Some school years (and some times of the school year) are more stressful than others.
When the stress gets overwhelming, try to get back to basics and simplify as much as you can.
Here are 15 tips to help you simplify.
1 – Greet your students at the door. This starts your day and your students’ day off on a positive note and ensures that you connect with every student at least once.
2 – Review your rules and/or your procedures for any part of the school day that is stressing you out. If it’s lunchtime, review lunch procedures. If it’s your end-of-day time that is raising your blood pressure, review those procedures. Then follow through on any consequences if the procedures or rules are not followed. Show them you mean business.
3 – Do something fun with your class every day. Make sure that you smile and laugh with your students as much as possible. Maybe you’ll watch a funny video or share some good news or enjoy a read-aloud together. Whatever brings you joy will bring them joy as well.
4 – Focus on the positive. Ask your students to share good news or compliments for each other or gratitude for something. Thank them for following your rules and procedures when they do that. Tell them you appreciate their attention to doing the right thing and making the school day better for everyone.
5 – Slow down. If something isn’t going well or if you see that your class just isn’t getting a concept, don’t feel compelled to push through. Slow down. Take a deep breath. Reteach. Ask a student to explain what they think the concept means or explain how to do a math problem. Or allow student partnerships to discuss. Give them time to absorb what you’re teaching.
6 – Have as many one-on-one check-ins or conferences with students as possible in a day. Don’t stress yourself out about doing any certain amount, as some days will be better than others.
7 – Keep photos of people or animals that are important to you at school. These could be framed pictures or the screensaver on your phone or your computer. But let yourself be reminded of all the love in your life as often as possible.
8 – Set boundaries for yourself when it comes to school responsibilities. See my post HERE about setting boundaries for yourself at school and my post HERE about setting boundaries for yourself in your personal life.
9 – Take deep breaths.
10 – Go outside, even for just a few minutes. (By the way – this is a great place to take those deep breaths.)
11 – I know you have a million things to do, but try to take a real break at lunch. Enjoy eating your lunch and reading or doing something just for you instead of grading papers or catching up on email.
12 – Stand up and stretch or do some kind of movement, especially if you’ve been sitting for a while. This is also a great thing to do WITH your students.
13 – Plan something you will do for yourself after school or in the evening. It might be cooking a favorite meal, grabbing a latte on your way home from school, buying yourself flowers, taking a long bath. Give yourself something to look forward to doing.
14 – Make a list of everything in your day that is going well. You might be surprised to see that more is going well than is not going well. Focus on what you CAN control and try very hard to let go of that which you CANNOT control.
15 – Try a stress log. I got this idea from Marie Forleo in her awesome book Everything is Figureoutable . Open a new page in a notebook. List all the things that stress you out, no matter how big or how small. Next to each thing that stresses you out, write ONE thing you could do that would make it better in some way. Then choose ONE stressor and try your solution. When that is done, choose another. Make your way down the list.
Stress is a part of life. By incorporating small habits into our routines, we can help relieve the effects of stress and not let it get too overwhelming. Let me know what habits work for you!