Prologue:
This isn’t some sort of five-year recap. Or things I learned over the first four years of teaching. Maybe I’ll write something about that in another post. Instead, I’m realizing what they mean when you hit year 5.
Year 5 — is the average year a teacher burns out. Now that I’m here, I get it. Maybe teachers burn out for different reasons. But I think today’s generation of teachers burn out because of being overworked. This is not to say teachers have never been overworked. Or that this is some sort of oppression Olympics.
But from what I’ve gathered, many veteran teachers express, “I’ve done my time” when it comes to extracurricular responsibilities.
I feel like I’ve written about it before, but since my arrival at Lincoln, I noticed a really low participation and engagement rate from our staff. The school culture itself already has a poor student life culture, but the staff has felt so distant since I started.
There was only certain staff that were involved with anything. An example of this would be our club sponsors. I don’t know all of them, but at our recent meeting, there were about two dozen teachers in the room? Maybe less? Out of our 200 staff? Granted, not everyone goes to meetings.
But clubs in my opinion, are the easiest form of extracurricular responsibility at Lincoln. You’re mostly just a name on a paper and open your room for kids to run the show.
On the classroom end, it’s shocking to see how drastic the change in students has become. If you’ve kept up with my posts, you know that many of my issues have been staff related. As of recently, they slowly become student related. From my first year of teaching, I adored and was impressed by the level of maturity and agency in my sophomores or 10th graders.
Today, they are arguably worse than the 9th graders I had during my first year of teaching. I thought that this year would be particularly better than the last, simply because 9th graders had the opportunity to acclimate to high school.
The 21-22 school year, students had a clear developmental gap. They were radio silent until they made friends. Then they turned into some of the most immature students I had ever worked with. By comparison, I thought they were the worst. I went into the Fall ’22 semester with 11/12 repeat students being the ones I had issues with as 10th graders. Only for them to turn over a new leaf and become responsible young adults.
Even though these repeat students became the least of my problems, these new 10th graders are on a whole other level. I think after five years of teaching, I am definitely jaded by students who have taken advantage of my patience or personality. And these students walk all over me more than any class has. They even walk all over each other; it’s chaos.
Teaching is a long game, so I have faith these students will change. But the amount of energy these students sap in one period is depressing. By 6th period, one of my most chill classes, I cannot provide the energy or support those juniors, or 11th graders deserve.
On a positive note, in my fifth year of teaching, I feel confident in my curriculum. But it’s unfortunate that I feel this sort of confidence or self-determination at the height of my burnout. I don’t think I’ve gone into detail about my curriculum as of late. And I think I need to do that to share the more positive aspects of my career. Revel in my own successes.
Even with many of the staff issues I wrote about, though not resolved, I’ve had a lot of better experiences with my department in the last two months. For the first time, I feel like I’m doing my job right instead of walking around with a blindfold. It takes a lot of preparation, but I’m glad I’m receiving less pushback and more open-mindedness from my staff members. Things are looking up and I hope that we can successfully collaborate to make inclusive expectations for each and every student we serve.
This year, I put too much on my plate. I think subconsciously, I overestimated the time that MCP gave me. If I can walk out of this year still willing to go another, then I should be able to do anything. Though I’ve had worse students at schools with less funding or support, dealing with students that don’t listen ever, I think, is still worse. At least at these harder-to-teach schools, I was able to make connections with my students. And use the rapport to facilitate and create accessible means of learning.
I think moving forward, it’s time to put my foot down. There’s a fine line between self-pacing and free-time, and these students are definitely taking advantage of our classroom model instead of using it for growth.
Epilogue 4/30/23:
It’s been almost the entire school year since I drafted this post about my feelings after the first grading period of the Fall 2022 semester. And to say the least, my feelings haven’t really changed; if anything, the school year has barely gotten better. I was hopeful for every single passing grading period. At the start of the new semester, sure, kids have grown, but the sapping of my energy still exists. This is the first time I’ve experienced such a large number of students either not improving or still remaining in the D/F range the entire school year.
I think this school year has shown us the actual effect of the pandemic, the real impacts of learning loss. And this is just the beginning. Teacher education programs did not prepare us for a post-pandemic world, and though we’re still navigating it, the lack of tools, resources, and staffing is burning teachers out.
I have new gadgets and gizmos, tips, and tricks that should honestly make teaching more enjoyable. I even just got my classroom redesigned this year (click here for full blog) But I’ve come to realize that the five-year statistical burnout is real. Teaching is unsustainable. And though I wrote about the kids sapping my energy, it’s really the systemic inequities of an overpopulated and understaffed institution.
Although I had some heated feelings in this post about my feelings toward classroom behavior this year, I’m still hopeful things will get better. Other staff members have reported that 9th graders are a little better this year. I hope that as time goes on, we can reimagine and change how learning looks for our students. To provide more support, funding, and resources for our teachers.
While writing this post, I went into my other drafts to see how much I’ve repeated, only to find some hope and aspirations in my writing. A lot has changed for me in the last school year, and even just in 2023 alone. So here’s a friendly reminder to look back, reflect, and use it as fuel to move forward.
Balasbas Says 