It’s getting to the time in the year when so many people are busy and stretched in different directions, a time perhaps to reassess whether our lives are in balance or not. It is so easy to get this balance wrong, and not least within our work.
My thoughts about avoiding burnout as a teacher
As teachers of instrumentalists or singers, it can be very easy to overdo it and end up being in a situation where you burn out. This can lead to all kinds of symptoms such as physical and emotional fatigue, lack of enthusiasm and lack of confidence. So what actually is burnout in this instance? Is it physical or emotional or a mix of the two? How does it come about and what can be done about it?
It’s important to make sure you have a good balance between the administrative side of teaching, your contact hours with students and your personal life, all of which are essential to your overall health and well-being as a teacher. Here are a few areas to consider:
Physical burnout
· Work culture: If there is an expectation of long hours & hard work, or you feel you need to prove yourself to your employer, this can take its toll on your energy levels. You might feel you’re slacking if you don’t put in the hours.
· Financial balance: Instrumental teachers tend to be self-employed and therefore generating income efficiently is important. Charging more per hour will mean you work fewer contact hours. This may be something to consider, but of course, it has to be balanced with what the market will accept.
· Time boundaries: Teaching at weekends or after school or office working hours is something to be wary of because it eats into your personal life, and time to rest and recuperate. It’s so easy to push your own boundaries to accommodate the student or the parent’s schedule rather than your own.
· Hidden hours: If you’re keen to teach well and support your students, you may find that you are adding in extra hours without realizing it. Ten contact hours can easily become fifteen hours of work if you’re writing emails to your students as well or talking to them on the phone.
Emotional/psychological burnout
· When you give too much: If your student is not engaged in learning as you would like, it is only too easy to try to compensate for that by giving too much and trying too hard. As the teacher, you could be giving about 70% with the student giving 30% and this can be emotionally draining. It can also happen if the student isn’t practising either because they’re not interested or because they simply have too much going on. By sitting back and asking them to engage more, you encourage them to be more responsible for their learning and you maintain your energy levels more efficiently.
· Expectations: Wanting a student to do well or hoping for more than they are offering you can be very demanding on your energy. Sometimes the student simply can’t deliver as you would like for any number of reasons. Reducing your expectations of them can not only conserve your energy, but it can also take the pressure off them. They may feel more comfortable and start giving you more as a result!
· Isolation: Teachers can often feel very isolated. If you teach at a school, music college or university, you’re likely to have more automatic support. Seeing other teachers in the staff room or at lunch is an ideal opportunity to share teaching issues with them and give and receive support. If you teach privately, and not at a school, university or music college, it’s always worth searching out local teachers where you can make connections and build a support network.
Teaching well needs huge amounts of energy so learning ways to conserve this energy is essential to prevent any possible crash and burn. It means that not only do you give of your best to your student, but you give of your best to yourself, enabling yourself to be in it for the long term, if that’s what you choose.
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