Dealing with teacher stress

How does back to school stress affect teachers?

 Every year, when the time is due for students to return, the anxiety levels of everyone shoots up, including teachers. As the school year progresses, stress increases more and more.

 “It’s different than when I first started teaching because when I first began, I automatically assumed I was great, so I didn’t have much stress, but now as I gained experience, I realize how awful I was and the stress levels increased,” Nick Radner, English teacher said.

Teachers’ jobs are important because whether or not they succeed in their job can drastically affect a student’s future, and to some it may make them second guess what they’re doing.

“Reading is the hardest class to teach because it’s data driven, and whether or not I did a good job was the difference between these seniors graduating or not,” Radner said.

Some teachers may second guess teaching once the stress of successfully teaching students ensues. Making sure a good job is being done is considered important, and that adds a load onto a teacher’s shoulders.  “Quitting isn’t in my vocabulary,” Radner said. “But I have considered finding a new job because of how important this job is.”

Though teaching is considered to be a stress inducing job, almost every teacher (including Radner) has a way to relieve stress. “Wrestling really helps relieve my stress. If I couldn’t wrestle, I wouldn’t be able to teach,” Radner said.

Though Radner has wrestling to help him relieve his teaching, it does add onto the load. “Wrestling gives me more stress because our team is top ranked in the state, and we can’t lose because we’d lose pride, and the other teams are scary ego monsters,“ Radner said.

Although teaching induces a lot of stress, the end product of being able to successfully educate the younger generations is well worth the stress inducing eight months of school.