Counting Down to Summer? 5 Strategies to Stay Stress Free

Have you begun the summer countdown yet?  As we approach the end of the school year, many of us in special education are feeling the familiar strain of end-of-year fatigue. Testing, changes in student behavior, loosened discipline, and a packed meeting schedule can leave you feeling drained and ready for a break. In this episode, I explore practical strategies to manage this overwhelm, ensuring you can finish the year strong while continuing to make a positive impact.

5 Strategies to Stay Stress Free

• Keep Students Engaged: Modify teaching methods to cater to various learning styles, incorporate real-life connections, and introduce interactive and fun elements to maintain student interest.
• Stick to a Consistent Schedule: Maintain routines as much as possible to provide stability and predictability for students, which is essential for reducing anxiety and enhancing focus.
• Delegate: Utilize the strengths of your team by delegating tasks effectively, allowing you to focus on critical aspects of teaching and student interaction.
• Self-Care: Prioritize your physical and mental health to ensure you are your best self for your students. Regular exercise, nutritious meals, adequate sleep, and mental health practices are key.
• Have Fun: Create opportunities for celebration and joy in your classroom, helping to end the year on a positive note for both you and your students.

In this episode, we've tackled how to handle the stress and challenges that come with the closing months of the school year in special education. By keeping students engaged, maintaining a consistent schedule, delegating tasks, focusing on self-care, and infusing the classroom with fun, we can alleviate the overwhelm and ensure a rewarding conclusion to the school year. Remember, you're not alone in this journey. The strategies discussed today are designed to support you as you continue to make a significant impact on your students' lives. Let's finish strong, take care of ourselves, and celebrate our achievements. 

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A must-have for every special education teacher and related service provider. 

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Get your FREE copy of Impact Statement Mastery: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Personalized IEPs.

• Expert tips and strategies,
• Easy-to-follow formats, and
• Real-life examples that bring theory to life.

A must-have for every special education teacher and related service provider. 

Follow Jennifer
Instagram
TPT

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:53

Today we are addressing that familiar end-of-year fatigue that many of us, if not all of us, feel in special education. It is April and we are exhausted. Testing spring behaviors, loosened discipline and endless meetings is just taking its toll. We are over it and we are ready for a break, but until that break comes, I've got five strategies to help you get through the end of the year.

Speaker 2: 1:19

You're listening to the Sped Prep Academy podcast. Your host, jennifer Hoferberg, is an award-winning veteran special educator who shares her experience, knowledge and passion to help other special educators survive and thrive in this profession. Join her and other guests as they share tips and tricks of the trade for the ever crazy, completely overwhelming laugh so you don't cry. Profession of being a special education teacher.

Speaker 1: 1:44

I heard a teacher say yesterday that they were ready for the school year to be done and I got to thinking about my years in the classroom, and it was usually right around this time of the year when I was just done, I was over all of the testing that we were having to do. I had had it with springtime behaviors. Everyone, including myself probably had let up on discipline and the kids were just louder and more fidgety and they didn't seem to care about learning at all, probably because their teachers didn't care about teaching at all. I was sick of meeting after meeting after meeting, I was tired and I was cranky and I needed a break and it just wasn't coming soon enough. So today I want to give you some strategies to help you deal with the stress that you are having at this time of the year. But before we get to those strategies, I want to share a funny story with you. It's not really funny in the ha-ha way, but it is funny in the fact that it's humorous how people on the outside world perceive our jobs as special educators.

Speaker 1: 2:47

I think sometimes when people have no knowledge of education at all they've never taught in a school or been in a school they don't really know what we do. I feel like they think that we sit next to a child and we help them get through their day and we're teaching and it's just this beautiful, easy thing. And yes, it is beautiful, and we do make progress and we do make a difference. But when we hear things like, oh, you're such an angel, that's what a great profession to have. You're making such a difference in the world, I could never do what you do. Things like that make me feel like they don't know everything that we do. So I have this coach she's a business coach who helps me with the systems and the ideas for my business. And as we were reviewing things, she stopped me and said so tell me, exactly what does the day in the life of a special education teacher look like? And I was thinking, lady, I'm not sure we have enough time to hash out everything a special education teacher does, because we do so much education teacher does because we do so much. But I refrained from being sarcastic and I said well, we write IEPs and other paperwork.

Speaker 1: 4:08

We work with kids on their goals. Of course, we help students with the curriculum the general education curriculum and we document everything. We write individual lesson plans for students on our caseloads, because most of our students are not working at grade level and our students' abilities are on a very wide spectrum. We manage behaviors and we develop behavior plans. We create materials for our students if we can't find what we need elsewhere. We prep those materials and we make individual visual schedules. We have to manage our staff, our assistants, our paraprofessionals, and we have to create those schedules and make sure everyone's where they're supposed to be at all times and we make sure that all of our students are getting their required minutes. We have to communicate with parents and collaborate with general education teachers.

Speaker 1: 4:58

We write reports, we test kids, we lead an IEP meeting for each of our students at least one time a year, and I had every intention of keeping this list going because, well, you get it, we do a lot. And she said wait, wait, wait, wait. Why, if you are a special education teacher, are you having to do all of that? And I just looked at her for a minute and I said I don't know. That's just what we do. We do it all. And she said oh, my gosh, that sounds way overwhelming to me. I am so glad I'm not a special education teacher and I said, yeah, my gosh, that sounds way overwhelming to me. I am so glad I'm not a special education teacher. And I said, yeah, yeah, it's overwhelming.

Speaker 1: 5:45

And then I went back through that conversation later that evening and I reflected on it and I realized that people who don't work in the field of special education don't have a clue about all that we do. And I've said that same statement to colleagues, but I guess I've never realized how true it was. When my daughter started teaching special ed, she said Mom, I get it now. And I felt so seen, I felt so validated. No one who has never worked in this field has a clue what we go through on a daily basis. No one who has never worked in this field has a clue what we go through on a daily basis. They just don't, they just they can't, they can't wrap their brains around it.

Speaker 1: 6:22

So I want you to know that I see you, I hear you, I was you, I am you. I know how overwhelming this job can be. I know how stressed out you are and I'm not going to give you a. But you know how some people might say that and I've even said this myself this job is hard but you get to work with kids. Or this job is stressful, but you are making a difference. Or, my favorite, yes, your job is tough, but you get summers off. You know what Butts aren't helpful. They don't acknowledge the weight of everything that we carry every day, and adding in that butt somehow minimalizes all that we do. So let's talk about how we can manage this overwhelm, especially when it feels most intense at this time of the year.

Speaker 1: 7:16

I have five strategies to help you get to the end of the school year successfully. First is to keep your students engaged. This is fundamental. If your students aren't engaged, consider it a cue to switch things up. If you're having some of those crazy behaviors, it might be that your engagement is off, because engagement is the key to effective learning and it is essential to capture and maintain your students interest. So you're going to want to assess and adapt your teaching methods, because different students have different learning styles. Some are visual learners, some are auditory, others are kinesthetic. If you notice a drop in engagement, it might be time to adapt those methods. You probably want to incorporate a more hands-on approach with hands-on activities. Introducing some group work might be beneficial.

Speaker 1: 8:09

Find out what your students are interested in and try to incorporate some of those themes into your classroom. When you make learning relevant to their lives, you can spark their interest again. For example, if you're teaching math and you know your students love sports, use sports statistics to teach a mathematical concept and then just ask for feedback from your kids. What are you enjoying about these lessons? What do you find boring? Give students some control over their learning. Allow them to choose between different assignments. They can set their own goals. They can even decide on the class topic for the day. Sometimes the routine can be monotonous, and introducing surprise elements like a fun game or a mystery kind of escape room situation or a sudden field trip related to a lesson Any of those things can be a game changer when you're trying to get students re-engaged. But remember, engagement isn't just about keeping students busy. It's about keeping them mentally stimulated and emotionally invested in their learning, and so by understanding their needs and adjusting your approach, you can create a more engaging and a more dynamic classroom that fosters active learning and curiosity.

Speaker 1: 9:22

Strategy two is to stick to a consistent schedule. As we know, consistency is key in special education, and so, as the school year winds down, it's easy for your routines to become disrupted, which can be particularly challenging for students who rely on a predictable structure to feel secure and to perform at their best. Many students have anxiety at this time of the year because they are increasing a lot of unpredictability. You're having different field trips, you're having different activities, different events and a consistent schedule will help reduce this anxiety by providing a familiar routine that students can rely on. When students know what to expect and when to expect it, they are less distracted by the uncertainty of their day-to-day activities. And this consistency supports your behavior management problems. If you're getting lax on some of this, you're going to see more and more behaviors popping up. You just need to reinforce the rules and routines that have been established and make it easy for your students to meet behavioral expectations. And just remember that stability is crucial, not just for our students, but for everyone involved. If changes have to be made, make sure that you're communicating them clearly and you're keeping everyone on the same page the students. You're preparing them for different changes throughout the day and you're making sure that your paras, your assistants, know exactly what those changes are.

Speaker 1: 10:51

Strategy three is to delegate. You don't have to do all of this alone. Lean on your team, whether it's for administrative tasks or supervising lunches or recesses or managing classroom activities. Delegating can help you manage your workload and prevent burnout. Remember your your assistants are in. Your pair of professionals are there to support the classroom dynamic, and delegation wasn't a skill that I started off with. It was definitely something that had to be developed, because for a long time, I thought it's just easier to do it myself than to ask somebody to do it, and I always felt uncomfortable asking because I felt bossy, so it's something that I had to learn, but when you have your department running as a true team, it can make a significant difference in managing your workload and reducing your stress.

Speaker 1: 11:46

The special education environment has demands that can be very uniquely challenging, and so it's important to remember that you don't have to tackle everything on your own. And so it's important to remember that you don't have to tackle everything on your own. Effectively delegating tasks can help you focus more on those high priority activities or expectations that you have on you, such as writing your IEPs and getting your paperwork done, so, when you're doing these, you can entrust other responsibilities to your capable teaching assistants. Make sure, though, when you're delegating, to be clear and provide all necessary information and set those expectations to ensure that the task is completed effectively. It's also crucial to choose the right person for the right task. You're not going to want to choose someone to clean out the closet. That's a horrible mess. You're not going to want to choose somebody for that job who hates organization or gets overwhelmed themselves. You're going to want to choose somebody who thrives on organization and being organized and somebody who wants to tackle that task. When you match the skills and interests of your support staff with the tasks that you need to delegate, then you are going to increase efficiency and job satisfaction.

Speaker 1: 13:01

Strategy four is self-care. Whether this is health or physical or mental, just make sure that you are taking the time to attend to your well-being. Self-care is essential. It's not optional. Especially in a demanding field like special education, it's easy to prioritize everyone. In a demanding field like special education, it's easy to prioritize everyone else's needs before your own. But remember that by being the best teacher you can be starts with being the best you that you can be for yourself. So just ensure that you are getting regular exercise, you are eating nutritious meals, you're getting enough water, you're getting enough sleep. These basic health practices not only keep your body fit, but they also help you improve your mood and your energy levels, and they enable you to handle the daily stresses of teaching more effectively.

Speaker 1: 13:48

And I sound like a mom when I say this but take your vitamins. I told my husband the other day that I don't think he nor I had been sick in over a year not even a cold. I guess I need to knock on some wood somewhere. But he said to me I think it's because we've been very diligent about taking our vitamins every day, and I think he's right. And then make sure that you are taking care of your mental health. You can engage in activities that reduce stress and increase joy, whether that is meditation or reading, hobbies, getting physical exercise or spending time with loved ones and then consider setting boundaries to protect your time and your energy. Learn to say no when it's necessary and recognize when you are taking on too much. By maintaining a healthy work-life balance, you can ensure that your job doesn't consume your personal life and you can preserve your enthusiasm and your passion for teaching. Ultimately, self-care is about maintaining that balance that keeps you healthy and ready to face the challenges of every day. So when you take care of yourself, you're in a better position to deliver the high quality education and support that your students need.

Speaker 1: 14:57

And strategy five is to make time for fun. Enjoy the end of the year with your students. You know this might be the last time that you get to spend time with them. They might be moving on to a new building, and so you want to create those memories that they're going to remember for a lifetime, and you're going to remember for a lifetime and you're going to remember for a lifetime as well. Kids aren't going to remember that you taught them to add, or you taught them their letters, you taught them to read. They're going to remember how you made them feel and the activities and the fun projects that you did are going to stick with them, not the things that you taught them. So I know at the end of the school year I have this picture up on my bulletin board and it's my kids. On the last week of school we had a big trash can. We were cleaning out my classroom, just throwing away a bunch of stuff, and we had this great big giant trash can and I have a picture with like three or four boys sticking out of this trash can and then all of the girls and all the rest of the kids were around this trash can and everyone's laughing and having a good time, and so I know from talking to a senior last year that he remembers that and he remembers the fun that we were having that day. And so just make sure that you are creating lasting memories and you're leaving a positive impression that your students can carry with them.

Speaker 1: 16:18

During these final weeks, consider organizing activities that combine fun with learning. Projects that allow students to showcase their skills and their knowledge can be very rewarding for kids. You can arrange to have, like theme days or talent shows, classroom parties. They not only bring joy, but they also foster a sense of community and belonging among students. And then take time to reflect on the year's journey with your students, encourage them to think about all that they've learned and achieved, and this reflection can be facilitated through creative activities like writing letters to their future selves or creating a class yearbook. Taking a picture and then getting a copy printed for each kid is a cool idea. I know a teacher who would write letters. She would have her students write letters to their future selves and then at graduation she would give them that letter as their gift, and I think that was a really neat idea to do. But the activities like these help students internalize their accomplishments and prepare them for the next steps of their academic journeys.

Speaker 1: 17:23

And then just ensure that you're present in these moments with your students. The end of the school year yes, it can be busy with administrative tasks and planning for the next year, but when you take time to intentionally and genuinely engage with your students, it can just make all the difference. It's these moments that remind us why we chose the path of education and they help reinforce our passion for teaching. So, enjoy the end of the year with your students. It's a special time for you and them both. The end of the year with your students it's a special time for you and them both.

Speaker 1: 17:57

So as you navigate the challenging end of the year chaos, balancing all of the spinning plates that you have going on isn't easy, especially when it feels like all of the unforeseen challenges just keep knocking them out of our hands. But with the right strategies, you can manage to keep those plates spinning just a little bit more smoothly. So to recap keep students engaged, stick to a clear, consistent schedule, delegate, prioritize your self-care and have fun. Implementing these strategies can help you reduce your stress and make the end of the school year more manageable and more enjoyable for both you and your students. Remember what you do every day is incredibly impactful. Take a moment to acknowledge your hard. You and your students Remember what you do every day is incredibly impactful. Take a moment to acknowledge your hard work and your dedication, and here's to a successful wrap-up at the last couple of months of school.