The Teacher Burnout Podcast

39 Tackling Post Break Burnout Head On
===

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Teacher Burnout Podcast, where we explore the challenges of burnout for teachers and share practical strategies to support teacher well being. I'm your host Barb Flowers. If you're a teacher looking for ways to prevent burnout or an educational leader searching for strategies to support your team, this podcast is for you.

Let's dive in. Hey everyone, welcome to the Teacher Burnout Podcast. Today we're going to be talking about what to do if you're feeling burnout after the holiday break. If you're feeling burnt out after the break, it can be really frustrating. I mean, we just had a break. You think you should still be feeling refreshed and rejuvenated from that break, but unfortunately that's not how burnout works.

Burnout doesn't go away from taking a break alone, because when you return to school, if you still have the same mindset, the same habits and routines, then burnout is going to come right back, just like it was when [00:01:00] you left. So the only true way to get rid of your burnout is figuring out where the problem is and dealing with it head on.

You can't just take a break and assume that the burnout is going to go away. And I see this happen all the time with teachers, especially after the summer break because it's such a long break. So today I'm going to give you some strategies for dealing with your burnout because, again, if you don't deal with it and handle your burnout, it doesn't go away.

And I want to encourage you to go to my Instagram page and click the link in my bio for my free teacher burnout assessment. I'll also put it in the show notes as well. But I encourage you to take that assessment and see where you're struggling and make a plan to move forward and make an action plan so that you can actually change the burnout that you're feeling.

So today I'm going to share some ways to combat burnout after you just had a break. Number one, set boundaries. If you don't have boundaries, you need to set them ASAP. You need to have clear boundaries with your work and how long you want to [00:02:00] spend working.

Please understand that the time you need to spend working, it depends on your experience and where you're at in your career. A newer teacher may need to stay after school or come in earlier than a veteran teacher. When I was new, I had specific days that I liked to stay after. I would plan out my week and usually it was Fridays.

because I would meet my friends for dinner at 7, so I like to stay after, and I would just go straight to dinner and meet them. But after I had taught a couple of years, I could get most of my work done during my contractual hours, so I would work around 8 to 4. So decide the hours you want to work, and do your best to stick to that.

This could be coming in a half an hour early every day or staying a half an hour late. That's okay if that makes you feel more productive. Some people like to come in early before school because there's less people there, they can get more done, and that makes sense. However, if you're just staying and working hours and hours and you're feeling like you can never get it all done, then you need to figure out what's going on [00:03:00] there and set a boundary.

Because sometimes I think that we get stuck in wanting things to be perfect instead of having the mindset that this is what I need to do to get it done. It's not going to be perfect, I just need to get it done. Also, you have to remember that as teachers, you could spend hours in your classroom just doing Lots of different things.

I remember I could spend hours organizing, rearranging things, um, redecorating. There were so many things that I could spend time doing. You could give me all the hours in a week to work in my classroom and I would never be done. So you have to remember that and set boundaries around your time or you're going to make yourself crazy and you're going to get burnt out because you can't be working all hours of the night and expect to be able to sustain that.

Number two is to make sure to take time for yourself. Having hobbies outside of school is so important because many teachers are so passionate about education that it can be your profession and also your hobby. [00:04:00] So it's great to be passionate about work. That's important. However, you need something that you look forward to that is not related to work at all.

Something that has nothing to do with teaching. So over breaks we spend lots of time doing this. We enjoy the things that we want to do. And sometimes people, when they go back to work, they just stop because it's time to go back to school. They don't have time to do the things that they want to do anymore.

There's not a balance there for them. So if you don't have a hobby or you don't take that time for yourself when you're in school, you need to find out what that is. For me, I joined an exercise group, and so it was a group of women that I worked out with, and so I was not only doing self care and something for my health, but we would work out, and we'd hang out, and so that was not only, um, like I said, for my health and self care, but it became my hobby.

I also like to be part of book clubs because I enjoy reading, but if I just tell myself I'm gonna read a book, I usually don't read it. So if I have that accountability of I will be meeting with this group of people in a month, and we'll [00:05:00] talk about the book, then I I will read it and then I enjoy reading it and I remember how much I love reading.

So finding something that makes you hold yourself accountable to having that hobby. If you don't have that hobby, start thinking about what are things you'd be interested in. My husband loves sports. I'm not a, I love to exercise, but I'm not a huge sports person, but he loves to join adult softball teams.

He loves to go golfing. He plays pickleball with friends. So it's about finding things to do that are just for you. Time away from your family, time away from everybody else. Educators spend all day caring for other people, and then if you come home and have a family, you do the same thing. I know for me, it's either caring for people at school, or I come home, I'm doing laundry, I'm cooking, doing all the things.

And so you need things that allow you to have time for yourself. And I recommend that no matter what stage of life you're in. I've always committed to having the time for exercise, which was my self care and my time for myself [00:06:00] even when my kids were babies. Whether I had somebody watch them or they sat in a chair or a bouncer while I worked out at home, whatever I had to do to have that me time, I made sure it happened.

So you have to ask for help sometimes to make it happen, but you need to find ways to take care of yourself. The third thing is to connect. And collaborate with your colleagues. So after breaks, I'm always so excited to catch up with my colleagues and hear about, you know, what they've been up to and what they did.

So having colleagues that you get along with, it makes the job so much more fun and manageable. I think about every position that I've had as a Title I teacher, as a classroom teacher, and Assistant Principal, and now Principal, and I have leaned on colleagues so much for support. In my second year of teaching, I had so many challenging behaviors in my class.

I think almost every student in my class had a behavior, and so I leaned on my colleagues for ideas or just even time to vent or cry to them. If [00:07:00] I just was so overwhelmed and started crying, I'd go talk to them. And there were veteran teachers that could talk me through the situations. And there were times that I had students that were really difficult and I needed a break from them and they needed a break from me.

And so we would utilize a buddy system in our classrooms that A veteran teacher would actually help me out and take the student and have them do work in their room because it was a new environment for the student and so they usually listen better and then it gave me a break and I was able to kind of get myself composed and, and able to work with that student again in a, in a fair way I guess I'd say before instead of letting emotion overcome everything.

So making sure that you have that support is really important and it's okay to ask for help. Just make sure if you're asking for help, you're also contributing and offering help as well. Even if you're a new teacher, it goes both ways. And take time to socialize with staff members, whether you're at lunch or you do something outside of school, but it helps you feel [00:08:00] more connected to not only your colleagues, but your school building.

So, have that time. I know sometimes we're busy, and when staff members go out for drinks or they go do something, you think, oh, I don't have time for that. It's important. Take the time to do that, because those are the people who understand what you're going through each day, and those are people you can lean on when you need help.

Number four, work on your mindset.

Check your thoughts and see if you're focusing on being negative. Are you focused on the fact that you wish you were still on break or are you looking at the positives of being back in school? Our thoughts create our emotions which create our actions and so everything you're thinking is negative then You need to reframe those thoughts because it's going to lead to negative emotions and negative actions.

And the more you surround yourself with people who think positively, the more positive you will become. So if you find yourself around negative colleagues, make sure those are people you're not spending too much time with and that you're aware of the negativity [00:09:00] because then you won't get sucked in. The more aware you are of negativity, the more that you can be conscious of it and make sure you're not engaging in it.

Remember, the more you dwell on being back to work in a negative way, the more negative you'll feel and the more dread you will have for going back to work, so find those positive people, find those positive podcasts, read the positive books, engage in personal development. This is all going to help your mindset, it's going to help you feel better, it's going to help you be more positive.

So remember, if you're back to work and you're already feeling burnt out again, focus on these things. Setting boundaries with your time, taking time for yourself, connecting and collaborating with colleagues and working on your mindset. If you work on these four areas, you can prevent or help yourself overcome burnout.

So if you want more tips, go to my Instagram page at Barb Flowers Coaching. Also, you can get a copy of my free teacher burnout assessment there, and you can get a copy of that in the show notes as well. And if you want help finding your [00:10:00] passion for teaching again, or. Becoming a more positive person and working on those thoughts, I would love the opportunity to help you and coach you towards those goals.

So reach out to me on Instagram or at barbflowerscoaching. com. Thanks for listening to the podcast and stay tuned for the next episode of the Teacher Burnout Podcast.