Surviving the burn-out

Just 2 years ago teachers were the heroes of the nation. They did the impossible and build their classrooms online. They were praised and they felt good. but that did not last very long. As parents got frustrated they let it out on the teachers and often administration did not protect the teachers from these parents. Schools opened with in-person sessions, and teachers felt the burn-out even more so as the constant negatives from parents bombarded them because students started to fail.

Trust me it is not the teacher's fault for any of this. We did not cause the pandemic, we did not fail your children. In my own experience, students were misbehaving more now than before the pandemic and parents were more demanding. I felt like working in a mental institution with little money to compensate for my stress.

I was doing better. I would swear that I was. Then like a switch clicked, suddenly I was back at square one. The bottom dropped out. I would swear that I fell. Somehow my mind took me back to that place known as hell.
People need to understand teachers have breaking points, we do a hundred jobs for almost minimum wage.

I really felt to give it all up and that included Second Life, but I stayed a little longer.

"If conditions are so bad for teachers, why don’t more of them quit, instead of just thinking about it? The short answer may be that to quit a job at all, even one that ravages your mental health is a privilege that you may not be able to afford if, say, you’re a teacher who is behind on bills, a single parent or caring for a loved one with a health condition. In a country where nearly one in five teachers work second jobs, quitting requires a backup plan, especially for those without a safety net." 

This is one example, of why some teachers do not quit. Others are almost there to get their retirement, just another year or two, so they are in survival mode for now. Thank goodness for the 10 weeks off ( NOT PAID ) in the summer, so we teachers can recover. I am planning on going into a Second Life vacation mode and visiting as many places as I can, cheaper than the gas prices here.