It’s Sunday Night. A year ago, you would have been finalizing your plans for the next week and finishing up your grading so you can give work back on time. For most of us, we would have had some time for ourselves to read or watch a show, maybe we would have gone for a hike, or had a nice dinner with family and friends. That would have been 12 months ago before we entered this uncertain time. In today’s world of teaching, we are isolated at our homes or in our classrooms by ourselves, not really interacting with each other as professionals. This remote time has caused us to be completed connected to our students in a whole new, all-consuming way.

For some teachers, your day starts at 7 a.m. and ends at 7 p.m., twice as long as a ‘normal’ school day. I know for many teachers, wanting to meet the needs of their students means spending twice the time in front of the computer trying to carve out time to complete the work with the students. While commendable, it is not sustainable. Teacher Burnout is a real thing that we all go through, and I am afraid that during this time of COVID, almost a full school year now, we are working ourselves so that our well is all dried up and we have nothing else to give.

We know our students we know deserve the best, and we want to give them the best of what we have. but you need to ask yourself, At what cost? What am I willing to sacrifice for the betterment of my students? Is it my family, my physical health, my mental health? As you start to answer these questions, you realize you need to create balance in your life. Is it healthy taking 15-minute breaks to eat or use the restroom as you are spending 12 hours in front of the computer? I feel you probably know the answer to this question. With this post I want to give you hope, because you deserve it, and I want to give you practical things that you can do to help yourself gain more balance in this crazy, upside down world.

You:

The most important thing that you need to hear, not just with your head but also your heart, is that you will not be everything to everyone. You cannot be a yes person, you cannot agree to do everything that is asked of you. If you try to be a yes person then your life and your ability to teach will be completely out of balance. You need balance, If I search google right now, I’ll find 100’s of articles on the importance of saying no and creating balance as a teacher during this time (although 12 months ago I am sure that I could find those same articles). You are going to let people down because you are human and there are only so many hours in a day – and that is OKAY. In thinking about this from my work perspective, our team has worked nonstop since March (not to brag, but I am going to anyway).

Starting in March, we began training teachers like yourselves on tools and how you can use them in the classroom. From that time to now, we have met with 10,000 teachers (you might say, “wait a second there are only 2500 teachers in the district!” That number is higher because we met some of you many times over). We have worked with translators to translate 15 videos into 6 or 7 other languages, stood up a new learning management system and worked with a countless number of teachers to help them improve their remote learning practices. I say all of this because even for our team, we have not been doing what I am suggestion above. We (and I mean all of us) need to say to ourselves that I have done the best I can, enough is enough and that I need to take time off for myself to recharge. You are important, we all need to maintain a well-balanced life and if you are not taking care of yourself, it will be even harder. To be the best example for our students, it is crucial for us to take care of ourselves. Our health, happiness, well-being, productivity, and ability to manage our stress depends on it.

Prioritize:

What is important to you? You cannot do everything and be everything to everyone. That was a lot of “every”, but I think you get my point. One thing that I do is create a list in pencil on paper. Once I have that list, I then make sure that I do one or two of those things well every day. One place that I look to focus my efforts is giving my students less but more meaningful assignments. This might take a little planning and really digging into what is important from the lessons and standards. I would also take advantage of the Learning Management System (LMS), since there are some things you can do, and it can auto-grade for you. You also need to say to yourself that it is okay to not do grading for the weekend and/or night and do something for yourself. This will come up later in another point I make. It is unrealistic to believe that you can solve all the problems of the world. Hopefully you knew that already but if you did not, you do now. Along with that thought, you also need to be prepared for something to not work, as expected, it is going to happen. Throughout my years of teaching, I knew that at times, my plans would just breakdown and I needed to be prepared to pivot. The same can be said for remote learning and even preparing to go back in person, either fully or hybrid. As teachers we have always been flexible knowing how to prioritize has helped us in this respect.

Self-Care:

Prior to COVID, as teachers many of us were in our buildings early in the morning and late into the day. In this remote environment, we can literally wake up and start interacting with students and then were available until we go to bed. How is this going? Not good for many of us, I’ll bet. Constantly on call is not healthy for us and our students. What can we do? During the spring and summer, we could go outside and get fresh air. As the weather gets colder here in New England, that becomes a little more challenging. (Going outside is my go-to for getting teachers to take care of themselves!) So, here is a short list of ideas for you to practice self-care: 

• Friend Calls: This is super helpful to remind you of two very important things: 1. You are not alone and 2: You are an adult. We work with students all day long; it is easy to forget that we can have an adult conversation with other adults. This could be a time you use to vent, laugh, cry, or share positives and funny stories about the day. You need this; you need to unwind and let go. You used to have a car ride home to do this. Now you need community more than ever and anyone who is not willing to talk does not deserve your time.
   
• Exercise: I know, I know, you hear this all the time. It is true though that exercise improves all aspects of your life, not just physical well-being but also your mental and emotional well-being. Now, I am not saying train for a marathon or 5K. Walking is just as effective, as is get outside for fresh air, get on a treadmill in your basement. I would even suggest leaving your phone at home so you can truly get away. One thing I have been doing personally is the Tough Mudder Virtual Challenges. Check out one of the challenge videos below. Let me tell you, this has been tough but so rewarding.
  
• Hobbies: You need a hobby! Anytime I am working with new teachers, this is my number one piece of advice. You need to remove yourself from all your work and do something for yourself. Personally, I have gotten more into homesteading (I bottled my first attempt at hot sauce and started to explore getting chickens), started collecting Lego sets (mainly Star Wars and Marvel sets but I will probably move into the Harry Potter realm), brewing Kombucha brewing). Some easy things you can do now that you are home more. For me, I can now make dinner during the week and I even started taking Food Network Classes with my middle child who loves to bake.  I have found a few things that work for, there is some trial and error with it too. I thought maybe coloring would be another hobby for me but man, can that be boring (it might be good for you though). As I think back, that might be the only one that has not stuck with me. I think you get the idea; find something you love that is not your work and make time for it and if that means that you don’t do grading one night or you turn off your computer one night at 3:30 and don’t log back in until the next day, then do it.

Making Meaningful Connections:

So often we find ourselves on Zoom or Teams meeting with students, parents, friends, religious gatherings, town meetings, etc. meeting with people. The hard part is making those connections meaningful. During school zoom calls, there needs to be a time set aside for checking in with each other, find out how your students are doing mentally and socially. This is so important when there are so many other stresses happening all around us. So, how can we do it?

A couple of things to think about are:

• It is important to acknowledge the reality that we are living in, but we cannot dwell on it. We are still living and learning together, it just does not happen in person right now.
   
• Fun: I know this might seem like a no brainer, but you need to remember to have fun with your students. For many of them, the best part of their day could be with you. I think back to some in person morning meeting protocols and how to apply them in a remote setting. Think about how you can do a morning greeting like saying ‘hello’ to someone in the class until everyone has made a meaningful connection in the class. This simple activity might also help with engagement later.

Adaptability:

When it comes to our plans, one thing that we know for certain is that our good friend Murphy knows how to show up. Sometimes I think Murphy lives in the quiet part of my brain, lurking in the background, waiting to pounce. Many of the things I mentioned above are quite good, and if we write them down to map out our days, it is important to remember that we need to do some evaluation. Just because it looks good on paper does not mean it actually works. I have written somewhere on paper the days I will exercise, when I will do specific chores and when I will spend time focusing on self-care tasks.  But I rarely follow that schedule and I’m sure some of you are the same way.  I’m sure many of you are the same way. We write down what we think will be a brilliant plan for our week but we still cannot create that balance. We need to be able to make the adjustments to our plan. The same can be said about how we prepare for and deliver our instruction. What I’m trying to get at here is that we need to be adaptable and willing to make changes. Nothing is set in stone and even if it was, I know a guy named Murphy who probably has different plans than mine.

Quick Tips:

The quick tips below do not need a deep explanation and they’re great practices to follow:

• Do not leave your email open and only check it at designated times. 
• Take a shower and get dressed, even if it means starting class a few minutes late. Try to plan ahead so you’re not rolling out of bed and immediately starting work. Simple tasks like this allows you to start off on the right foot.
• Build a simple routine. This one makes sense, especially because when we were in person, we always had a start of day routine. Wake up, shower, get dressed, pack lunch, drive to school, stop at Dunkin or Starbucks, get into school, prep the room, run through last-minute lesson plans. As you can see, that is quite a routine, most of which would be obsolete now that we are working from home. I am fairly positive that some version of what I mentioned above is true for almost all ya’all (yeah; I said that like you read it, with a southern twang). So, adapt what you used to do to fix life at home (and if your home-brewed coffee or tea is not meeting your expectations, then wake up a little earlier and run to your nearest DD or Starbucks).
• Shut off the laptop: If you are not aware, there is an off button on it. You will thank me later.
• Screen Breaks: Human beings were not built to sit and stare at a computer for 6 to 8 hours a day. Walk away to get the blood pumping and to give your brain a break. 
• Do not feel guilty: YOU ARE NOT A ROBOT! I hope that I have made that clear throughout this post.
• Turn all your devices off and enjoy your home.
• Zoom with friends: Schedule times with your friends if you cannot socially distance. If you need something to do other than talk, try a food or beverage tasting, watch a TED talk or documentary and talk about it afterwards. Do a paint and sip from home (they do those, don’t they?).

Putting it All Together

I hope after reading this post today you take some of these things to heart, or maybe you have other ideas of what you can do. Most importantly, if you are not taking care of yourself, you are going to burn out. Here at DLA, we love all of you and you are all doing an amazing job. Do not be afraid to reach out to us, to your fellow teachers, friends, or family. You have a lot going on, a lot of responsibility falls on you, but you are not alone. If you have any ideas, post them below in the comment section below.  We’d love to hear from you!