glasses, moustache, handkerchief, WE HAVE AN OPERATION

May 17, 2006 12:20 AM

Teachingfilter: So, fellow mefiteachers, how do you deal with the exhaustion that comes with the job?

I'm working in China as an English teacher, and I like my job, and I'm good at it. I've been doing this for two years now, and after all that, I've pretty much licked every single classroom problem a teacher can have here (and with 50 kids to a class, impossibly disorganized administration and curriculum, and classroom tech so low you'd think chalk is advanced, there's a lot of them). It's not as difficult as you'd think, it just takes some getting used to. I've purchased my own curriculum materials for different age levels and demanded to use it, I've learned more Mandarin than some of their Lit teachers know and I use it with a bellow & fierce visage to match the four horsemen (but only when necessary, most of the time I'm nice :-) ), I can write my weight in lesson plans, and I've not encountered a pronunciation problem or retention problem that I didn't know the solution to in a long time. I care about the students, I'm friends with many of them, and I think overall I'm doing a pretty good job.

I like teaching, but there's one last problem that every teacher I've ever met suffers from, and that I still can't cope with - post-class exhaustion. After class, I wander out like a zombie. Even if a lesson goes fantastically, I emerge covered in chalk dust like Bruce Willis after escaping from an exploding car, palms & mouth dry, and my brain, well, dead. And it takes a day or two to recover from the mental exhaustion. After especially long days, I come home and sleep for 12 hours, no shower, nothing. I don't have the energy. I get enough sleep, I eat pretty healthy food, and as was proved by my performance in a ping-pong tournament recently, I can sweat and jump around and not lose myself after a day of exertion. So how do you cope? What is it about teaching that makes it so draining?

posted by saysthis to health & fitness (24 comments total)

I hypothesize that teaching is draining because you're constantly trying to read fifty or a hundred different faces to figure out if they're getting it. Also, if you're me, it's draining because at any one time, 5% to 10% of those faces are staring at you with bewilderment, disgust, or fatigue. I can make the confusion move around the room, I can transmute it into anger or apathy, but I can't ever seem to make it go away completely.

I do only bad, unhealthy things after teaching. A pint of ice cream, a string of bad tv shows, that sort of vice-ridden villainy. Education is HARD. And, to my chagrin, it's IMPORTANT. I didn't realize that when I signed up for this gig.
posted by anotherpanacea at 12:54 AM on May 17, 2006

This doesn't really answer the question - but after five months of teaching English in Russia (with near-identical conditions), the fatigue has more or less ruined me. I know I'll never teach in this capacity again - never again for a disorganized, unprofessional school, for more than 2 or 3 students, or for more than 10-15 hours a week.

If anyone has any solutions, I'm game- but booze, ice cream, and sleep have done nothing significant for me. Luckily, my gig is up in 2 weeks and I have another job to fall back on.
posted by fake at 1:37 AM on May 17, 2006

Damn straight, anotherpanacea. It's like, before class, I want to have a life outside of teaching. I make these plans to exercise, learn Portugese, do the dishes and water the plants and go out and start a real blog and scour record stores for all those Chinese indie CD's. But now, here I am after another morning of teaching, and all I want to do is sit and watch basketball. This job made me start smoking. Takes a hell of a lot out of you. And it is important, too important to do a bad job at, which is how I find the means to live with myself after not doing all that other stuff (a little dramatic, but I'm not editing for your reading pleasure, not after drilling prepositions all day, dammit).
posted by saysthis at 1:38 AM on May 17, 2006

Fake, commiserating can do wonders.
posted by saysthis at 1:40 AM on May 17, 2006

Last year I managed to get some exercise (running) in on my lunch hour. It seemed to provide enough of a break to keep the zombie mode at bay. Never felt better.

I must start that again! maybe today!
posted by vidarling at 2:59 AM on May 17, 2006

Man, if anyone ever told me about the exhaustion beforehand... I teach 40 hours+ a week to 22 students along with one other teacher. Every situation is different I am sure, but I had to make some major lifestyle adjustments to keep from passing out in the bathroom stalls during breaks.

Cardio work in the AM helps alot. I found that coffee was making me tired for some reason. Instead of the drink, I found that thermogenic fat-burning pills (basically the caffiene in a cup of coffee) worked alot better, especially in maintaining focus throughout the day. I know it sounds dodgy, but have a go!

The hardest thing however is to keep going after you finish teaching. I used to come home and like crash at 5-6, and it would totally mess up my sleeping schedule, which can spell disaster for energy levels the next day... I still sometimes fall into the trap, but If I make an effort to stay up past that hump, I won't have problems falling asleep at night. I lift weights, or just stay out. Anything away from bed is good.

If only the students knew how hard it really was... Good luck!
posted by LongDrive at 3:23 AM on May 17, 2006

Here's why I think it's exhausting (and maybe you can use this to help you find a way to ameliorate it): each class is a combination between a performance and a crisis. When you're 'on' you're presenting information to meet two to four different learning styles. You're adapting on the fly to the child that's sitting in front of you who needs a better way to remember to put in closing tags. You're keeping an eye out for problems that may arise from personality problems according to your intelligence sources. You're making sure that your classroom with be left in good enough condition for the next. You're playing several roles in sequence or at a time to break down barriers or diffuse conflict.

Yeah, that's mentally and emotionally draining.

Probably the answer is to not put so much of yourself into it, but that's a big part of what makes you so good at what you do. The teachers I saw who lasted a full career (I did not) got upset about problems, did what they did well and efficiently, and then let it roll right off their back at the end of the day.
posted by plinth at 4:15 AM on May 17, 2006

LongDrive, I second the coffee and exercise. Now that I'm off coffee I get a lot more done after class than I used to, and on the days that I have the energy to exercise. It's a shame I can't go out more... I'm in central Asia and everyone goes to bed at 8.

I like the idea of a run after lunch, vidarling. I'll try that tomorrow.
posted by saysthis at 4:20 AM on May 17, 2006

This job made me start smoking.

Sorry but that's a bullshit excuse if I ever heard it, smoking is just another tax onyour system and isn't helping you in the long run. As for something to try, I've just started taking Rhodiola Rosea, it's in the same class of herbs as ginseng, which I would also recommend. Taken together they provide a very clear and alert mental state.
posted by doctor_negative at 5:51 AM on May 17, 2006

HA. I'm running off of 3 hours of sleep because I was up late putting together materials for my class today.

I have been teaching college courses - anywhere between 25 to 500 students - for the past 6 years. Everything from 3 hour labs to 2 hour lectures, hands-on experiments or straight note-taking. It can suck the life out of you, but only if you let it. My major problem is one of getting started - as much as I like teaching I find it hard to begin working on new lesson plans after I'm done for the day. I find that I have time to do other things - exercise, my own research, anything to distract me from the teaching prep that I know is coming. What makes me tired is that I generally do the prep far too late at night, so even though I'm ready for the class and energetic when presenting the material, I want to crash afterwards - not because the teaching exhausted me but because my time-management skills set me up for exhaustion.

An older, more experienced instructor told me that at some point you need to say to yourself "Screw it, that's good enough." Every lecture doesn't have to be perfect. You deserve some time for the rest of your life, so limiting your prep as much as possible is a necessity (one that I am still not as good at as I should be).
posted by caution live frogs at 6:02 AM on May 17, 2006

I used to teach at the university level and it sucked the life out of me time wise (enjoyed it, but I spent hours and hours preparing the first year). I barely had time to sleep, eat, or even walk outside.

Following year at another university I managed to find some outside time to relax, (a bike ride, more sleep) and now at a high school - - it is not as bad in term of fatigue but I do not invest much time in my job.

A few solutions that worked for me:

-(Once the weather is nice) - My health is important to me. I make it mandatory to either walk or bike at least a few times during the week. It gets rid of the excess stress. I make it a social event by meeting friends who also like to bike or walk or walk to a bookstore, etc. I really believe physical activity can help with the extreme mental fatiuge you feel after teaching. Making an appointment to meet with the friend makes me follow through.

-Shift the work to the students. Seriously, the students will benefit from doing their own work. At the university level I had students make a presentation and answer an interesting question. Students presented briefly during each class session over the course of a few weeks. It helped decrease my prep time/and they did learn from that activity. Presentations improved/students applied to info. Less time where I had to be on (and instead, students had to do that task) Surely that would work well for students learning english. Perform a song? A skit? Make up a story?

-Similar to caution live frogs, I reached a point where I realized it did not matter if you invested ALL the time in the world in your lesson, it does not have to be perfect. Remember, it is a job.

-Use prep time wisely. If you have prep time or an hour between classes, try to do work related to teaching/lesson planning/grading (I always struggle with this).

Best of luck

-
posted by Wolfster at 6:38 AM on May 17, 2006

This may not be an issue for you and I don't have experience with classes of 50 kids, but remember you are not a performer, you are a teacher.

I've professionally observed dozens of teachers of adults and children and the ones whose students got the most from the classes were often not those who were putting on a vaudeville act of 'watch me, enjoy this, do that, copy me...' Teach with your ideas, not your personality.

Silence, calm and time to absorb a well-presented concept are vital parts of an effective lesson.
posted by Busy Old Fool at 6:38 AM on May 17, 2006

Your chalkdust clouds are my whiteboard-marker stains.

I teach English in Indonesia. Same deal - low-tech school, kids who are there only because their parents think it's a good idea, absurdly ill-equipped-to-manage admin.

My way to cope at the end of the day (usually 11a-7:30p, with a break) is a trip to an internet cafe to hunt for new recipes, a little grocery shopping, and cooking. Food's cheaper than air here, so I've been able to experiment a lot, and I'm not using fancy imported ingredients.

I've got a shortwave radio so I catch the BBC (and local FM) when I get a chance, I get purposely lost on public transport on the weekends and have to find my way home, I write insane amounts of letters to friends and relatives back home, and I walk around my neighborhood and take photos. Basically the same stuff I did at home, but I'm a quiet guy.

Seriously, though, how drained are you feeling? While I feel tired at the end of the day, I never really feel like I'm going to die of exhaustion. Things which have helped me:

- at home: no TV, DVDs, etc - it's too easy to just sit and do nothing at the end of the day
- with friends/family back home: not apologizing about not staying in touch
- in class: chucking the textbook's (usually mediocre to poor) examples and exercises and having the students puzzle out the grammar or vocabulary of the day

Most of all, trust your abilities. If you cut your planning time in half, would your lessons, or your students, really suffer? Where can you cut time out?

Good luck!
posted by mdonley at 7:11 AM on May 17, 2006

I totally know what you mean about the zombie factor. Even when the kids have been good and the lesson was successful, you can find yourself utterly drained and useless the rest of the day.

The simplest thing I've found that helps is drinking more water and nixing the coffee/soda. The caffeine drop always hits me hardest once I get home and suddenly my couch is the comfiest thing I've ever felt. I find that replacing soda or coffee with water gets rid of the crazy roller coaster effect and also helps eliminate calories. Plus being hydrated improves memory retention.

Eating decently and at regularly scheduled times is also a way for me to keep my energy up. Your blood sugar level plays such a huge part in how you physically feel that I've actually been able to map out when I'm most likely to be cranky/ tired based on when the time from my last meal or snack. To combat "hangriness" (Hungry Angriness), I often munch on an apple or granola bar some point in the mid-morning stretch.

Exercise can also be a great way to combat the brain drain of teaching. Even a 15 min. jog can cause your body to release enough endorphins that when you're done, even though you'll still be physically tired, it's like someone punched the emotional reset button and you feel much better.

Just my 2 cents.

Way to rock the classroom!
posted by Smarson at 7:23 AM on May 17, 2006

I'm not sure what makes it so draining, but the only way I've been able to cope has been to get a lot of sleep and to stay well-hydrated. I teach four year olds and very often fall asleep as soon as I get home (I've occasionally come close to falling asleep BEFORE I get home as well, but I try not to sleep on the bus).

I've come to realize that things like my artwork and seeing friends and whatnot sometimes have to WAIT until I've had a nap. I compensate by packing as much into my weekends as possible, but sometimes even then, I need extra sleep.

My advice would be that whenever you have a spare molecule of energy and you want to do something: DO IT. DO NOT WAIT. Do as much as you can without pushing yourself. Don't try and force yourself to do something fun if you're exhausted - it won't be fun anymore!

I second the recommendations for extra water/snacks during lessons. I've always got a glass of water and something to munch on (usually crackers or pretzels) in my class and it totally helps, not only with the in-class exhaustion, but with the post-class crash.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 9:34 AM on May 17, 2006

Teach with your ideas, not your personality. Silence, calm and time to absorb a well-presented concept are vital parts of an effective lesson.

That is such great advice. A lot of enthusiastic young teachers have a teaching style that is all about themselves. I used to be like that--immaculately crafted lectures, vigorous socratic discussions, well-designed powerpoints, all delivered with enthusiasm and punctuated with jokes. And when I graded papers the red ink flowed like a river of blood, as I fixed every errant comma and filled the margins with writing advice. I finally realized that there was too much me in my class. And it was draining.

Lately I do more student-led discussions and small group work, and also carefully chosen videos. I give smaller, but more frequent writing assignments--including in-class reflective writing. I make fewer marks on papers and instead distribute examples of excellent peer work and lead a discussion, "Now why do you think student X got an A?" And most of all I have reorganized my classes to be less about facts and more about ideas.

I am only halfway through these changes but I think I am a better teacher for it, as well as less tired!
posted by LarryC at 10:21 AM on May 17, 2006

Tons of great advice here. The applaud exercise and Teach with your ideas, not your personality.

I'm a full-time teacher, and I've noticed something weird. When I teach and then go home -- or go out to eat or do anything leisurely -- afterwards, I feel exhausted. If I WORK afterwards, I don't. This is a paradox, but it's true.

In addition to teaching, I direct plays and write books. If -- after a full day of teaching -- I go straight to rehearsal (or straight to the word processor), I feel energized. But during parts of the year, I don't have a play to work on or a book to write, and I'm tired all the time.

I guess that if you have tons of work you HAVE to do, your mind gives you the energy to do it. But if your mind knows that it's veg out time, it takes advantage of it. And for me, once I veg out, I stay vegged out -- sometimes even well into the next day. When I'm working after work, I can't ever veg out, so I never get into that mode.

It's vital that the work-after-work be just as engrossing as work and utterly different from work. So try jumping into a rigorous hobby.

One tough thing about all this is that, though I know it's true, I have a hard time believing it. So I will procrastinate on my books, thinking, "I can't possibly write a book AND teach." But once looming deadlines force me to put my nose to the grindstone, this magical energy appears.
posted by grumblebee at 3:12 PM on May 17, 2006

I only teach 4-5 hrs a day, 4 days a week, with 3-7 students/class. I get fatigued, but not much, as a result. I feel like if I worked much more, I wouldn't be as good at what I do.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 9:01 PM on May 17, 2006

I've been teaching (punctuated with spells in IT) for a long time -- middle and high school in Canada, at companies in a few other countries, and at a few places here in Korea. I've been doing it in Korea for 7 of the last 10 years (the other three was an IT job in Australia that I sometimes regret leaving, a bit).

I've pretty much got what for me is the perfect English teaching job (I've had the position for three years), and it's the one I had been looking for. It's at one of the biggest Korean multinationals -- an extremely professional environment, where I teach small classes of adults only, and am given respect for my skills and experience, and where I like and am liked by my coworkers, rather than being perceived as a burn-out-and-replace English drone, which is the situation at most private schools and universities in Korea (I taught at both over the years (and the situation is getting a bit better these days, from what I hear)).

All that is lead-in to say, though, that the sole thing that keeps me able to carry on is that management here understands that in order for me to actually teach effectively and sustainably (my evaluations, as they've always been, are through the roof), they can't load me with an outrageous number of teaching hours. 'Outrageous', for me, is anything more than about 20 contact hours per week, and these days I'm well under that.

They're also making opportunities for me to do other language related work, stuff like business English workshops, new employee candidate interviews, and one-on-one sessions with the top executives. It keeps things varied and fresh.

The short answer then: hone your skills, make yourself the best at what you do, and keep looking for better jobs, until you find one with management that is willing to balance your ability to deliver quality instruction with your ability to keep doing it without burning out. When it comes down to it, there aren't really that many truly professional foreign teachers in Korea, and I expect it's the same in China. That too is changing, but it's still a seller's market, if you have the chops and the paperwork.

It can be tricky switching jobs as an expat, and there is a major luck component in finding the right job at the right time, but it is possible if you're in it for the medium- to long-haul. It took me three years to get out of the private school scrum (though I liked my job and was teaching adults, which I prefer), and another two to get out of university teaching (which I also enjoyed, but even the massive holidays couldn't make up for the execrable pay). But now, I'm pretty much at the top of the game here (without opening my own consulting practice, something I'm toying with doing).

So, yeah. For me, it's about doing quality work, but making sure I have a professional work environment and that I don't have too many actual contact hours, because I'll inevitably get exhausted when I'm past my comfort zone, no matter how much I love being in the classroom (and I do).

(Also, ditto on what other people said about exercise and healthy eating. That and regular infusions of beer.)
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:26 PM on May 17, 2006

I'm in a fairly similar situation, teaching English in Korea. Anyway I definitely second the drinking of water. I feel like teaching is a workout in itself and I drink about 3 liters of water in school (5 days a week, 4-6hrs a day, 40 students a class) and that helps. Also I definitely like the walk around to the park, do some stretching and exercising after lunch. Eating until your not quite full, healthily, and often is also good.
Afterwards, the best way to avoid passing out is by avoiding your house. Now that the weather is better, I spend as much time as possible reading and having picnics in the parks and going hiking. I get off work at 4:30 so my situation is better than some but it gives ample time to be outside. Also, finding other people nearby to hang out with is also quite helpful (though that, more often than not, leads to drinking).
Finally, what's wrong with a lot of sleep? I cherish it.
posted by shokod at 12:12 AM on May 18, 2006

Teach with your ideas, not your personality. Silence, calm and time to absorb a well-presented concept are vital parts of an effective lesson.

You know, it's funny. Everyone else has commented in this thread has enthusiastically supported these comments, but my experience as a teacher has taught me the complete opposite.

I've noticed that students achieve better with teachers who they see as real people. They crave passion, humour, a fair go, or even someone who's willing to admit they're wrong. I teach with my personality every day. The ideas, subject matter and curriculum? They're a bonus. I always believe I'm teaching my kids to be human beings first, and English students second. Yes, it's draining, but I wouldn't be in my job if I couldn't be this way.

I'd also love to know what automatons you guys all teach. "Silence and calm" are two words that are not often used to describe my classroom. Admittedly, some of that comes from behaviour issues. However, for teenagers, a critical part of their learning comes from their peer interactions, discussions, and even down time. Teens can only concentrate for short bursts of time - allegedly around 15 minutes at a time. I actually start to freak out when my class is doing quiet work - it makes me think they're up to no good.

But to get to the original question at hand.

In regard to teacher fatigue, my way of coping with 5 years of teaching in high school is to not take everything to heart. Someone once said to me "Don't sweat the small stuff: and it is all smal stuff" - and I realised that my fretting over small issues in my classroom was only going to lead me to burnout. You can't control everything in your classroom (although you'd like to). And in a high school environment, the students are the harshest critics - of the lesson, the video, your lipstick, your tone of voice. So it's critical to get out of the "coulda, woulda, shoulda" mode as soon as possible.

Having supportive staff to work with has done wonders, too. I think I would've burnt out long ago if I didn't have the mental scratching post my staffroom provides.

Could a problem with your burnout be that you're living in a different country? Not being able to rely on established support networks of family/friends would make any fatiguing job more difficult. And take water - non-airconditioned humid classrooms make for doubly distressing teaching. (At least that's what we have here).
posted by chronic sublime at 4:25 AM on May 18, 2006

Ugh.

Everyone else commenting in this thread has enthusiastically supported...

Sentence errors in writing are worse when you're admitting you're a teacher. Also, "smalL stuff". Sheesh. Time for this teacher to take some sound advice and go to bed.
posted by chronic sublime at 4:29 AM on May 18, 2006

Everyone else has commented in this thread has enthusiastically supported these comments, but my experience as a teacher has taught me the complete opposite.

I've noticed that students achieve better with teachers who they see as real people.

I can't speak for everyone here, but I suspect this is a confusion, not a disagreement. I'm a real person when I teach. I admit to mistakes all the time, and I don't think of myself as "higher-up" than my students. Most of the time, I feel like I'm just "shootin'-the-shit" with them, but the shit I happen to be shooting is the subject of the class.

I think that when people here say, "Teach with your ideas, not your personality", they mean that teaching is best when it's not PERFORMING. Don't take on the roles of The Teacher. Just be yourself. They also mean -- or at least I mean -- that the teacher's ego is superfluous in the classroom. It doesn't matter what the students think of me. What matters is whether or not they learn the subject.

In case I breed any further misunderstanding, let me clarify that last sentence. It DOES matter what the students think of me if, say, the fact that they like me (or hate me or whatever) helps them learn the subject. But it DOESN'T matter in any other respect. (Of course, my feelings may be hurt if they don't like me, but that has nothing to do with the goal of the class -- which is students learning a subject.)

You've probably met "performer" teachers. They can be really fun (or not). They tell jokes; they party with their students; they may even let class out early, just so students will like them. If you're a student in such a class, you wind up remembering more about the teacher than the subject.

Again, I'm not saying "partying with the students" is inherently bad. I'm saying that it's ONLY good if it furthers the goal of the class.
posted by grumblebee at 7:40 AM on May 18, 2006

What would you do if you absolutely HAD to perform in some other way after school? Like, if you had a sick mother to visit every evening, or a family to care for, etc.?

I never thought I'd have time for that when I was a single teacher, but when I got married, I was amazed at how I made time to spend time with my husband. My lessons weren't as stellar, my handouts weren't pristine, there was more seatwork or group work sometimes, but the kids were still learning a lot!

It's about priorities. If you want to be superstar teacher, keep doing what you're doing, but accept that that is your choice. If you'd like time outside of school for yourself, take that time and don't look back. Do the minimum you need (ack! did that just come out of my perfectionistic mouth?!) to survive-- make a busy lesson plan, seating chart, etc., and then rely on the kids to teach each other as well. Group similarly skilled kids together and have discussions where you only have to walk around the room instead of perform.

Good luck!
posted by orangemiles at 7:56 AM on May 18, 2006