Episode 45: Reframing Back-to-School Dread

Returning to school from the summer can bring up a lot of different emotions in you. You might feel excited about starting a new year, but you might also experience the back-to-school dread. Whatever you’re feeling, you’re not alone. With my own personal experience with back-to-school dread, I know it can be difficult knowing what steps to take to move forward, so I’m sharing 3 steps that will help reframe your thinking and anxiety involving your return to school.

The infamous back-to-school dread can hit you for a variety of reasons, which is why it’s so important to find ways to take action towards it. Each of my 3 steps help you turn your dreaded feeling into the motivation you need for the school year. Back-to-school dread doesn’t always mean leaving the classroom, for it can also be how you run your classroom. No matter how you reframe the back-to-school dread, remember you’re in charge and your possibilities are endless!

 

Topics Discussed:

  • 3 steps for reframing your emotions towards back-to-school dread

  • Why it’s important to discover how to take action towards your feelings

  • The variety of reasons back-to-school dread can happen

  • A reminder that you can still work in education, but outside the classroom

Resources mentioned:

Related episodes and blog posts:

 
 
 
 

Read the transcript for this episode:

Oh, back to school dread. I remember it so well. When I was a classroom teacher, I remember really enjoying summers when I wasn't working, which honestly, I was working most of the summers that I was teaching, actually all of them to various degrees. But anyway, I digress.

Back to school time brought up all these different feelings. I remember feeling so sad that summer was over, kind of excited about meeting my new students and seeing my colleagues and friends. But also, this sense of dread kind of kept getting worse year after year, when I was like, I don't know if this really feels right to me.

So if you're feeling a lot of feelings about starting school, you are not alone. If back to school dread has hit you or you feel stuck in these feelings, the first step I would recommend is to uncover how you could take action to move forward. Taking action is always the best medicine. It gives you clarity, a sense of agency, and you can get unstuck.

And back to school dread can hit for a variety of reasons. Maybe you're really planning on leaving the classroom and working flexibly in education. And it didn't quite work out yet. That's okay. There are still chances and opportunities for this to work out for you, even if you're moving back to the classroom.

And maybe you're moving to a new grade level or subjects or school, and you're feeling some extra anxiety and stress totally understandable.

Or maybe you're experiencing burnout. And know the new school year will bring new challenges and feeling like oh my gosh, I don't know if I even have this in me anymore. I remember feeling that so much heading into the classroom being like, okay, we're doing this again. Let me get ready, let me get prepared as much as I can.

But no matter why you're experiencing this dread taking action, again, is the best way to get unstuck. It can feel hard to figure out exactly what to do to take action. It's easy for me to sit here and be like take action. But don't rush it. The most important thing is that you're tuning into what you want, and then making a plan for getting it.

If you're ready to transform back to school, drive into motivation, and help you reach your goals, don't wait till next summer. I think this is a trap that many of us fall into being like it's all or nothing, we either have decided to go back to school for the entire school year. So we put our other dreams on hold, or we we've decided to go full force into those other dreams.

But sometimes the in between really is where the magic is. So maybe you're deciding I'm gonna go back to the classroom this year. But I'm also going to explore other options. Try to carve out tiny bits of time to propel you closer to your dreams, even if you just make little bits of progress towards your goals that still progress and that's worth celebrating.

If you're dealing with back to school dread, I suggest following these three steps and reframe any anxiety or stress you may be feeling. So first, get clear on your feelings of back to school dread. Whatever you're feeling, don't ignore it, don't try to just push through it.

Instead, get curious about why you might be feeling that way. Try to uncover what your feelings are trying to tell you. Like there are reasons why these feelings keep coming up. And if we keep pushing them away, they're gonna keep coming up again.

So first write down or say aloud all the feelings you're experiencing when you think about going back to school. Take your time, the focus of this is really getting clarity. And allow yourself to really investigate how you're feeling so you can find your way through it.

For example, maybe you're feeling rundown or exhausted and burnt out from teaching. Consider which feelings might go away with time and which feelings keep coming up.

For example, maybe it's inevitable that you feel rundown and exhausted at the start of a school year. It's hard work. You're working long hours putting in extra work to make sure the beginning of the school year goes well. But if these exhausted feelings persist throughout the year, then it's time to think about action steps you could take to feel better.

Lingering emotions, emotions that keep coming back again and again, often give us clues into what we need to change. So after getting clear on your feelings, the second step is making a plan.

Maybe you were hoping to leave the classroom but find yourself teaching another year or maybe you were looking forward to the new year. have ended up having a rough start. If you're feeling discouraged, the best approach is you guessed it to do take action. After getting clear on those feelings and what they're telling you make a plan for changing your circumstances.

Maybe you decide that you don't want to teach next year, think about how much money you'll need to have saved so that you can confidently take the leap beyond the classroom. Then make a plan for making that money. Consider picking up contract jobs or other small jobs that will help you build experience and a cushion for when you leave teaching.

Or maybe you're feeling like you need to be more creative in the classroom or outside of the classroom and decide you want to learn more about curriculum development. Put aside a little time each week and work towards your goals. Block out a time on your calendar and hold yourself accountable for sticking to the quote unquote, appointments that you schedule with yourself.

By taking control of your professional learning, you'll likely find yourself feeling invigorated and inspired, and feeling a lot less of that back to school dread. When you take action, when you have agency, you can really turn those feelings around.

The third and final step is to adopt a summer mindset. And even if your plan involves working towards big moves in the future, there are things you can do right now to feel better. It's not just about planning far off plans. Think about adopting a summer vacation mindset your round.

And by that I mean build in some time for joy and relaxation. Again, it's not all or nothing. It's not like the summer is the time to have all the fun and the school year is the time to do all the work. Let's bring in some that fun into the school year. The work of a teacher is truly never going to be done, so prioritize what you need.

Spend time outside with loved ones and build empty space into your schedule so you have time to rest and relax. And doing this might not do away with the end of summer anxiety entirely. The first day back to school for teachers can be tough, and the first weeks back to school can be tough.

But if you prioritize the things that light you up, you'll be able to find joy among the stress. And this is a really healthy habit to bring forward with you throughout the school year.

And one of your back to school stress sticks around all year. I mean, I hear that this is how it ended up for me. I just had this little bit of dread every year and then it got more and more. And if you're professionally feeling down about teaching, remember you have other options and you can stay in education while creating a more sustainable life for yourself.

You could be a curriculum developer and education writer or start an education business be an education consultant or a coach like the possibilities are truly endless.

Whatever you decide to do, remember that you're in charge. You get to decide how you're going to commit to your goals, what goals you're going to set and how you're going to move forward beyond and or inside of the classroom.

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