I was thinking about all the new teachers out there this week as you move out of the anticipation phase of the first year and into teacher survival mode.  You are not only trying to create a slew of new curricula but there are behavior and management issues you didn’t anticipate; responsibilities being required from your principal or district; colleague interactions; and meetings.  Your nights are spent organizing or planning and sleep is interrupted by recaps of all the interactions you had and decisions you made that you now question in the darkness of your bedroom.  It will get better but I know that doesn’t help right now.  I thought you could probably use a boost so here are several things I do to get through rough days and months.

First of all, it is important to create time so my first recommendation is that you don’t try to do everything right now.  You don’t have to create every unit from scratch.  I know you want to create amazing units and lessons that make your principals go WOW! but pick your battles.  There are tons of amazing unit and lesson ideas on the internet.  Use them.  Choose your very favorite topics or the ones that you know very well to do on your own.  Choose something you can really have fun with to spend your time on; this way, it won’t drain your energy and it might even become a source of energy.

Once you have created this much needed time, take care of yourself.  Carve out time for exercise.  It doesn’t have to be a lot but get a half an hour walk in every day or a longer work out a couple of times a week.  I take long walks my dogs.  Some kind of exercise is critical.  It relieves stress, improves mood, can increase energy, promotes sleep and can be fun.  If you can combine exercise with a social activity, like joining a league for example, this can have the added benefit of connecting you to other adults.  Especially if you work with young children, you may be going a long time without having any adult conversation.

As I mentioned above, a social connection is important.  Make time for social interaction.  If you have a partner, make time for that person.  It may be limited but be diligent.  Don’t let your relationships take a beating.  You may need to limit the time you spend but set aside a specific time each week or each day to connect with friends and family.  My partner and I love to get into a new series on TV and look forward to a new episode each week.

Make sure you are eating well.  This can take little to no extra time.  It may take a few extra minutes if you choose to take up cooking, which I highly recommend and have found to be an excellent way to decompress after a tiring day.  I meal plan the week and spend an hour cooking dinner each night while I watch some mind candy on television.  This only works if you enjoy it though, so just making sure your food choices are good is perfectly reasonable.  My favorite foods for energy boosts are blueberries, kale, and nuts.  But you don’t need to go crazy or even get creative.  Make sure you are not skipping meals and not overdoing it on snacks and sweets.

These may seem like common sense ideas but they frequently go by the wayside during these first months of school.  Finding time is the single most important thing you can do right now.  And once you make the time for these needs to be met, you need to make sure you are in the moment so you can enjoy them.  The amount of time you are able to put aside will be less important if the time is used wisely.  It isn’t rejuvenating to go on a date with your partner if you are thinking about work the whole time. Be organized about making sure these things happen.  Once you have carved out the time, commit to doing at least one of these activities a day.  If you can do more, that’s great, but if you can only do one, make it happen every single day.  It is important not to stress yourself out by adding too much or spending any money to meet your basic needs.  I don’t recommend joining a gym, for example.  Keep it simple.

You may start wondering soon if this is the profession for you?  Did you make a huge mistake? Are you really cut out for this? But this is normal so just stick with it.  It is so normal that it has a name.  It is called disillusionment and will pass sometime after Winter break.  If you have ways of staying in the game as a veteran or new teacher, please comment below so others can benefit.  My course Hacking your 1st year of teaching and Get your 1st teaching job both provide some very useful information on dealing with these difficult phases.