How to survive a school year when it’s only September?

Can you feel those back-to-school vibes? I sure can, as my work gets more intensive around this time – and once the school year is fully on and all the good teachers are back to work it’s time for me to slow down and relax a bit – but there’s still some days ahead, before I can relax.

Although I’m planning to take annual minibreak in November to visit Sheffield.

If I look from my DoS’s perspective, I’ve already survived a back-to-school time before an actual back-to-school madness and I’m still hyped, creative and eager to try new things (I’m quite lucky my new job is full of challenges), so I’ve decided to share some of my ideas on how to unwind and survive yet another year without sanity loss.

I believe in a theory which denies the traditional approach to dividing people into extroverts and introverts and proposes a new term – ambivert – for people sometimes feeling extremely social and sometimes preferring to stay in and enjoy solitude. Being a teacher means working with people and for me it’s fun – but sometimes I get tired and overwhelmed, and I need to recharge my batteries. Since sharing is caring, I propose a deal – I will share my ways to unwind and I would love you to share yours.

Ready?

1 Playing RPG

This may sound funny – my first idea to relax after spending too much time surrounded by people is to play games with other people. Somehow, believe me, it is relaxing – we never talk shop, we just enjoy the company and have fun. Having adventures in an imaginary world is a great reminder that spending time with people is fun, not only work. A nice session or two is all I need after a fortnight away from home, spent in various cities, with various people and constantly working – it reminds me that it’s people who boost my creativity and make me laugh.

In other words, playing RPGs with people helps me relax after spending too much time with people. Seems legit.

2 Reading… and writing

I love reading and I’m rather uneconomical when it comes to devouring literature. One of the highlights of my linguistic proficiency is the possibility of reading English books in original. Agatha Christie, Lucy Maud Montgomery, J.R.R. Tolkien or H.P. Lovecraft – they all are great fun to read in English. But being able to write in English is also something I enjoy – to be honest, the whole idea of my blog originated from my belief that leaving Ireland and returning to Poland would affect my English, so I decided to write a blog just to practice. The rest is history – I’ve had my ups and downs, but I’ve been writing a note per week for more than a year now and that’s something that makes me proud – and meanwhile writing in English has become a sort of relaxing habit for me.

3 Making and baking

When my head is buzzing it’s time for some creative work – scrapbooking or baking. I can switch off my brain and just enjoy making pretty things – only my evil heart requires me to watch crime stories at the same time to include some balance in nature.

The point is to keep your hands busy and your mind free – probably that’s the reason many teachers enjoy creating materials, laminating them etc.

4 Learning

I’m not posting monthly lists of awesome online courses for nothing – I enjoy learning. Watching education programmes (How It’s Made) or tutorials on YouTube is also enjoyable. I believe learning something new is important when you work as a teacher – you gain a better understanding of the issues your own students may encounter.

I remember when I started learning Spanish and suddenly I had a lot of common topics with my students, as if some kind of invisible barrier was gone. They saw me note only as a teacher, but also as a learner and it was a nice team-building experience.

5 Discovering

It’s good to leave your comfort zone once in a while and discover something new. It’s really refreshing to try something new – let’s say, once a week? It may be waking up earlier than usually, going for a walk to the place you haven’t been yet, cooking a new dish, learning a new dance or go on a drive in a car.

Why is it good for you? Simple – you get tired and bored because you teach the same things, probably in the same school, for a while. Trying something new, something you may feel slightly anxious about, makes your brain feel challenged and hungry for new experiences.

Feed your brain.

6 Playing video games

Some like them in a single-player mode, others prefer multiplayer versions, but video games are always fun – and a great way to relax.

My dad, who used to work as a Maths teacher in a primary school, would get back home and play Doom or Duke Nukem for an hour or two – that really helped us to unwind and change him from a teacher to a parent. It has worked for years, so I feel quite safe continuing the tradition (only I’m more into RPG than FPS).

If you want to learn more about the benefits of playing video games you might want to listen to Jane McGonigal or read her book “Superbetter”.

7 Volunteering

As if my work (which includes a lot of writing, both in Polish and in English) and blogging weren’t enough, my way of being a volunteer is based on writing – I work with Fundacja Felineus trying to help save cats and kittens from my region. Sure thing, it’s not much, writing heartwarming stories of poor abandoned pets – but at least it’s something that makes me happy: supporting those who sacrifice their own time, money and home to help those in need. It was proven that helping others makes you happier, so I can only encourage you to try, I’m sure you’ll feel better, so find a cause you want to support and make our world a little happier place.

You may wonder why I haven’t chosen any sports, well, as Maria Czubaszek said “through sports to injuries” – you may choose your preferred sport, but I won’t take any responsibility for the choice… unlike with the video games.

Enjoy the school year!