A Teacher's Candle is Flickering

Burnout -

 Dear Dr. Bird,

    I am 45 years old and have been a teacher for over 20 years.  For the first time in my career I feel shameful to admit that I am suffering some burnout.  I have listened for years to a handful of teachers who are burned out and I have told myself, “I am not joining them!”  The problem is that I am beginning to share some of their attitudes and I don’t like it.  I love my students, I love the spirit of education, and I don’t want to finish out the second half of my career as one of the bitter ones.  Things have changed so much in twenty years and it seems overwhelming!  Kids, parents, test scores, and expectations are sometimes more than I can handle.  Please give me some help! Is there a secret to avoiding burn out?

Yours truly, Burning, but not out

Dear Burning,

            I hope your torch never burns out, and the good news is that if you are thinking about it – you have better odds of saving yourself.  The demands in education are more complex now than ever before.  Keeping your energy high is a tremendous challenge. 

This past week I spoke to a crowd of 800 educators for a school district of 9,000 students.  Among those educators were people who spoke to me afterwards.  They came in all shapes, sizes, ages, and disciplines.  They were teachers, administrators, and staff who had this contagious energy that seemed to pour out of them.  I believe that their strength emerges from one single skill- the ability to adapt.

Schools, like life, will constantly change and we have to change with it. Test scores, over involved and under involved parents, high achieving and low achieving children, new curriculum, new demands, new standards… and on and on.  There is a Zen saying, “Knowledge is learning something everyday. Wisdom is letting go of something everyday.”  The best teachers take in new perspectives and let go of some old ones every day.  Most of all, they are able to see every situation for what it is, and they are able to see every child for what he or she is, not for what they want them to be. 

My topic of discussion this past week when I spoke to the school district was Resilience.  I believe that resilience is not just surviving life and living to talk about it, but surviving life and living to laugh about it.  The most resilient teachers among us have the ability to move on, keep their sense of humor, and expect the unexpected.  Most of all, when you start to feel a little burnout, find things that remind you of why you chose to do what you do.  Read Chicken Soup for the Teacher’s Soul (it’s a wonderful heartwarming book, that will make you proud of what you do). I also have a chapter in my book that deals with resilience and in it there is an inventory for your resilience skills. 

The school district I talked to this past week had 9,000 students who will grow up to be 9,000 adults with 9,000 memories of their youth.  We can see the children as 9,000 burdens or 9,000 bundles of potential.  Remind yourself of how important it is to give them the gift of optimism, so that one day they will look back and say, “I always remember Ms. Jones, she believed in me… always had a bright outlook… always inspired me…”  In the end, what you do each day is a part of a child’s personal history.