Teachers enjoy a deeply meaningful career. What they do every workday has a profound, long-lasting impact on their students. However, it’s also a demanding, emotional profession. Lesson planning, grading, classroom management, parent communication, testing and shifting expectations all compete for a teacher’s time and energy.
When this pressure builds without enough support or time to recover, it can erode well-being and lead to teacher burnout. Many educators find themselves exhausted and discouraged. These feelings can occur even as they remain committed to their job and genuinely care about their students.
Because of the potential for these situations, teacher burnout prevention is not a luxury. Self-care and wellness are among the most essential pieces of advice new teachers receive. When teachers have tools to manage stress and nurture their own mental and physical health, everyone benefits. That includes their students and their colleagues.
Successful teacher burnout prevention starts with understanding exactly what burnout is and how it can impact a teacher.
Chronic Stress and Teacher Burnout
Teacher burnout refers to more than a rough day or even a difficult week. It builds over time as chronic stress wears a teacher down, leaving them emotionally drained and physically exhausted. That constant strain can slowly change how they feel about work and students.
Teachers who pay attention to their own well-being may notice warning signs. Burnout looks different for everyone, but the Mayo Clinic notes common symptoms of job burnout, including:
- Growing more cynical or critical at work
- Struggling to start each day
- Becoming irritable or impatient with colleagues or students
- Lacking energy to stay consistently productive
- Trouble concentrating
- Feeling unsatisfied, even with achievements
- Disillusionment about teaching
- Using food, drugs or alcohol to cope
- Changing sleep habits
- Physical symptoms (including unexplained headaches, stomach issues, bowel problems)
When unchecked, these signs can lead to serious consequences. The Mayo Clinic notes that unmanaged burnout leads to increased, ongoing stress, sadness, anger, irritability and fatigue. It can also increase the chances of issues such as insomnia and high blood pressure.
Avoiding Teacher Burnout With Self-Care Practices
Self-care is not about spa days or elaborate routines. It’s about small, realistic habits that help teachers stay steady in a demanding job.
One helpful approach is to reduce avoidable stress during the school day. That can mean organizing the week in advance so there’s no need to scramble when plans change. Arriving a little early, taking a real lunch break, listening to calming music and building short “brain breaks” into class time can all make the day feel more manageable.
Connecting with trusted colleagues is also important. Teachers can provide each other with venting opportunities when needed. Another helpful habit is to save positive notes or emails from students and families. They can remind teachers of why their work matters.
Another useful frame for teacher self-care is the “three Rs”: reflect, release, and recharge.
- Reflection might involve taking a few minutes at the end of the day to notice one challenge and one small win.
- Release can mean letting go of perfectionism and relieving tension through exercise and journaling so the stress doesn’t stay bottled up.
- Recharge means protecting time for sleep, hobbies, relationships and activities that bring joy, rather than spending off-work hours on work-related tasks such as grading or planning.
When teachers build these habits into their week, they’re better able to protect their own well-being and reduce the risk of burnout over time.
Fresno Pacific’s Teacher Health and Wellness Course
For educators ready to move beyond survival mode and address teacher burnout prevention, Fresno Pacific University’s Health and Wellness for Teachers and Students offers practical next steps. The online professional development course focuses on how schools can promote the health and well-being of both staff and students through coordinated health and support services.
Teachers who take the course explore strategies for making healthier choices at the school level, from daily routines and classroom practices to broader schoolwide initiatives that support physical, mental and emotional wellness. The course also emphasizes the power of modeling and the idea that teachers who develop positive health habits can influence colleagues and students by example.
The course is one of hundreds of online professional development courses for teachers offered by Fresno Pacific University.