Might be a bit of a rant but I was looking back at some videos and lesson plans from September through December and I am undoubtedly burnt out. I am currently on spring break intentionally resting and on the fourth day of my staycation, I decided to get ahead of work so to avoid working on the weekend. In September I was so active, and upbeat my lessons were so detailed and my “reinforcement work” as I like to call it was organized in such a way that reinforced each topic discussed in that lesson. On the today of things, in full transparency I find myself skimming over lessons to get the gist and putting more emphasis on parts of the lesson that don’t really hold much weight. I would never say that I became lazy but, I am so burnt out.
I think with all the holidays, half-day, asynchronous workdays, and weekends I need more rest. One thing I’ve learned this year while teaching is that if I don’t choose a day to rest my body will choose it for me. Mental exhaustion is something very new to me and I’m still learning how to take mental breaks. When I tell people that I’m a teacher and they automatically romanticize summer, winter, and spring breaks. I hear “Oh you’re so lucky to have a whole 2 months off work, I wish I can have a break from my job.” Truth is that these breaks are not long enough. I love my job, I love watching my Kindergarten babies flourish in areas they thought they could never understand. Watching my kids learn how to read and write are the highlights of my day. This rant may be grade-specific and I know I can only speak for myself but I feel creatively and mentally drained. At the beginning of the school year, I created a system that would sustain me until the end of the school year, and now that we’re here. We’ve been doing the same routine for 7 months, I am tired.
Since becoming a teacher I’ve made several adjustments to ensure that I put my mental and physical health first. I love the different routines that keep me grounded and fortunately, I think I will carry these new habits to the next career.
Needless to say that since becoming a teacher I have a new perspective on how exhaustion shows up in different ways. As for me being a new teacher, I think that I’m handling myself very well. This rant is purely me identifying this feeling I’m sure a lot of my colleagues have at this point in the year.