From Poolside to PD: Surviving the Transition Back to School

REAL TALK FROM REAL TEACHERS

• “I can never figure out what’s driving my anxiety… summer ending or work starting. Then I realize I’m not sure it matters. Sigh.”

• “I had my first day (a PD day) and I felt very overwhelmed, unprepared and left to drown in a vast ocean of nothing and everything.”

• “I know it’s called Professional Development, but we need Professional Planning and Work Time during the first week, sheesh.”

• “I know it will get better… I know it will get better… I know it will get better… I sit in these first week meetings and just keep repeating it over and over.”

THE PROBLEM and THE SOLUTION

Teachers experience an enormous amount of dread and anxiety returning back to work.

• Step 1. Acknowledge it. Accept it. It’s OK and there’s nothing wrong with it.

• Step 2. Know that you’re not alone, and it’s not just teachers! According to a GlassDoor poll, 77% of employees feel anxious anticipating their post-vacation workload. And get this, these employees report experiencing emotions “ranging from anger to malaise.” Sound familiar?? See the chart below from a Zapier/Harris poll that shows what people in non-education jobs stress about the most after returning from vacation: 1) Reestablishing a routine 2) Getting caught up with administrative tasks 3) Finishing all the busy work. They might as well all be teachers!

  

• Step 3. Lean on a partner or colleague. Find a coworker who you can connect and collaborate with. In a SHRM survey, 85% of U.S. employees who have close friends at work say the friendships have positively impacted their careers, and 86% of those who have close work friends are significantly more likely to experience job satisfaction than those without workplace friendships.

  

• Step 4. Okay, maybe you don’t like anyone at work. Then focus on something positive. Pick an activity or goal that will drive you and motivate you to come to work every day. Maybe you want to try a new instructional strategy this year, like a flipped classroom. Maybe you’re going to intentionally build better relationships with your students. Maybe you want to transition to Project Based Learning. Pick something that you’ll look forward. Make it a positive focus for the year. Barbara Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory found that experiences of positive emotions—often tied to goal pursuit—expand thinking patterns and build long-term resilience and coping capacity.

• Step 5. Understand that it will get better. According to SafetyAndHealth magazine survey, most teachers reported feelings of anxiety dissipating after 2 weeks. What’s the lesson? If you can survive the initial onslaught of PD and emails, you will feel a lot better soon.

• Listen. It’s going to be a drag. We’ve done this before and it’s always the same. Work week, or Pre-Service week, or whatever you call it, sucks. It’s overwhelming and can feel endless, but just about everybody in every profession feels this way when they return to work.

• Have no fear! There ARE solutions! (see your homework below)

• You need to find something positive to hang on to, whether that’s a friend (or friends) at work to laugh and connect with, or some professional goal/achievement you want to work on. Pick something positive, then hang on to it like it’s your winning lotto ticket.

For this week’s homework assignment, you have 2 options. Pick whichever one speaks to you the most. (Hey, look, we’re modeling good teaching practices by giving student choice! Woo hoo!)

OPTION 1: Make an effort to build and maintain a positive relationship at work.

• During your first week back, make an effort to connect with a colleague (or colleagues) and build a positive relationship with them. Reminisce about your summers, commiserate about how much work sucks, and laugh about all the challenging things you have to do, like figure out how to correctly pronounce all of your student’s names (yikes!).

• But, do this with PURPOSE. It might even help to tell your colleague/friend directly, “Look, I’m really dreading this school year, and I’m gonna need your friendship and support! I’m gonna support you as well. Call/text any time! Oh, and let’s get drunk at Happy Hour!”

• You might even talk and discuss something you both want to work on this year. The key is to make your relationship positive! EXTRA CREDIT for choosing a colleague who makes you laugh and smile more often. Avoid Debbie Downers. They’re not helpful.

OPTION 2: Pick a positive work goal and crush it!

• Identify something you want to work on and get better at. Here are some choices. The most important thing is that you pick something you will actually enjoy and be passionate about.

  a) Building stronger student relationships

  b) Building a safer more engaging classroom

  c) Create more fun and engaging lessons or assessments

  d) Identify low achieving or struggling students and create a plan to better support them

  e) Push yourself to leave your comfort zone by either trying a new teaching technique you’ve never tried before or by connecting with students you normally don’t connect with

• Once you’ve picked a goal, create a plan and identify how you are going to achieve this goal. Make it reasonable, fun, and valuable to you. If it’s not all 3 of those things, then you’re likely going to quit doing it (or not start at all).