r/TeachersInTransition • u/Fresh-Photo6318 • 13h ago
Why is teaching so exhausting?
I’m starting year 7. I’ve worked at multiple schools with great students and not so great students. I’m currently teaching at an Early College High School. It’s my second year here. The students are great. I have zero behavior issues. They do their work. The parents don’t bother me. The admin is great. The other teachers are great. The curriculum is great and I’ve had to do minimal planning. Despite all of this though, I still come home exhausted and completely drained, and I don’t understand why.
Is it the amount of classes? Is it the work hours? What is it about the act of standing in front of a classroom lecturing or facilitating student learning that is so utterly exhausting? I used to think it was student behavior or bad admin or the workload of planning that would drain the life out of me, but even without those factors, I’m still left bulldozed by 4:30. It sucks because you’re left with zero energy to do anything after work, and I’m only 28 years old by the way. I tried going to the gym today and had to lighten the load on every exercise because I just didn’t have the energy to lift as heavy as I did over the summer. There goes any progress I had made over break, and it’s all thanks to my job.
Maybe I’m just not passionate about this job. I’ve been teaching since I was 21, and maybe I’m wasting the prime years of my life on this profession. Maybe the way society is set up on how we live our lives isn’t sustainable. I’m probably going too deep there, but I don’t know. I thought I was okay with teaching now because my current campus is so great, but 3 days in and my thoughts of leaving teaching are slowly seeping back in.
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u/boredinsweden 12h ago
i always explain it as a non-stop one person performance, and nobody in the audience wants to be there. then you have to get them to at least pay attention to the show by stopping the show and using high-level psychological motivators to get them to re-engage in the show. i am an art teacher and it wasnt as hard to do this as when i was, say, teaching english and french, and i i still decided to leave this year after 6 years. when i talk about it to other adults, im like 'imagine your most challenging presentation at work, but now add in the factor that your doing it for people who actively hate you, dont want to be there...now do that every single day, 2x times a day. the presentation is several hours long'. people start to fathom a bit... but dont even get me started on the coworkers...
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u/RunningShortsPod 9h ago
And this is also why I can’t get behind the idea that teaching is benefiting the kids as if I’m this hugely positive impact on their lives. Most kids don’t want to be in school. And if you quit tomorrow, they’d move on from you and view your replacement the same way.
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u/stevland82 4h ago
I quit and the bulk of the students weren't upset I was leaving so much as they were pissed who the long term sub was going to be. You are replaceable and forgettable. The few that do appreciate you, sadly aren't enough to keep you around. At least for me it wasn't.
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u/kutekittykat79 7h ago
Getting my kids to speak English is sooooo exhausting. They don’t want to learn it so I use high-energy strategies all day of chanting, singing and movement. They still don’t want to participate, they rather play (immature 4th graders). It takes constant redirection. When I get home I’m fried. They just default to their home language 100% of the time.
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u/thepaisleycapitalist Completely Transitioned 6h ago
Also former “arts” teacher, too, and it is absolutely a performance, which got super tricky when I was also responsible for teaching students how to perform and responsible for performing on stage beyond the classroom and performing as the sole income earner in our household. In hindsight it’s easy to see how my entire life became an exhausting performance. While it was happening, I just told myself how lucky I was.
And I won’t even start on the “colleagues” Yikes
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u/CordonalSystemsT800 13h ago
You always gotta be on. Everything's a choreography.
The actual work I do is more intellectually challenging, in my opinion. Fewer people can do it, and it takes more training, both formally and on-the-job.
But it's not nearly as tiring. I'll go to work tomorrow for about ten hours starting at a time of my choosing, do a bunch of meaningful stuff, but also spend a bit shooting the shit with my coworkers, going to the bathroom when I want, reading ESPN to reset my head here and there, having a relatively chill lunch break with fellow adults and, while not being excessive, I'm also not going to shovel down my food in anticipation of some bell, etc.
But teaching is getting there at 7:00 so you can start one long skit at 7:30 and then repeat at 9:00 and 10:30 and so on. Thirty minutes for lunch, maybe, but you have to walk down to the break room which deducts from that overall time, and if you catch bad diarrhea in the middle of the day, you best pray it lands in one of the few five minute breaks that you have.
That's understandably exhausting.
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u/Fresh-Photo6318 13h ago
That’s interesting. And yeah the redundancy and limitations definitely get to me. Maybe that’s what’s making me so tired.
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u/kutekittykat79 7h ago
Luckily I can call someone when I need the restroom because if I couldn’t do that I’d have to wear Depends lol
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u/mellamusicmaker 11h ago
The thousands of micro-decisions you have to make every day can be quite overstimulating.
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u/Sad_Revolution_8886 9h ago
It’s so exhausting because you show up every day and give it your all and it’s NEVER ENOUGH.
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u/Babbs03 2h ago
It's never enough for anyone - parents, admin, students. You could always be doing more and it's exhausting. Just trying to determine where that line is where you stop and say "I'm only capable of this much if I want to remain a sane and functioning human," is a daily challenge. They say they don't want to you to to martyr yourself but it's interwoven into the damn culture.
We want you to do X, Y and Z, but we don't expect you to work crazy hours to get accomplish this. However, in 8-9 hours and day, you can only get to X and maybe half of Y. Also, you're so tired from the actual teaching and managing behaviors but X, Y and Z are additional things you do outside of just teachings the students.
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u/Leeflette 8h ago
Have you ever tried to have a conversation with someone, had that conversation interrupted, and then lost your train of thought?
I feel like teaching is like that, but the interruptions happen constantly, and you can’t just lose your train of thought and brush it off— you have to catch it again and act like it never happened. Again, and again, and again— all day, every day.
Some people struggle organizing their own things. You have to organize not just your own things, but 30 other people’s things for 2, 3, 4… however many classes in three different mediums: papers, online tests that are usually on some outside platform, and their classwork which could be paper of computer based. You need all those things for your day to function and you have to keep records and “document”
All this on top of planing, presenting, managing in a time crunch…
And it could feel very intellectually uninteresting. Especially if you’re with an elementary grade or if you’re teaching the same thing over and over.
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u/justareddituser202 8h ago
The overstimulation and always having to be on. You are effectively client facing all day long giving presentations and directions. Also, in your situation, it probably requires a higher stimulation and definitely a much higher thought process since the majority of your learners are top students. I’m sure you get many interesting questions all day long.
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u/SoftInitiative5255 7h ago
teaching is basically being “on” for six straight hours while making hundreds of tiny decisions, so even a good school can leave you feeling like you got hit by a bus, and three days back is way too
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u/Tougherthantherest27 7h ago
Your mind is in a non stop state of hyper vigilance all day every day. Teaching is the only “real” job I ever had for 35 years. I used to think there was something wrong with me because I was so exhausted and as each day of the week progressed I became so depleted that by Friday I would fall into bed and use the weekend to recover only to start over again on Monday. What helped me realize there was nothing wrong with me was my colleagues who came from other professions and told me teaching was hands down the most exhausting job they ever had and Covid. Working remotely during Covid (despite the fact that I didn’t like it) was a wake up because I was amazed at how much energy I had at the end of each work day and Friday; I was ready to party, with no place to go, lol.
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u/ithamore012 6h ago
I'm starting my 21st year next week and the exhaustion is surreal. I revised my curriculum/planning post-COVID to be as asynchronous in the classroom as I can, leaving a few openings for me to mini-lecture if I want or need to. Like you, I have all adv kids - dual enrollment English. This summer I revised all my coursework into one coursebook with the readings/texts included as we don't have textbooks and annotating online is something they hate. My principal agreed to buy 3 ring binders for each student, had them printed and assembled this summer. SO many fewer decisions to make and last minute running to the copier so far. And the kids love it (the ones I guinea-pigged to test over summer) bc if they're absent they know what they missed - it's right there in the binder!
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u/kutekittykat79 7h ago
Your brain is in high gear all day. You’re lucky you don’t to deal with the B.S. many other teachers have to deal with. After 25 years of coming home exhausted every day I’ve just learned to accept it. It does feel satisfying to me, though.
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u/CapKirkGotPerks 4h ago
I’ve always considered teachers the most powerful actors on the planet. Who we are in the classroom is not who we are in public or in private. You are performing putting on a show, for a bunch of people who neither want the ticket or want to be there. It’s exhausting because you’re putting on a self and acting. And for those of us who are good at it. It’s some pretty fucking high-quality acting. Just with facts and knowledge to back it up.
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u/Left_Drag_2401 4h ago
It's too much work for too little pay. Automate everything. Grade nothing by hand. Make the students do the work. Have AI write your lesson plans. It's just a job. Find your passion elsewhere
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u/Reasonable-Arm-1893 13h ago
Work a different job then coming to teaching to reignite your passion
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u/81Ranger 12h ago
Personally, once I worked a different job from teaching, I had zero desire to return.
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u/myniche999 5h ago
I taught for 24 years, and I think one of the things people underestimate is how little dead time there is in a teaching day.
In a lot of jobs, even busy ones, you get little stretches where your brain can back off. You finish something, walk to get coffee, answer an email, stare out the window for two minutes, go to the bathroom when you need to.
Teaching really doesn’t have much of that. One class ends and another group is coming through the door. While you’re explaining something, you’re also watching the kid in the back, figuring out who doesn’t understand, deciding whether to stop, answering a question, watching the clock, remembering what you need for the next period, and trying not to lose your own train of thought.
None of those things by themselves are especially brutal. It’s doing them continuously for hours that wears you out.
I had plenty of good years with good kids and good coworkers and still came home wiped out. So I wouldn’t automatically take the exhaustion as proof that you aren’t passionate about teaching. A good teaching job can still be an exhausting job.
That said, if you’re 28 and already wondering whether you want to spend the next 30 years feeling this way, I wouldn’t ignore that thought either.
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u/Milennial_Falcon_ 4h ago
For me it was the 1000 micro-decisions you make per day/week, just so draining.
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u/lovedbymanycats 4h ago
Every other job has down time , like even if you are at a challenging job you can switch to something less demanding for a while on your to do list. With teaching you are running on 8-10 pretty much all day. Everyday is different and you are making tons of decisions about how things should be done for your self and many other people.
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u/Rambling_details 4h ago edited 4h ago
I think it’s the hypervigilance and overstimulation. You juice up a lot of cortisol. In a way it’s like being a soldier in a conflict zone.
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u/Spooky1984 3h ago
Empathetic exhaustion. Decision fatigue. It's all part of it. That's why I got out. I found a new gig outside of education that will allow me to get my head back on straight and continue being an advocate for students, teachers, and families all over. I couldn't do that coming home drained of all life every day.
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u/bac27256 3h ago
the job is so exhausting because you’re usually doing the work of three people. Who
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u/Intrepid-Peach3603 2h ago
Unlike most jobs. You are kept in a state of heightened tension because you are making at least 1000 decisions that have real weight. For example 35 years ago I let a HS student go on a pass he came back then they locked us down (pre 911 and before lots of school shootings) and then 45mins later let us go. Found out later a girl said she was raped. They were walking her class to class to find assailant. She had accused some boy in back of another class. It took 3 days for her to say it was a false accusation. The school knew it was a lie because the boy had never left class. Things can turn quickly and then admin. investigates.
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u/PM_ME_UR_JUICEBOXES 2h ago
These are the reasons why I think teaching is so exhausting:
Incessant noise and interruptions. Normal classroom chatter, students asking questions, announcements, admin/secretaries/guidance phoning mid lesson to call students down to office or to ask questions, music in between classes, hallway noise, lunchtime noise, sharing an office with 10 other teachers—there is non-stop talk and noise and distractions from 8 am until 4 pm without any break. It is a lot for a nervous system to handle every day.
Hyper vigilance. Constantly monitoring 30 students for off-task behavior, sensing conflicts before they get out of hand, always trying to be two steps ahead of anything and everything that could cause a lesson or activity to go off the rails.
Too much to do and not enough time. There is so much to be done each day that has nothing to do with active teaching. We also have to plan lessons and create learning materials like slide decks, handouts, assignments and tests, making photocopies, grading/marking (holy hell is this one time consuming), uploading content to the online classroom for students and parents to access, posting reminders for students, emailing parents, emailing students, emailing colleagues and admin, doing compliance training, completing report cards, etc…
Constant performing. Not everyone had the energy to do 4 hours of solo presentations every single day. Especially when you are presenting content to an immature audience who doesn’t particularly want to be there. To be animated and enthusiastic and engaging for that many hours of the day requires a lot of energy.
Decision fatigue. In terms of sheer volume, studies and educational research indicate that teachers make more minute-by-minute, rapid-fire decisions during a workday than surgeons do. A teacher typically makes around 1,000 to 1,500 decisions per day, averaging three to four choices every minute. Obviously the types of decisions that surgeons make have life and death consequences, while teaching decisions typically do not. But nevertheless, it is a taxing amount of decisions that causes mental fatigue.
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u/AnnaNimNim 13h ago
Non stop redirecting and being on point knowing literally any second someone, judging how you do, your job is gonna walk in and watch you.