Tired Teacher

Chronicles from the Tired Teacher

Have you hit the status of “tired teacher”?  Looking for teacher motivation? Looking for the teacher 411 to help get your groove back or reduce stress throughout the school year? What would make your teacher's life more manageable? What are the actionable steps you could take that would heavily impact your teaching life?

Tired Teacher vs. Teacher Exhaustion

REAL TALK…teacher exhaustion. Yes, it's real, people! You can’t be a teacher that helps students if you are a tired teacher! Educators have to practice teacher self-care. If you do aren't practicing teacher self-care, start now before you lose your mind or become physically ill. FYI: Teacher self-care looks different for everyone. This is something I learned in my fifth year of teaching. I looked to other teachers and wanted to do what was working for other them. However, what they were doing, how they were managing their time, and their classroom management style just wasn’t working for me. I was a tired teacher. I took a hard look in the mirror and knew I had to reflect on myself and start developing teacher self-care strategies that worked for me! So, this is what I did...close your eyes for a moment. Think about yesterday and what type of day it was.  What happened? Was everything that went wrong something you could control?   

Challenge: Sit down and write a list of what you need to improve on!  What contributes to you being a teacher tired? Now, what on your list can you control? Could you practice better time management?

There will ALWAYS be a task at hand that needs to be done. Each day, prioritize the tasks that NEED to be handled. 

Feeling stressed and overwhelmed? Look for teacher motivation and teacher humor to help!  Find a teacher tribe that is uplifting and loyal!

The Tired Teacher: Teacher 411

Dear tired teacher...

First, establish how you want the day-to-day operations for your classroom to go. Are you the teacher of all things? Are you an organized person, or are you trying to become one? What’s your system for grading papers? Do you have planned teacher observations? How do you plan your lessons and activities? 

Summer break is an excellent time to reflect on things that went well and things that may need to be freshened up for the next year. Take time to learn the teacher 411!  Each item listed above requires you to be intentional. Think about tasks and actionable goals you can put in place, and be intentional when accomplishing them!

Lesson Plan Ideas

Writing well-prepared lesson plans will help reduce stress. There are thousands of lesson plan templates available and lesson plan suggestions right here online. Find the perfect one for you! One of the actionable steps I take to reduce stress and practice teacher self-care is planning and creating lesson plans the Wednesday prior to the week I am going to teach the lessons. I also create my lesson plans where I have one day per page. For example, I have all of Monday’s information on one page, Tuesday is all on one page, and so forth. Another great idea is to color code in different subject areas. When you glance at your lessons for the week and reading is coded as yellow, you will be able to quickly find your reading lessons. If learning centers are included in your activities, then preparing ahead of time by making copies, getting manipulatives ready, organizing game pieces, and preparing graphic organizers will help so much. I use these storage containers when preparing for future lessons, click here.  These containers are from Iris and measure 12x12! They are perfect and a personal favorite! Amazon offers these containers as a set of 6!  

Tired Teacher Tip...

Keep a digital copy of your lesson plans for you to make quick change, if needed. Confession: Personally, this took me a couple of years of teaching to master. The first year of teaching, for me, was a whirlwind. The second year, I felt I had a better handle on my teacher life and could really start changing it to fit my teaching style. So, be patient with yourself and find what works for you. Then, go for it!

I love these containers! I have each drawer labeled with the days of the week and Sub Information. As I prep for the week and makes copies, I then put the copies in the labeled drawer for the day of the week the lesson is planned. I ordered this from Amazon, click below!