First Week Exhaustion

What accounts for the tiredness of teachers (and students!) this time of year?

There are two pieces that I think account for the particular exhaustion that happens to teachers in the first week or two of the school year.

  1. Acceleration Energy. It takes a lot of extra energy to get a car moving – think about how your gas mileage plummets as you accelerate from a stop to highway speed. That energy has to come from somewhere. The day-to-day speed of teaching is like nothing else, and you have to get up to that speed somehow.
  2. Startup Energy. The beginning of the school year includes all sorts of startup demands: instructions, syllabi, seating charts, attire measurements, folder stuffing, etc. This isn’t the work: this is the labor that lets you get to the work. It’s extra, and it’s extra-concentrated in the first couple of weeks.

I love the pace of teaching, I love the schedule, I love the many gifts that come from helping students grow. I don’t always love the exhaustion that’s happening right now for me.

If you haven’t started the school year yet, prepare yourself! If you already have, take this weekend to recover.