Burn-out cannot be used for educators who are already very dissatisfied and unhappy about their jobs for one reason or another, burn out cannot be used by individuals who found themselves unable to get jobs and then decided to be educators with the intent to mark time until they get another job so in the meantime they’re just doing the motions doing just enough to remain on the payroll. This set of teachers are excluded from our definition of burnout.
But if you are one of those teachers who is always trying to change the world and fix every problem you find then, chances are that you have a lot of moments when you’re totally exhausted and cannot properly function in your usual capacity, that right there is called teacher burn out and there are certain ways we can achieve our goals and still be in our best physical and mental shapes.
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| Funsho Babalola and Agnes Onyekwere preparing their learners for a competition after school hours |
1. Don’t try to fix multiple problems at a time: I had a conversation with my mentor a few weeks ago and one thing that stood out for me was the analogy of the lion she used to drive home the importance of focus. She told me how she decided to do a little research about why the lion was called the king of the jungle because she had always observed that the lion is not the biggest, smartest, fastest or even the wisest animal in the jungle so she was dedicated to find out what gave the lion that unique advantage, after her research and findings she realized that when a lion wants to get a prey unlike other animals she takes her time to pick the prey and watch that prey for a while after which she goes after that prey with all she has got, on her way to catching her prey, she would most likely run past other animals in the same location but she doesn’t bulge because it has to be the one she set out to catch, she’ll prefer to abort the entire mission if she doesn’t get that particular prey than get distracted with other animals along the way and you know what-with that laser like kind of focus the lioness almost never misses, I am sure that if animals could talk and they speak pidgin English the word on the jungle streets would be “Omo! if lioness mean you eh! Your own don finish! The morale of the story would be that as educators we want to change all the numerous things that are wrong with our classroom or the system but most of the time we are taking more than we can handle at the same time, which is one of the causes of stress and frustration. Just like the lioness, pick a goal, focus on that goal alone, and don’t get your eyes off it until it is done that way you are most likely to get it done and be successful at it.
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| Agnes Onyekwere helping a pupil after school |
2. You have to work on procrastination: Most educators fall into this trap, as a teacher, there are a lot of things screaming for your attention and sometimes we feel overwhelmed and not do anything at all. We decide to do other things even when we know that there are very important things we need to get done for our jobs to move forward. Then later on we realize that the deadlines for getting those things done are coming and then that’s when we start rushing and pushing our bodies beyond limits to get things done within the remaining time-this always leads to more and more stress. Your best is to pace yourself with work or tasks. When you get a task the first thing you need to do is spread it out, and break it down into actions you can take daily or weekly when you do that it feels like you’re touching on that task everyday-that way you are most likely not to over stress about it or procrastinate, by all means-Pace yourself and spread out little actions through the days and through the weeks, this way they are easier and one thing about smashing daily goals is that it gives you the boost you need to want to achieve the next and the next until the entire task is done.
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