We don’t need rocket science to know that teachers who are experiencing a lot of stress in their jobs can have problems with their physical health and with their mental well-being. Such things cause teachers potentially to be absent from school or to be less engaged in their jobs. Our work with teachers so far showed that managing student behaviour, managing parents, professional development, taking on extra work due to staffing shortages, supporting students’ mental health and well-being, and very low salaries are the major causes of teaching stress. Stress is dangerous and must be avoided at all costs. We shall be talking about teachers’ stressors today and how to avoid them.
Don’t miss these 3 lif-saving strategies used by smart teachers. The third strategy will surprise you.
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Teachers teach, copy lesson plans, give lesson notes, assignments, homework, tests, etc and score the students, keep a good relationship with the school management, parents & students, monitor attendance, student behaviour, and performance, participate in extra-curricular activities, etc, take care of themselves and families, and lots more. This is the general nature of the job, though the job varies based on the teacher’s level. Should we consider these responsibilities stressful? Let me know in the comment section.
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According to World Health Organisation, “Stress can be defined as any type of change that causes physical, emotional or psychological strain. Stress is your body’s response to anything that requires attention or action. Everyone experiences stress to some degree. The way you respond to stress, however, makes a big difference to your overall well-being”. Stress itself is very dangerous to the changemakers like teachers at all levels. The worry is a lot about the job which cut across human relationships and brain activities. Sometimes it is like running around the same circle due to the repetitive nature of the tasks involved especially in preparing lesson plans, and lesson notes and copying the same note on the board within the short time allocated, checking to see if the students even copied the note, etc. Are teachers ever happy? YES, they are one of the happiest people on earth.
Types of teaching stress
The 2 crazy teaching stress. Teacher’s stress comes in two types which are;
- Personal stress and
- Professional stress
Teaching stress come in two forms which are personal stress and professional stress. While personal stress includes things like personal engagements, death of loved ones, sickness, accident, divorce, etc; professional stressors include professional responsibilities and development, student-teacher relationship, teacher-school management relationship, teacher-parent relationship, working conditions, and student behaviour (discipline, attitude, character, etc). From what you have read so far, is professional stress more common?
Causes of Teaching Stress
The major causes of teacher’s stress are;
- Excessive reasoning
- Attention to details
- A lot of repetition
- Too much involvement of human elements
Wait! Is the 4th reason really true for you? Let me know in the comment section.
How to Avoid Teaching Stress
Smart teachers do basically these 3 things to avoid teaching stress. As rightly pointed out in the causes of teaching stress above, smart teachers capitalize on them while making decisions to avoid unnecessary stress. The following is what to do.
Time Management
Everything about teaching is timed. From the time school opens to lesson time and the school vacation time, everything is just tied to time. Generally speaking, everyone on earth shares time equally, but some people have more time than others, especially with respect to professional activities. Both living and non-living things have equal 24 hours per day. Effective time management then is very crucial for every teacher to balance all the responsibilities (Study, homework, family, social time and much more). However, most teachers fail to do so. This results in making do with what you have or see at that point in time. We all know about the 11th-hour rush and the state it puts us in if we happen to experience it. As smart teachers, to avoid much stress you need to be aware of the time allotted to school work and plan yourself accordingly. Teacher Pal can assist you. Ensure to prepare yourself and avoid procrastination. Above all, know your job description and stop overdoing things. Hahaha! But it is true. Unnecessary seeking of favour makes a lot of teachers overdo things.
Task Delegation
Respectfully, you are a human being, not a machine. You can do anything but not everything yourself. Therefore, as a classroom leader delegate delegatable tasks and do the ones you must do. Task delegation helps you save time, reduce stress, empower your students, cultivate team spirit, build trust, and assist with personal development. You can delegate some classroom tasks to students or to a machine. There is what is called DFY which means Done For You. This simply means that some tasks that require your effort have been done for you and you just need to plug and play. In teaching, such tasks include but are not limited to grading, lesson notes, lesson plans, classroom puzzles, stories, report card comments, etc. You can copy or download the above-listed items on teacher pal. Learning by participating is permissible in every school at all levels. By delegating delegatable tasks to students you are encouraging learning by participation. Click here to copy or download lesson notes, lesson plans, classroom puzzles, stories, report card comments, etc.
Avoid Procrastination
Prepare when you should and execute at the right time. Try everything legally and morally possible to avoid procrastination. It delays and in extreme cases kills. Nature has its own process and you can’t change it unless you have the powers to do so. Circumstances emanate anytime and because of this, just do what you ought to do when you need to do it. Don’t push it to later. It will definitely cause you to stress except if it goes as you propose.
We work hard to provide needed assistance to teachers to help them focus on their teaching job and make a better living. We are glad to inform teachers of passbuttons, an app that helps teachers get quality jobs and access loans and the Teacher’s Life Matter group on Facebook that support teachers to achieve their goals.
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