Don’t Quit! How to Eliminate Teacher Burnout!

Ever wonder why you leave work feeling depleted? Who needs exercise when I’ve clocked in 8,000 steps and run myself ragged at work? Or perhaps you’ve adopted the survivor mindset, wearing your exhaustion like a badge of honor.

Then, there’s that colleague everyone secretly envies—the one with not a hair out of place who, when the bell rings, spends those precious few minutes perfecting lesson plans for the next day. Meanwhile, you’re navigating a minefield of broken pencils and sticky desks. Will this ever end? Maybe next year, you’ll have a “good” class like_______(insert name of annoying colleague).

But I’m here to tell you, unless you make changes, you’ll never have that class! Every single class that walks into your four walls can perform just like the class of that annoying teacher. So, keep reading, and I’ll share the 3 keys to success. But before I continue, know that I was once like you. I wore my exhaustion as a badge of honor. My classroom resembled a war zone at the end of each day, requiring hours of cleanup, only to be destroyed again by my little 5th graders the next day. My turning point came at an Eric Jensen(a brilliant educational guru) conference that changed my teaching forever. So, stay tuned as I’ll share tried and true strategies, with bits from Eric and many other teacher leaders that I’ve crafted into my own over during my two decades of teaching. Please note that what I share next is NOT a single lesson; but a series of actions and activities spread out over several days and weeks best suited for the first days of school. Don’t worry if if you’re discovering these teaching tips later on, it’s always better late than never.

Language Shift: The Key to Classroom Empowerment!

Change your language – What do I mean? It’s simple but rarely heard in classrooms. Stop saying “My Room” or Ms. ______’s Room IMMEDIATELY. I told you it was simple, but it’s one of the most overlooked script changes that can alter for classroom community forever! Let your students know from day one that it is “our room”. Tell them this explicitly! It could sound something like this one the FIRST day of school… “This classroom is OUR room this year. I’ve set up everything so that it’s organized for YOU!. However, this year, we will decide together if systems and organization are working for us. You will all have voice by making suggestions that may work better for us than what we have currently! Also, for the next few weeks, I want you to think about what classroom jobs would make our community/team operate stronger. What will help things flow smoothly? For example, we may need someone to water our plants at the end of the day to keep our plants helathy and vibrant. but you may decide that person is called a gardener.”

Buy-In Bonanza: Ignite Collaboration and Ownership in Your Classroom!

Buy-in! Now that it’s been a few weeks, and students are all chipping in at the end of the day and naturally discovering what end of the day systems would make “their”” classroom run smootly, you can start deciding what jobs would make the room flow. I’ve done this several ways, but here is one scenario. First, have students independently stop and jot down all the jobs they think the classroom needs. Next, come together and make a class list of everyone’s ideas. Tip: take all suggestions. This is not the time to evaluate the necessity of the job. Value everyone’s opinions and write them down. This is your first big opportunity of the year to show students that you VALUE their voices(ideas). During this activity, you may have students sitting in a circle passing a talking piece. As they acquire the object in the circle, the will have the opportunity to add on their unique idea or even repeat one by agreeing with another person. After one or two circle passes, ask if anything on the list hasn’t been mentioned. “Would anyone like to add another job that would make our community stronger?” Add them now. Tip: Make sure that each student also shares what they would like the job called. For example, if they recommend the job of students passing out papers. But they think that these students could also help with tasks throughout the day. So, they call this job Teacher’s Assistant(s). As you can see, students would be doing the heavy cognitive lift on making real-life decisions for their own community.

Collective Decision-Making!

After several days of students discovering the jobs and contributions to the community that will make your year the best ever, it’s time to make final decisions. I have found that this plays out the best through voting! You can do this as a whole class or by putting all the jobs on a Google Form and have students weigh in electronically. So, it might sound something like this… “we have on our list a plant waterer, gardener, and botanist. Let’s do a quick show of hands for which name we prefer. Great, it looks like we will have a classroom gardener! Do we need one or two?”

Once the voting is done you may need to make some adjustments. For example, you’ve counted up the available positions(based on your classroom student count) or based on your past experience you know that having a “substitute” position is valuable as coverage for students who are absent. So, you may need to suggest another job or alter the number of positions. “I don’t see it on our list, but in the past, a substitute was an awesome job when people were absent. What are your thoughts?” Remember that you are giving your students a voice.

Once jobs this process is complete, you can figure out how to display and enact a rotation system, which will give students the ability to try everything even though it might not be their favorite(discovering solid life-lessons!). There are many simple and cute ways to display jobs such as laminated job tags on a magnetic board where you move the students’ names each week in a circular rotation.

“You can always build on the foundation you’ve established!”

After students have completed a week of jobs, you could have a class meeting where each student shares a job description for each job. In the past, I’ve also had students write up a job description and present it at our circle where other students could help perfect it by sharing additional ideas. Or, you can check in at a closing circle after students have completed their end of the day jobs. “Let’s look around the room. How are jobs going? What still needs to be done? Is there a job that could handle that?”

So, are you ready to transform your classroom into a more collaborative and engaged community? You might be hesitant, thinking this sounds like a lot of work or that relinquishing control is daunting. But I urge you to trust the process. Begin with a simple shift in language; it’s the crucial first step. The rewards – pride, respect, and a sense of collective effort – will exceed your expectations. Embrace the change, and watch as your classroom flourishes into a vibrant hub of learning and cooperation!