Avoiding Burnout through Prayer

Don't let the title scare you! This isn't some "convert to Jesus only he will save you" post. However, I know it is summer now and many of us are recharging our batteries. I know this mainly because I have seen a lot of posts lately on teacher burnout and how teachers handle it.

My friend and I at our First Holy Communion
(I am the brunette on the right)

Before I start, please be patient with me as I explain my religious background. When I was a baby, I was baptized into the Catholic Church. I had a horrible fever and went to the hospital soon after! This began my tumultuous relationship with the Catholic Church. I don’t often discuss my faith, as I am at a battle with how to define it, or how it defines me depending on how you look at it. Nonetheless, when I was younger, I went to Catholic school preschool through eighth grade. I received my first holy communication, reconciliation, and confirmation. Despite my struggles with my faith I will always consider myself a Catholic, though at times a lapsed one.

Why am I writing about my religious upbringing when talking about burnout? I want you to know a bit about where I am on the “religious person” scale before I suggest this book. Just as I believe most of the messages in The Bible are for everyone (e.g. be nice, don’t kill, lying is bad), I also believe that this book is helpful for teachers who don’t have any Christian beliefs.

Update: This book is no longer available on Amazon. I am keeping the post here because the concepts are still valuable. If I discover the book again, I'll update the link. The book is called, "Teachers' Devotions to Go" by Diane Stark. She wrote 32 chapters that follow a simple pattern. First there’s a bible excerpt. Then there’s a story about teaching; she ends the story by connecting it to her relationship to God, and with a sample prayer for the reader to use. Most of the prayers thank God, or ask for assistance. Finally the chapter ends with a, “Time Out.” These are like little homework assignments. They are easy tasks to complete to make your life a bit easier.

Now, for those of you who are wondering how on Earth this is related to teacher burn out let me share some of the easy tasks she shares in the “Time Outs”:

• Don’t talk about the negative. Enjoy the positive. Write down 10 things you like about your school, class, etc. and focus on those.
• This is great advice for every teacher regardless of religious beliefs!
• Instead of worrying pray about it
• OK, I get how this one may be harder for non-religious teachers. However, to me prayer is very similar to meditating. All she is really saying is don’t overthink things you can’t control! If you are worried about something take some deep breaths and decide if you can or cannot do anything. If you can, then do it! If not, move on.
• Take a mini-vacation. Even just an hour at a new café.
• Here’s another one I think where I think anyone could benefit. By taking a little time to “get away from it all,” we avoid overloading ourselves!

I don’t completely agree with everything that Diane says, but I am a teacher! When I don’t like someone else’s lesson plan I can almost always find a way to adapt it to best suit my class. This book is similar. She’s giving us the lesson plan that she finds works best for her. Take the ideas that you like and use them! Take the ones you don’t like and adapt them to better suit your life.

 Since I am type of the person who thinks of prayer more as meditation, I don’t tend to use pre-written prayers. However, if you are the type of person who likes pre-written prayers "40 Prayers for Teachers"
 is a nice collection.

I am curious, how many people who read this blog consider themselves religious? I try to keep my religion out of my job (and thus this blog), but I do feel that being Catholic is a part of who I am. 

5 tips to Avoid Teacher Burnout

I love teaching! However, I have had those days when I just want to quit. It can be hard. How do you avoid burning out as a teacher? This guest post from Pauline Sloan discusses the different ways to be a happy teacher, and keep your passion for teaching alive!
 
Being a teacher is one of the hardest professions out there. There are plenty of challenges that teachers are facing these days and you need to find ways to overcome these to succeed. One of the key things to guarantee you are successful in teaching is to keep your passion for teaching. Here are five tips that can help you do it.

1. Keep Learning

You can really stay passionate about your teaching if you keep constantly learning more about your subject as well. If you just rely on the information you have learned during your training it is very easy to start feeling bored.
So make sure that you read new books about teaching and the subject you teach. You can also take advantage of news that relates to your field and share opinions with other teachers.

2. Stay Interested In Your Students’ Opinions

It is also crucial that you remain genuinely interested in your students’ opinions. The way this can help you remain passionate is by making each lesson much more different.
When you show your students you want to hear their opinions then you can keep learning from your students as well.
Know how to be more approachable and how to create the right learning environment for your students. Your passion will feed your students’ passion and vice versa.

3. Talk About Your Job

You want to surround yourself with colleagues that help you share your worries about the job. If you have no way of letting out steam about your job it is really easy to start feeling frustrated and stressed.
Therefore you want to find either friends at work or other people in the field to talk to when things get tough. This can really boost your own interest for teaching. Check out online forums like TES to find other teachers to talk to.

4. Use Different Methods

Make your teaching more fun by using different teaching methods. Don’t just stick to the same routine but make it a little bit different in order to keep yourself on your toes.
There are plenty of great ways to make teaching more fun these days. For example, you can use multimedia or elearning software for creative teaching. Making your teaching more varied with these sorts of tools can really help you keep yourself more excited about your job.

5. Do Something Else

It is also essential that you do something outside teaching as well. You need to occasionally rest yourself and take a break from teaching to ensure it remains something fun to do.
Make sure you have another hobby that doesn’t require you to do anything remotely close to your teaching. For instance, if you are a maths teacher then you might want to start doing something physical like boxing to take your mind of your work.
The above five tips should help you maintain your passion for teaching. It is important to try and do this as it can help guarantee you more success with your profession and guarantee you don’t start feeling stressed about your work as easily.

Pauline Sloan is really interested in helping people feel more excited about the work they do. She is passionate about ensuring people find ways to stay happy and passionate. She is also a really big fan of learning more about the ancient Greeks.