What next in your teaching career?

Teachers I meet and comments I read from teachers on social media often talk about how stressed they are and for many how, quite frankly, fed up they are with their career. I’ve paraphrased some of the most common comments I hear:  

• Some of the stuff I have to teach them just isn’t useful 
• I didn’t sign up to work 6 days a week but that seems to be the norm
• The dread starts creeping up on me on Sunday evening 

Given that, as a teacher, you are preparing young people to thrive in adult life, this all seems wrong to me. I’m not going to turn this into a rant though, and if you resonate with any of those points above, I’m sure we could talk about what’s wrong with the system all day.  

However, in the spirit of practicing what I preach, here are some tips to help you start changing things. 

Tip 1: Notice your mindset around this

It’s very easy to keep focussed on what’s wrong, but as the saying goes “if you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got”. I work with people who’ve sometimes been stuck in jobs they don’t enjoy and find stressful for many years. Recognising this mindset is often the kick that gets things moving for them

Tip 2: Ask good questions

My favourite here is, especially given tip 1, “so what would I rather have and feel?”. 

Come up with at least three options. They don’t all have to be sensible, but if you have more than three options you have given yourself choice and started to put you back in charge of your own career. 

If you’re unhappy in any way with your career, you might split your options into two categories: big changes that you want to make to your career and short term changes that you’d like to see in the meantime.  

Tip 3: Make a difference right now

Choose some actions, and make sure you take them, that will make your current experience of teaching less stressful and hopefully more enjoyable. Here are three suggestions: 

1. Set some boundaries about when you will and won’t work. This may involve speaking with your manager / colleagues, or even family. You may find, as a lot of people I work with do, that diarising time for family, friends and fun works really well to get you moving
2. Notice the good things, at work and outside. Each night spend a couple of minutes (when you’re brushing your teeth is a good time) listing all the things you are please about and grateful for that happened during the day
3. Take 5 or 10 minutes each morning to be still and quiet. You could focus on your breathing, or listen to a short guided meditation on YouTube. Finish by setting your intention for how you are going to BE today. E.g. I’m going to be calm and smile a lot, or. I’m going to be confident and dynamic. Choose what works for you and remind yourself of it during the day

What next? 

If you want to talk about your teaching career and how to move forward (either within teaching or making a career change), book a free career strategy/discovery session at https://calendly.com/dave-careers/20.