Can Educators Have a Work/Life Balance?
Does work make you stressed? Are you in so deep that you forget to eat, sleep, reflect, exercise, collaborate, and have fun? Then you need some advice from Mike Anderson. His Saturday session, "The Well-Balanced Teacher: How to Work Smarter and Stay Sane Inside the Classroom and Out" was dynamic and full of energy. (Find Well-Balanced Teacher resources here.)
As a 3rd and 4th grade classroom teacher, Anderson spent endless hours at school working on lesson plans, grading papers, and reviewing data. If you are a classroom teacher, this may sound familiar. All the time and energy that went into his classroom was removed from his personal life. So he asked himself and other teachers: "How do you balance being a really good teacher and a really good parent or spouse?"
Balance starts by looking at your needs in five key areas, said Anderson:
- Basic needs
- Belonging
- Significance
- Competence
- Fun
We have to be healthy if we expect to have healthy students. Emotional, physical, and mental wellness are just as important for us as it is for our students. Are you taking care of yourself? How do you find balance?
Post submitted by Alina Davis, an ESOL K–8 resource teacher in Orlando, Fla., and a 2010 ASCD Emerging Leader.
