How Can Schools Help Teachers Avoid Burnout?
Can schools support teachers to make sure sustainability isn’t just a goal, but a reality? Five of America’s best teachers share their thoughts.
(This is part four of a five-part series about how some of America’s best teachers spend their time. Read the introduction, part two and part three.)
How sustainable is the teaching profession? That’s one question that spurred our Fishman Prize alumni to track their time on the job. Like all professionals, teachers do their best work when they are energized, inspired and able to lead a fulfilling life outside of work. But these days, sustainability isn’t a reality for many teachers.
Teacher attrition costs the United States over $2 billion a year, and lately, conversations in the Education world have focused on teacher shortages and the difficulty of attracting potential teachers — even through longtime funnels of talent like Teach for America. While the argument of teacher shortages being real is debatable (there are plenty that school systems can do to sure up their pipelines, for instance), this much is true:
The teaching profession as we know it is extremely demanding and even the best teachers have a tendency to leave prematurely, often feeling exhausted and burnt out.
We asked the Fishman Prize alumni — a crop of America’s best teachers — to think about their results and answer this question: Are your efforts sustainable?
(Note: this conversation was moderated by TNTP and has been lightly edited for clarity and concision.)
TNTP: Do you think the teaching profession is sustainable?
Laura: It’s funny, because some years I think it’s sustainable and doable, and some years I think it’s not sustainable. Also, it depends on the time of year. It’s so interesting. I was in a public school in Boston for four years, and by the fourth year, I was in my groove and I was really familiar with the content.
I felt like I was able to get home after work hours and not do a lot of grading on the weekends. I felt like it was going to be very sustainable for me. But I wasn’t getting pushed in the direction I wanted to go for teaching. I wanted more leadership opportunities, so I came out to California to teach at a charter school which definitely pushes a lot more for leadership opportunities, and really makes room for teachers to grow.
With that, I was really excited, and that was a really thrilling opportunity. But then, as the years have come and gone, there has been a lot more work and pressure put on, especially for teachers in the district who have taught for more than three years. More leadership gets pushed on to you. I was doing the leadership team, and all of a sudden they were like, “Oh, you can try mentoring.” And I really wanted to try all of these things. But as I was getting more on my plate, it seemed less sustainable — especially at the beginning of the year when I had to teach so many students routines, procedures, and really build a classroom culture.
Doing that as well as trying to coach and mentor a new teacher is really hard. Then, when it comes May — and my students can be independent, and my resident teacher can be more independent—and it seems a lot more sustainable because you put all that time in the beginning of the year.
Kelly: It’s almost humorous when you attend all these meetings, and all these committees that you’re on because there’s always the same people there. Within the building it just seems like the same people are doing all the excess. I really wish there was a way to get more teachers involved in a school improvement plan, or exceptional leadership teams.
Jennifer: I agree with Laura. The first week of school will not feel so sustainable. But I know that over the course of the year, it will at some times.
I’m teaching the senior year of IB English for the fifth time this year, and I feel like my planning time is a lot smaller now than it used to be, which means I can spend a lot more time on grading, or feedback, or individual things, or frankly, going home and making sure I’m taking care of myself. It actually worries me to think about moving, or switching schools, or taking on a new position, and how that will put a blow on the progress I’ve made on sustainability.
Shira: There is something to be said for hearing the teacher voice when it comes to the details of what grade someone wants to teach, or what course someone wants to teach, because if they want to teach it, chances are they’re going to do a much better job.
“It actually worries me to think about moving, or switching schools, or taking on a new position, and how that will put a blow on the progress I’ve made on sustainability.” — Jennifer Corroy Porras
TNTP: Steve, how’s it going for you in the work life balance department? Do you feel like you can be doing this in 20 or 30 years?
Steven: You know what? Absolutely not. I remember November of my second year of teaching, the worst year of my life. I sat outside and just cried. It was in the morning. I did not want to go in. I did not want to do it all over again. Every other profession, you come, you go home, and you forget about it. That’s not what happens in the teaching profession.
Someone mentioned earlier that we think we work so much because it’s always on our mind. So as far as the 20 or 30 year career, absolutely not. If you’re going to teach at a really, really high level, I don’t think so. But I think what we can do, is really be realistic about the expectations of our day to day schedules. If we know we have family at home, or other responsibilities, those things need to come first. Because at the end of the day, if we’re not energized and happy, no one in our classroom is going to learn.
TNTP: When it doesn’t feel sustainable, what keeps you going?
Kelly: The kids keep me going.
Shira: That’s what it always comes down to. I certainly couldn’t quit or give half the effort because these kids need us. When it all comes down to it, we could be so frustrated with everything else, but the kids are why we do this job, and the kids are ultimately the only thing that matters once you set foot inside your school.
TNTP: Why was the process of tracking your hours important for you to learn about sustainability?
Shira: A big issue that a lot of us recognized through the Fishman Prize Residency is teacher voice and how important it is. One thing that is often overlooked is “What do teachers do?” A lot of us hear about how lucky we are to have our summers off and things like that. But what people think teachers do in an average school day or week is very different from what we actually do.
Jennifer: I have the opposite reason for the interest. I spend a lot of time at school feeling like I do not have nearly enough time. I feel sometimes like I’m in situations where I think that my time is not being used well. I was interested in getting some actual data to help me know whether or not those were inefficiencies on my own part, or if my time was actually not being respected, or if I actually just have too much work.
“If we know we have family at home, or other responsibilities, those things need to come first. Because at the end of the day, if we’re not energized and happy, no one in our classroom is going to learn.” — Steven Sanders
Laura: In my district we’ve talked a lot about teacher sustainability and since I’ve been here in the last five years, there’s been a lot of teacher turnover in my school and across the district. I really wanted to know was it because teachers were being burnt out because of their time? Are they spending too much time at work? Me being a fifth year teacher here at ERES Academy, I’m the second longest standing teacher at the school. That really made me think, “How are teachers using their time?”
I also became interested because there is this ongoing theme at our school that once a teacher has started a family, we knew that they weren’t going to come back because the workload was too much.
TNTP: Have you shared this project with your administrators?
Jennifer: Yeah, I talked to my principal about this while I was doing it, and I actually have not showed her all the final data, or how my stuff turned out. She was really eager to see how it came out. She did a pre‑survey on where she thinks I use my time, and she’s very interested in knowing. I think helping her understand what is accurate or not accurate about her perception of where my time goes is important.
A take away that I would want administrators to have, in addition to just some awareness, would be thinking about how — over the course of a career, or given a different subject — where time is spent is often really different, and maybe that should inform how we schedule and plan teachers time. We don’t all necessarily need to have identical schedules. I might spend 25 percent of my time grading, but that’s really meaningful because grading and feedback is actually related to what my students do. But someone else might not need that time, so they might spend it somewhere else.
Steven: I did share this information with my principal. She did the pre‑survey, and predicted my time to be way more than what it was. I have used this in conversations with her — one‑on‑one conversations — about my work life balance.
Next year, I have a modified teaching schedule because there are some other things I want to pursue in my life. Tracking my time allowed me to present her evidence on how I could be a more productive employee for her, be more present for the kids, and still pursue what I want to pursue.
TNTP: Would you share your process with other teachers?
Kelly: I really think this would be a great tool for new teachers to use. I wouldn’t want to throw one more thing on their plate. But I’ve found from working with so many new teachers that they feel so overwhelmed. They are in the building so much, and they spend so much time doing school work that they lose track of who they are, and what else they need to get done.
It would be interesting if we could get the new teachers in my building, or across several districts, to actually track their time and allow them to have that conversation with their mentor and with each other to see where they are at and what is the norm. Are they doing way too much? Can we make what they are doing more efficient? That would be really interesting and maybe help new teachers stay in the profession and not leave after their first or second year.
Steven: Definitely. We hired about 16 new teachers, and a couple of them are 22 years old. It’s their first job, and I’m looking at them, and I’m like, “Man, I hope you know how to manage your time. I hope you know how to keep your work life balance, because you’re about to experience it.”
But if I could give advice to first or second year teachers, I’d say that it’s ok to latch on to someone who has been teaching for a while. I would love for a first or second year teacher to run up to me and say, “Look, how do I do this?” That’s something I would spend my time on because I get to give back to the profession. And I know that not every veteran teacher feels that way, but I’m willing to bet that there is someone in your building who would be willing to say, “Look, here’s what I did. The good, the bad, and the ugly. These are the mistakes that I made. Take what you can from it.”
Shira: Even to spend 20 minutes of your planning period just going into another teachers room and watching for those 20 minutes, I know that when I was a first or second year teacher, I couldn’t even fathom that. I was like, “I don’t have 20 minutes to spare. I have to use every second of my planning period.” When the reality is that probably would’ve helped me way more than any 20 minute time period that I was on my own in my classroom.
TNTP: What advice you would give to a teacher who is feeling burnt out?
Kelly: I would really want them to set one goal and get someone to help them with that goal. If you can do that, then you can really see that you are getting better at something instead of just doing the same thing you’ve done in the past. If you can pick that one thing, and really find that mentor, that will make a big difference in getting through the year.
Laura: I was going to say the exact same thing. It’s really overwhelming, especially with the Common Core curriculums. You have to do everything completely new. That happened to me last year. It was impossible to do everything really, really well, and I had to focus on one part of my writing lesson that I could see progress in. I went to someone that could hold me accountable and motivate me, and that helped me so much more.
“At the end of the day, try to think of one kid you impacted in a positive way, even if it is the smallest thing, like, ‘When I gave so and so a high five, that made a difference in his day.’ Only take that home with you. Don’t carry the stress, or the bad things that happen.” — Shira Fishman
Shira: Yeah, that’s what I was going to say. Just lean on your coworkers, and lean on someone you respect, and you can be open with. It doesn’t have to be someone that necessarily teaches the same subject for the same grade as you. Lean on them for that moral support because we’ve all been there. Other teachers are living the same thing that you are. Sometimes it goes in waves and when one person is feeling overwhelmed, someone else can be strong for them.
The other thing is, at the end of the day, try to think about one kid that you impacted in a positive way, even if it is the smallest thing. Like, “When I gave so and so a high five, I know that made a difference in his day.” Only take that home with you. Don’t carry the stress, or the bad things that happen. Every day, walk out of that building thinking about that one kid and how you made a positive difference in their day. You can carry over small successes like that and make things a lot easier going forward.
Jennifer: I would say, especially to teachers who are overwhelmed or burnt out because they are trying so hard to do everything, and to do everything perfect, or to do everything good enough, I would recommend taking a step back to get some perspective. I feel like I’m actually stealing advice and things that I have heard other people say to me, such as “There’s no special place in heaven for people who martyr themselves teaching.”
Another thing I think about a lot of the time is, I’m one teacher which is one class period in one day, in a 12 year career. If tomorrow is not perfect, the kid’s are actually going to be ok. We hear so much about a hundred percent, and a hundred percent every day, and I believe in that, and I believe in doing your best. But if doing your best is going to drive you out of the profession, then someone needs to stop and remind you that the profession is probably better with you at 90 percent than without you. It just has to be ok to say that once in a while
Tomorrow, find out how teachers can replicate the time-tracking process.
