Battle Against Teacher Burnout

         

         
         I have to admit but as a neophyte teacher it came across my mind what am I doing in this stressful teaching world. Being a self-admitted happy-go-lucky, carefree and a bit of a hedonistic kind of person, I want my life to be worry-free and fun as much as possible. But since I have chosen to become a part of this noble profession, I have to be outside my comfort zone for the sake of imparting knowledge to the learners (wew...). In my almost half a year of teaching, I realized how admirable those teachers who have spent their lives teaching. Those teachers who even have acquired hypertension and other stress-related illnesses because of their job. No wonder that teachers experience burn-out more than any other profession. In relation to this, here are some of the ways in which teachers can fight, avoid or deal with teacher burn-out. I hope that through these, old and new teachers alike will have more drive to teach in spite of all the hardships and demands of the profession. These are adapted of course from various articles I have read from the net suggested and written by seasoned and well-experienced teacher (not yet me...)

1. Value your health. Love your body. Don't overdo yourself. Always think of your body (your blood pressure and your heart particularly) when the situation seems uncontrollable. Handle everything calmly and take a deep breath. Don't skip meals because you have to finish a task. Nourish yourself with nutritious food and take food supplements and vitamins if you can afford. Always remember: Men sana in corpore sano (If you don't know what it means, just ask google).
2. Don't focus on the distractions too much. Some teachers are usually fund of spending their time and energy to those destructive and misbehaved students. Set aside your energy to more important tasks and activities that will improve learning. If 5% are not participative, direct your attention to the 95% who are willing to learn. Or if your co-teachers and superiors are not in good terms with you, don't mind them if possible and concentrate on your students. I personally believe that I prefer winning the hearts of my students more than those of my superiors or co-teachers.
3. Get enough sleep. This will give you more energy to do the things you have to do. This will make you feel revived and fully-charged.
4. Learn to accept your imperfections. Sometimes, teachers can get frustrated because they feel that they are ineffective especially in controlling their students. For instance, don't be depressed if your students will not like you because you scolded them, or because you are not their "type". This is one important thing I learned so far from my teaching experience: Not all you students will like you, similar to the common cliche You can't please everybody. Don’t expect to make everyone happy. However, always keep in mind that there are endless rooms for improvement. Together with accepting yourself is the conviction of improving and working out your weaknesses.
5. Don’t force yourself to report to your school even when your sick. (You might spread the virus...hehehe). Seriously, make it rather as an opportunity to have rest and restore yourself for your students.
6. Relax. There are endless ways to relax. I already have some of these tips. Just click THIS...
7. Don’t waste time worrying. We don't know what the future is so what's the use of worry. Be optimistic. Everything will be fine as long as we do things right. Lift everything to God if this will comfort you. If worrying is unavoidable, don't worry BEFORE YOU SLEEP. Worry during the day and not at night. Don't also forget that worrying must also come with possible plans and strategies if everything didn't go quite well.
8. Don't assume that you can do things on your own. Avoid your pride and seek the help of others if necessary. Don't feel that you are alone in this world. You have your friends, your family, your boyfriend/girlfriend, your parish priest, you neighbor. The list actually is numerous.
9. The logical solution is often the best, but not always. Lady Gaga said in one of her songs that sometimes your decision doesn't necessarily have to be right. As long as you're happy and fulfilled with that decision, go for it.
10. Have patience with yourself and others. Everything takes time. Not every situation in life requires immediate actions. Don't rush things. Take one step at a time slowly but surely.
11. If you're single, take risk according to one article. I can really relate with this. If you still don't have a family, go out with your friends, have an outdoor adventure and travel to unknown places. Don't be scared to take risk because you have less things to lose compared to those who already have a family to rear.
12. Always have a backup career plan if things don’t work out. Though this is a worst-case scenario, shifting a career would be good if this can make you life happier and healthier. But before you decide, always think seven times seventy times seven...Or read my next post...hehehe

Advance Organizers part 2

     This is the second part of the list of possible Advance Organizers again retrieved from National Center on Accessible Instructional Materials. Hope these will help teachers and students alike.

  

    Uses: Effective for organizing events in terms of a chain of action and reaction (especially useful in social sciences and humanities)

    Uses: When cause-effect relationships are complex and non-redundant

    Uses: Help students to compare and contrast two concepts according to their features.

      Uses: Compare concepts' attributes

    Uses: Effective for organizing information along a dimension such as less to more, low to high, and few to many

    Uses: Help students organize information according to various steps or stage

    Uses: Useful for organizing information that is circular or cyclical, with no absolute beginning or ending

   I hope this is enough for all of you. Again, special thanks for  National Center on Accessible Instructional Materials. You can visit this site to learn more about advance organizers. 

Advance Organizers part 1

    This post will list all possible advance organizers that teachers can use in presenting their lessons.  Remember that these organizers don't work by themselves, rather it is still crucial for the teacher to explain what these organizers present to make learning more efficient.

      Uses: mapping generic information, mapping hierarchical relationships. 

     Uses: organizing a hierarchical set of information, reflecting superordinate or subordinate elements

 

 
     Uses: When the information relating to a main idea or theme does not fit into a hierarchy

     Uses: When information contains cause and effect problems and solutions

     Uses: helps students to compare different solutions to a problem

      Uses: useful for mapping cause and effect

These are retrieved from  National Center on Accessible Instructional Materials. (If you are the owner of this site and if you want your contents to be removed from this blog, kindly inform me immediately. Thank you.)

Principles of Teaching and Learning: Classroom Management

     Since my very first post, I am not quite aware about the comments that I have received from some of the readers who came across this blog. And I am glad to know that there are a lot of comments especially from my posts about principles of teaching. I personally believe that once an education student have mastered all the principles of teaching, he/she doesn't need to memorize all the facts (Well, if we are only talking about the courses Principles of Teaching 1 and 2...hehehehe. Memorizing some important facts is also very vital especially in Content Courses. If you'll ask and "idealist", he might say that facts are important building blocks for higher thinking skills.) In this regard, I am now going to discuss some principles in teaching particularly in managing the class (Actually this is a more comprehensive discussion of my previous post about this topic. In short this is just a repost. hehehehe)
     It is a cliche to say that a teacher must also be a good manager. Although we have heard this how many times, this is really so true (really and so...redundancy...hehehe...for emphasis's sake). What we have prepared for a day's lesson will be useless if our class is uncontrollable. Below are some of the principles of effective classroom management.

1. Proactive discipline over counteractive discipline. This means that we must do certain actions before disciplinary problems will occur. We must impose rules and policies inside our class and consistently implement these. We must not wait for troubles before we will take solutions. If pupils will be cleared with all the rules they need to follow, disciplinary problems will  least likely to happen.

2. Routines are best ways of minimizing disorders inside the classroom.  It is good to start the school year establishing routines with the students/pupils. These routines, like passing of the paper, reading textbooks, checking of answers, etc, can lessen interruptions and can save a lot of time. If the students/pupils are made to know what they have to do, the flow of the class will be more smooth and orderly.

3. Avoid having "dead air" in the class. The class must run smoothly so as not to give a chance for students to do unnecessary things. This makes the class's attention focused on the lesson and not making them restless.
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4. Make the activities interesting and challenging. Perhaps this is one of the primary principle in minimizing mismanaged class. If pupils/students are provided with various challenging and interesting activities, they will never think of doing things that may interrupt the class. These do not make them bored, because if pupils/students are bored, then expect chaos inside the classroom.

5. Teachers must have "with-it-ness" (LET alert...this always comes out in the exam...remember this..."with-it-ness"). When we say "with-it-ness", a teacher must be aware of what is going on inside the classroom. He/she must be vigilant and sensitive enough with his/her pupils/students. If the students/pupils feel that their teacher is watching over them, they become more conscious with their actions. As teachers, we must have eyes in our backs and make use of the whole classroom space while teaching.

6. Respond and resolve minor problems before they become a major one. We must not wait for our classroom to be out of control before we make a move. Let us put a small spark out before it becomes a fire.

7. Provide positive reinforcements for good behavior. Token management (giving of rewards) can be used. This is far better than giving punishments. However, positive reinforcements do not necessarily mean giving of material things. A praise or an approval is sometimes enough to do this. One thing to take note is that to make this more effective, it must be appropriately and sincerely given. Give pupils/students what is due to them. Don't underpraise nor overpraise students/pupils.

8. Treat minor disturbance calmly. Don't spend the whole class giving "sermons" because of an inappropriate behavior. (Some teachers are so guilty with this. They will give a long sermon and if it is time already, pupils/students will say "The mass has ended".hahahaha). If this can be settled even by just giving of a stern look or gesture, then it's over, done, finished, etc...hahahaha...

9. Check the physical environment. Sometimes, the main reason why the class is restless and noisy is because of the physical feature of the classroom. Perhaps the class is too congested, overcrowded, disorderly or hot. Fix these things and the class will be far much better.

10. The last but not the least, minimize discipline time to maximize instructional time. Avoid long sermons...period. hehehe...very self-explanatory,..no need to discuss...

What Is A Good Teacher???

What defines a good teacher? Actually, the defintions are endless. Here are just some of the qualities of a good teacher retrieved from http://www.adprima.com/tipson.htm (If you are the owner of this site, kindly inform me if you don't want your site's content be posted here)

Good teachers:




are good at explaining things. Do you like to explain how something works, or how something happened? Being comfortable with explaining content to students is an essential skill for teachers, regardless of the subject or grade level.



keep their cool. There will be times when you will be tempted to scream or yell at your students, other teachers, parents, administrators, and so on. Good teachers are able to successfully resist this urge.



have a sense of humor. Research has consistently shown that good teachers have a sense of humor, and that they are able to use humor as part of their teaching methods. Humor, used properly, can be a powerful addition to any lesson.



like people, especially students in the age range in which they intend to teach. Most teachers choose an area of specialization such as elementary education, special education, secondary education, or higher education because they have a temperament for students in those age ranges. If you are not comfortable working with young children, don't major in elementary education!



are inherently fair-minded. They are able to assess students on the basis of performance, not on the students' personal qualities.



have "common sense." It may sound a bit corny, but good teachers are practical. They can size up a situation quickly and make an appropriate decision. Whether managing a classroom, leading students on a field trip, seamlessly shifting from one instructional procedure to another, assigning detentions, supervising an intern, or dealing with policy and curriculum issues in the school, there is no substitute for common sense.



have a command of the content they teach. For elementary school teachers, that means having knowledge of a broad range of content in sufficient depth to convey the information in meaningful ways to the students. For secondary school teachers, it usually means having an in-depth command of one or two specific content areas such as mathematics or biology.



set high expectations for their students and hold the students to those expectations. If you are thinking about becoming a teacher, you should set high expectations for yourself, and demand excellence not only of yourself, but your students as well.



are detail oriented. If you are a disorganized person in your private life, you will find that teaching will probably be uncomfortable for you. At the very least, teachers must be organized in their professional and teaching duties. If you're not organized and are not detail oriented, teaching may not be the best choice of a profession for you.



are good managers of time. Time is one of the most precious resources a teacher has. Good teachers have learned to use this resource wisely.



can lead or follow, as the situation demands. Sometimes, teachers must be members of committees, groups, councils, and task forces. Having the temperament to function in these capacities is extremely important. At other times, teachers assume leadership roles. Be sure you are comfortable being a leader or a follower, because sooner or later, you will be called on to function in those roles.



don't take things for granted. This applies to everything, from selecting a college or school of education to filing papers for certification. Good follow-through habits should be cultivated throughout life, but they are never more important than during your teacher education program. Read the catalog, know the rules, be aware of prerequisites and meet deadlines. In one sense, you don't learn to teach by getting a degree and becoming certified. You learn to teach in much the same way you learned to drive -- by driving. You learn to teach by teaching, by making mistakes, learning from them and improving. The purpose of a teacher education program is to get you as ready as possible to learn how to teach by subjecting you to a variety of methods and experiences that have a basis in tradition and research.



have some "hard bark" on them. Take it from me as a teacher in both public schools and at the university level, that you need some hard bark in order to survive let alone thrive. to illustrate the point, here is an excerpt from an ADPRIMA page that discusses the subject in more detail:



John Russell, the name of the character played by Paul Newman in the 1967 movie "Hombre," was told, in the latter part of the film by a man he had just shot in order to protect a group of innocent, yet cowardly people, "Mister, you've got some hard bark on you." Indeed he did, because he was both physically tough and tough minded. He was also realistic, honest, fair, and understood that sometimes doing the right thing involves risk. There is a lesson in all of this for education students.



Without a doubt, young men and women entering the teaching profession today need to have some "hard bark" on them. If they don't, the small wounds inflicted by dealing with the everyday problems of teaching, disciplining, planning, counseling, dealing with administrators, colleagues, parents, and so on, mount up. If they're easily wounded by disappointment, rudeness, and even unfairness, they won't last because these things happen, and nothing will change that.



All of these qualities define some of the characteristics of good teachers. If it is not your goal to become a good teacher at the very least, perhaps thinking about the above will help you see other career alternatives. A good idea, when first making such a decision, is to talk to teachers. Find out what they do, and what led them into teaching. Do a personal inventory of your own values, personality, preferences and goals. But, whatever you do, don't go into teaching simply because you love kids!

How To Recharge A Low-Bat Teacher

          It is already a fact that the teaching profession is one of the most or not the most stressful professions of man. He/she has to face a lot of problems everyday especially managing pupils/students with different personalities not to mention of whole-day talking and mountains of paper work. Sometimes, teachers ended up drained and very tired. These are some of the ways how a teacher can refresh and recharge him/herself and maintain a positive attitude toward his/her noble profession.

1. Read a book. Reading your favorite book is not only relaxing but as well as a worthwhile pastime for a teacher like you. It may change your mood for the day and will help you go away from the real world even just for a few moments especially if your reading your favorite novel. Inspirational books, the Bible and other books that energize the spirit can also be of great help that will motivate you more to go forward.

2. Listen to your favorite music. Music will never fail to soothe one's soul. Have a time to relax by listening to your favorite music whether classical, pop, mellow, etc. music. There are lots of choices you can choose from. Also, listening to audio books gives a relaxing getaway for your tired soul.

3. Call a friend. Be energized by being with your friends. Your friends can comfort you, make you laugh and let you feel that you are not alone.

4. Go to church or to your favorite quiet place. Silence will surely rest your heart. It will give you an escape from the noise while inside the school. A time of reflection with God and yourself will definitely make you replenished and filled.

5. Treat yourself. Go to your favorite restaurant, go to mall and buy yourself a dress you've been wanting to buy, give yourself a haircut, etc. Reward yourself sometimes for your hardwork and for a job well done.

          I think there are a lot of things a teacher can do to revitalize him/herself. Just remember not to let be defeated by the stress of the work and maintain optimism and enthusiasm.