'Teach Outside the Robot' with Karl C. Pupé FRSA.

The award-winning author, teacher and consultant explains classroom management and student psychology in the Information Age.

3 Ways to Have a Teaching Career Filled with Anxiety, Dread and Burnout

Karl C. Pupé FRSA

#7 Thursday 31st October 2024

Over the past 15 years, I have:

Become an award-winning author
National speaker
Helped thousands of UK teachers become classroom management experts

But I am going to let you in on a little secret. My first 5 years of teaching were absolute pants.

I was:

Anxious
Lifeless
Ready to quit

One fateful morning, while I was doing the top button of my work shirt, I felt breathless. My head was spinning, and my arms felt like lead. My chest was pounding, and my thoughts raced like Usain Bolt in London 2012.

Am I having a panic attack?

I sat on my sofa, desperately trying to control my breathing. My body protested and won.

After taking an array of medical tests and consultations, I was given the all-clear – but that terrifying experience has never left me.

The first five years were a horror show – and I desperately want you to avoid that.

But many teachers don’t realise that they are already on this path.

A Billionaire's Secret

Billionaire investor Charlie Munger (1923 – 2023), besties with Warren Buffet and co-founder of the multi-billion dollar conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, was a smart dude.

Munger credited much of his success to ‘inversion thinking.’

Charlie Munger’s inversion thinking principle means solving problems by thinking backwards.

For example, if you were looking at being better with your money, rather than asking:

“How can I save money?”

You would ask:

“How could I get myself into crippling debt?”

You would list all the ways you could fall into a financial pit — and then do the opposite.

This technique is brilliant because our brains are excellent at finding threats. Thus, this method allows us to predict specific challenges and devise powerful plans to counter them.

Now that you understand the theory, let’s look at three ways we can ruin our teaching careers.

1. Be Emotionally Dysregulated

Before we hit the classroom, I don’t want you to sleep at all. Five to six hours will do the trick.

Crank up the drinking the night before to the point you wake up the middle of the night and can’t sleep. Add to that a massive meal to increase your heartburn and discomfort.

Wake up with a tender head and a foul mood. Hit the snooze button three times. Now you have 25 minutes to get ready for work. That will help charge up your morning anxiety.

Don’t eat breakfast and head straight for a double expresso. Water is boring.

Race down the motorway like Vin Diesel in The Fast and the Furious movies, flipping the bird to every poor sap along the way.

Step into the classroom like Bruce Lee facing the final boss in Enter the Dragon.

Scowl, bellow, stomp around. Never smile at the students before Christmas. Smiling is a weakness.

Meghan and Tom stroll into class late without their blazers again. Who the hell do they think they are?

They are the main ‘disruptors’ of the. But you know what? If they want a battle, you’ll give them one today!

Give them both detention and send them packing. Ignore the Pastoral Team’s recommendations and weekly bulletins—you have too much to do.

Mark them down for protesting and kicking the door on the way out. You hope their toes are sore for the rest of the day.

Let the cortisol, adrenaline and noradrenaline flow through your veins. It’s Monday morning? Great! Increase your risk of a heart-attack by 13% by going spare in your classroom*.

The aim is to get these students to comply by any means necessary.

2. Never Listen

Why should you listen to your students? They’re kids, for Pete’s sake! What have they got to say for themselves?

This trauma stuff is absolute garbage.

Their home problems don’t matter. Everyone has problems, right?

The real world is horrible, and they will have to toughen up. We’re raising a bunch of snowflakes.

If they approach you with questions outside of their assignments, dismiss 'em.

All that counts is the grades and nothing else. If they are tired or sad, well, that's tough. In the real world, no one will really care what they think anyway.

The students constantly moan, so why bother listening to them? All their issues are trivial and irrelevant.

The mission is to pass their exams or die trying. Everything else doesn’t matter.

3. Never Have Boundaries

Never take a break for yourself. Everyone’s needs are higher than your own.

You want to be helpful because you believe in the school's mission. Neglecting your physical, mental, and emotional health is part of the job.

Your colleagues know that they can always reach you at any time. You've sent 2 a.m. emails to ensure they get what they need —no problem.

Your Head of Department and SLT love your work ethic but have told you they are concerned that you are doing too much.

Why would they be concerned? This is what everyone should do.

You have been feeling really under the weather lately. You have less energy than before, and you are noticing your hands are starting to tremble.

The GP has referred you to a specialist, but you can’t make the time to go. You’ve told the NHS referrer that you can see them during the summer holidays, even though it’s seven months away.

You absolutely must be there for the summer exams - the school can't cope without you.

There are too many tasks to do that are far too important.

Michael, your colleague, comes by your room and asks you for a favour—it’s the fifth this month. He asks you to create the brand new lesson plans the Head of Department assigned him two weeks ago.

Michael has been having a tough time lately. He just left his girlfriend and is feeling a little sad. Something urgent has come up this weekend, and he can't do them for Monday.

Before you can reply, he calls you 'a lifesaver' and dashes out the door. You sigh and start poring over his confusing emails to figure out what to do.

You spend all weekend doing Michael’s work only to find out on Monday that he went to the Snowboxx Music Festival in Austria with his new girlfriend.

In the staffroom, he boasted about how "rad" the festival was, impressing everyone. Meanwhile, you cringe, remembering the mountain of work that kept you too "snowed under" even to call your parents.

But you don’t want to rock the boat - Michael isn’t malicious. His aunt, the Deputy Head, often calls him “scatty but lovable.”

Still, this is the third time he’s dumped “urgent” work on you this term. He did cover your lunch duty once, so maybe it’s fair.

The End. Or is it?

Although it might seem far-fetched, before my ‘incident,’ I was doing 90% of these behaviours.

It’s easy to forget these in the day-to-day busyness of teaching, but the tiny everyday things can make or break us.

So, let’s invert the main points in this newsletter to help you have the happy ending you deserve.

1. Practice 'Emotional Hygiene'

Sleep well
Don't drink too much before bed
Have a healthy breakfast
Give yourself plenty of time to get to work
Have positive body language
Smile!
Add 2 - 5 seconds to your reaction time
Practice mindful breathing

2. Be curious and listen to others

Be curious
Use 'active listening' techniques
Learn how to 'read the room.'
Regularly liaise with the pastoral teams about vulnerable students
Learn trauma-informed practice
Remember that character education is just as important as academic achievement.

3. Have healthy boundaries

Take toilet breaks
Invest in positive relationships and hobbies outside of school
Remember, you are good enough
Tend to your health - don't miss doctor appointments
Say no to unreasonable requests
Report poor treatment to management or HR

I hope that you enjoyed the newsletter! If you constantly feel burnt out, stressed, or under pressure, it might not be you but the school you work in…

In my second book, ‘The Action Hero Teacher 2: Teachers of the Lost Class, ' I discuss the importance of mental health, the eight signs of a toxic school, and how to harness the hidden side of your personality to become a better teacher and a better person.