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.
- 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.
- 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.