March, and you feel as depleted of energy as a dead battery, but don’t give up now. Your efforts are paying off and making a difference in the lives of the young.

Down Time

Whether you’re teaching three kids at a kitchen table or a classroom of 18 middle schoolers, if you’re a good teacher, then your focus is on your pupils and their daily education. Helping them learn is the name of the game, and you’re succeeding.

Like many other jobs, however, teaching is carry-home work. Even those who are teaching at home don’t just dust off their hands and close a door at the end of the day’s classes. All good teachers fret about their performance and find better ways to enhance the learning of their students.

To bring out the best in those young people means taking care of yourself as well. Yes, the summertime eases all that problem-solving and self-questioning, but you also need more immediate relief, as in right here and right now. An evening with a good book, a supper with friends, or even a long soak in the tub can provide some means of temporary respite from your worries.

Related Stories

A Better Work-Life Balance: Time Management Strategies for the ‘New Normal’

2/21/2022

5 Homeschooling Tips From a Successful Pioneer

9/21/2021

Here, I would particularly recommend a walk accompanied by that precious but little-used commodity: silence. Leave the podcasts, music, and headphones at home, and take a stroll through your neighborhood or a park without those distractions. No power walking, no counting steps—just drift along and let your pace and the stillness do their work.

Aims and Aspirations Revived

Back in the ‘90s, my wife and I operated a homeschooling business, selling books and other resources to families through the mail and at book fairs. We’d sometimes travel to a dozen such conventions from March through August. Nearly always, several of the moms who were there would comment either to us or to a companion, “This is exactly what I needed.”

The convenience and lower prices of online ordering have reduced the number of these book fairs, but many, especially the big ones at the state level, remain, and a good number of these occur in the spring. These gatherings can push aside the strongest case of the blahs and reinvigorate your enthusiasm. Not only are you able to look over resources new to you, but you’ll also be recharged by the talks, round tables, and casual conversations with other home educators.

Teachers in private and public schools can get that same sense of renewal by inviting inspirational speakers into the school to address the staff. Like a runner in that marathon mentioned earlier, teachers benefit enormously from the cheers and encouragement of others.

The Kick

In long-distance races, including the marathon, some runners are able to finish up with a kick, which is the ability to pick up the pace and even sprint at the end of the race.

In “The Finish Line is in Sight; Do You Have the Runner’s Kick?” financial adviser and runner Jacquette M. Timmons gives the following psychological advice to help add that kick and make that last effort in a project be your best effort. “See beyond the moment,” writes Ms. Timmons, “and let the future pull you toward it.” She tells readers to “remember why you started this project or made this goal in the first place” and the effort you’ve already expended on it. Perhaps most importantly, she says: “Psyche yourself out—talk yourself to and across the proverbial finish line with the wonderful chant courtesy of ‘The Little Engine That Could’—‘yes, I can.’ This storybook for children isn’t just for them and it’s a classic for a reason.”

Here’s one more bit of advice for teachers to add to Ms. Timmons’s list: “Fake it till you make it.” On those days when you’re wiped out and sitting down to do spelling and grammar with your 10-year-old, or when you’re facing another round of teaching Algebra I to 9th graders, hide your fatigue behind a smile and rev up some energy and enthusiasm, no matter how much you have to fake it. After all, a good teacher is an actor, with the classroom as a stage, and like any good performer, you need to slip into your role no matter how battered your mood. Repeat this action enough times, and you’ll find the fires of your enthusiasm burning again.

“Everyone who remembers his own education,” said Sidney Hook, “remembers teachers, not methods and techniques. The teacher is the heart of the educational system.” This spring and every other month you spend at that dining room table or in the classroom, you teachers have the unique opportunity to be remembered and appreciated long after your students have left school.

A final suggestion, this one directed to parents and older students: Right now is the perfect season to give a teacher a gift—flowers, a book, a box of candy, and especially a note of appreciation. Whether it’s your homeschooling spouse or the teacher at school, that tiny gesture can make all the difference in the world to their morale and well-being.