Teaching has always been a rewarding profession but it has also become increasingly demanding. While every school is different, the biggest sources of teacher stress are remarkably consistent. The good news? Small changes in how we work and think can make a big difference. Here are five common stressors and some practical tips to help manage them
Staff in schools feel like they are constantly juggling competing priorities—planning, marking, meetings, managing behaviour, dealing with parents and the never-ending to-do list. It can feel overwhelming at times. In her bestselling book, Get Your Sh*t Together, Sarah Knight offers a refreshingly straightforward
Teachers often notice when a student learns, communicates, behaves or interacts differently from their peers. While these observations can be important, conversations with parents require sensitivity, care and professionalism. Parents may feel worried, defensive, relieved or overwhelmed.
Research has been undertaken in many classrooms around the world into a phenomenon known as the Pygmalion Effect. The research demonstrates the impact of teachers’ expectations. Teachers’ expectations can dramatically affect students achievement. If a teacher is told that his or her students are bright, the teacher will be more supportive, use more complex vocabulary, teach more challenging material, allow more ‘wait’ time for students to answer questions and provide more thoughtful and useful feedback to the students. In turn, the students receiving this attention will perform to this level.
Working in schools can be tough and seems to be getting even more challenging. Each year things seem to get tougher! Changes in the curriculum, increased accountability, demanding or absent parents, poor student behaviour, changes in society, tightening budgets and a push to do more with less, all contribute to increased pressure in schools. We work with people every day and people are unpredictable
Schools are full of quick decisions—on the run, between classes and often under pressure. Whether it’s responding to student behaviour, interpreting a parent email or navigating the latest initiative, staff in schools, make hundreds of judgments every day. In The Art of Thinking Clearly, author Rolf Dobelli highlights the many mental shortcuts (or “cognitive biases”) that trip us up. Understanding these can help you think more clearly, reduce unnecessary stress and make better decisions.
As the school year draws to a close, it’s easy to feel swept away by the busyness of year end events and the exhaustion that accompany the final stretch. Each year is a journey filled with moments of triumph and challenge, creativity and resilience. Amid the whirlwind of planning, assessing and supporting students, it can sometimes be hard to recognise all you have accomplished. Yet, as the year comes to an end, it is a powerful time to pause and reflect on the impact you’ve made.
I don’t think we focus on the positives nearly enough. This is true in our personal lives, but also in workplaces, where around two-thirds of people say they do not feel their efforts and achievements are acknowledged or valued. To put it another way, there is not enough celebration of the wins. Celebrating the wins at work has several benefits: It makes you and others feel good: When we focus on making other people feel good by celebrating their wins, everyone wins. We get the feel-goods as well. It is also important to remember, we can celebrate people’s wins in their personal lives as well. It shows progress towards important goals: Yes, the big wins can be celebrated but even…
“I want to be more efficient and effective!” is a statement often heard in schools. Yet many people aren’t clear on the difference between being more efficient and being more effective. They are not interchangeable words and represent completely separate goals. Efforts to improve “productivity” in the workplace often lead to confusion as to whether they need more efficiency or more effectiveness. As a result, nothing much changes. Understanding the two concepts and correctly identifying which you need to focus on, is critical. The easiest way to differentiate between the two concepts is… Efficient – Doing things right Effective – Doing the right things This simple definition cuts to the heart of the matter – efficient is about HOW you…
It’s that time of year for all teachers where the blood pressure and workload are rising, assessments are being marked, the students are tiring by the minute and I really need to make a start on my….(gasp) REPORTS! Here are some things you might like to try as you write your reports this year so that you do not need the first week of holidays to recover: 1) Create (and stick to) a simple timetable for completion so that the workload is spread out over a few weeks and you are not leaving them ALL until the last minute and have to pull an all-nighter (not mentioning any names here but you know who you are). I write mine down…