Teacher Burnout is skyrocketing at an alarming rate. Fewer college students are choosing teaching as a career path and even Chat GPT would probably not choose teaching as a career if given the option.
According to a 2022 Gallup Poll on occupational burnout, 44% of U.S. K-12 teachers reported feeling burnt out often (in comparison to 30% of all other workers) and a 2024 Pew Research Center Study found that 68% of teachers find their jobs overwhelming. The reasons for teacher burnout are numerous. Everything from lack of respect, dealing with extreme student behavior issues, lack of support from higher ups, low pay, demands that are difficult to meet, working unpaid hours and so much more. Our profession is in trouble, but it isn’t all bleak.
If you’re a teacher feeling burned out or a newer teacher that wants to prevent burnout, then I’ve got your back. Here are the best ways to protect your peace and your mental health, while still being a great teacher.
Set boundaries and stick to them
Setting strong boundaries is the most effective way to protect yourself from burnout. When I was a new teacher, I was really bad at this. I said yes to every committee and attended every after school event, I worked late, I came in to set up my classroom each summer weeks before school started, I responded to parent emails at all hours. That was a recipe for quick burnout.
Setting boundaries doesn’t mean you don’t care or that you’re not a team player. On the contrary, boundaries are actually a way to make you a better teacher. You will have more energy, mental capacity, and patience when you protect your time and energy by setting boundaries and sticking to them.
What does this look like? Learning to say no. Don’t take on more than you are able to balance well. When you say yes when you really want to say no, it’s a recipe for bitterness and resentment to build. Learn to say no without guilt or explanation.
Treat Your Personal Time As Sacred
The expectations for teachers are unrealistic and many teachers struggle with trying to meet impossible standards. This often leads to taking work home so you don’t feel like you’re drowning. Try to keep home life separate from work life. I made it a rule early on that I would use my planning time as efficiently as possible while at school and I would not take work home. There has to be a separation between work and home so that you can actually recharge during your non-working hours and be just a regular human outside of teaching.
Along those same lines, don’t work outside of your contracted hours. While there may be some exceptions here (maybe you want to stay and help decorate for a fun event or you have an hour to spare and doing a little extra will free up time for you next week), make it a rule that you don’t stay past your working hours. Do what you can during the day as efficiently as you can and leave the rest for another time.
Focus on what you can control
If you don’t master this early on, your mental health will suffer. As teachers, there are so many factors that we just cannot control. We can’t control what goes on in the lives of our students at home. We can’t control how much sleep they got the night before. We can’t control whether or not a parent makes education a priority. We have little control over curriculum requirements. There is a lot that we do not control.
There are many things that we do have control over, though, and switching the focus on those things can help tremendously with feelings of burnout. Some of the things that you can control are your responses, your boundaries, how you pour into yourself, your actions, your own attitude and thoughts, and your words.
When you start feeling overwhelmed or feeling like you’re not enough, shift the focus to the few things that you can control and let go of the rest.
Write down daily gratitude
One of the most well documented ways to improve well being is to practice daily gratitude. Training your brain to notice patterns of good things helps you to look for and notice positives rather than focusing on what isn’t going well. An easy way to practice gratitude is to write down five things each morning that you are thankful for-big and small. You can tailor these to school related things if that’s the areas where you’re struggling most, or keep it general. No detail is too small to appreciate and it’s helpful on the harder days to look back at all of the things you have to be grateful for.
Just grab a notebook and start writing. You can use journal prompts like these to get you started.
Create systems that work
Creating systems is a great hack to save you time and energy. If you set up strong systems, you only have to do the work once and your days will run so much more smoothly for the rest of the year, freeing up your time and energy.
Ideas of systems to create:
-A weekly or monthly lesson planning system
-A grading system
-Daily procedures for EVERYTHING for your students: set these up day one, model and practice consistently until your students have them down. You may need to revisit throughout the year.
-Organizing systems for supplies and materials
-System for documenting and tracking student progress
Take time every day for yourself
Self care is non-negotiable for preventing burn out. Set aside time every day to intentionally pour back into yourself. It can be anything from an evening walk, a bubble bath, dinner with friends, journaling, or a hobby that you love. Whatever lights you up (outside of work), find time for that every single day.
Try writing in a daily self care journal like this one:
Give yourself grace
Because teachers are often overachievers, we often set impossible standards for ourselves and then beat ourselves up when we can’t be everything to everyone. There is so much power in learning to give yourself grace. Extend the same grace to yourself that you would your students. It’s okay to rest without guilt. It’s okay if your kids just didn’t get that new concept. It doesn’t mean you’re a failure-you can try another way tomorrow. Every day doesn’t have to be the best day ever-it’s okay if you didn’t plan an extravagant learning experience today. You didn’t feel patient? You forgot to make copies of something? You didn’t feel like you gave your teaching your all? It’s okay. Give yourself grace on the tired days, the overwhelmed days. It’s okay to just survive sometimes. Your students will survive.
Change It Up
Sometimes all it takes to beat burnout is a change. It’s easy to get stuck in the daily grind. Change it up with your students by taking learning outside. Rearrange your classroom or add in a fun cozy reading corner. Change your grade level. Change schools. Teachers tend to like our comfort zone, but sometimes the most growth happens when we push ourselves outside of it. Novelty is an antidote for boredom and burnout.
There is no easy solution to beating teacher burnout, but there are plenty of strategies and mindset shifts that can absolutely help. If you’re not planning on leaving teaching any time soon, learning how to prioritize your mental health, set boundaries, and focusing on gratitude can help you find joy and purpose in what you do. We need better systems for our teachers because education is the backbone of our society, and the best way to strengthen that system is to take care of and attract our best teachers. For now, unfortunately, that responsibility falls to us.
