In my early years as a classroom teacher, I often experienced what I call the post-holiday sprint. The post-holiday sprint is returning to work after a relaxing winter break only to realize that I am behind in my long-range plans. With this realization comes the feeling that I need to burst into a metaphorical sprint to catch up to where I believe I need to be, prior to reporting on student achievement in early February. While I enjoy running in my leisure time and find sprints, at times can be a fun exercise to measure my physical fitness, I find metaphorical sprints stressful when they are unplanned, unexpected, and I feel compelled to participate.

Yet with more knowledge and experience from my years of service as a classroom teacher comes an array of skills and strategies to respond to unplanned and unexpected situations such as the post-holiday sprint. Below I’ll share four tips that I use to pace myself during the post-holiday sprint to minimize stress and avoid burn-out.

  1. Start writing report cards early and begin with learning skill comments

Learning skill comments consume a significant amount of space in the elementary report card and for me they are the most labour intensive part of the reporting process. To craft individualized comments that I believe best captures how students have demonstrated their learning skills, I need lots of time. Therefore, to pace myself, upon returning to work in January, I write 3 learning skill comments either before or after the instructional day with the goal of completing the comments for all student within two weeks. I then exchange my comments with a colleague to read and review to limit the probability that my comments will need mass revisions when I submit them to my principal or vice-principal for review. Once my learning skill comments are complete, I take the same approach with subject comments. From years of experience, I’ve found that a slow steady pace to writing report cards alleviates much of the report card induced stress.

  1. Use a backwards design planning approach to catch up on long range plans

To ensure my lessons are more focused and I better use my instructional time, I apply a backwards design approach to program planning. I begin by reviewing the curriculum expectations I have yet to explicitly teach found in my long-range plans. I then think of ways that students could potentially demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the concepts, skills, or strategies through rich tasks. Finally, I estimate the approximate number of lessons, activities, and work periods needed for students to potentially acquire the concept, skill or strategy. Of course, I ensure that I include time to reteach or review lessons as needed to support positively impacting student learning.

  1. Plan for planning times

At the end or prior to the start of the instructional day, I define how I want to use my planning time to ensure I use the time effectively to complete essential tasks. When I started planning for my planning times, I was pleasantly surprised by how much work I could complete within 40 minutes. Even if I was able to only complete one or two items on my to do list within a given planning time, it still helped me to experience a sense of accomplishment and reduced feelings of stress associated with being behind in my program.

  1. Know when to slow down and stop

There are some evenings and weekends when I opt to fully detach from work so I can enjoy time with loved ones or just rest free from the guilt that I should continue working. I think too often dedicated teachers forget that it’s okay for us to sometimes fully detach from work after the instructional day to rest and relax so that we can be more mentally and physically prepared to teach and support our students. Therefore, there are some days that I leave work promptly after the instructional day, take no work home with me, and enjoy an evening doing something that makes me happy.

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