I am in a teaching rut!!

I can't seem to get out of a rut. I am able to teach but I don't think its the best I could do to present the material. I also don't seem to have enough time in the day to get my stuff in gear. In between work and school I am megga stressed!! Any advice on how to get out of this rut???

Re: I am in a teaching rut!!

I am in the EXACT SAME BOAT!! DH and I just moved to NC, and I'm teaching in a new grade, in a new state, with new standards!! I met with my principal last week. He told me that if I keep going the pace that I'm going, I'm gonna kill myself. I'm so burned out.

So, I've decided: I will only allow myself to bring home work once per week. Everything else must be done in my classroom. I've also decided that I'm not going to obsess about my room being super, super neat. Instead, I'm going to make my kids help me clean up at the end of every day.

I don't know if that helps you any, but I mostly wanted to let you know that you're not alone!

Re: I am in a teaching rut!!

Sometimes you need to take a day that you toss out the curriculum and do something fun and exciting. I have had a couple of casual fridays...we do lessons that are about learning but are different and fun. We had a whole lesson on germs, art appreciation, we'll do microscope stuff, solve a crime, book studies, etc. Things outside the box.

Re: I am in a teaching rut!!

I know you teach biology, right? Try approaching it or thinking about it from a different angle, even if it's just for a couple of days to get you jump-started and the kids to buy back into what you're doing.
For example. I teach music, but I was feeling like my music history class was really flat and boring, so I totally re-did my units this year. We're in the middle of doing Medieval music, which can be pretty friggin boring for an 8th grader, so instead of just going straight to the music, I set up the unit to get them to feel like they were living during the time period. We talked about famine and feudalism, we acted out what it would be like to live in that kind of society, we talked about travel and communication, we read a Grimm's fairy tale that gave a good depiction of the time, etc. THEN, I brought in the music after they were already into what we were talking about. It's made it so much more meaningful to me and to them, and I've had nothing but a positive response from the kids.
I went to the extreme and redid all of my units for the year because I felt like you do but for all of last year. Try it for a unit or a lesson and see what happens.