Tuesday, January 28, 2014

I Might Become a Burnout Teacher

I've wanted to be a teacher since 8th grade. The only other career I've seriously considered since then was being a youth director, until I discovered the not-so-pleasant things that happen behind closed doors that you discover when you're involved in the inner-workings of a church - it seriously shook my faith, and I don't wish to return to that place. There have been fleeting thoughts and "what-if's" of other careers, most of which wouldn't provide the kind of stability that I need to stay sane. But the only thing I've really wanted to be was a teacher. But lately I'm much less sure.
It's not always that I don't want to be a teacher anymore - it's more often that I don't know how to handle the pressure, particularly as a math teacher. I don't know how to balance instruction, prepping, grading (plus entering grades), parent contact (both replies and "proactively" contacting them), paperwork, communication with other staff, before/after school tutoring (seriously, 2-3 hours daily), and probably other things that I'm forgetting. I don't know how to keep up with both prepping and grading, much less the rest of that list. And, forget about having a life, or even managing to barely take care of myself outside of school. It's probably ridiculous the number of days I look at myself in the mirror at night and try to determine if I can get away without showering the next morning. My dinner is almost always a bowl of cereal because even when I have time to cook, I'm too exhausted to do so. I don't even manage to walk my dog as often and as far as I should because I know that I have work to do. All this, and I still often manage only 2-4 hours of sleep on school nights. Even when I try to let work go and go to bed early, I wind up lying in bed awake for hours because I'm so stressed out about the stuff that I haven't finished yet. I am overwhelmed and exhausted.
And I feel isolated at school. I hate that we have no department office to go and just be around other teachers during a prep period or before/after school (this also means that I'm always in my windowless classroom where students can find me whenever I'm there). And I have no emotional support system at school. On many levels, this has everything to do with me and very little to do with my co-workers. I have serious trust issues. At school, this primarily stems from the experiences I had at my last school where I dared to open up to people (generally only after they caught me either in tears or in the middle of having a panic attack), and I'm not entirely convinced that my mental health issues and/or feelings of being overwhelmed aren't at least a part of the reason that I'm no longer working there (despite the 3 open positions). Despite the fact that I enjoy the company of my co-workers, and I'm finally to a point where I can vent about the day-to-day stuff, I can't bring myself to open up about the bigger things. I don't know how to tell people that I'm exhausted and overwhelmed all the time. And I'm flat out scared to death to talk to anyone about my struggles with depression and social anxiety. I don't know who to trust; it doesn't help that everyone else seems to have things at least manageably well - even the fresh-out-of-college teacher who teachers 3 different courses (compared to my two) and works 2 or 3 part-time jobs on top of teaching gets more done than I do. And, unlike most schools, we don't even have a single regular school counselor that I could at least stop in and inform about my mental health issues (we have deans who are more responsible for academic/behavioral issues than they are mental/emotional issues). So most days I feel isolated, and it's terrifying.
But it's not nearly as terrifying as the idea of actually talking to someone else at school about all of this. Now, anyone who has payed much attention to my Facebook in the last month knows that I have a slight obsession with Frozen. I am in love with the movie, not just for it's music, but for how much I relate to it. Lots of people talk about how the character Anna is a super-relateable Disney princess because she's more awkward. I, on the other hand, relate incredibly deeply to Elsa. The feeling of needing to hide who you are, to hold in your feelings, and then the desire to run away and feeling much safer when isolated, I don't know that I've related to another character more than I do her. But Disney movies always have a "happily-ever-after." Life isn't so easy.
I don't know how much longer I can keep this up. I managed to survive last year when I was overwhelmed and exhausted (though not this exhausted) but had a support system and felt connected to my students. But this year I feel disconnected from people in general. Part of it is that from the end of May to the beginning of September, I was rejected by two of the only support systems I still trusted. And maybe I also feel like I learned that having a number of students who love and appreciate you for being a good teacher doesn't mean that the people in power will want you back the following year. So maybe I've closed myself off because it hurts to much to feel connected to people. But either way, I feel like a crappy teacher because I feel so disconnected from my students.
On and off for a while know my therapist has asked me if I've thought about a career change; I'm starting to wonder if she's right. I don't have a clue what else I would do, but I also don't know that I can survive the rest of this year much less any years after this. I don't know that I hate my job - I tell my parents this a lot, but it's really more of a "I'm so overwhelmed and exhausted that I want to run away and never look back" kind of feeling than anything else. But I don't know that I really enjoy it anymore either - but I can't figure out if that's related to my stress levels and/or mental health issues, or if no matter how well I'm doing I won't enjoy it again. Or maybe this district just isn't a good fit for me. The current end-game: I want to be a stay-at-home mom. But seeing as I'm not even dating right now, that goal is a ways off. I just wish I could figure out what to do between now and then.
Things might be different if I weren't a math teacher. I think about the semester that I student taught for music and remember still being exhausted, but it was a good exhausted. I've never felt that way while teaching math. But getting a full-time job teaching music generally requires starting in out-state Minnesota, and I don't know that I could handle that.
I've thought about doing Gifted and Talented Education - it's what I intend to get my masters in. But that will require going back to school. But most masters programs require you to still teach while getting your masters, and if I'm overwhelmed and exhausted now... There's a reason that I haven't started working on my masters yet.
Part of me is afraid of what people would think if I decided not to be a teacher anymore. I don't think that anyone would have seen it coming - particularly back to the time I was in college. Particularly in math, I was seen as one of the top math ed graduates. And then I have a couple of my greatest teaching mentors whom on some level I fear disappointing. Or, in one case, losing touch with because we no longer have teaching in common.
I might become a burnout teacher. I think I've known that for at least a year. I think my personality in and of itself puts me at higher risk for teacher burnout. But I was always so determined that I wouldn't be one (in a way that kind of reminds me of my mentality about thinking that I would never have depression). I don't know that I can handle it anymore. I'm already cracking under pressure, and days like today I fear that just one more bad day will break me.

1 comment:

  1. Heidi -- loving this and SO relating to it. I think that's about 100% of how I felt last semester. I'm coming to realize I love teaching abroad, but I'm almost certain I couldn't handle it in the States for the very reasons you've listed. As I face transition away from Faith Academy (who is always looking for math teachers, wink), people continue to remind me, my identity is in Christ. He's the one who gets to label who I am and who I'm not. For this season, my label was "teacher," but He's taking that away from me, and actually... it's pretty liberating. Pray and seek. Praying for you because I get it. :) Love from Manila, Jax

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