Tips for dealing with teaching stress from a veteran teacher.

Sometimes as teachers we feel overwhelmed with stress. These are some tips that have worked for me over the years. Give them a try; I think they will really help.

1.     During lunch or prep. hour, if you have one, try taking a walk. Just call time out and walk around the building. If it’s nice out, walk out side around the building. A five minute walk can really reduce the stress and give you the time out you need.

2.     When the students are tired or feisty call time out. Tell them it is nap time and that they need to put their heads down for five minutes. There should be no talking. It’s amazing how well this works even with high school students. The time out really calms them down.

3.     Bring a radio or mp3 player to school with you. Listen to music you enjoy during your break.

4.     Arrive to work early once in awhile. The extra time will really reduce the stress trying to ready for class.

5.     Call one day a week time off for taking home work. Every assignment doesn’t have to be graded. You can also have the students correct their own papers. You can always give credit for just doing the assignment. It is almost impossible to grade every assignment.

6.     Stay organized. The more organized the less stress. When you are unorganized or unprepared students take this as an opportunity to fool around.

7.     When you’re stressed take a ½ day off. If you get 10 leave days then that is 20, ½ days. Sometimes a ½ day off will really reduce your stress level if you’re behind in grading or need the time to do grades. Trying to do grading while teaching is very stressful.

8.     Don’t be afraid to tell students when you are having a bad day. Most students really will respect that, and cooperate with you.

When you get to stressed, just do something crazy with your students. Put on some music, let them dance and sing for five minutes, tell them a story, or let them tell a story, or take them to the computer room or the library. Sometimes students also need to de-stress.

9.      Don’t be afraid to ask for help from other teachers or administration. We are only human and sometimes we need extra help. If nothing else, if you think you going to loose it walk out into the hall way for a few minutes. Don’t argue with difficult students in class, ask them to go out into the hall and discuss the issue with them out of the public arena. Always start with I really like you, but I don’t understand why you’re acting this way. It really breaks the tension.

G Gale