Teachers – Slow Down Before you Burn Out
There’s never enough time in teaching – until you slow down, says Jamie Thom…
- by Jamie Thom
There are two statements completely synonymous with teaching: ‘too busy’ and ‘not enough time’. We can never seem to conquer that troublesome and epic to- do-list; it just appears to grow cruelly as the day, and then the week, passes.
It is no wonder we feel guilty with the snatches of breaks we allow ourselves, it is no wonder stress is driving talented professions out of teaching.
What if there were another way?
Time to reflect
There will always be too much to do in teaching. I found myself completely burnt out when I tried to juggle everything in my first senior management position.
I fully embraced treadmill teaching, sprinting around mindlessly marking, data obsessing and not allowing any time for what is the most essential ingredient in teaching: reflection.
On returning full time to the classroom, I wanted to forge a more manageable and easeful path, and to reflect on what is ultimately the best use of our precious teacher time.
Instead of PowerPoint packed lessons and mindless marking, the focus is on streamlining and simplifying teaching to consider what really matters.
This new ‘Slow Teaching’ philosophy places at its heart developing and improving the following classroom aspects: explanations, questioning, modelling and feedback. It also focuses on what ultimately gives both our students and us confidence, prioritising time to develop detailed subject knowledge.
Essential elements
When we slow our professional selves down we start to move away from the tunnel vision mindset that stress can generate, when anxiety forces us to function on a day-by-day basis.
Instead, we begin to think strategically, to move away from one-off ‘rapid paced’ outstanding lessons and start to plan for our students over time, slowly and incrementally developing their skills and ability to retain knowledge.
We begin to make time for what is essential, yet still a mystery to many teachers: how to teach to help our students retain information over time.
Applying this slow lens to education is revealing in illuminating how much of what we do in our schools is done with speed: we ask students to revise without educating them on how it can be done most effectively; we use praise liberally and quickly without considering its impact; we often don’t really consider the literacy or reading impacts in our subjects.
All require much more thought and nuanced planning to really help move our students forward.
One thing that this speed teaching cannot possibly generate is good relationships. To forge meaningful relationships requires us to make a real effort to try to understand the complex young people who share our space with us.
These interpersonal and empathetic demands cannot be managed unless we learn to listen carefully and respond appropriately to what young people bring to our classrooms. We all remember the teachers who seemed to magically make time for us, who made us feel like we really matter.
Develop and grow
We all want to continue to develop and grow in the classroom. Teaching is remarkably complex; that’s one of the most exciting and energising things about it. We will never become experts at all its aspects, but what we can do is explore how we can slowly continue to improve.
Perhaps most importantly is the need to slow down to prioritise our own wellbeing. While we are passionate and committed to our students, we cannot help them become the best version of themselves unless we are the best of ours.
This requires us to take time out to look after ourselves, to find ways to build appropriate work-life balance and to keep stress in perspective.
In his first speech as education secretary Damian Hinds highlighted how workload was his priority, affirming his desire to “strip away the workload that doesn’t add value and give teaches the time and space to focus on what actually matters.”
If that isn’t a beckoning call for a slow teaching revolution, I’m not sure what is.
Jamie Thom is the author of Slow Teaching: Finding Calm, Clarity and Impact in the Classroom. He tweets at @teachgratitude1.
