industry & reform
Plan ahead
How teachers can actually relax on the school holidays .
By Danielle Norton
Every teacher has heard the refrain from their non-teacher friends , relatives , acquaintances and even random strangers , about how “ lucky ” they are to get twelve weeks of holiday a year .
Little do these people know exactly how much we need this holiday time .
You would think that the stress experienced by those same people during the pandemic years when they were trying to help their kids manage their online learning would have put a stop to the niggling comments , but on the whole I find people seem to have short memories .
We teachers need our holiday time to recover from the intense experience of planning effective , engaging classes for children and young people .
We need a break from maintaining the intense personal relationships with anywhere from 25 to over one hundred students a day , every day , week after week .
We need the break from paperwork , reporting , yard duty , camps , school plays , parent meetings , professional development , professional reading and , frankly , the endless stream of people and responsibilities who take up the emotional and intellectual space in our heads .
Remind yourself that this rest time is critical if we are to continue doing our jobs well .
So how can you prepare for the holidays so you return from the break feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the next demanding term with the high energy and good grace a teacher needs to be effective in the classroom ?
Plan your lessons for the following term before the holidays . It can add pressure to an already heavy workload , especially if it is a reporting term , but your future self will thank you .
Think about the types of activities you ’ re planning for the weeks before and after the holidays . Enriching group work which ensures that students are researching a topic and working together on a project doing a hands-on task , rather than offering them lessons that rely on direct instruction , will give you some breathing space in that first week back .
Similarly , don ’ t set the deadline for a major assessment task as the final day of term .
You ’ re setting yourself up to spend your holidays doing marking .
If at all possible , set the due date for tasks a week or two before the holidays so you have time to assess the assignments before your break . ( N . B . Don ’ t set due dates for the first day back either . Your students need a break too !)
Lots of teachers use their holidays to read books for their classes or try out different research projects or experiments . If this is what gives you pleasure , by all means , do it . But if you find that you ’ re not ‘ switching off ’ from work because you ’ re doing these things , make an active decision to leave them until term time .
The last few years have been exceptionally challenging for teachers . Be mindful about your own mental health and your need to rest and make sure you plan some time for a complete break .
What makes you happy ? Is it watching films at the cinema ? Going to yoga ? Hiking in the countryside ? Playing the Xbox in your undies while eating noodles ? Whatever you enjoy , make some time to do the things you want to do so you don ’ t burn out from doing the things you have to do .
Whether it ’ s an urban myth or a truth universally acknowledged , most teachers know that the first week of the school holidays is when they will go down with whatever flu or bugs have been going around .
One thing you can do to beat complete and utter end-of-term exhaustion is to look after yourself . It will improve your holidays if you don ’ t spend half of them in bed sick . In the final week of term : Drink lots of water Eat well . Make sure that fruit and vegetables are part of your end-of-term diet .
Maintain your exercise routine . Putting off the gym or Pilates until the holidays seems like a good idea when you are busy , but we all know exercise helps more than it hinders . Spend time with your family and friends Visit your family and friends . You don ’ t have to travel or go on extravagant holidays ; simply plan outings together and enjoy a change of scenery . Visit a new national park , try a bakery in a different part of town , and spend quality time doing very little .
Relaxing with the ones you love will recharge you so you ’ re ready for the trials and tribulations of the next school term . ■
14 | educationreview . com . au