Stamina, persistence and energy

(some call it “being tough”)

There is no escaping the fact that teaching is hard work. That doesn’t mean that it’s not enjoyable work – but, there is plenty of it and it is relentless. Great teachers do not work from 9 until 3, despite what some in the community may think. It has been suggested that the part of a teacher’s work that is interacting with their learners represents about half of their actual work.

You cannot have a “quiet day” in teaching, if perhaps you are not feeling at your best: your learners’ needs do not lessen because you had a late night or are worried about paying for your car repairs.

Persistence is needed to:

• think of yet more ways you can try to help a student understand something
• find the perfect resource that will complement your lesson
• win over the child who is painfully shy, or withdrawn from learning, or displaying challenging behaviours
• come up with engaging ways to move the learning forward in a project where interest is flagging
• keep working with a family to help them to support their child with reading at home

In fact, persistence is needed to deal with all the daily and longer-term challenges of teaching. No doubt you can add to this list.

Every teacher will face situations, people or moments that knock their equilibrium and self-esteem. A parent might question your methods in a way that you find disrespectful, or your Principal may reject what you thought was a brilliant idea for a new program. As a current student, you may have experienced these feelings of discouragement, disbelief or offence if you did not do as well as hoped in an assignment. To succeed as a student, you will have needed resilience, persistence and a good sense of perspective to sustain you to carry on.

This website has been created to support teachers in developing resilience and looking after themselves – you will find this a useful resource and network: