Educators enter the profession with optimistic ideas.

They set out to share their passion and make a difference. They make a decision to selflessly dedicate themselves to others, to be in service to young people, and to go above and beyond to connect with their students and lead them toward success.

To educators these intentions aren’t idealistic, they are what define them as educators.

No teacher sets out to get to a point where they question their purpose. Or, to a time when they dread their careers.

However, teacher-stress, feelings of overwork and overwhelm, vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, and teacher burnout are a reality for way too many teachers.

I recently attended an event wherein the speaker stated that the question in modern education is not if teachers will experience these outcomes of stress? It is when?

That is a serious claim and I can’t say that I disagree.

When teaching is going great you feel like you can change the world, that you are making a difference, and you willingly pile more and more on your plate – however, the traditional education system takes advantage of this stage in teaching by piling more on the eager and optimistic educator.

Soon, the workload, the pressure, the lack of respect or recognition, the feelings of powerlessness against the inadequate student homelives   (the list goes on, see here) take their toll. The optimism and eagerness give way to negative thoughts, a question of one’s purpose, and potential burnout. (See all the stages on the Joy in Teaching Burnout Scale here)

A major misconception: Burned out teachers are bad teachers.

It’s simply not true.

Sure, there are exceptions, however…

Educators want to reconnect with their purpose, they want to feel like they can take on the world, but these stressed, negative feelings and their causes are very real and detrimental to the effectiveness of teachers.

All too often educators who are overwhelmed, overstressed, or burned out are looked at as broken. As ineffective or bad. Too few institutions have resilience programs in place to aid teachers when they get to this stage.

This lack of empathy and support often leads to teacher attrition.

Here’s a little story to demonstrate:

You know when you get an alert when a bunch of people you follow on Twitter like or comment on something another one of the people you follow tweets? Well, that happened the other day so I clicked on over to Twitter to see what was going on.

A major thought leader in education. A person who has won awards for their skilled approach to culture and leadership posted a message this was shared over 50 times others liked by 665 times.

I read it and moved on, but couldn’t get it out of my head.

My intention is not to single anyone out or bring negativity onto anyone – but I do want to use this as an example to make a point so I will paraphrase the tweet:

“I don’t anticipate that my tweets will ever resound with instructors who are negative, weary, or burned out. I tweet for teachers who still care about children!”

Ouch!

I wasn’t so much surprised by the sentiment – it’s social media after all. What surprised me was the support. The hundreds of other educators who read this and instead of pointing out the lack of empathy and support for struggling teachers decided to click “like”. The number of educators who decided that they needed to share this statement and unabashedly broadcasted indifference toward those in their own profession who are in dire need of encouragement.

Right now in education, there is not a culture of support for teacher well-being.

Many teachers who are struggling can’t find the necessary outlet to voice their frustrations and connect with resilience training. (see more about resilience training here) Many fear negative repercussions and struggle silently with educator-stress.

They worry about being seen as a bad teacher, even though they remember what it feels like to love their job, they know, deep down they still care, and they desperately want to reclaim their joy in teaching.

I was prompted recently to consider the similarities and differences between overwhelmed and burned out.

• Both are products of stress
• Both can impact your effectiveness as an educator
• The biggest difference is how we deal with it

Being overwhelmed and being burned out are really two sides of the same coin. Our reaction, our fortitude, and our perspective are what can either propel us forward or keep us from moving at all.

Which means…

If burnout really is our response to the pressure and anxiety of the profession, the workload, and all the mounting stressors that cloud our vision of the true purpose of education, then we, as educators, have the power to gain some control over it.

It isn’t out of our hands. 

This doesn’t mean that we are in control of the stressors and that we take responsibility for all that impacts us. What it does mean is that we can develop strategies to respond with more resilience (read more about that here). We can put protective practices in place (read more about that here). We can use our awareness, resources, and maybe even some professional development time(read more about that here)  to tap into the great teachers we know we can be – and we can reclaim the joy in teaching.

Are you searching for strategies to reclaim your joy in teaching? If so, remember to check out Joy in Teachings offerings and stay connected through the website and private Facebook group.

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