Teaching in December

I know this is only my second year of teaching, but I know the beating December can bring. This weird transition period between Thanksgiving break and Winter break is killer on teachers. Students are too antsy, some are just gone on vacation, and the looming finals week causes stress on everyone. So let's talk about teacher burnout.

Teacher burnout is the one feeling all teachers try to avoid, but sometimes it can be inevitable. The end of the semester usually brings some kind of burnout, be it mild or severe. Grading, paperwork, meetings, parent-teacher conferences, testing, life, and the holidays can all add up to burnt-out teacher. Most of those things can be seen as essential or necessary evils depending on whether you are a glass half full/empty person. Personally, the burnout has been REAL this year. pp

When they say your second year of teaching is almost harder than your first year, they weren't joking! I have been through things this year that most teachers never experience. Adopting an entire sports program on my own after the unexpected exit of my head coach, teaching 2 overloaded co-teach classes, and navigating my professional life while dealing with my mom's cancer diagnosis has been difficult, to say the least. What makes it worse? Seeing other teachers that are loving their students, content, life, etc, etc. It always makes me wonder, do they experience the same stress as me? Am I doing something horribly wrong? Am I just a bad teacher?

Maybe they feel that stress, too. Maybe they're just better at hiding how hard it is to handle everything and put on a brave face. Maybe they have awesome time management skills and get their stuff done without stressing to be able to enjoy everything. Maybe YOU feel the stress of this teaching time, too. I'm here to say, you got this! Don't give up because we are almost there.