Whilst teaching is an incredibly rewarding role, its well known for being stressful at times. As a teacher you spend most of your time helping others, however it’s important to prioritise your own mental health as well.
Here are our top tips on how to support your wellbeing as a teacher:
Your wellbeing is important
Your wellbeing is essential in order to ensure you are thriving as a teacher. If you are not taking care of yourself, you will not be able to take care of others around you and ensure your pupils are enjoying learning.
Relationships
Focus on building relationships with staff, parents and pupils. This may be hard on a day to day supply basis, however even just getting to know a couple of pupils a bit further is a great step – even if it is just their favourite animal.
Sleep
Sleep is one of the most important aspects of our day. Without enough sleep, we aren’t as productive, energetic or even as positive some days. Waking up feeling refreshed will allow you to achieve more throughout the day.
Keep learning
Don’t stop trying to learn new teaching approaches/theories, take up opportunities for extra training and CPD. Keep learning in your personal life too, try new things, learn an instrument and challenge yourself. The satisfaction you gain from these will be amazing!
Be active
Embodying a healthier lifestyle will make a huge difference. By moving more, you will release endorphins, making you feel much more awake and positive. You will never regret a gym session, a run or even a walk! Whatever makes you feel good, go for it.
By looking after your own wellbeing, this will in turn make your teaching more positive, effective and your own positive energy will rub off onto your pupils.
Being realistic
Being realistic is something which is essential in order to avoid a huge ‘let down’. If you know that what you are trying to achieve in a day is unrealistic, have a rethink. Evaluate what you want, what is essential and all the little bits in between! Prioritise this and think you haven’t failed, but instead adapted which is just as strong.
Enjoy yourself!
Make sure you love what you do. Remind yourself of the reasons you teach, the impact you have and can have to a pupil’s life, as well as your passion behind it. All the effort that went into studying for your degree, your first day teaching alone, the first set of test marks you got back from your class, all the little things. There are hundreds of reasons as to why you might teach, remember these and make sure you are enjoying it.
Keep certain hour of the day free of school! No work-related thoughts, no worrying about work the next day, no marking or thinking about what your next job may be. Focus on yourself, your personal life and make sure you are living your life outside of work.
Enjoying your work can make the world of difference to your life. We all know the feeling of coming home after a great day at work, and unfortunately, I’m sure we all know the feeling of coming home after a bad day at work. If we can try to have as many good days as possible, those negative days won’t have as much of an impact.
Supply work is great for offering not only work-life balance, but also a chance to slow down, reflect on your teaching and enhance/grow as a teacher.