Are you an overwhelmed teacher? Are teachers overworked and underpaid? Absolutely! That’s a whole other post for another day! Actually, that could be several posts, but I digress.
Let’s talk about what to do in this present moment if you feel overwhelmed. Teachers can have a heavy workload, large class sizes, behavior issues, and a lack of support. In addition, standardized testing and a constantly changing curriculum can cause stress for teachers.
Also, there could be things outside of the classroom causing pressure such as health problems and just trying to maintain a work-life balance.
This is not an exhaustive list! The list of things that impact teachers could go on for days!
However, just like with any job, you have to adjust and adapt to what you are given to make things work.
If you are reading this, you are probably a FABULOUS teacher and just wants to make things work because you love your job. Teaching, although extremely hard, is an amazing and rewarding job!
Tips to Help the Overwhelmed Teacher
Here are some tips for you if you are a teacher feeling overwhelmed!
Prioritize Tasks
You don’t have to be an overwhelmed teacher. You have to put first things first. There are an infinite number of things that teachers can do in a day. IT WILL NOT ALL BE COMPLETED!
Start your day by listing the things you want to get accomplished, and just know that it will probably not happen; however, you can prioritize the most important things.
For example, let’s say you have to have grades in by tomorrow, you need to call 3 parents, you have to get your lesson plans in by the end of the week, and you need make copies for next period.
Of course, the copies will need to be completed right away. Then, you must make sure your grades are turned in. Can you do this in your planning period today? If not, how can you adjust your class time to make it happen?
Now, the parents…can you email them instead? Is there one that you need to prioritize over the other? Can it wait until tomorrow?
Lesson plans? Well, you have to get those grades in, so let’s get that completed first. Lesson plans can wait.
You know what needs to be done. Just work on prioritizing at the beginning of each day! Don’t stress if it all doesn’t get done. Give yourself some grace.
Use the Flipped or In-Class Flipped Classroom Model
One of the greatest things I did as a teacher is when I switched to an “in-class” flipped model.
My schedule included teaching six classes in a day. In the beginning, I used the traditional lecture way of teaching, and although I found a way to make this engaging for students, I was SO tired by the end of the day. I mean, I was teaching the same thing SIX times a day.
So, let me help you by telling you why I love the in-class flipped model. It gave me more time, and my feeling of overwhelm went down significantly.
The traditional flipped-class model would not work in my classroom just because my students didn’t have access to what they needed outside of the classroom and some of them just wouldn’t do the work.
The in-class flipped approach allowed me to let students go through the lesson at their own pace, leaving me free to do what I needed.
This approach would allow you time to:
- Breath! You don’t have to talk nonstop.
- Monitor and supervise students while they are learning
- Provide individual support
- Give feedback to students
- Work on grading! Yes! You can do this. I would walk around with a clipboard, grading as I helped students. You just have to multitask!
- Answer those phone calls! You know the phone rings off the hook while you are trying to teach. Now, you can get those phone calls without loosing your train of thought.
- Better time to manage behaviors
- And more!
I can sing the praises all day on how this approach saved my sanity! It also helped me bring the WOW Factor to the science classroom! Don’t be the overwhelmed teacher with no sanity. Try it out!
Communicate with Parents
Communicating with your students’ parents can also save your sanity (and make you lose it sometimes, but that’s not the point!).
Classroom management is huge. Once you have this under control, this can help the overwhelm SO much. You really can’t do anything else in your classroom until you have a handle on this.
Communicating with parents is key. When you build a partnership with parents, this can help resolve issues and improve student behavior. Sometimes, you have to tackle one at a time, but over the course of the year, things will get better!
Make it a goal to communicate with a parent each day. You can do this through apps, emails, phone calls, notes, etc. Make sure to communicate the positive things along with those more “negative” communications.
Use Your Planning Time Wisely
As mentioned above, there is never enough time in the day to get everything done, and if you are lucky enough to actually have a planning period to plan, you must use it wisely!
Check out these 10 innovative ways to use your planning period time wisely!
This will help you decide what to do when you feel overwhelmed.
Don’t Reinvent the Wheel Every Time
As teachers, we are creative and love to make all things new and awesome for the classroom. When we have time to let our creative brains work, amazing things happen. Unfortunately, we just don’t have time to do this for every single lesson we teach, meeting we plan, or activity we want to create.
So, sometimes, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. You must use some of the other resources that others create.
This can be:
- using things that your colleagues have created
- following along curriculum guides and other resources created by your school district
- using pre-made resources like those on TPT or Bright in the Middle 😊
- using simulations online like PhET
- collaborating with other teachers in your school
- learning new things to incorporate from PD
- exploring blog posts from other science teachers
- using YouTube videos to help teach a lesson
- finding open educational resources online
- getting ideas from Facebook groups
- finding free worksheets and printables related to the topic
- getting ideas from Pinterest
- and so much more!
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time. Use the never-ending amount of resources available to you when needed! There is no need to become an overwhelmed teacher.
Set Boundaries
To go from overworked teacher to smooth-sailing teacher, you have to set boundaries. As I have mentioned countless times in this post, there is never enough time to do everything you need to do as a teacher. Once you set your priorities, you must also set boundaries.
You may be a teacher that says that you are only going to work your contract hours. If that’s you, those are your boundaries.
If you are a little more flexible, set your boundaries. Make sure you make time for yourself, your family, or whatever you want to make time for.
You know there is never enough time in a day to do everything. Set priorities, set boundaries, and make the time for things that are most important.
Celebrate the Small Wins
Like a broken record, I’m going to say there is never enough time in the day to do everything! Do not beat yourself up when things don’t get done. You will be overwhelmed if you do that.
Instead, celebrate the small wins. For example, if your list of things to do includes those that I mentioned above: “you have to have grades in by tomorrow, you need to call 3 parents, you have to get your lesson plans in by the end of the week, and you need make copies for next period.”, think about the small wins – the things you do get accomplished.
So, let’s say you: made copies, emailed one parent, and got your grades in. You did it! You got things accomplished! Celebrate!
Don’t dwell on things unfinished. If God allows you to see another beautiful day tomorrow, there will be time to get more things done.
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