Teacher Burnout: Self-Care

Teacher Burnout: Self-Care

I recently read an article that was focused on the ethical issues faced within mental health professions. In this article I came across the influence of burnout within theses types of workforce, specifically in social workers. Within this article there was a case in which a newly graduated social worker Lori came across a job opportunity. From the beginning she was told that many people that entered this job did not last, however she did not pay much attention to those comments. As time passed, she received good comments about her work, she was even assigned new projects, soon after she noticed that she would go into work early in the morning, yet she ended up leaving until 10 p.m. everyday. The purpose of this case was to illustrate to the reader the importance of professional self-care. It was great that Lori was being put ahead on projects and being delegated many new projects however, she needed to consider her self-care. Even though she was working hard she also needed to consider not over working herself. The importance of self-care is that is can be a great influential power to prevent burnout! Self-care can also be applied to the field of education since as a teacher one may come upon many pressures from the side of the education system, students, parents, principles, other teachers, or even just family problems.

For further information about the article:

http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=4d057484-eac8-4650-a8d0-de8c70234756%40sessionmgr114&vid=3&hid=121

Preventing Teacher Burnout: Focusing Part 2

As I was going through my Scoopit! I found this article that I read a few weeks ago that made me remember my previous blog, Preventing Teacher Burnout: Focusing. I found it interesting that we all, including teachers tend to lose focus do to everything that is around us. As I looked through this specific article I noticed the image below. The image below, insinuates that one should choose to focus, focus on doing things in a well done matter, and lastly to choose fewer initiatives. One thing that I would like to highlight is that many times teachers and other (including me) want to improve and strive to come up with new methods, ideas, and ways. However, could it be that we might get caught up in trying many new things at one time ? Might this be minimizing the level of quality of established methods? I concluded that it may be that we should focus on a few initiatives instead of many at one time because this might lead to disproportional learning due to the lack of attention and work put into method. Teacher focusing on a few innovations at a time result in helping students perform better and achieve better learning retention.  

Credit: Image Source/Article Source

Avoiding Teacher Burnout

I found the following video concerning teacher burnout while doing a Scoopit! board. This specific video captivated my attention since it highlighted important points that need to be considered when dealing with burnout in general.

You can also look for me at Scoopit! and  add me to see my Teacher Burnout board.

Burnout: Prevention

Burnout: Prevention

I was in my ethics class the other day and one of my classmates presented a chapter about ethical techniques in mental health professions. One of her slides was this one, it was concerning prevention of a person from going through burnout. I found it interesting because I considered the above points to be noteworthy not just for mental health professionals, but for teachers. Read the above points and let me know what you think :)

Preventing Teacher Burnout: Focusing

Preventing Teacher Burnout: Focusing

Before the semester started, I found it hard to take in all the things that I had to do. I started to freak out because now I was to start working, take 17 credits, and on top of that I was wondering if I was pursuing my career for the right reasons! Everything seemed to add up and overwhelm me. All of this was going on inside of me until the stress that I was feeling penetrated and my appearance reflected a distracted look. Mothers, they are a blessing on earth! They know you like the palm of their hand! Of course my mother decided ask the simplest yet powerful question, "What's wrong?" Me getting tired of this mental burden, decided to tell her my doubts and fears. She decided to pray with me first and then she told me something that I have never really given importance to before. She said, "Focus. Stop thinking too much. Focus on what you can do and what you can't do leave it to God." From that moment on I decided to focus on why I decided to work (pay university bill), take 17 credits (finish college faster), pursue a career in psychology education (I want to understand why people do what they do, I want to help young people, be a listening ears to the people needing to be heard). I know that I am no professional, but sometimes we need to consider the simplest things. For this reason I encourage you to focus. Focus on the reason and main purpose behind what you are pursuing. Don’t overwhelm yourself, sometimes the details are what make a difference. 

How To Prevent Burnout In Teaching

Teacher BURNOUT: It Can Be Prevented!

This week I decided to look up ways to not get burnout in teaching. I came across this article/story of a teacher whom prior to school starting, was transferred to a different school. While being transferred she was to come up with lesson plans for four freshman English classes and two language arts classes! On top of that she was facing personal problems which ranged from going through a separation from her husband of a 30 year marriage to having to cope with her son being diagnosed with cancer and having become a father a few weeks later. While teaching at this new education environment she faced teacher bullying by her students which increased the pressure of stress factors gaining up on her. All these stressors lead her to become burnout as a teacher. After reading this story I meditated on how not to burnout as a teacher.

 I came up with a few pin points:

1. In teaching and in any profession there will always be stress factors either personal, physical, or educational.

2. Have a realistic view of teaching. It is not that we do not know what to expect about teachings, instead it is that we are unrealistic.

3. Remember why you chose this profession. What were the reasons that lead you to become a teacher?

4. Look past the situations that may arise. Focus. Look for the change being done, as small as it might be, in the life of your students.

5. Don’t Give Up!

6. Wake up each day with a positive attitude. Find something to look forward every day. “Many individuals mess up every new day with yesterday.” Start each day fresh!

Below is the article/story that I read:

http://neatoday.org/2011/06/07/surviving-teacher-burnout-2/