If you find yourself cutting corners on lesson plans, getting annoyed with students, feeling exhausted or wondering what you are even doing teaching English…you maybe suffering from teacher burnout.
Lindsay Clandfield explains what burnout is, why it happens, and what you can do about it in the latest OneStopEnlish.com’s Methodology Debate.
Younger teachers and those going into the job with highly idealistic motives are more likely to suffer from burnout than their “opposites”, and burnout is, as you would probably expect, also related to issues like difficult working conditions and classroom problems like lack of recognition or not seeing the possibility for change.
There’s good news though: there are some remedies for burnout!
What can you do?
Reduce your working hours (the author admits this can be a challenge);
Try out new approaches;
Develop yourself professionally however you can – this could include observing others and asking them to observe you, or reading up on an facet of teaching that interests you;
Adopt healthier living habits.
My take on these? I think they are fairly common sense solutions, and some are not really within a teacher’s control…but I think it’s valuable to realize there are steps you can take to deal with burnout yourself. A solution doesn’t require the situation to change.
Is the typical EFL teacher likely to face burnout? In one sense, EFL teachers do often work some long and hectic hours, and at any given time, a great number of EFL teachers will be new teachers, and starting a new job is usually stressful…so yes. On the other hand though, there are many different motives for teaching EFL and personalities, and having a new country to explore may offset some of what would have been stress.
Have you experienced burnout?
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I blame the DoSs (DoSes? DoSSers?) and teacher training courses for not supporting teachers in these situations and not teaching them how to help themselves. Here’s what can be done:
- Have ‘time management for teachers’ as the first and last input session of every CELTA and DELTA style course. We introduced it on the Via Lingua CTEFLA course I was head trainer for, to overwhelmingly postive reviews. Will try and post the input session notes on my blog soon
- Have the chief aim of every INSET teacher training as things that will help the teachers and the students rather than great ideas that will add more work
- Train EFL managers to really manage people, rather than just shuffle papers. Isn’t that what managers in the real world do?
TEFLtastic blog- Lots of EFLippancy and some more serious stuff- http://www.tefl.net/alexcase
Done:
Workshop plan on time management skills to make sure you don’t burn out:
http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/workshop-plan-time-management-for-teachers/
An article on one part of the same topic:
http://www.tefl.net/esl-articles/lesson-plans-tips.htm
Any feedback gratefully received
TEFLtastic with Alex Case- All the truth that’s fit to teach http://www.tefl.net/alexcase
Haha, DoSsers.
Excellent points, Alex, and I especially like the first link (outline of seminar on time management) and this from your first comment: Have the chief aim of every INSET teacher training as things that will help the teachers and the students rather than great ideas that will add more work.
Of the items that take up time – which the participants in the t.m. seminar are to brainstorm – I think for new or second or even third year teachers, it is just planning lessons and finding good activities. This kind of naturally goes down with experience, though things like these help too:
- teaching the same class (particular level, ie Upper Int 2 or whatever) more than once (ie being scheduled to teach the same class more than once).
- teaching two classes of the same level in the same term (ie two UI2 groups).
- not sharing groups – at least in my experience – because it means you use what you planned and didn’t do, and you spend less time backtracking to cover the transition between teachers.
It’s amazing how often this seems to be a possibility but doesn’t happen…I would personally hate to have to make a term schedule, but things like this are often relatively minor things that can make teachers’ lives so much easier.
Your other tips – making all copies at once, and keeping a folder of “good things to try” rather than trying to find them every time – are also great tips.
As for cutting, once I’m done with all the planning…I sometimes find it relaxing. Really
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