How to Lose Weight When Teaching Gets Heavy

October is the time when you may start to feel like you’ve gained a few pounds. The school year has now gotten underweigh, and by now you’re getting into the meat of teaching. Students are well past the honeymoon phase and, if they haven’t already shown their true colors, they will very soon. With this post, I hope to uplift and comfort as I share some proven ways to lose weight when teaching gets heavy.

Before I get to the ways to lose the weight, we need to dive into what kinds of weight you may be feeling. Is it the data isn’t showing the gains you were hoping to see? Is it that you are behind on the district pacing guide? Is it your class behaving poorly? Is it one, or possibly more, student’s specific out-of-control behavior? Is it a student’s home life situation that has you feeling down? These are some of the many possibilities that may be causing your heavy feeling.

It’s important to pinpoint the root cause of the heaviness. It could be that one thing is piling up on another and you’re feeling close to a breaking point. When you explore and find the root cause/s that will help you to decide the best course of action to shed the weight and begin to feel lighter.

Academic Heaviness

I’m defining academic heaviness as any cause that is based on data, pacing, new teaching initiatives, or anything strictly related to the act of teaching itself. To combat this sort of heaviness, try these.

• Meet with admin. If you have a supportive admin team, this is the BEST starting place. Schedule a short meeting with your principal and/or AP. You could, even, drop by their office during your planning time or after school to see if they have a few free minutes. Let them know how you’re feeling and why. Chances are they will be able to shoulder some of that weight and help you!
• Talk it out with a colleague. Do you have a teacher bestie or someone at your school who you vibe with? Stop in their room for a quick chat. Share your concerns. They may be feeling the same way or have felt that way at some point. Just having someone who has been there and understands will ease the pressure.
• Focus on what is in your control. This one can be difficult at times. With what is causing your academic heaviness, divide it into what is outside your control and what you have control over. Then do your best to let go of what is outside your control. Come up with actionable steps for what is in your control to make improvements.
  • For instance, if your pacing is off, don’t worry about keeping up with the district guide. You didn’t create it and students all learn at different rates. Realize that you are reteaching or going as slow as you need to for your students. You are working towards mastery, not “keeping up with the Joneses.” Actionable steps might be documenting your proof of why you are off pace and looking ahead to see if there will be a topic that will be able to go a bit faster because your students are more proficient at it.

Student Behavior Heaviness

This topic has definitely ramped up in recent years. Students are just different than they were in the past. While I don’t know all the causes, I can name several. Some are remnants of COVID, some are too much time spent on tech, and some are how families and society have changed over time.

It also doesn’t help that we don’t have a lot of options for consequences when students misbehave and they know it. Following are some tips for student behavior heaviness.

• If it is a whole class issue, revisit your classroom management plan. It may need a few tweaks or you may need to explicitly review expectations with your students. Where is the breakdown? Transitions, too much chatter, need a new procedure? Take some time now to really dig in. If you’re stuck, ask another colleague, climate coach, or admin member to come observe your class and tell you what they are observing. Sometimes an outside eye can help.
• Get some student buy-in. This could be a whole class thing or you could be targeting one student.
  • That thing about building relationships is true. In most cases, having a solid foundation with your students will get them to want to perform for you, so you will be proud of them. Read my post, Building a Caring Classroom Community: How and Why Building Relationships is Important.
  • Another way to get student buy-in is reward positives heavily in the beginning and then start spreading out the rewards as students get into the habit of following expectations.
• Again, going to Admin for support is an excellent option. When the trouble stems from one student, use your Admin. This is part of their job. If you have an unsupportive admin, this is where a colleague can help shoulder some of the weight. Maybe the student can spend some time in the colleague’s class each day, so you and your class can get a break.
• Contact the family. Make sure the family is aware of what’s going on. When you have the support of the family that makes your job easier.

Secondary Trauma Heaviness

When you work in a Title 1 school, this one becomes more likely. There are so many different hardships that families face and supporting your students through them takes a toll. Just hearing about what some of your students go through or have gone through is heartbreaking. In fact, I had a situation that came up just this week. While the heaviness of this one is harder to break through, there are some things you can do.

• Talk it out. While the hardships that happen or have happened are not things you can typically share with others due to privacy laws, there are people you can talk to. Staff that are also aware of what happened are ok to talk to and can help you sort through your feelings. You could also reach out to a therapist, if needed. School districts usually have programs that provide this service, or you can find someone on your own that takes your insurance.
• Shift your focus to what you can do with and for your students while they are with you. It doesn’t mean ignore their home life, but don’t dwell on it. (Note: Do not ignore your mandatory reporter responsibilities. If you see or hear something, say something.) This means add some extra social-emotional learning in whenever possible, show your students you care, and give them tools that will help them to succeed.
• Think about if this is the right school for you. This one takes some deep thought, but is the mental health toll too much for you working at a school with students that have so many needs? If the answer is yes, that is ok. Then, go about applying for a transfer to a school with a different student population. This work is not for everyone. You have to take care of you and your family first.

Overwhelmed Heaviness

Overwhelmed heaviness is one many teachers face. We often have too much on our plates and the expectations and pressure keep rising. This usually sounds like, “I have to do x, y, and z, but the only time I have to get it completed is during my planning time when there isn’t a meeting. Ahhh!” Take a deep breath….hold it….let it out. You’ve got this and while the to-do list won’t go away, it can be made more manageable.

• Make a list and prioritize it. There is always work to be done, but not all of it has to be done RIGHT NOW.
  • Organize by due dates and what will make the most difference if it gets completed. Do those tasks first and if you have time for anything else, go ahead and complete something else.
  • Your tasks can also be organized by the amount of time it takes to complete them. That way no time is wasted. If you have a small unexpected chunk of time, use it to complete one of those shorter tasks.
• See if you can delegate any of your tasks. If your students are older, they may be able to do one of the tasks on your list. Do you have a student teacher or have parent volunteers come in? What can you delegate to them? If you don’t, reach out to your families and see if you can get one or two parent volunteers to come in or are willing to do some tasks for you at home. One year I had a parent who loved to cut items out for me. I’d send home the papers and she’d send them back complete. It saved me a lot of time and the parent was happy to be of help!
• Cut out tasks when you can. Does every paper need to be graded? No, not really. Decide which assignments actually need to be graded and grade those. The rest can either get a check that they are done or be checked quickly by students during class. Is that elaborate craft necessary or will it take more time than it’s worth? Chuck out unnecessary tasks to shrink your list.

Conclusion

Teaching is a rewarding and amazing career! But we’ve all felt the heaviness of teaching. It’s part of being human. I hope these tips will be useful to you and help you shed a few pounds.

Yesterday, October 10, was World Mental Health Day. It’s important to take care of yourself, so you can show up as the best version of yourself for your students. But it’s ok if they see some of the hard days, too. It’s ok if you tell your students you’re having a rough day, but be sure to tell them how you’re coping with it, too, appropriate to their age. This lets them know it’s ok for them to have those days, too, and know what to do when they happen.

A couple more posts that may be of help to you to help lose weight when teaching gets heavy are, If You Need a Mental Health Day? Take it! and, How to Leave Your Work at Work.