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Teaching has always been a challenging profession. Today, it is more challenging than ever. With the aftermath of Covid, the creation of AI, the dependency on cell phones, and the anxiety of the students. It is just an overwhelming job. When individuals enter the profession be fully aware that there are many stresses to teaching, there are no remote working days, and you always have to give an incredible effort to reach all the different students. Teacher anxiety can affect health, personal relationships, and even result in individuals leaving the profession. It is something that needs to acknowledged and accepted, by teachers, educators, and all of society.
Anxiety will affect a teacher differently based on age, experience, gender, geographic location, and so many more circumstances. Here are SOME of the causes of teacher anxiety.
Financial Worries
The teaching profession is not a very lucrative profession compared with other jobs with comprable education backgrounds. The extra hours required of the job are seldom compensated, like writing personal feedback for each student or writing college recommendation letters. It is very challenging to raise a family salary of an educator. Family vacations, club sports, where you live are all affected by a teacher’s salary, which varies from state to state.
The most anxious time for many educators are the weeks leading up to the first paycheck. Many teachers have the option of receiving a lump sum at the end of the school year. This lump sum must allow a teacher to survive from the last day to the first day of school and this can be challenging. So during the final days of summer, that most people enjoy, and lead to an incredibly stressful time for an educator counting pennies until that 1st paycheck, much of which will go to a credit card bill that is higher than normal.
From the 1st day on the job in education, a teacher needs to really understand the financially challenges of being an educator. Accept this fact and embrace teaching anyway.
Back to School
Back to school is an exciting time, with ads filling the air waves, like a presidential election campaign. For educators, it is a drastic change to life style. Although many teachers may have summer jobs, these jobs are not teaching. Teaching requires focus, planning, preparation, and so much patience.
in addition to a teacher feeling anxious about returning to school, many have other roles that will be impacted. For example, parents have to worry about a child’s return to elementary, middle, high school, or college. Each age has a unique set of challenges. Children who spend time with family, and care for family members, will now have much less free time.
There is not much to do to reduce the amount of time and energy an educator devotes to going back to school. It is HARD, so the best thing to do is clear your calendar of what you can and understand the 1st weeks of school could be very exhausting.
Changes to The Job
Educators know that the working conditions in education can change on a dime. Ask any educator who worked through Covid. That was the biggest change in education ever. However each there will be change. Some minor. Some major. A town’s decision to pass or reject and override will result in positive or negative changes. What subject, grade, or building a teacher is assigned can change from year to year. A change in staff, particularly administration, will impact a school year.
We have just touched the tip of the iceberg with changes to education, but one thing is certain, the only thing that is constant in education is change.
We are preparing for Back to School, so we will revisit this blog later. For now, good luck in your teaching journey and know that it is ok to acknowledge and accept teacher anxiety.