Hi Nick,

If it is addressed on training courses, I am sure it will benefit all of us.

JJ's technique of avoid standing up, I have tried, it works. In such senarios - I allow a student to use the electronic board to display their understanding of the subject under discussion.

Ambreen H.

Dear friends,

To overcome fatigue, first  teachers should try to discover the reasons behind it. Some teachers may feel tired due to working overtime. In this case, they should reduce the number of hours that they teach and allocate some time to recreation. Some others may feel exhausted because they have motivational problems due to low salaries, conflict with the adminstration and students, contradicitve objectives, incongruent expectations, to name just a few. In this situation, they should try to be realistic and self evaluate themselves to come up with a better undertanding of the situation. Keeping a journal to include accounts of the feelings and daily events and possible solutions can be a good strategy for self evaluation. As some of you mentioned, fatigue may come about as a result of the monotonous routine in teaching. we may add variety by teaching different levels, having students particiapate in the teaching process, and giving them a chance to watch movies (insructional ones). Remember that like yawning, teacher fatigue is contagious and can be tranferred to students.

Message was edited by: korosh Irani

Believe me a few years back, I had the same position as you do today. Sometimes, I worked 12 or ten hours a day. I really felt worn out. It led to the present state that I have today. I do not feel like taking many classes. I become tired very soon. I am very impatient and easily get of control.

All the best,

Korosh

Nick, I strongly believe that a student has to work harder than a teacher.

Change your style of teaching, they will learn more by doing things by themselves.

Teach what they cannot learn without you: grammar, techniques of effective communication, rules for pronunciation vs.spelling ect.

When you give out tests, don't bring them back home: correct them with the class (the corrector-student has to sign his name on the paper as well) and then pick them up (so you really see whether the corrections are good ones). It's easier to go over a test that way and it's more constructive: you see whether they all really understood things even after correcting or not.

Let them be responsible of their own success. That's their job. Yours is to HELP them achieve it, not DO it for them.

See the difference? Once you see it that way, the sky clears up

AnnaZ

My experience with tells me that teachers get fatigued when they are not doing what they love. Instead they are doing what they have been told to do, think they should do, believe they need to do but not what their heart tells them to do.

Answer to this, while it is seldom so straightforward, is to follow your heart - not of course leaving your head behind in the process! :-) If you don't know where that is anymore ( and I am not joking, it is easy to get lost...I know, I have been there) go and get some inspiration from somewhere.

To be effective at teaching or learning we have to have our heart in it...otherwise we are just get through the steps..a recipe for disillusionment, fatigue etc.