How To Teach for Over 20 Years Without Losing Your Mind
I was asked a question by a colleague the other day - how come you are still sane after twenty years of teaching? Sadly, it is a good question. If you look at the TES teaching forums you will find plenty of colleagues who have thrown, or are about to throw, in the towel. After five, ten, fifteen years, they have given all they can and are either stressed, anxious, exhausted or all of the above. Not long ago, I was one of them. Knackered and fed up. I still loved being in the classroom, but the constant marking and that nagging feeling that I did not have time to do any part of my job to my satisfaction had taken its toll. And I worked in a fantastic, supportive school! I was lucky. I applied for, and got, a different job in a different environment and for 9 months I taught children and young people with mental health problems. It gave me a space and time to rethink some things, and to reconnect with teaching as both an art and a science. I went from being a teacher who simpl