Note: This was originally written for teachers, but right now I think it’s a good recommendation for anyone who is frantic, trying to get it all done, especially parents managing online schooling.
It’s September 2020 as I write this. This post is from 2019 and takes us back to better times. I won’t edit the old post, just make the observation that if you can’t go out for chicken wings with coworkers, zoom for fun and not just lesson preparation. Make a plan to eat pizza while zooming. Maybe you could zoom while all polishing your own toenails :-).
The start of the school year can be nuts. Many teachers cut sleep to get rooms ready, lessons prepared, and required administrative paperwork done. I asked a young teacher how she was doing this week and she responded by speechlessly breaking into tears. She had been cutting sleep for days. By the end of her week she was about two days short of sleep.
Don’t do this!! You will probably get sick. For one thing, sick kids frequently come to school at the start of the year — even with the flu. I read a post yesterday from a colleague who had managed to be her doctor’s first flu case of the year for two years running.
You may also lose your sense of humor, an almost essential component to creating a good relationship with your students, not to mention getting along with administration and other humans. At worst, you will end up blasting some admin for making yet another marginally-useful-at-best paperwork demand. A few missing hours here, a few missing hours there, and your patience may evaporate, leading you to tell the assistant principal exactly what you think of the new spreadsheet, due by Friday, documenting all student reading progress over the last six years.
Eat. Drink — flavored, fizzy waters, Gatorade, plain old water, and other alternatives that are not coffee. I love coffee, but humans are not meant to live on coffee alone. Visit with colleagues. Go out for chicken wings or pizza with fellow teachers. If your school has no regular Lou Malnati’s Pizza Friday get-together, make it happen. Sleep enough so that you can enjoy your day, and your pizza. When the kids say something funny, you want to laugh. You are building relationships. I have had a few days when I had to turn off the lights and ask for mercy due to migraines. I always got my mercy because students knew I valued them. No small part of that is laughing at their jokes and turning up at their soccer games.
Set a bedtime if you must, and try your hardest to stick to that bedtime. I recommend scheduling massages, and yoga or martial arts classes as well. If there’s an exercise or yoga class on your way home from work, I suggest plunking down the money to schedule that regular break between work and home. Routines help. So does a reason not to linger in your classroom after school.
On week-ends, get a pedicure. Take the dog for a long walk in the forest preserve. Go golfing or play tennis. Meet friends to watch the football game. Stream the latest John Wick movie. Whatever works, whatever you can manage that refreshes you.
Be kind to yourself.