You are NOT special!
by Roxana Vargas López
Have you ever felt overwhelmed with all the school duties, job responsibilities, parents’ messages, students’ behavior and material preparation?
Have you ever felt burn out with all the paperwork you may have?
Have you ever had the need to run away and don’t think in all your duties, assignments, meetings and responsibilities at school?
So, dear colleague, let me tell you that you are not special. You are not the only teacher who have to face all these situations and duties. You are not the only one who has felt overwhelmed, tired, frustrated, in other words, burn out. But the best part of this situation, beside not being an individual matter, is that it doesn’t last for so long.
Sometimes you feel that everything is just picky parents, bossy principals, useless paperwork, and noisy students, but then it comes the day when a student (or two or more)surprises you doing something, saying something or producing something beyond your expectations, and use the language to produce something by their own, and you see them feeling happy and proud, you receive kind words from parents, your principal congratulate you for your work and results and everything looks like following the river flow. That moment in our busy daily life as teachers is called happiness, my friends!
Considering that we are not special for facing struggles, just let the happy moments arrive every day in small moments and beautiful smiles, enjoy the meanwhile, the here and now, and the daily routine sharing with your kids. And when difficulties are presented, take a moment for yourself, take a couple of deep breathes and continue with your job. (Repeat daily!)
so true. Even though, we are always in a hurry. we should stop and enjoy the beautuful moments with our students at school.
ReplyDeleteThis is good advice to remember. The frustrations will always be with us, but we can focus our attention on the moments of joy!
ReplyDeleteWe all experience frustrating situations in our daily life and teacher burnout is a real thing. We have to make the most of these situations and learn from them and definitely enjoy the success our students experience.
ReplyDeleteThis is so true! We usually let the stress and worries take advantage of us and we should focus more on the good and live the moment and take the best out of it.
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ReplyDeleteHi there Roxana! I love this post! It is such a relief to know that many of us as teachers are struggling with the same challenges. We some times feel like living in an isolated island, maybe because of our crazy schedule and load of work we ignore the fact that we are worn out and we do need to take some time for ourselves, and sometimes bumping into a friendly coworker that can actually understand me and support me can really make a change.
I agree with you Roxana. We must learn to stop anytime we need to breathe and look around and reconnect ourselves to our inner us.
ReplyDeleteYes, our job is always overwhelming, even so, it is comforting when you get these nice moments of happiness. Most of the time we are very concerned about keeping up with the program that we don't take the time to stop and dedicate some time to listen to those crazy little kids.
ReplyDeleteLet's think about sharing and applying some of these valuable knowledge that we are getting from Sean and Mary about meditation and relaxation with our beloved students. They deserve it
For sure I will try to apply this technique with them!
DeleteAs you said before I think our job is very stressful and tiring. Even though, it is the most rewarding job ever! We used to forget all our worries, stress and everything as soon as we received congratulating words from our principal, parents and students.
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