From an 'A to Z of Methodology'

Teacher Exhaustion

What and why?
It is a common experience of many teachers, that they end the teaching semester, week or even day absolutely exhausted.  While ‘overworking’ may be necessary from time to time, and may produce feelings of achievement, it is equally true that, in the long run, exhausted teachers are of little use to anyone – let alone to themselves, their immediate family, and the class they are teaching.  Stress levels are often very high in the teaching profession.  It is important to identify where the stress is coming from – is it from institutional structure (the school and school system), from the classroom (the particular class you have now) or from other factors.

Practical ideas

• A golden rule for all teachers is to realise that ‘You can only do what you can do’.  Many of the things that frustrate and stress teachers are beyond their control.  Additionally, there are a certain number of working hours in a day, and this places limits on what can ever be achieved.  It is important therefore to be realistic, to do what you can, and not to blame yourself for achieving less than you hoped.
• Stress can result from teaching a particular class of student. This may be lessened by alternative approaches in your relationship with them.  See Discipline.
• Many teachers simply work too hard – and do not realise that, in many cases, the more they do, they less the students can benefit.  A teacher, for example, may sit up all night preparing a poster activity for the children, or even doing it completely for them, and not realise that by doing this they are robbing the students of the experience of doing things for themselves.  An activity done completely by the students may not look as nice as one in which an adult has done most of it, but what, in the end, is more important – the student’s experience or the finished article?
• ’Over-preparing’ is also common.  It is possible to involve students in many of the things that teachers traditionally do by themselves.  This may be in organising materials, preparing the classroom, planning tasks, even in designing simple practice exercises and simple tests.  See Mixed Abilities and Student involvement.
• Exhaustion can also come about by assuming too much responsibility – often to the detriment of the students.   A teacher who asks ‘How can I make the students speak English when they are in groups?’, for example, is probably asking the wrong question.  The emphasis on how can I resolve this problem, and how can I make them speak English puts the teacher in a ‘compulsion’ relationship with the students which in all likelihood they will resist – thereby creating another problem.  A more fruitful approach is to share the problem with the students and say ‘Our groupwork isn’t working.  How can we improve it?’
• Similarly, some teachers feel that they have to find ways of motivating the students when they seem to be losing interest.  This places the teacher in the role of continually looking for ‘fun’ things to do, to ‘sugar the pill’ and seemingly trying to get the students to learn despite themselves.  In many cases, the real problem is not one of finding ways to motivate the children but of finding ways to open up the children’s own motivation.   See Motivation.