Here are some small, doable steps that will help you manage
how overwhelmed you feel.
Get the Noise Out of
Your Head
The key to getting the noise out of your head and get a grip
on things is to first make a plan. Keep telling yourself “First things first,”
and keep breathing deeply. There are two good ways of doing this; either
schedule tasks on a calendar or create a mind map of everything you should be
doing. Whichever way you choose, do it as if your life depended on it! I plan
everything in advance and I mean everything! Once you have everything on your
list, it’s time to prioritize. Start with items that are most critical and
apply the Do, Delegate, Defer, or Dump approach.
Resolve that for each item you will either:
Do it - put it on the calendar for you to do.
Delegate it - decide if you can delegate the task to a
teaching assistant and either write a note with the request and clear direction
or put a meeting on the calendar to discuss it with them.
Defer it - decide the task is not a priority at this time
and leave it on the list to revisit it once all your priorities are sorted.
Dump it - determine the item is simply not important enough
and that it is coming off your list.
Make Sure You Create
a Good Morning Routine
The way you start your day can make or break it. If you
start well, chances are your day will become good. But if you don’t, then your
day might not be as good as it could be. That’s why you need to have a good
morning routine. Routines are helpful because they optimize your time and help
you conserve precious mental energy for
the important decisions. Get up early and take control of your day. Begin by
jump-starting your mind and body. One of the hardest aspects to starting the
day can be simply getting out of bed. I place the alarm across the room as it
forces me to get up and out of bed. Once your alarm goes off, adding additional
sensory stimuli, such as turning on a bedroom light or browsing your phone for
a few minutes, can help
energize the brain. I drink two pints of ice cold water, not only does it give
a slight shock to your system it helps to clean out your system and to re
hydrate. Even slight dehydration has
been shown to induce tension, anxiety and fatigue which is no way to
start the day. Exercise should be an important part of your morning routine.
Exercise will give your mind an energy boost. As a result, you will be able to
think more clearly and accomplish more during the day. You will feel more
confident and refreshed and as a consequence you will be able to maintain your
enthusiasm. Follow this with a healthy breakfast.
Advice on marking
It’s
almost impossible to comment and review every piece of work that your students
do. Instead establish a pattern of regular marking that is sharply
focused with achievable marking targets, such as ten books or assignments per
night and stick to it!. Have a cut off time in the evening and do not work
beyond it. You can make your life easier by using a fair proportion of peer and
self assessed tasks in your lessons. Pupils want to be engaged in their
learning, so get them involved in the management of their learning space and
assessment of each other’s learning. A point to note is that when marking work
be aware that distractions will kill your productivity. Therefore before you
begin your first task make sure your desk is free from clutter. Make sure your
email alerts are turned off, shut done all extraneous browsers on your
computer, silence your phone, you do not want to be bothered by your various
forms of social media. Don’t tempt yourself with anything that will catch your
eye or ear or pull your thoughts away from what you are doing. Work-life
balanceDo not work more than 50 hours per week! Try to make sure you have
a day off each week when you do no school work and you plan a relaxing event.
You need some social time to keep some semblance of normal life and keep things
in perspective. Make sure you do something unconnected with teaching that
is relaxing and enjoyable each weekend.Important one-off family events, such as
weddings are important. Don't be too afraid to ask if you can go. You might want
to check what the precedent is but always make a polite request directly to the
head teacher in person and be prepared to team up with colleagues to cover each
other from time-to-time to oil the wheels.
Personal Organisation
Thought multi-tasking was an attribute? Think again! Several
important studies have recently come to light that revealed multitasking to
actually be counterproductive. If you think you'll do more in less time just by
completing two or three tasks at once, you're simply wrong. I often use the
timer on my iPhone to help me focus. Whenever the timer runs, I have to work on
the task. If I’m going to switch to something else, I will have to stop the
timer. This makes me less likely to get distracted because I have to
consciously stop the timer to switch to something else.Give yourself a time
limit. Always have a cut off point when your work will finish. Overwork will
not help anyone in the long run.
Advice on lesson
planning!
Don’t try and reinvent the wheel! When teachers experience
overload we often find that they are over-planning their lessons or trying to
generate too many resources themselves. It's really important to build up a
bank of readily available shared resources and to develop an agile approach to
teaching that enables you to get students working and engaged without relying
too heavily on you and your materials. Collaborate more and try and team up
with colleagues to share the planning tasks. The @TeacherToolkit Five Minute
Lesson Plan is a big hit for a reason; it models skeletal lesson planning that
is time efficient and effective.Avoid energy drains
If you have negative voices around you, take yourself away
from them. People love to moan and sometimes we all need to let off steam but
don't surround yourself with the perpetual moaners in the staffroom; they will
bring you down. Steer clear of staffroom politics and gossip. It wastes time
and is often negative and unproductive. Be your own judge of character.
Writing Reports
Plan ahead for report writing and use statement banks
intelligently. Most schools have an electronic system for generating
reports, which includes a database of standard phrases that can be tailored to
suit most circumstances. Some schools use one of the non-pupil days for this.
If your school does not then commit to a time-frame for report writing well in
advance and stick with it. www.schoolreportwriter.com can be a useful
resource. Never be afraid to ask colleagues for supportBe proactive about
problems by asking for help if you need it. Don’t think that this is a sign of
weakness; on the contrary, it is a sign of strength and is a good way to get
the support you need to resolve the problem. There is almost always someone at
work, it may be a teacher from another department, who will listen and give you
some time, and will be on your side. Talking therapies are great if you can
talk to the right sort of person. Often you don't need advice, just someone to
listen to you. Plan a focused observation of an experienced colleague, and
discuss this beforehand you’re your tutor.Reflect and celebrateMake sure you
take the time to reflect on your day, figure out what worked well and what
didn't. Reflection is guaranteed to increase your future productivity. In order
to keep your motivation high it is important to then celebrate what you have
achieved. It can be as simple as crossing off the items in your to do list.
Accomplishment is a powerful feeling. Having a personal reward system will do
wonders for your motivation. Seeing how far you have gone will motivate you to
go even further.
References
http://teachersupport.info/facts-sheets/your-top-tips-time-managmenthttp://leaderchat.org/2015/04/25/new-job-making-you-crazy-ask-madeleine/http://www.new2teaching.org.uk/health_and_safety/workload/http://successfulsellingtechniques.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/8-steps-to-ensure-that-you-have.htmlhttp://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/apr/08/teacher-workload-tips-manage-work-life-balancehttp://www.nasuwt.org.uk/PayPensionsandConditions/England/Conditions/DirectedTime/
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