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1.5 Assignment 5

Teachers who work excessively long hours and take on more work than is required or desired often experience burnout. While some teachers feel they need to provide students with as much information as possible and take on extra classes, this leads both teachers and students to feel exhausted. A teacher should focus on creating a desire for knowledge in students, rather than trying to impart all knowledge themselves. Working excessive hours year after year often leaves teachers feeling worn out and barely functional by the end of each school year. To avoid burnout, teachers need to find a work-life balance and understand their own limitations rather than viewing themselves as needing to be constantly self-sacrificing candles. A better analogy is that teachers should aim to be strong,

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173 views1 page

1.5 Assignment 5

Teachers who work excessively long hours and take on more work than is required or desired often experience burnout. While some teachers feel they need to provide students with as much information as possible and take on extra classes, this leads both teachers and students to feel exhausted. A teacher should focus on creating a desire for knowledge in students, rather than trying to impart all knowledge themselves. Working excessive hours year after year often leaves teachers feeling worn out and barely functional by the end of each school year. To avoid burnout, teachers need to find a work-life balance and understand their own limitations rather than viewing themselves as needing to be constantly self-sacrificing candles. A better analogy is that teachers should aim to be strong,

Uploaded by

prasadbbn
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Teachers that work too hard are the ones that burn out.

Yes. Teachers who work more than what is needed or wanted from them burn
out. I know teachers who burn the midnight oil to give the most relevant
information to students. As against four classes allotted to them, they take 10
classes per week. They feel that student is able to memorize everything they
learn. At the end of the day, both teachers and students get exhausted. But
good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourth theatre. A teacher
should try to create a student in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in
pursuit of a student.

Walk into a classroom in March, scorching summer time in India, and find a
teacher who is exhausted, worn out, barely functioning. This teacher does not
become a new, fresh candle in the beginning of academic year. But surely
becomes a stub of burnt-out candle by the end of the academic year. And then
there are teachers who share a baloney that he or she became a teacher out
of nobility and self-sacrifice.

There is an analogy that a teacher is like a candle that burns itself to kindle
the young minds. But the candle should not burn itself from both ends.
Preparing lesson plans, taking extra classes, and doing loads of assessment
become monotonous over time. The difficult part of teaching is coming into
terms with the reality. There is never enough time and resources. There is
never enough you. As a teacher, you know the assignments to give, the
feedback to give, individual crafting required for each class, syllabus to cover.
And you have to greet it with a broad smile and give everything to make the
students grow and blossom. I am not writing about low salaries and delayed
perks since I want to be fair in this discussion.

A teacher gives sweat and blood to get stronger, but not to destroy one’s self.
The candle of self-sacrifice makes teachers think either they are good or they
are bad. Teachers either grow out of this mode of thinking, or they leave
teaching. To relieve one’s self, a teacher has to find right ways to make work-
life balance.

I hate the analogy that a teacher is a candle. A teacher is a tree. A tree that
becomes stronger, taller and wider each passing day to provide the shade. A
teacher is a river that flows and feeds and irrigates the land. A teacher is a
bird that builds a strong nest out of twigs. Or if you can, be a human. Yes. A
human who has acquired skills and knowledge to share and help young
humans understand the world around them. Be a human who embraces the
limitations of the self, who can also grow into one’s best when stretched. Be
a human who knows the whole world not the one who makes the world inside
the four walls of the classroom.

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