The Emotional Roller Coaster of the First Years of Teaching

If you’ll be walking into your own classroom for the first time this fall, you’ll feel a wide range of emotions. Your training courses will have helped prepare you for the job and taught you the basics on best practices for curriculum and classroom management, but the emotional element of teaching is a beast that can only be tamed with time. I should know—I recently finished my second year of teaching, and my experience is a fairly typical example of the emotional arc of the first two years, an example that might be helpful to those of you just getting started.

Year one 

The Beginning of the Year: The excitement and anxiety of the first few weeks can be overwhelming, and many teachers find themselves working late and staying up into the wee hours of the night to ensure that they’re prepared. But it’s important to learn to cope with the labor, and the emotional labor, of being a teacher.

August and September can be overwhelming. Stepping into the classroom and presenting lessons to my own students was more draining than I anticipated from teacher prep. Learning to manage all the responsibilities of the role was taxing on the mind and, sometimes surprisingly, on the heart. Developing systems and patterns that work for you can help lighten the weight of all the responsibilities.

Autumn and Winter: After Halloween, you can expect to have adjusted to the work, and most likely you will have settled into a rhythmic routine of preparation, presentation, and assessment. But you need to remember to take care of yourself through this time of year, as the next few months turn into winter, which can lead to seasonal struggles associated with the cold and darkness.

The weeks from Thanksgiving until Christmas break may seem like some of the hardest to work through. The anticipation of freedom, the low sunlight, and the exhaustion can lead to difficult, emotional days. Students work slower, focus less, and seem to misbehave more. This took a toll on my emotional well-being, and I came to understand that it’s important to develop daily rituals for self-care to prevent burnout.

The run-up to the holidays can add additional stress for almost everyone, including students. I found myself struggling to manage teaching and end-of-semester grading, as well as the pressures of holiday travel planning. Other teachers have told me they shared this feeling of being overwhelmed during this time. For the majority of teachers, this stress is temporary and is overcome with the release of winter break.

After the break, you may again experience the anxiety felt earlier in the year, but this time you should have more confidence. Students are as rested as they’ll be for the rest of the year. They’ll pick up the pace in work and focus for longer durations. This period was the most enjoyable for me in year one.

Be prepared, though, as not all students have gone to a happy home for winter break. Some return from dysfunctional homes, and you should watch for indications of stress and trauma, and talk to your counselor about any warning signs from students.

If this is the case, you need to remember to take care of yourself as you take care of others. It’s important to focus on your own mental health because student trauma can bring up emotional triggers for you as well.

Spring: Spring break is fun and therapeutic, but before it arrives, teachers and students can be antsy for spring and the end of the school year.

This is when the phrase “teacher tired” can become all too real. Fatigue can lead to depression, but I found that having a fulfilling life at home helped with the pressures of these months. A solid routine of rest, relaxation, spiritual practice, and exercise helped me through this time of anticipation and stress.

The last few weeks of the year can feel like a whirlwind of panic. Grades, high absences, and spring fever can make these weeks stressful and long. And when the end of the year arrives, you may be shocked because you’ve lived and breathed teaching for so long that it can be hard to adjust to a life that isn’t driven by your teaching schedule. It may feel surreal that the year has ended, but you should certainly enjoy the well-earned break.

year two 

As I began my second year teaching, I was motivated by both the successes and failures of year one to do better, and it was important to me to take time to reflect and plan for the year. Before I started my second year, I reviewed my content for the first semester and tweaked both what had worked and what hadn’t worked in my first year. Reflection is a powerful learning tool if channeled into improvements.

You can expect to experience eagerness and anxiety again at the beginning of the new school year, but also relief at being able to rely on your experience from the prior year.

Autumn and Winter: During the early fall months of year two, I questioned myself a lot—just because something had worked the previous year didn’t mean it was best practice.

This time of year was for me a period of increased reflection, and it was also a peaceful time. Many students are ready to be back in school and eager to have the stability of a routine again. These early fall months of the second year were emotionally satisfying for me as the routines and reflections of year one began to come together.

But as the dark months of winter begin, you might once again find yourself struggling, as I did. It’s important to be patient with yourself and your students. Performance reviews and submitting final grades on top of the never-ending emails can send even a second year teacher into a spiral.

Around this time, I set boundaries for myself. The pressures of the school year, the holidays, and mental health challenges can make winter feel impossible to get through, and I found that little treats and moments of self-care helped me persevere through this time. Winter break brought with it a sense of relief.

Spring: The beginning of the second spring semester was the most enjoyable part of year two to me personally. Students were focused and working, and I knew them well enough to have fun and form deeper relationships.

My colleagues and I often feel the most positive in spring—it’s normal to have some anxiety about the semester, but a lot of us take time to enjoy the changes in attitude and contentment the rest of the year will bring. I find that this is the best time to enjoy and really take an interest in your students. This excitement will continue, but sooner or later, you’ll find yourself feeling fatigued—this is natural, a normal part of the late school year.

It’s vital to take some time to reflect on a self-care routine and set up habits to make the final few weeks easier because this time of the year can be draining—the end is near, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. Turning in grades, cleaning up your classroom, and doing final evaluations can be overwhelming, but as year two ends, there’s the realization that once again summer vacation brings freedom and the needed rest that can lift your spirits and help you recharge for next year.