If I had a pound for every time someone had responded to me telling them I am a teacher by saying 'oh nice life, finish at three and long holidays', I could probably afford to give up teaching. I used to try and correct them by explaining the reality of my experience as a teacher (especially in my first year of teaching - the long hours, the never ending marking, the meetings, the stress, the fear each day that you weren't quite well enough prepared to make this the day count for all those kids you were responsible for, the feeling of failure at the end of the day that you had failed to engage everyone, the knowledge that you were several weeks behind on marking already and there would be another load created the next day). While teaching has undoubtedly caused me anxiety and stress over the years, I have never been able to leave it, for the belief that is the most worthwhile thing I could ever find to do on this planet, and I have even learned to relax and enjoy it most of the time.
Learning to switch off has been a key part of that - in the last two years, I have taken up running, meditating, singing and acting. Committing to activities that mean you can't be worrying about how to help Jimmy write better, or how to help Bethan stop acting out and start learning, etc is the only really way to stop thinking about what you do.
Learning to switch off has been a key part of that - in the last two years, I have taken up running, meditating, singing and acting. Committing to activities that mean you can't be worrying about how to help Jimmy write better, or how to help Bethan stop acting out and start learning, etc is the only really way to stop thinking about what you do.