Although teaching can be a highly rewarding career, schools are consistently challenged with poor teacher retention rates. New teachers can find the rigors of the classroom challenging, and many quit after only a few years in the profession. Teaching burnout can impact any instructor, whether novice or seasoned. To keep your passion for teaching bright, consider these three tips to avoid teacher burnout, regardless of the grade level or subject area you teach.

Tip #1: Don’t Reinvent the Wheel

Filled with lesson plans and worksheets, the internet is the modern teacher’s best friend! Instead of reinventing every single lesson plan with your own personal touch, make your life easier by searching for lesson plans on the web. Resources such as www.readwritethink.org offer either free or reduced-cost teaching materials, saving you both your time and sanity. Teachers can even find unit plans that contain handouts, answer keys, project rubrics, and an array of other helpful teaching resources.

Tip #2: Work Stays at Work

Although students leave the classroom at 3 pm, teachers find themselves staying after the final bell, working on upcoming lesson plans, running copies, grading student work, or completing other seemingly endless responsibilities. With so much work confronting a teacher each day, many educators choose to take some of their school work home – but this could easily lead to teaching burnout. Many seasoned educators believe that taking work home results in an endless cycle of school-focused stress. To avoid bringing stress home with you each night, many veteran teachers recommend arriving an hour or two before school starts to complete your work. Or simply stay in the classroom after school until all of your tasks have been completed. Many teachers find it emotionally and mentally restorative to leave the school each day without trudging (literally and figuratively) school materials into their homes. Your home can remain your haven, giving you the ability to recharge for the next school day.

Tip #3: Seek Support and Mentorship

One of the biggest challenges facing new teachers often centers on the issue of isolation. The school day is busy with ringing bells, inquisitive students, emails, and other distractions – which means a teacher rarely has even a minute or two to speak with a fellow co-worker. To avoid feeling alone and shipwrecked in your own classroom, veteran teachers encourage new teachers to seek a mentor in their department. Additionally, making an active effort to meet and speak with other new teachers in the building can lead to a greater sense of teamwork and support. Teaching burnout is a real issue facing both novice and seasoned educators alike. However, by incorporating smart strategies, you can keep your teaching flame shining brightly!