How to Reduce Stress in These Last Few Months of the School Year

Hey, Teachers!

With just a few months to go on the traditional calendar and so much on our plates, you might be struggling to stay afloat. Teaching is draining. Good teachers give everything they have to ensure student well-being and success.  It's not easy to keep self-preservation strategies intact while handling a myriad of teaching concerns and responsibilities each day. 

Some school years are more challenging than others, and even during the best years we're feeling the pressures of end-of-year data, earning high evaluation marks, and hoping our students move on to the next step of the journey successfully.

New teachers may be questioning how to wrap up the school year effectively, both structurally and internally. What's the most important data to showcase? Or the most significant artifact to include in an evidence-based portfolio? What determines success while being inundated with new procedural knowledge each month? Who can you trust when making those decisions and drawing conclusions about your own success?

Following are 7 simple ways to reduce stress in these last few months of the school year, whether you're a new teacher or a veteran teacher.

If we don't take care of ourselves, we're not our "best selves" now or at any other time of the school year.

Reducing stress means not trying to "do it all" and also reinforcing behaviors in ourselves that magnify internal peace.

1. Develop a clear roadmap for the "must-have's" in these last weeks of instruction. What can you take off the table? What lesson plan can be omitted? What are the "to-do's" that only you know about and won't affect student performance data much? These "to-do's" can easily be moved to the bottom of the list.

2. Cancel commitments that aren't as necessary as they feel. If you signed up for the faculty potluck and it's overwhelming, take yourself off the list or change what you're bringing that requires much less effort. If you're coordinating extra events, in charge of the department or grade level meetings, or overseeing a committee, delegate more roles and responsibilities to team members.

3. Anticipate a few more fires coming your way so you don't get derailed. Expect emails that could throw you off-guard. Expect students worried about their grades to behave a certain way. Expect a parent complaint. Be one step ahead so you already have a plan for a) helping students regulate emotions, and b) acknowledging parent concerns. Stay centered as the teacher-leader of the class.

4. Clock out. Even if your work is piling up (new teachers who are still learning the ropes about balancing time management and downtime for self-preservation want to set some new boundaries), pick the "heavy lifting" days. They can't be every day. And not everything is going to get done full speed or at the same level of intensity. Not all of it needs to be done with that kind of attention and grit. Tell yourself when you need to leave "school" for the day and stick to that boundary.

Consider what tasks may not require the kind of work you're putting in and which ones really impact student learning the most.

5. Avoid getting into optional conversations or situations that drain time. This includes the sudden 20-minute conversation outside of your classroom in the hallway with a colleague who just wants to vent. Be one step ahead here too. Be observant about your environment and surroundings so you can preserve yourself. It's okay to tell a colleague you have a meeting to get to or an obligation you're headed to right now.

And yes, students often suddenly need assistance and we should be in place to help them to the best of our ability, but if we can schedule that discussion, we should try. If not, we need to continue being prepared for those unexpected individual needs our students exhibit, right up to the last day of school.

We can also think ahead about the kinds of student inquiries that will take the most time or cause the most stress, and set a plan in place for "next steps" when those situations arise.

6. Avoid internalizing criticism or mistakes. Teachers make mistakes on the job. We're human and there's always a learning curve because we're dealing with human beings and no class is the same. As long as our mistakes don't break a professional code of ethics or the law (that's beyond the scope of this article), we can give ourselves the space to stop ruminating about them. Acknowledge, apologize, and put a plan in place for a new approach next time.

Beating ourselves up in negative thought patterns and cycles only prohibits opportunities to see the good we're doing and the flourishing we hope to achieve.

7. Bring yourself into the school space. Don't let "school" be the only focus at school. This takes some creative practice. For example, I always have a book I'm reading in my satchel, notes I'm writing, or a personal project I'm working on outside of school hours that I can reflect upon during my work day. During teaching breaks, invest in those endeavors that define who you are personally. Too often, we feel obligated to be "social" during teaching breaks when we really should be freeing our minds of the constant chatter, Q and A, and minute-by-minute decision-making teaching requires. This includes prep time, before and after school (if we don't have assigned duties), and obviously, recess and/or lunch time. 

Investing in yourself during breaks is intentional. You can also walk around the school track, close your eyes for a catnap, stretch, text a friend, or your spouse or partner for a few minutes, or make a personal call, write a letter, write in your journal, or complete a mindful relaxation exercise including but not limited to self-reflective practice or enjoying 10 minutes of complete silence.

Reducing stress is essential as a teacher.

When we leave the classroom each day, we need to enter a new space. Sometimes, we can't help but lesson plan outside of contract hours, or bring papers or projects home. But this should be the exception, not the rule, and it does get easier with time. Teachers who have added administrative duties such as writing IEPs, can face tremendous added pressures to the time factor, especially when delegating roles hourly and individualizing instruction and implementing behavior management consistently.

The keys to reducing stress include: remaining objective about our teaching environments, being realistic, being anticipatory about what's down the road, and promoting a sense of "self" in the teaching day that provides true breaks from taking care of others' needs.

And last but not least, we should always seek to understand what we CAN control. When we can let go of stressors in categories of teaching that we have no authority over and cannot change, we can move our attention and focus more intently on where we do have the power of positive influence and decision-making.