It’s that time of year. The time of year when teachers are feeling stressed and start to burn out. Over the next few days I’m going to share with you a few tips that I have for avoiding teacher burnout. Today’s topic……grading.
My first year teaching I stressed out a lot about grading. It seemed like no matter how hard I worked there was always something else that I needed to do. I’d constantly stay at work late or take home tons of papers to grade. Seeing how stressed out I was getting, one of the other teachers pulled me aside and gave me a great piece of advice. She told me not to take any grading home with me. At first this sounded like crazy talk! I mean if I don’t take it home with me how will I get it done! Even though at the time I didn’t agree with her I ultimately decided to try her method. In the long run it was one of the best professional decisions I ever made. Knowing that I wasn’t taking any of my grading home with me forced me to focus more at work and allowed me to relax once I got home. By relaxing at home I was ready for the next day and the challenges that laid ahead.
If you have any suggestions for avoiding burnout please feel free to leave them in the comments below. Part 2 coming soon!
-Ryan