MSTA January Article

Avoiding Teacher Burnout

As a science teacher who has transitioned to the “dark side” (administration), one of my biggest daily concerns is the health of my teachers.  Not just physical health, but psychological health as well. Let’s face it. Teaching is not for the weak of heart, mind, or spirit. Teaching is a tough job.  (And I can also attest that leading teachers, as a principal, is a tough job as well!)  

I am beyond proud of the staff at my building.  They each eagerly care about their students and they selflessly strive to improve their practice.  However, being eager and selfless are also the traits that I worry about most in them. They put others first so often, that they sometimes neglect themselves.  I am constantly concerned about their self-care and their own health.

To this end, I share tidbits I find online with helpful tricks for relaxing.  We have staff workouts after school on certain weekdays. I give them time on Friday mornings to work together as a staff while I take care of the students.  We find humor in our jobs and we encourage one another to keep trying and keep going.

One of the best things I have done this year for myself and my own psychological health was to attend the MEMSPA conference.  (Michigan Elementary & Middle School Principals’ Association) At this conference I was able to connect with local administrators to talk about our county-wide issues, but I was also able to network with administrators from all over Michigan.  We were able to share our struggles but also our achievements and the great things we are seeing/doing. I was able to learn from some amazing presentations and I can honestly say I’ve never been to a conference that impacted me as much as this one did.  

Here are a few of the speakers, in particular, who really resonated with me.

1. Sean Covey.  He discussed goal setting and finding the “genius in everyone”.  I’ve applied his ideas to not just my school, but also to my personal life.  I am setting a few “WIGS” (wildly important goals) and will not stray from those!
2. Allyson Apsey.  She actually is the principal of a school in Zeeland where my 2 nieces attend.  Small world! She focused on the idea of “serendipity” and the idea that you get to choose every day what kind of a day you will have.  Her positivity and enthusiasm is contagious and I enjoyed meeting her very much.
3. Kim Campbell.  She was a keynote speaker one of the mornings of the conference.  If you’ve ever presented, you know how tough being the first presentation of the day can be.  She spoke as we were finishing breakfast and she was hilarious. She taught me that our jobs are FUN and that it is ok to find the humor in every day; to not take ourselves so seriously.
4. Ben Gilpin and Erin Kreger.  These speakers touched on mindfulness and how to incorporate a few mindful behaviors into your day to keep you grounded.  After listening to them present, I transformed a corner of our office at school into a “mindfulness” area. There is a comfy bean-bag chair, some squishy toys, a calm-down jar, and more.  Students who need a break for a few minutes can come and get themselves centered in this area. So far, it has worked great!
5. Jimmy Casas.  Jimmy was the closing keynote and, again, that is a tough job.  He was engaging and so inspiring. The part of his message that stuck with me most was the question “Why doesn’t every month look like September and May in schools”?  Think about it. Think about how excited you are in September to meet your new students and get back into your classroom. Think about May and how excited you are to see the sunshine and how sad you are to be sending your students off at the end of the year.  (There are a few we might be kind of excited to see go, but mostly we are sad to lose our “kids”.) Now think about the months in between. Do you have the same enthusiasm for your classroom in November, February, March, etc. as you do in September or May? If you’re like me, the answer is “definitely not”.  That is something I will be trying to change for myself.

So, in short, this conference came at a perfect time for me.  It was in the early part of December and I was feeling burnt out and tired.  This conference, in particular its speakers and networking opportunities, was amazing.  

If you are feeling the burn out and are in need of some rejuvenation, you are in luck.  The MSTA’s 66th annual conference is coming up soon (March 1-2, 2019) in Grand Rapids. This could be the conference that changes your life as an educator.  This could be the conference that reinvigorates you and reminds you why you took on the important task of educating our children.

If you attend, I’d love to meet you!  Look me up. I am the Region 9 Director and I would love to hear about all of the great things you do in your school.  If you attend, I hope you take advantage of the networking opportunities as well as the getting to as many sessions as possible.  Until then, I hope you can find the humor in your classroom by choosing to have a great day every day, that you can focus on a few wildly important things, and that you can find ways to make every month feel like September!