Oksana wrote in to ask:
Hi Richard,
I would be really grateful for some tips regarding how to prevent professional burnout. Sometimes it’s so discouraging when you do your best, but your students don’t. I guess it concerns adults more.
What a very good question – and yes, it isn’t one I get everyday!
1. Take a holiday – it is August after all! 🙂
2. Very often burn out occurs when teachers want to go in one direction (often to getting the students to be really good) but “the system” or the parents pull you in the opposite direction e.g. having to focus on exams or students just wanting social interaction.
This can lead to a lot of stress, and if you are being pulled in two different directions you’ll never move nearer to neither of them so the feeling of not progressing – or sometimes of going backwards – is what often causes the burn out.
And believe me we’ve all been there.
The solution? Who do you want to reach?
The solution is very simple.
It’s for you to sit down and really think about exactly *who* you want to teach and *how* you want to teach them.
We can’t teach everyone in the world, so only want to attract students who are exactly in line with what *you* want to teach.
This might mean changing jobs or starting your own school, but that’s never a bad thing.
Ninja Tip: If you are in your own school then don’t just have students come forever and ever. You’ll never get there and feel depressed. Instead, have them sign up for set modules with set concrete goals. Each time they graduate you’ll all have a sense of achievement. Of course they’ll want to sign up for the next module, which you will develop according to their needs, and this approach will guarantee you more new students too. It’s a bit like Karate where you build up through the ranks to get your black belt!
Once you get everyone going in the same direction with students who want to learn what you want to teach it’s amazing at how enjoyable, and productive, your teaching becomes again!
So that’s my Ninja Tip: Choose.
Plan to attract the students you want, and let go of the ones you don’t.
PS. Thanks for the “Starter Pack” and your dedication!
You’re welcome!
Be genki,
Richard
Good post… and like you say, most of us go through it from time to time.
It does sound a bit cut-throat, but definitely “bin undesirables”.
I did a business english class for a local company a while back. It started off ok, but the students were “told” by the company to attend. Needless to say, their commitment was severely lacking. It was a good little regular earner, but at the end of the day I didn’t feel satisfied. I milked it for 3 years, then when I couldn’t stand it any longer and wanted to use the time to develop my school further, I dropped them. Also, despite it being a relatively cushy number, I realised that the time I was wasting on them was preventing me from advancing my business in more productive ways..
I made some money, but learnt a lot from the experience, too.
Now, we only take on students that we want to and we call the shots.
One gentleman from the class wanted to continue, so now he comes as a private student. Very satisfactory for everyone concerned. After about two weeks from binning them and reorganising our classes, we over doubled our income compared what I was getting from them.
After the same period, my stress levels had gone down and they were a very distant memory.
The second point… Holidays.
Make sure you factor them in… and regularly.
At our school, we work on the national holidays. However, we schedule for four good breaks of two weeks at a time, in each year. I finish this Friday and I’m ready for it. I love my job, but it’s natural to become weary. I take a nice rest and usually by the middle of the second week, my mind naturally draws back to ideas for work. When Monday the 25th comes, I’ll be ready to get stuck in again.
You’re not the only one.
Hope this helps.
Thanks for that useful advice! I like the idea of both teacher and student(s) working towards definite goals. It could even be like Karate with colours for different levels, maybe they could get a coloured badge when they’ve completed a level.
I also agree with what you say about finding the kind of students you want to teach, if possible. When you get on well, they’re more likely to be happy and sing your praises to their friends.
Hi Oksana!
Thank you so much for the question! Even for very energetic teachers it’s important to learn not to get exhausted after the school year, or a school month, or a week, or a day.
Hi Richard! You’re absolutely right!!
Teacher as a leader has to to tell where he/she is going to, and he/she’ll get the students who want to go there with him/her, too. And if there are only a few of them, it’s worth to go. The main reason for that is that the teacher and students ENJOY the way they go together.
And when they’ll reach their goal they can be tired. But it’s OK – gardeners also can get tired after some hard work in the garden … 🙂
Best regards to everybody!
My boss wants me to write up a teaching plan for three years of teaching young kids 3 – 6 years old using the Genki English, since I’ve been pushing the idea of using Genki. Any help?
Well done Martin on getting him to agree!
The main base will be the regular curriculum but …. first of all you need to find out (in as much detail as you can) what *he* wants in a plan. The best line to use is the “magic wand” wording and say to him “Cool, I can definitely get this done. And if I had a magic wand that could make the most totally perfect plan for you, what would you like to see in it?” That removes any of the “ah, but what about this? or this?” objections later as you can find out exactly what he wants.
Email me and I’ll help out just as soon as I’ve worked through my Shanghai email backlog! 🙂
THANK YOU!
Working as a full-time volunteer in Bali makes things more difficult as I teach at an orphanage, a women’s centre (for the under-privileged women in the area) and teaching their children there, too.
As a result, people often don’t realise how much effort is put into preparing and how much energy is put into running it. So they see that I have two hours between class A and class B and then automatically assume I should be able to run another class in that time. WRONG! What about prep-time and refocusing so I can give my best to the classes I already have?
Just needed the encouragement that it’s OK for me to feel weary and take a break for myself.
Thanks,
Adrienne.