It happens to the best of us. It happens to those who have been teaching for years and years. It certainly happens to those new graduates who are enthusiastic and just beginning their start of what should be a long career. Why do we as teachers continue to push ourselves to the point of exhaustion and illness?
I am currently in my second graduate year after completing my Bachelor of Education at the end of 2014. Before I had even received my final marks I had two amazing jobs lined up in the Early Childhood sector and couldn't wait to begin. I spent the weeks following my final portfolio presentation trawling through Teachers Pay Teachers, Twinkl and Pinterest for ideas. I p[rinted, cut, laminated and looked at my hard work in awe until I finally got to enter my shared classroom for the first time. I was so excited and full of ideas, I had brought along all my hard work from the weeks prior to use as classroom materials. But then after a few weeks teaching I found I was really struggling to keep up with everything, I was just exhausted all the time! For me I felt I was letting myself down. I only worked 3 days a week and couldn't even begin to think about how other people manage to teach 5 days! I had tried everything, going to be earlier, eating better foods, more exercise, giving up some of my extra curricular things outside work. Nothing seemed to help!!
Then in March I was fed up with feeling exhausted. I was only teaching 14 contact hours a week. How did I feel so tired?! I went to one of my local GP's and explained my exhaustion to him. Previously I have had doctors tell me I am young and there is nothing wrong with me I will be fine. But not this doctor. He took what I was saying seriously and finally someone referred me to see a specialist! I went to see a sleep specialist and was eventually sent for a sleep study. The results that came back helped me to feel a little less helpless as I was then diagnosed with narcolepsy.
Narcolepsy, for those who have never heard of it before, In extreme cases the person can be talking to you and just fall asleep. Luckily for me I am at the lesser end of the scale closer to chronic fatigue. As there are no real treatments for chronic fatigue he treated me for narcolepsy.
Since April 2015 I have been a whole different person and able to function like I should be able to! It was such a relief to be able to do what I wanted and needed to be able to do.
This year, 2016. I have seen a few people I know on my Facebook who are also teachers posting up about how sick they are. This is what prompted me to write this post! Working themselves to the point of exhaustion and illness is certainly not the way to go! Keep yourself as your number one priority and look after your health. If you need to slow down, slow down. Make sure you aren't taking on too much. This was something I certainly did last year and part of the reason I moved on from my workplace was the expectations were unreasonable. I was arriving at work between 7:30am and 8am to teach for 7.5 hours. Then there were the days where there was a kinder function in the evening after one of my sessions. I can certainly tell you there were days I was there in excess of 12 hours and had not left the premises at all.
Please, please, please! Look after yourself! Even if you have been teaching for many many years. We are all passionate but without us being healthy and energised we cannot reach our full potential.
I am currently in my second graduate year after completing my Bachelor of Education at the end of 2014. Before I had even received my final marks I had two amazing jobs lined up in the Early Childhood sector and couldn't wait to begin. I spent the weeks following my final portfolio presentation trawling through Teachers Pay Teachers, Twinkl and Pinterest for ideas. I p[rinted, cut, laminated and looked at my hard work in awe until I finally got to enter my shared classroom for the first time. I was so excited and full of ideas, I had brought along all my hard work from the weeks prior to use as classroom materials. But then after a few weeks teaching I found I was really struggling to keep up with everything, I was just exhausted all the time! For me I felt I was letting myself down. I only worked 3 days a week and couldn't even begin to think about how other people manage to teach 5 days! I had tried everything, going to be earlier, eating better foods, more exercise, giving up some of my extra curricular things outside work. Nothing seemed to help!!
Then in March I was fed up with feeling exhausted. I was only teaching 14 contact hours a week. How did I feel so tired?! I went to one of my local GP's and explained my exhaustion to him. Previously I have had doctors tell me I am young and there is nothing wrong with me I will be fine. But not this doctor. He took what I was saying seriously and finally someone referred me to see a specialist! I went to see a sleep specialist and was eventually sent for a sleep study. The results that came back helped me to feel a little less helpless as I was then diagnosed with narcolepsy.
Narcolepsy, for those who have never heard of it before, In extreme cases the person can be talking to you and just fall asleep. Luckily for me I am at the lesser end of the scale closer to chronic fatigue. As there are no real treatments for chronic fatigue he treated me for narcolepsy.
Since April 2015 I have been a whole different person and able to function like I should be able to! It was such a relief to be able to do what I wanted and needed to be able to do.
This year, 2016. I have seen a few people I know on my Facebook who are also teachers posting up about how sick they are. This is what prompted me to write this post! Working themselves to the point of exhaustion and illness is certainly not the way to go! Keep yourself as your number one priority and look after your health. If you need to slow down, slow down. Make sure you aren't taking on too much. This was something I certainly did last year and part of the reason I moved on from my workplace was the expectations were unreasonable. I was arriving at work between 7:30am and 8am to teach for 7.5 hours. Then there were the days where there was a kinder function in the evening after one of my sessions. I can certainly tell you there were days I was there in excess of 12 hours and had not left the premises at all.
Please, please, please! Look after yourself! Even if you have been teaching for many many years. We are all passionate but without us being healthy and energised we cannot reach our full potential.