Managing and Combatting End of Year Teacher Burnout
It’s May… and in addition to it being Mental Health Awareness Month, it’s also the last (or second-to-last) month of the school year for most of us, and so… the kids are a bit nutty and itching for summer break, the “typical” school day gets interrupted every other day with state testing, field trips, assemblies, you name it—making cohesive instruction exceedingly challenging—and we as teachers are just about running on empty. (Fun fact: some of us have already been running on empty for quite a few weeks or even months at this point!)
It’s a challenging time for sure, because summer break is so close and yet so far away. End-of-year exhaustion has set in, and we’re all just counting down the days until we’re able to wish our students and colleagues a relaxing, peaceful summer break…and close our laptops, lock our classroom doors, and disconnect from teaching for a solid two months.
With burnout being a reality for many of us, though, there are things we can do to help manage our stress and exhaustion, and make waking up in the morning and trudging to work a bit less daunting and overwhelming.
Defining Burnout
Many of us believe that burnout is caused by exhaustion and fatigue from working hard, and while persistent exhaustion and fatigue are certainly symptoms of burnout, they do not always represent the underlying cause. Teacher burnout can also be caused by repeated stress, often in situations where we as teachers are “not in control of how [our] job is carried out”, or being asked to complete tasks that “conflict with [our] sense of self.” (Source: Psychology Today)
Many of us find ourselves in teaching contexts where we ultimately are not in control of our everyday life at work: we do not get to control class rosters, class sizes, our schedules, the preps we have, student behaviors, admin expectations, HR policies… there are so many elements of our everyday life at work that can feel so beyond our control, and at times we may even question if this is even the right field for us anymore.
We try to do our best for our students day in and day out, but often in this profession, it feels like it’s never enough. All of this, coupled with the inherently difficult nature of showing up and being the best versions of ourselves for our students for 180+ days a year…it’s mentally exhausting, and so it’s no wonder that by the end of the year we are running on empty and feeling like the last day of school can NOT come soon enough.
So, how can we manage these feelings of burnout?
Set and enforce strict work boundaries
There needs to be a tangible separation between your work life and your personal life. This job can feel never-ending when you wake up and think about teaching, go to school for 7 hours, stay at school for a few hours once students have left, and then bring work home and continue burning the midnight oil.
I always say that this is a job that is never truly over: there is always something that we can be doing to improve our instruction and assessment practices, but that doesn’t mean that that’s realistic for us, nor does it mean that’s what’s healthiest and in our best interest as teachers.
Work as hard as you can during the school day, but once it’s time to go home and be present for yourself and your family, leave the work at school. You’ll be a better teacher for it - that is certain.
(By the way, if you’re a newer teacher still learning the profession, or if you’ve recently switched schools, grade levels, etc., then this might not be super realistic for you right now…but by year 3 or 4, you should be in a place where you can set firmer work-life boundaries.)
Determine what fills your cup, and do more of that!
I’m an introvert, and so I tend to get super overstimulated and exhausted by teacher-centered lessons where I am lecturing, doing TPRS/storytelling in the target language, or introducing a new grammar concept. Knowing this about myself, I design more cooperative learning activities and small-group instruction toward the end of the school year to prioritize and preserve my own mental bandwidth during stressful times.
You may be an extrovert, and so you might feel ENERGIZED by whole-class interactions with your students from the start of class to the end. It might be lesson planning and resource creation that drains your battery. If this is the case, you can prioritize your own energetic needs by finding free and/or paid resources on Teachers Pay Teachers that will save you hours of time planning and prepping.
Interested in French, Spanish, and Italian Resources? Check mine out below! I make comprehensive and engaging resources that save you HOURS of prep time!
And of course, the opposite also holds true… find what drains your battery the most in your day-to-day teaching life, and do less of that!
Reflect on your successes in the classroom this year
Sometimes it feels like we’re all functioning on auto-pilot, or at the very least, we have so many things to manage and keep track of to do what’s best for our students that we sometimes lose sight of our successes. At the end of the school year, I want you to take some time (perhaps once or twice a week) to think about things that have gone well for you and your students this year.
Maybe you implemented a new teaching strategy that you found success with. Maybe you tried a new classroom management technique that cut down on adverse student behavior. Maybe you re-designed assessments to save you time grading. Maybe you implemented a flexible seating arrangement to help students feel more comfortable and therefore more productive in your class.
Regardless of how your year went overall, I am SURE that you have had some (many?!) successes this year. Highlight them and bring them to the forefront of your mind… it helps the hard days feel less, well, hard. :)
Take breaks. And take your days.
Take breaks. Maybe it’s just a couple minutes at the start of your prep period to unwind, or a few minutes before students enter your next class… you need to take breaks and rest throughout the school day. If you struggle with this, consider scheduling break times and do things that recharge you. Maybe it’s some deep breathing, meditation, going for a walk outside with some colleagues, or watching a relaxing video on Youtube.
If you need to use a sick day or a personal day to take care of your physical and mental health: do it. Your paid time off is part of your compensation package, and therefore you are entitled to your days.
Your students will be just fine without you, and you’ll be able to come back to the classroom the next time feeling more rested, recharged, and therefore more engaged and effective with your students.
If you’re worried about not having sub plans and activities to leave for your students, don’t worry… I’ve got you covered!
I think it’s so important to underline how prevalent burnout is in our field, especially as we approach the end of the school year.
Burnout is caused by systemic factors that are, unfortunately, out of our control in many cases. I think a lot of the triggers for burnout get negated by the joys that this profession brings: teaching students a new language, expanding their minds to new cultures and ways of thinking, helping students grow and mature and become better versions of themselves…all of these things are just a few of the many factors that keep us as World Language Teachers in this profession…but let’s be honest.
There are also many things that are fatiguing about this line of work, and so it’s of paramount importance that we take care of ourselves if we’re feeling like we’ve got nothing left to give during the last few weeks of the year.
How are you holding up? I hope you’ve been able to glean some inspiration from this post, and I hope you do something today, however small, that will move your mental health in the right direction.
Happy language teaching,
~ Michael
