Imagine… you are running a company where you are in charge of several hundreds of people. And every day when these people arrive to work, not only do most of them not want to be there but they also do not have a clue how to do their job! It is part of your responsibility to make sure that within one or two hours they grasp enough knowledge and skill to allow them to return tomorrow and somehow function through the next day. It is also part of your responsibility to decide what it is exactly that they will learn tomorrow, consider every strength and every weakness of the employees coming tomorrow and plan out the educational strategy ahead of time to maximize their achievements the next day.
Have you imagined it?
If you are a teacher, you do not have to imagine, as this is your life!
Forty-six percent of teachers polled say they feel high daily stress related to their job. Between 30 and 40 percent of teachers leave the profession in their first five years.
So what are the most common stress factors that educators have and how to avoid them?
For starters, using applications like the new Hall Monitor app which provides an incredibly useful Classroom management tool for teachers everywhere will help you to manage your time better. Request a demo of the Hall Monitor app today and find out how it can save you the time and the stress of being a teacher
Stress and Worry – waste our time and energy. We get sleep deprived, we cannot focus on task at hand and we are never 100% present. Many teachers do not know this but your stress gets passed on to your students as well. Solution? What’s the worst that can happen? No, I don’t mean it in a flippant way but a very mindful acceptance of the worst case scenario. Once you accept it, you take away the power that fear and worry have over you and you can now focus on figuring out how to make the situation better
Negative Mindset – predisposes us to failure from the get-go. You have heard the saying “you are what you eat” but even more so, you become what you think. Power of thought should never be underestimated. Take a day where you keep track of all the negatives that run through your mind, things like I can’t, I won’t be able to, I’m not capable, I don’t want to, I don’t like, I hate, etc. You will be surprised how often we say these things to ourselves. We almost hypnotize ourselves into negative outcomes and then cannot figure out why we feel so helpless
Taking Work Home – is unavoidable if you are a teacher. But just as with overbearing friends and family, you have to set limits. Of course you have to plan your lessons, grade the papers and consider how to reach the troubled students but you cannot allow it to take over your life and affect your family time. Set specific times dedicated only to your home life and specific time dedicated only to work. Your family will disturb you less knowing that you will be free to be with them once your set work hours are finished and you will be more productive knowing that your work time is limited.
And most importantly, do not lose sight of why you have become the teacher in the first place. Do not lose your passion and drive. The teachers I remember best from my years in high school are those who expressed genuine joy and pride in the subject they taught. They were not afraid to have a “wasted” lesson as long as it allowed them time to instill that same passion and curiosity into us. Your lesson does not need to be perfect, it does not need to be teacher-driven, sometimes sitting back and letting the children to take the reins of their own learning with you gently setting their direction, is the best you can do to spark their curiosity and deeper appreciation for the subject at hand.
Do not forget to request your free demo of the new Hall Monitor app to gain access to the Classroom management tool which will help you to alleviate some of the stress that you are feeling today!