This isn’t an easy blog post, or at least introduction, for me to write. But, I want to be completely transparent with you. I don’t want to pretend like everything is sunshine and roses in my little piece of the world, because it’s not.

If you’ve already got a handle on all things distance learning and you’ve hit your stride, this may not be the post for you. I do have plenty of other distance learning posts that may be helpful. You can check those out here and find one that supports your needs.

If you’re feeling stressed, uncertain, out-of-sorts, or just need some encouragement-keep reading.

Personally, I feel like I’m on an emotional roller coaster in terms of my mental health. Some days I’m fine. Other days I’m a cross between stressed, scared, mad, and sad. I also have different emotions based on the hat I’m wearing at that time:

As a mom, I have to help my own children navigate this experience. This has been especially hard on my fifth grader as she realizes she may not have her big fifth grade field trip, Field Day, Eco Expo, or graduation. I want to respect her emotions, but at the same time wailing in self-pity isn’t going to help anyone.

As a teacher, I was able to transition into the tech and resource end of distance learning easily. Due to my professional development course, I already had some experience with this. However, I was not prepared for the emotional side of distance learning. Walking out of your classroom with no clue as to when you’ll be back and hugging your students good-bye without knowing when you’ll see them again is hard. Really hard.

More than likely we all have our own individual struggles with being home. That struggle will vary due to our individual needs and personalities. For me, it’s the not knowing when this is going to end. I’m a very goal oriented person. I need an endpoint, a destination. I don’t feel right when I don’t have a plan.

The reason I write all of these things to let you know that you’re not alone. I feel like if we’re completely honest, we can all acknowledge that there are some serious growing pains in this experience.

I also want to offer you support, and I hope to give you some actionable ideas and strategies that you can use to make this experience a little easier for your mental health. In the remainder of this post, I’ll share some of things I’ve quickly learned to do and not to do with distance learning.

Schedule

A predictable, but flexible, schedule has been such a help for me and my mental health. I can easily lose track of time when I work. In fact, our first week of digital learning, I feel confident that I put in more hours that I would on a normal week of school. All I did was work.

I’m learning to set up clear work hours. This goes for email too. At a certain time each day, I completely close my school email and notifications.

I begin my work day by checking and responding to emails and messages on Google Classroom. I use any extra time to manage my FlipGrid and Padlet accounts. The next two hours are reserved for Zoom calls. Then I grade and message students as needed. I end my work hours by checking my email one last time.

I do reserve Sunday nights for my weekly plans. That always worked for me at school, so I haven’t changed that.

Notifications

Speaking of notifications, I have drastically limited the quantity of notifications I receive. I greatly reduced the various ways students were allowed to comment and message me an each other. My Google Classroom notifications were in the hundreds every day. I couldn’t deal with it. If I know there’s something that I might need to take care of, I can’t relax until I’ve handled it.

Batch

As a wife, mom, teacher, blogger, curriculum creator, and professional development leader my plate is always full. Over the years I’ve learned that the best way to manage my time is through batching. This means I don’t hop from one task to another. Instead, I focus on one thing to completion.

My first week of distance learning or distance teaching, I felt like I was jumping from one thing to another. Constantly. I quickly realized I needed to apply that batching strategy to my online instruction. I now no longer try to grade as soon as an assignment is turned in. Instead, I set aside a time for grading and only grade during that time.

This goes again my instincts, but it’s working. We simply waste too much time when we hop from one platform to another all day.

Let it Go

We have to let go our preconceived notion of what school should look like. A “normal” distance learning day isn’t going to be the same as a “normal” school day. There are too many unknowns right now for us to truly manage it all. We’ve been conditioned to have these incredibly high expectations on ourselves and our students, and almost overnight these expectations changed.

For the sake of our own mental health, we have to show grace and patience to ourselves, our students, and their families. I’m trying to shift to the mindset of providing learning opportunities to my students. Whether the student chooses to take part in those opportunities, is something I can’t control. I have to let go of the idea of grades and accountability, which is not easy.

The first two weeks of distance learning, I chased down missing assignments, and it was torture. (At this point all of my students have a device and connection.) I did that because I wanted to make sure everyone understand the platforms, assignments, and our procedures. I wanted to make sure there is no miscommunication.

I’m learning to simplify and streamline my assignments as much as I possible can. One way I’m doing this is through my new digital interactive notebooks. The notebooks are organized by math skill and be be used 100% digitally.  You can see the third grade notebooks here and the fourth grade notebooks here.

Each notebook comes with a cover page and hyperlinked tabs. Each tab take students to a specific location within the file. Of course, students can scroll through the file as well.

In each interactive notebook, the first page is for vocabulary. I have my students write the definition in their own words. If they are up to the challenge, they can also add a picture example of the terms.

The second page is a skills practice page. Students may also click the sticky note to be taken to a corresponding Study Jams video. If you don’t want students going to the link, you can delete the sticky note.

Each notebook comes with a math journal prompt. This isn’t the same as a word problem (those come later). Instead, it requires students to think and write about math in a nonthreatening way where there is no right or wrong answer.

Each notebook also includes an interactive sort. In this sort, students drag each unit of measurement into the correct column. This allows students to work with metric and customary measurements.

Each set of notebooks includes word problems. I included several multi-step word problems in each notebook.

In the last page of the notebook, students complete a problem solving task. I also linked a Khan Academy video for students to reference.

Have Fun

Every school year, I reach a point when I’m overwhelmed and stress and school isn’t fun for me anymore. I’ve learned that whenever I hit that mental health wall, I need to slow down and remember why I love teaching in the first place. I’ll take a day and just have fun with my students. Then, the next day we get back to work feeling so much more refreshed and ready to learn.

I’ve tried to apply that same principle to distance learning. Watching my own two kids at home allows me to see firsthand just how boring it can be, especially when it rains 12 out of 14 days! To help interject a little fun and break from boredom, I’m going to start giving students a weekly challenge. These challenges are 100% optional and 100% silly. There is no reward, requirement, or rules (other than being safe). Not only will students have fun planning these challenges, but they should also have fun viewing each others’ videos. You can download the files below here.

Limit Tech

Limiting my time on the computer is so hard for me, because there are so many things I need to do. As of right now, I have 390 resources in my TpT Store, and I want you to be able to use them ALL digitally—today. But, it took me 9 YEARS to make all of those resources, so those updates aren’t going to happen overnight, or even in a week or two. I find myself working on those updates every spare second I get, and I know it’s not the best thing to do for my mental health.

We have to get off our devices. We need to do other things that make us happy. What that is will depend on you. After I force myself to take a break, we’ve been going on walks and bike rides, reading, baking, and I even bought myself a paint-by-number kit. For our own sanity, we have to step away.

Goals

As I mentioned earlier, I’m a goal-oriented person. Unfortunately, I can’t make a goal of returning to “normal” mental health. However, I can set other obtainable goals. These goals must be centered around the things I can control.

These goals can be teaching related. I may set a goal of communicating with each child individually with each child at least once a week. Or I could set a goal of learning a new platform or tool.

I can also set personal goals. One of mine is to clean out and organize my closet. That may not sound like a lot of fun, but it will give me room and an excuse to need new clothes once I have somewhere to wear them again! 🙂

The post Distance Learning & Your Mental Health appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

Let’s be honest, we’ve all been there. Wondering how many more days we can take it, much less years. Teaching is hard work. It can be a physically, emotionally, and mentally draining career, and it’s often a thankless job where teachers are typically portrayed as the reason for all of educational shortcomings. We’re expected to play the roles of educator, disciplinarian, motivator, secretary, nutritionist, nurse, psychologist, and even parent at times. We’re asked to perform miracles, without the resources we need to perform those miracles, and many are micromanaged to the point of having absolutely no freedom. Feeling encouraged yet? With all of that  said, I do believe that it’s possible to avoid teacher burnout and to actually enjoy — even love — teaching. I won’t be naive enough to suggest that it’s possible to eliminate all of our stress and frustrations, but I would like to share 5 ways to avoid teacher burnout.

Teacher Tip #1: Positivity

Having a positive attitude will reflect on all areas of your life and make you a more efficient teacher. You can choose to be happy, positive and optimistic or you can choose to be pessimistic and critical with a negative outlook on education.

We may have to make a conscious effort to squash negative thoughts, but that effort is worth it. I’ve found that it is incredibly important to not focus on the negative, because it only intensives the problem, rather than helping solve anything. Rehashing negative thoughts over and over in your head, rumination, can be counterproductive. Guy Winch, Ph.D., psychologist and author of Emotional First Aid: Practical Strategies for Treating Failure, Rejection, Guilt and Other Everyday Psychological Injuries says, “It’s like a needle in a groove. As the groove gets deeper and deeper, the needle has a harder time getting out of the groove.” Dwelling on the negative can actually make you more angry or upset than you were originally, because the issue becomes magnified in your mind.

Try to surround yourself with positive role models and avoid toxic negativity as much as possible to avoid teacher burnout. Jennifer Williams of Teaching to Inspire and I work together to administer a POSITIVE and SUPPORTIVE Facebook group where teachers can learn and grow together. We’d love to have you, so here’s a link if you’d like to join!

Morale

Low morale is certainly an issue an many schools, but there are things we can do to try to encourage and boost morale. One of my favorites is to start a teacher meme challenge. Yes, it’s silly and superficial, but there’s nothing like a good laugh, or even chuckle, to boost someone’s attitude. You could start with slipping something about copy machines in the work room.

Depending on your relationship with other teachers in your building, you could even prominently place a child appropriate meme in another classroom to surprise a coworker. We do silly things like this to each other frequently, and it really does brighten our day.

Food and Kindness

Teachers are often encouraged by food. At my former school, we had once a month snack days where teachers brought in different finger foods, and we enjoyed the snacks during our planning. If your administration and/or PTO is on board, can you imagine the excitement of providing breakfast, lunch or even desert. I used to work with the sweetest lady who would bake treats for the teachers just to be nice, and even though it’s been years I still remember how excited we would be to hear that Karen baked for us that day.

Random acts of kindness are another amazing way to encourage and boost morale, with students and teachers. I’ve created a little Random Acts of Kindness for teachers to help boost the morale of a school. Wouldn’t it be awesome to challenge a staff to complete all ten of the activities in a week, or even a month. I love the idea of letting this trickle down to our students by our modeling and eventually a student challenge. You can download the form for free here.

Another fun activity to build a little excitement for any holiday is a class version of You Got Booed. Classes take turns booing each other. To do this, you’ll need some type of basket or container. You can place some type of treat or goodie in the basket. You could add candy, silly straws, erasers, pencils, stickers, wikki sticks, spider rings, or anything fun in the basket. Just make sure you have enough for each student that will be receiving it. You could even add something special for the teacher.

Place the goodies, direction sheet, and We’ve Been BOOED sign in the basket and SECRETLY deliver the basket to another classroom. You can place it outside a classroom door or place it inside a classroom while the teacher and students are away from the room. The class gets to keep the treat, and then it’s their job to replace the goodies with something different, and it’s their turn to boo a different classroom. Once a class has been booed, they should place a We’ve Been BOOED sign on their door, so everyone can have the chance to get booed. You can download You’ve Been BOOED here.

When it comes to remaining positive, relationships are key. Regardless of what strategies we use, we need to intentionally do our part to create a fun, positive, and supportive work environment. These things are essential to avoid teacher burnout.

Teacher Tip #2: Consider Change

Anyone who knows me will agree that I hate change. I run away from it, resist it, and fight it tooth and nail. That said, I do try to embrace change in my classroom. I find that if I keep doing the same thing the same way I get into a rut and begin going through the motions. Change in my classroom keeps me on my toes and forces me to stay current on new educational research and practices. In no way, shape, or form do I use every idea and strategy I’ve ever read about. Instead, I take the bits and pieces that work for me and my students and assimilate those strategies into my current instruction. I could easily keep doing what I’ve always done, but I never want to stop learning and growing as a professional.

Now, I am not talking about mandated change for the sake of change. That’s a completely different story. I don’t think I’ll ever be a teacher who jumps on the latest trends in education. I’ve been teaching long enough to see far too many programs and initiatives that had no place in the classroom. Instead, I approach new techniques and ideas with caution, common sense, and an open mind.

Change is what prevents me from becoming bored and gives me a new energy for my profession. For example, I had been using my Number of the Day review for morning work for years. I loved it and was 100% confident in its effectiveness, but I could go over it in my sleep. It got to the point that I dreaded that part of my day, because I was tired of the same thing over and over again. I found myself rushing through it or even skipping it altogether.

That was my sign that it was time for a change. If you have a task, review, or unit that you don’t enjoy because it’s boring, maybe it’s time for something different. Sometimes I can add or replace a couple lessons within a unit, and I’m good to go. Other times, I completely rewrite a unit, because I need to keep things fresh and exciting. I recognize that my students won’t know if I’m teaching from a new or old unit, but I am a firm believer that students absorb their teacher’s like or dislike of a topic or assignment.

If your frustration and stress is on a greater scale, it may be time for a more significant change. When I found myself starting to go through the motions of teaching third grade, I knew that to preserve my sanity and avoid burnout as a teacher, I needed a big change. I ended up making a huge leap of faith and moving grade levels and schools. Sometimes we need a fresh start to challenge, motivate, or encourage us. While I can’t say that it was easy, I did regain my excitement and passion for teaching. You never want to feel like the walls around you are imprisoning or trapping you, because that’s not an environment conducive for happiness or joy.

Teacher Tip #3: Take Care of Yourself

I think many teachers by nature are givers, and they give from themselves until there’s nothing left to give. We find ourselves working way too many hours, not getting enough sleep, lacking time to exercise, much less enjoy activities outside of school. We tend to place the idea of taking care of ourselves somewhere in the future when achieve certain milestones in our lives, but our body and minds need taken care of regularly. Sometimes we may have to say no to various extracurriculars, committees, and additional responsibilities. Of course some will fall within the parameters of our required duties, but we don’t have to take on every opportunity to serve that presents itself. We should shift our mindset from thinking of rest and rejuvenation as a luxury to an essential tool for us to maintain the level of work required from us.

Time is always a factor when it comes to taking care of yourself. Now that my children are a bit older, after a full day of teaching my afternoons and evenings consist of WAY too much extra events. I find myself constant running without ever having even the briefest moment to unwind during the day. I do try to streamline my day to be as efficient with my time as possible. I’m learning to eliminate things that are not the best use of my time, both professionally and personally. There are things I used to do as a teacher that I’ve let go, because it wasn’t worth my investment of time, and I have to use my time as wisely as possible. I’ve also had to learn to accept that I will never have enough hours in the day to do everything I need to do. You can read more about how to take care of yourself in this blog post.

I’ll be the first to acknowledge that this does not come easy for me. More than once my husband has had to ever so kindly encourage me to put my computer away, so I would stop working. It’s easy to become so consumed with work life that we miss out on our real life. We need to avoid this; otherwise we will quickly head toward teacher burnout (you know, that thing we want to avoid).

Teacher Tip #4: Let It Go

It’s important to accept that some things are out of our control. There is nothing I can do about state testing, students’ home life, or state/system wide decisions. I have to learn to let these things go. They’re not worth my emotional energy. Instead, I should focus on what is in my control and work to improve those things as best as I can. Try to focus on what I can control and place my energy on those things. I’ve wasted far too much time worrying about things that are outside my reach as a teacher.

For the most part, I can control what happens in my classroom. Sometimes I feel like a broken record…”don’t interrupt, did you read the directions, pick up your pencil, etc.” There are little things that drive me crazy during the school year. Sometimes it’s important for teachers to think about what strategies and management styes aren’t working and either abandon or modify those techniques. I absolutely realize that there are things have control over {ahem-testing anyone} but I’m not talking about those things. IEvery now and then I try to pinpoint the things that just aren’t working for me. This year I’m not happy with my dismissal procedure. What I’m doing isn’t working, so I’ve got to experiment until I find something that is effective for me. These changes can be procedural or academic.

Teacher Tip #5: Think About Purpose

Sometimes when I get caught up in the day-to-day chores of teaching, I lose sight of my original purpose in becoming a teacher. I start sweating the small stuff as well as the big stuff. It’s sad, because I allow myself to lose sight of what matters most, my students.

I know it sounds cliché, but teachers have the unique opportunity to impact, shape, and change lives. That’s a pretty big deal. We may never know the end results of our efforts or just how far our reach will go. I have to imagine that we’d be more than a little surprised and may feel a little more validated about all of the sacrifices we’ve made for our students. You may never hear these words but… You are important. Your students need you. Your work and effort is appreciated.

Guess what? It’s okay to have fun while you teach. If you enjoy your job, you will do much better. Being in the classroom can be fun. Of course, it’s not all rainbows and sunshine in my classroom, but I try to have something to look forward to throughout the week. It’s so much easier to get out of bed and ready for school when I have a lesson that I can’t wait to teach. It may be as simple as a new book for a read aloud or something as elaborate as a new STEM lesson.

The post 5 Ways to Avoid Teacher Burnout appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

Some of my absolute favorite teacher memes are the teacher tired memes. This is probably because I can completely identify with each and every one. Without a doubt, teaching is an exhausting profession. We go hard mentally and physically all day long without breaks or downtime. I work with many new teachers, and one of the most common concerns I hear is overcoming the almost debilitating tiredness that often comes with teaching. Fortunately there are some things we can do to prevent ourselves from becoming teacher tired.

Good Nutrition

It’s no secret that good nutrition is important, but it’s so easy to overlook. The best energizing foods are those that are rich in complex carbohydrates, protein, antioxidants, and fiber. Putting these foods together along with small amounts of healthy fats for a balanced diet that helps provide you energy all day long. This can go a long way toward becoming teacher tired. While I love the idea of eating healthy, it’s not always easy for me, especially when I don’t plan ahead. I’ve found that when I don’t think about lunch or snacks until two minutes before I leave the house, I typically end up eating something along the lines of a Lunchable or frozen meal.

One of my goals for the year is to begin meal prepping on Sundays. I’d like to plan and prep my and my children’s lunch at one time, so I can avoid the extra stress in the morning. We Are Teachers.com posted several examples of teacher lunches that look way better than anything I’ve ever brought to school. I also like to plan ahead with what we will be eating for dinner during the week. I try to go to the grocery store once a week and avoid quick trips as much as possible. Once again, a little prep goes a long way. I make a weekly menu that lists everything I’ll need.

Drink Water

Every single one of our organs and bodily requires water to function properly. Dehydration can cause body functions to slow down, leaving you feeling sluggish, tired, and irritable. If you’re in need of a quick “pick-me-up,” try drinking water, which can give  you an energy boost and fight off fatigue. Drinking water has many other benefits such as warding off headaches, increasing metabolism, and aiding in clearer skin. I’m trying to drink a large bottle of water a day while I’m at school and another bottle when I get home. I’m also a coffee drinker…..as in I LOVE my morning cup of coffee. For years I’ve limited myself to one cup a day, because I recognize how dependent I am on that morning cup of coffee. Lately when I’m particularly teacher tired, I do have an afternoon cup of coffee, but I’m trying not to make it a habit.

Exercise

Why is it so hard to exercise? I feel better physically, mentally, and emotionally when I work out, but I have the hardest time ever getting started. Many studies show that once you start moving around, the more you will want to move, and, the more energy you feel. Exercise causes your brain to turn up production of certain brain chemicals known to have antidepressant effects which also boosts energy and improves mental clarity. One of my biggest obstacles is time. I simply don’t have any extra time. I am able to squeeze in a 7 minute work out, with an app on my phone. It’s a great early morning boost for me.

I want to workout more than 7 minutes a day, and I’ve done pretty much everything under the sun: Pure Barre, Couch to 5K, all kinds of group classes, ever DVD ever created. etc.. While it’s certainly not the most strenuous thing I do, the most relaxing exercise for me is to walk outdoors, while I listen to a book on Audible. Now, if I can ever be home long enough to walk before it’s dark outside!

Limit Naps

We all go through different seasons of life, and in this season, naps are not an option for me. My afternoons consist of running to gymnastics, to soccer, to cross country practices, games, and meets, so I never come home from work and rest. However, my first couple years teaching I would come home and crash every day. Don’t get me wrong, those naps were glorious, but they came with a price. I couldn’t sleep at night. This might not have been a problem if I had power napped for about 15 minutes, but I was sleeping for at least an hour or more.

As I wrote this blog post, I spent some time researching napping, and there were many benefits of napping. The trick is to limit your time napping, because you still need your night time sleep cycle. One interesting article from Time by Markham Heid said, “People who aren’t habitual nappers tend to fall into very deep sleep during naps, and waking up from that leaves them feeling groggy. On the other hand, natural nappers—you know who you are—don’t plunge into deep slumber during their daytime snoozes. This allows them to wake up from naps feeling energized and alert, not discombobulated.”

Good Night’s Sleep

I think we all know the benefits of a good night’s sleep. I also know that getting that good night’s sleep is next to impossible for me. It seems like no matter how hard I try, I’m not getting to sleep until close to midnight, and then I get up at 5:30. Common sense says that’s not good. One rule I’ve started giving myself is no technology (other than my Kindle) right before it’s time to go to sleep. I wish I knew who made the graphic below, because it is so me! I can waste so much precious time with things that just aren’t necessary. But I feel like a new person when I actually get those 7 hours of sleep.

I’ve also read that creating a routine for your body by going to sleep the same time every night and getting up at the same time every morning is helpful to your body. I’d love to see what happens if I tried that for a whole week. Although, I’m adamant about not getting up at 5:30 on a Saturday.

Good Shoes

Here’s a tip I actually enjoy – go shoe shopping. It is so important to wear good shoes while you’re standing on your feet for hours each day. I know that when I wear some shoes, my legs ache by the end of the day. I’ve found that teacher opinions on shoes vary greatly, so you’ll have to pick what works best for you. I love cute shoes, so I’m always on the lookout for shoes that are trendy and comfortable. We Are Teachers published a blog post entirely about teacher shoes, so maybe we can find a few good ideas there. I use to choose quality of quality, but I’ve changed sides and now I’d rather have one or two good pair of shoes than several cheap but uncomfortable shoes.

Time for You

The last tip is often the hardest for teachers. You have to slow down and take time for you. You face physical and mental exhaustion on a daily basis. Even if you love teaching and all things teaching related, it’s still important to nurture your other interests. What do you enjoy that allows you to escape? Is it yard work, cooking, painting, reading, or something else? I can say with complete certainty you will never be caught up teaching. It won’t happen. Learn to prioritize what has to get done, and then cut yourself some slack with the rest. Overworking yourself will not benefit your students at all.

Keep in mind that in the beginning of the year, your body needs time to adjust to the dramatic change in routine. It’s also using these tips is much easier said than done, but I’m going to give them my best effort this week. What other strategies do you use to avoid becoming teacher tired?

Finally, be sure to also read my related post, 5 Ways to Avoid Teacher Burnout.

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