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Demoralization vs. Burnout
Are you burnt out? Or are you demoralized? A recent article (passed on to me by a colleague) fits nicely with my series on teacher burnout that wrapped up last week: sometimes what we call burnout is actually demoralization. The difference is in the cause. I have been lucky enough to work mostly in contexts… Continue reading
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Bad Teacher
Is it possible for a bad person to be a good teacher? The Husband and I have been on an adventure. We have been looking for a condo for the last couple of months – mortgage pre-approvals! Real estate agents! Notaries and house inspectors! We feel like grownups – and two weeks ago, we found… Continue reading
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How I Saved My Teaching Career: Step 7: Write a Blog
This is the final post in a series on how to overcome burnout and love teaching again. See the end of this post for previous entries. In the summer of 2007, my burnout reached its peak. I’d taken some steps to deal with it (and you can check out the links below to read… Continue reading
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How I Saved My Teaching Career: Step 6: Meditate
This is the seventh post in a series on how to overcome burnout and love teaching again. See the end of this post for previous entries. I have a confession to make. I’m a bad meditator. Meditation is incredibly boring. Everything in me resists doing it, and I can avoid it for months. If… Continue reading
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How I Saved My Teaching Career: Step 5: Get More Training
This is the sixth post in a series on how to overcome burnout and love teaching again. See the end of this post for previous entries. One advantage of being a teacher is that it’s easy to keep learning, and learning, and learning. I got my education degree years ago, specializing in Teaching English… Continue reading
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How I Saved My Teaching Career: Step 4: Face Your Fears
This is the fifth post in a series on how to overcome burnout and love teaching again. See the end of this post for previous entries. When I first started teaching, I was scared. Terrified, in fact. I’d taken a job as a Second Language Monitor – a sort of assistant language teacher –… Continue reading
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How I Saved My Teaching Career: Step 3: Find Your Community
This is the fourth post in a series on how to overcome burnout and love teaching again. See the end of this post for previous entries. Teaching can be lonely. We spend a lot of time with our students, but our relationships with them can feel adversarial and/or distant. Even our good relationships with… Continue reading
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How I Saved My Teaching Career: Step 2: Take Time Off
One of my favourite quotes about burnout is from Bertrand Russell’s essay “Education and Discipline”: … it is utterly impossible for over-worked teachers to preserve an instinctive liking for children; they are bound to come to feel towards them as the proverbial confectioner’s apprentice does towards macaroons. I do not think that education ought to… Continue reading
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How I Saved My Teaching Career: Step 1: Take Stock. Is It Worth It?
This is the second post in a series on how to overcome burnout and love teaching again. For the introductory post, go here. On Monday, I introduced my career crisis. After teaching joyfully for many years, I was tired, discouraged and ready to quit. But I paused before throwing in the towel. I took a… Continue reading
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How I Saved My Teaching Career: Introduction
A few years ago, I was ready to quit my teaching job. But I didn’t. I’ve been a teacher in some capacity for twenty-three years. I fell in love with the profession when I was a college student and landed a part-time job as an assistant language teacher in an elementary school. I was sure… Continue reading
About Me
My job is to teach people to read and write; aside from that, I like to learn things.
Classroom as Microcosm 