Teachers with Burnout

Stressed Teachers Can't Be Expected to Manage Problem Behaviours

2008-01-16T12:39:00.000-05:00

If teachers don't have the support they need, the teachers suffer. So do the children. One of the risks for learners is that large classrooms containing a diversity of children can be impossible to manage. Sometimes, especially in smaller programs where their is no special support for children with behavior issues, the student has to be asked to leave the program.

A study led by Yale Child Study Center researcher Walter S. Gilliam, titled “Prekindergartners
Left Behind: Expulsion Rates in State Prekindergarten Systems,” says that under-resourcing teachers does create the risk of expulsion and poor outcomes for children. The study is based on data gathered in the National Prekindergarten Study (NPS).

“No one wants to hear about three- and four-year-olds being expelled from preschool, but
it happens rather frequently,” said Gilliam in a press release about the study. “Pre-K teachers need access to the support staff they need to help manage classroom behavior problems. Without this support, we are setting up for failure both our children and their teachers.”

When a child's behavior is unmanageable and teachers are not supported in finding special help and assessment for the child, learning opportunities for all are diminished. It is also agonizing and extremely stressful. These are the types of situations that exhaust and frustrate educators. Sharing information with parents about how class sizes and teacher burdens affect their children in a way that doesn't blame teachers is key to advancing better situations for teachers.

This study and other resources are available at the Foundation for Child Development.

Mid-Week Snapshot: Burnt-Out Teacher Diary

2008-01-14T23:46:00.001-05:00

Dear Diary,
When I decided to dedicate my life to teaching,
WHAT WAS I THINKING????
Love,
Homeroom Teacher

I've Paid My Dues....

2008-01-13T22:21:00.002-05:00

Experience is a jewel, and it had need be so, for it is often purchased at an infinite rate.
William Shakespeare

Ode to a New Semester of Student Teachers

2008-01-09T17:00:00.000-05:00

Will I Get a Raise, Because I Have a Ph.D. in Burnout

2008-01-07T18:21:00.000-05:00

There is no education like adversity.
Benjamin Disraeli

If burnout doesn't kill us.....

2008-01-03T22:13:00.000-05:00

Fractures well cured make us more strong.--
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Precious Future

2007-12-17T13:27:00.000-05:00

I have spread my dreams beneath your feet. Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
W.B. Yeats

Mini Yoga Sessions During the Day at Your Desk

2007-12-16T12:25:00.000-05:00

We know that exercise can cut our stress during the day by helping to release tension and toxins while flooding our bodies with the positive effects of oxytocin. Many medical professionals advise talking lunch-hour walks to fight stress at work.

But teacher's days aren't the same as other professionals. We often don't get lunch "hours" alone, we are usually responsible for playground, cafeteria or hall duty during our time. Teacher planning hours are seldom long enough to walk around campus.

A meaningful alternative is to steal little bits of time throughout the day to use for yoga breaks--not crazy goat-on-a-steep-hill poses which would dirty your clothes or make you feel nutty, but simple little stretches that can be incorporated into your day whenever you have a moment to stretch and breathe--even if you must keep thinking. Once you learn the poses you'll find ways to use them.

Marcia Langenberg, a teacher at the University of Alberta and a yoga practitioner, has posted an easy-to-follow series of tiny, free movies on-line showing indoor, seated yoga poses. You don't have to leave your room, or you can do these poses in a break room--some will even work in a bathroom.

The movies can inspire you to find ways to move and create a release for the day's tension, so they are well worth considering to add to your stress reduction toolbox.

Mid-Week Snapshot

2007-12-14T20:37:00.000-05:00

A teacher's brain the night before grades are due, after reading 30 student essays.

We Will Prevail!

2007-12-10T15:44:00.000-05:00

Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune, but great minds rise above them. --
Washington Irving

We Don't Teach Well When We are Burnt-out

2007-12-03T18:11:00.000-05:00

Leadership does not always wear the harness of compromise.--Woodrow Wilson

Deciding What You Want Ends Burnout

2007-11-29T14:28:00.000-05:00

If you don't know where you are going,
you'll end up someplace else. ~
Yogi Berra

Mid-Week Snapshot / Dressed for Success

2007-11-21T23:43:00.000-05:00

Why do I even bother wearing "professional" clothes when my professional meetings look like this?

A Beautiful Future

2007-11-19T13:26:00.000-05:00

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Surviving Burnout

2007-11-13T22:00:00.000-05:00

You're happiest while you're making the greatest contribution. --Robert F. Kennedy

Mid-Week Snapshot / When Will We Be Paid Fairly?

2007-11-07T16:50:00.000-05:00

Alas, School Boards Keep a Tight Fist Over the Money
&
Teachers Will Be Paid Well When Pigs Fly
(though if we work together, we could teach that pig...)

Hope for Ending Burnout

2007-11-05T22:06:00.000-05:00

The power of imagination makes us infinite.~~
John Muir

Changing Ourselves

2007-10-29T22:04:00.000-04:00

Happiness depends upon ourselves.
Aristotle

Mid-Week Snapshot / No Recess

2007-10-23T13:54:00.000-04:00

On rainy days, we play board games instead of having recess outside.

Recovery from Burnout

2007-10-22T14:00:00.000-04:00

You're happiest while you're making the greatest contribution.~~
Robert F. Kennedy

Mid-Week Snapshot: Escape

2007-10-17T23:04:00.000-04:00

Rising Above

2007-10-15T13:23:00.000-04:00

Live up to the best that is in you: Live noble lives, as you all may, in whatever condition you may find yourselves. ~
Henry W. Longfellow

Preventing Teacher Burnout by Looking at the Big Picture

2007-10-08T15:23:00.000-04:00

"You must have long-range goals to keep from being frustrated by short-range failure" ~ Charles Nobel

What would be your price tag to change jobs?

2007-10-07T14:32:00.000-04:00

We may speak the same language, but apparently the state of teaching in Australia is very different than in the U.S.

Australia's teacher crisis is that they have many new teachers, but older teachers aren't leaving spots for them. To encourage them to move on to other careers, according to the Courier Mail, a grant program was started--but it didn't have a full quota of applicants:

"UP to $18 million in "career change" grants
will be paid out to nearly 360
older primary school teachers being
jettisoned by Education Queensland to make
way for new graduates.
The
figure falls short of an estimated
$25 million that would have been
paid out if the full quota, set at 500
teachers, had successfully applied
for what has been dubbed the 'burn-out
bonus'."

American teachers couldn't image this happening in US schools. In the US, school districts have special programs trying to recruit teachers from any field to fill slots, and people leave with no compensation to start over. I've had days where I would have left if someone offered me Haagen Daz and a plastic spoon! We need to study what is going on right in Australian schools.

Teachers with Burnout Midweek Snapshot

2007-10-03T14:58:00.000-04:00