Last year I talked with lots of educators across North America and one thing kept coming up: the year was abnormally busy and people were stressed out. Educators were saying the same thing everywhere: teaching is really, really stressful.
We all know that teachers are overworked, under-resourced, and on stage all the time. Just trying to ‘cover’ all of our prescribed curriculum while making it palatable for our students – let alone exciting – is ulcer-inducing on its own.
Heck, being in a room with 20+ children or teenagers 5 days a week can be enough to send someone over the edge.
Then there’s the fact that we teachers often have to work with a clientele that doesn’t want to work with us, or with helicopter parents who have no problems telling you how you should be teaching and grading their son or daughter differently. Oh, I almost forgot the marking, calls home, attendance and late slips, coaching, and after-school time for extra-help and make-up assignments.
I’m getting stressed just writing this.
Enter the Sanity Savers …
So, to help make this coming teaching year a better one, I’d like to share with you 5 Sanity Savers that have helped me make teaching more fun, less stressful, and even less work over the past 12 years. These aren’t your usual ‘teaching tips‘ that you’ll find on any old website. I’ve gone to great lengths to ensure that each one is high-quality, easy to execute, stress-reducing, and exciting!
I’ll be posting one “Sanity Saver” every Thursday morning for the next 5 weeks, starting this week. This will give you a week’s time to think about and practice each one, making it more meaningful.
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Tags: effective teaching, Great Examples, making education meaningful, Teaching Ideas