Blog

Learning to pace ourselves

Is it just me or does anybody else feel like they’ve hit the ground running?  I’m sure that I’m not the only teacher who feels weary already and for whom the summer holiday is a distant memory.  I’m going to make the assumption that I am not alone in my plight that we need to learn to pace ourselves.  Next July is a long way off and unless we do ‘pace ourselves’ we will be quivering wrecks by that point. 

Let’s think for the moment about the consequences of not pacing ourselves and instead continuing to race through the next ten months.  In the long run our pupils will suffer because we are likely to run out of steam- eventually.  Our families and friends may well suffer because we need to spend time with the people we love and care about… and finally we will suffer because although short bursts of fast-paced life is acceptable we are reliably informed that long periods of stress are not good for our health.

So what is the alternative?  Assuming that most of us intend to remain in our posts for the next academic year and that we don’t want to crash and burn part way through the Spring term we must to pace ourselves.  I would like to suggest that the best way to do this is to prioritise.  Yes, our jobs are important to us and we want to help the children in our care to learn but in striving to reach our goal we must not become strangers to our families and friends.  We also need to schedule some ‘me time’, time to think about ourselves.  Regular exercise, hobbies and interests shouldn’t be things that we do when we’ve got more time to spare during the summer holidays.  Exercise and relaxation are both good for our health and the consequences of not taking care of ourselves doesn’t bear thinking about.

My final paragraph is dedicated to those teachers who have found the right work/life balance.  It is your duty to remind those of us who perpetually run around like headless chickens to slow down and to learn to pace ourselves.