I’ve been teaching for more than 20 years, and, in my time, I’ve seen many young teachers burn themselves out. Equally, I’ve seen older teachers lose their enthusiasm after years at the chalkface.
Teaching is a hard profession. Demands come from students, parents and senior leaders, and the media criticises you for not solving the world’s ills. There’s a continuous feeling of needing to do more, that you’re not good enough - and it’s hard to take.
The current crisis in education means that it’s never been more important to find strategies that reinvigorate you as a teacher.
I’ve always made it one of my aims to hit the “refresh” button when it looks like I’m about to hit the “coasting” stage of my career. Doing so has not only improved my teaching but also given me a focus away from the demands of the job.
School of Rock
For a number of years, I used to learn a new skill, for example, knitting or sewing or learning an instrument. I never achieved great things in these areas but it did force me to have a break from my work and I enjoyed the process of learning something new. This experience in itself is invaluable for a teacher as you get to appreciate what it must be like for students to learn a new topic and how difficult the learning process can be.
Learning the bass also helped me to get to know colleagues more, as I became a member of our staff rock band called The Lines. Every year we have a “Great Gig” in the school and the rehearsals (and eventual performances) are some of the most enjoyable moments I have had as a teacher. I know that not everybody will have the opportunity to form a rock band at their school but I’m confident that learning a new skill will improve your wellbeing and have other positive side effects.
As an older teacher, it’s also important to explore new technology and one way to refresh yourself is by seeing what opportunities are out there in the social media world to share your knowledge, as well as learn from others.
Podcasts and social media
Twitter is an obvious example of that and it’s a good place to share your passion for your subject with your students, as well as with other teachers. Facebook groups are also incredibly supportive environments and popping on there will give you an opportunity to get some new ideas and (again) give you a break from the job.
This year I have decided to give podcasting a go, as one of old my teaching friends thought it would be a fun thing to do. We are both economics teachers and we thought it would be a good idea to create podcasts on famous economists. Not only are we learning how to record and release podcasts, we are also doing some additional reading on the economists that we have chosen to talk about.
We’ve become better economics teachers as a result and have been able to help out students with an interest in podcasting. We also have a final product that can be shared with our students in order to deepen their learning.
It’s a double/triple whammy of improvement - improvement in our wellbeing (we laugh a lot during the recordings), improvement in our teaching and an improvement in our skill sets.
What’s not to like?
Gavin Simpson is the head of economics at Dame Alice Owen’s School in Hertfordshire. He tweets at @MrGSimpson. Follow his podcast @EconomicsInTen.
You can listen to his podcast ‘Economics in Ten’ on Spotify, Apple and all other good podcast providers.