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
It often feels like there is never enough time. Emails, meetings, paperwork, planning, marking, conversations with parents and supporting students can quickly fill every minute of the day. The Pareto Principle, often called the 80/20 Rule, offers a simple way to think about your workload.
Report writing time can be stressful — late nights, pressure and additional workload at a busy time. Instead of dreading the approach of report writing time and using weak coping strategies like counting down the days till the holidays, try planning early (super-early – like, now!) to make reporting time much calmer. Planning early can make the whole process calmer and smoother.
Working in schools can be so busy that we don’t have time to improve practises that are inefficient. This makes things harder than they need to be. There are several reasons why: We were shown to do something that way so we’ve always done it that way. We don’t have the time to try something different so we figure, “at least I know this way works”. We don’t think “big picture” by putting a band-aid on something rather than diagnosing the problem and working out a solution. Here are a couple of simple things you can do in email that will save time and reduce frustration.
Report cards should be a concise, commonsense report of student progress and achievement that all parents can easily understand. The challenge is to provide all the relevant detail about students’ progress and ensure that the information on the report is clear and concise. It is important the report is coherent and there are logical links between the achievement of the student, areas for improvement and actions the school and parents might take.