Beat End-of-Marking Period Teacher Stress and Burnout!
It’s the end of the term, quarter, semester, trimester, marking period (which word do you use?), and understandably so, you’re feeling burnt out and stressed by the massive piles of grading you have to do along with the rapidly-approaching deadline for grade submission. On top of all that, the new term starts next week, and you have to start prepping for new content!
In this blog post, I’m going to share my top strategies for reducing end-of-marking period stress. It’s a lot to juggle, and it’s easy to feel like you’re barely keeping your head above water. But with a few simple shifts, you can reclaim your time—and your sanity—before diving into a brand new term.
Psst… if you read to the end, you may find a freebie waiting for you. ;)
Prioritize the Most Important Tasks
In all likelihood, you won’t get to do all of the things you’d like to get done. Accept this reality and keep it moving! As I often say in this blog, teaching is a job that’s never truly done—there’s ALWAYS something more to do!
In terms of grading, pick the most important pieces of work to enter into your gradebook. Not everything needs a grade, and not everything needs feedback, either! Reduce your pile of grading by focusing on the assessments that are most likely to indicate student learning and mastery. The pile of homework that you collected three weeks ago and haven’t yet had time to look at or put into the gradebook? Let it go.
Use Class Time Strategically: MOVIE TIME!
During the last week of the marking period, I play a movie in all of my classes. I teach 80-minute blocks, so I’m usually able to occupy two blocks with a relevant film. I start off with a 15-20 minute cultural, social, linguistic, and/or historical lesson to help contextualize the film. We’re not watching a random Marvel movie (although I have, admittedly, shown Marvel movies in the target language when I was desperate!), we’re watching a movie that relates to the curriculum in some obvious way.
For example, I play Ratatouille at the end of my French Food Unit. I show the 2017 Beauty and the Beast at the end of my French Clothing Unit, and I have students complete an activity in which they describe the outfits of the different characters (we also talk about the social and economic structures of 18th century France—I talk about the ancien régime, the three estates, the emergence of the middle class, the social unrest that leads to la révolution française, etc.).
While students are watching the movie, I am grading, inputting grades, prepping for the following term… all of the things that those in charge should really be giving me extra time to do, but as teachers, we know that’s just not how our job works. :)
Don’t ever feel guilty for playing a movie as a way to get caught up on your work. Besides, students appreciate the break!
In addition to showing a movie, I’ll have students work on the following tasks toward the end of the marking period:
Finish up any outstanding work that you have not yet completed.
Assessment Make-Ups!
Clean out and organize your binder/folder.
Practice conjugations on Conjuguemos.
Grab a magazine or book from the classroom library and read.
Review vocabulary and grammar on Quizlet.
Reward Yourself
Don’t underestimate the importance of rewarding yourself at the end of the term! You’ve worked hard, and inputting grades for 125+ students is no easy ordeal. You’ve earned a break, so treat yourself to something that brings you a little joy. I’m not going to list what that might look like, but give yourself something to look forward to! Knowing that I have a treat waiting for me at the end of the school day helps me power through when I’m feeling tired or stressed.
Ask for Help When You Need It
Teaching is an incredibly demanding and challenging profession. Many of us have been led to believe that we need to suffer in silence, that rather than asking for help when we need it, we need to hunker down, roll up our sleeves, and burn the midnight oil.
If you’re struggling, ask for help. Maybe that means reaching out to a colleague or team teacher and asking if they wouldn’t mind sharing a few lessons with you. Maybe that means reaching out to your World Language supervisor and asking for some more support. Maybe that means reaching out to your vice principal or building principal and discussing ways to make your workload a bit more manageable.
At the end of the day, asking for help is not a sign of weakness: it’s a sign of strength, actually, because it shows that you have self aware-ness, know your limits, and can self-advocate. Most administrators would rather help provide their struggling teachers with resources and assistance rather than lose them and have to engage in the hiring process, which is a time sink.
Hey, if you’ve made it this far, I have a freebie for you! I created this World Language Movie Guide that I give to students at the start of a movie. This keeps their attention focused and requires them to actually pay attention to the end-of-unit movie I’m showing. It’s a Google Doc, so all you have to do is go to File —> Make a Copy for your own editable copy!
I hope you’ll find it useful!
Happy language teaching,
~ Michael
