The teaching profession is famous among uninformed people for having early evenings and months of holidays. Teachers are often mocked for having an easy day working 9 till 3 where all they do is ‘paint by numbers’. But little do people know the time and complexities this professions requires. It is a stressful job which often requires extreme amounts of dedication.

Each child requires the personalisation and care individually from their teacher who has a class of potentially 30. Teachers can be up working into the early hours of the morning to have everything prepared perfectly for their lessons with all the children’s work marked too. But, is it worth it? This isn’t a disapproval of an appropriate level of preparation, yet we must ponder the worthiness of it? Is the lesson taught at an appropriate standard if the teacher is exhausted from planning it? It is the teacher who inspires, nurtures and stimulates the learning of the children in their class. But can this be done with only a few hours of sleep and no effective method of stress relief.

Despite this, it doesn’t make it acceptable to cut corners or not provide the necessary support for the children in the class. Teachers still need to have the dedication and passion to acquire the best possible outcome of their class.

It’s about finding the balance.

Finding an appropriate balance isn’t easy. It is not a sign of a bad teacher to take personal time and have a life. Teachers require the satisfaction of doing something pleasurable without the need to constantly mark excessive amounts of work. They must therefore plan lessons accordingly, changing the content of the lesson can prevent the unnecessary quantity of marking a teacher must do and can further stimulate a child’s mind. A teacher should look after themselves through the balance of their personal and professional time.