Kick Off Your Best Year Yet, Teacher
There is something hopeful about the beginning of a new school year. The floors are shiny. The bulletin boards are fresh. The pencils are sharpened. And for the first few days, you may even know exactly where you left your coffee cup. A new year offers a fresh start. You have plans for building relationships, creating engaging lessons, staying organized, and making a difference. Plans bring a sense of hope and excitement. But somewhere between orientation and the second week of school, that excitement can start to fade. The initial boost of adrenaline is gone, and that familiar feeling of exhaustion starts to creep back in. What if this year could be different? What if you could cultivate a steady charge on your teacher battery so you can impact lives and still have a life?
Your best year yet doesn't require a complete overhaul. In fact, it may just require a handful of small practices. Three of our favorite practices for staying energized and engaged are setting a daily intention, checking in with yourself throughout the day, and creating an end of day ritual. Here’s how to incorporate those practices into your teaching day.
Set a Daily Intention
A daily intention is proactive. It helps us decide in advance how we want to show up for the day. It’s a simple word, phrase, or reminder that helps you decide where you want to place your attention and energy. An intention isn’t a goal, it’s a guide. A daily intention helps focus your attention. What you tell your brain to look for, you’re more likely to notice. Instead of letting your attention be pulled to the noise around you, you decide where to focus.
Your intention might be:
Stay curious
Help a student feel seen
Encourage my colleagues
Inspire students to love reading
Choose your intention before the school day begins and put it somewhere you will see it—a sticky note on your laptop, a reminder on your phone, or a note on your desk. Then, when the day inevitably gets messy, use it to guide your actions and interactions. Imagine your intention is to inspire your students to love reading. You might notice more books and articles they will enjoy. You’ll likely notice more opportunities to talk with students about what they’re reading. And, most importantly, when you set an intention, you decide for yourself what success looks like. At the end of the day, if you’ve moved in the direction of your intention, you can call the day a success. Feeling successful at the end of the day can do wonders for your teacher battery.
Check in throughout the Day
In a recent Teacher Recharge professional learning session, one participant came up with the phrase, Check in before you crash out. The phrase is fun, and it’s also wise. As a teacher, you are remarkably good at noticing what everyone else needs. You notice the student who seems unusually quiet. You notice the colleague who looks overwhelmed. You check in to see how everyone else is doing, but how often do you stop to check in with you?
During a busy school day, it is easy to move from one task to the next without recognizing what is happening in your own body and mind. By the time you finally notice that you're overwhelmed, you're already running on fumes. Try building a few brief check-ins into your day. You can do it in under two minutes. Simply pause and ask:
What am I noticing right now?
Scan your body. Are your shoulders tight? Is your jaw clenched? Are you holding your breath?
Notice your emotions. Are you frustrated? Anxious? Energized? Discouraged?
Notice your attention. Are you focused on what is happening now, or are you replaying something from this morning or worrying about this afternoon?
Then ask one more question:
What do I need right now?
Maybe you need three slow breaths before the next class walks in. Maybe you need a drink of water. Maybe you need to stand up and stretch. Maybe you need to step outside for thirty seconds and feel the sun on your face. Maybe you need to text a trusted colleague and say, "Rough morning. Remind me I'm going to survive sixth period."
Think of it as checking the gauge on your teacher battery. You don't have to wait until you're at 2 percent to plug in.
Create an End-of-Day Ritual
One of the hardest parts of teaching is that the work is never really finished. There is always another email you could answer. Another paper you could grade. Another lesson you could tweak. Another problem you could solve. That's why an end-of-day ritual can be so powerful. An end-of-day ritual is a short, repeatable practice that tells your brain, Work is done for today. I can relax and let it go. You might even create a physical cue for the transition. Change the calendar. Close your laptop. Water the plants. Create a playlist for your drive home.
Many of us grew up watching Mr. Rogers change his shoes and put on his sweater as he started his television show. Use him as a model, and create that same kind of transition between your work life and your personal life. What could you do to signal to your brain that it’s time to leave work behind? This small practice can help you return with more energy tomorrow.
Small Practices, Repeated Often
None of these practices are revolutionary. That's exactly the point. We often approach a new school year believing that making it better requires doing more: getting more organized, creating more resources, and taking on more responsibilities. But your best year yet may not come from adding more. It may come from learning how to move through the year differently.
Set an intention before the day begins.
Check in with yourself throughout the day.
Create a ritual that helps you end the day and have a life after school.
As you begin this new year, don't just make plans for what you want to accomplish. Make a plan for how you want to experience the year, too. Your students deserve an energized, engaged teacher. And you deserve enough energy left at the end of the day for the rest of your life. Here's to your best year yet. Here’s to impacting lives and still having a life.
Click here to get the free guide, 25 Stress Resets for Educators.