After the summer holidays have come to an end you may be feeling a slight sense of dread at going back into the rat race of school life.

As a teacher, it can feel overwhelming to step back into the classroom after a long period of time. Especially if you’ve spent your summer traveling and spending time with your family, it can make you start to wonder if you want to go back into the busy life of teaching.

If you’ve found yourself in a space where you’re questioning your role as a teacher, or simply just feeling a little demotivated, we’ve got some ways to help you rediscover the joy you once had for teaching.

Remember Your Why

There’s a reason you became a teacher, and it’s important to remember that to help motivate you when you’re experiencing feelings of self-doubt.

Write down what teaching means to you and answer the following questions;

• Why did you want to become a teacher?

• What impact do you want to have as a teacher?

• How does being a teacher make you feel?

Sometimes we forget the purpose and reason behind our life choices, but by remembering them we can connect back to the sense of meaning we find in our roles.

Teaching is an incredibly fulfilling career, and while it has its demands, it also provides you with an opportunity to be a great impact on the future generation.

Remember your why and visualise how this feels to you. Does it light you up?

Become a Student

As a teacher, it can be easy to forget to sometimes be the student.

Learning something new, or extending our knowledge can be an invigorating way to enhance how you teach or even the subject you teach.

Book yourself onto a lesson or workshop that you can then use in your role as a teacher.

This could be a workshop to learn new teaching methods or something fun based on the topic you teach which you could then use in the classroom.

Get back to basics and remember how it feels to be a student again.

Watch an Inspirational Film

In the run-up to going back to school, take some time to immerse yourself in some of the film classics that help remind you about the joy of teaching.

Whether you have a personal favourite teacher themed movie that helps you reconnect to your role, or whether you find a feel-good story on TV. These films can give you a hit of motivation and help you to see the bigger picture.

Our favourites include;

• Lean on Me (1989)

• Dead Poets Society (1989)

• School of Rock (2003)

• Freedom Writers (2007)

Mix Up Your Lessons

Getting stuck in a rut can happen in teaching, and this can lead to you feeling bored and unchallenged.

When planning lessons look to mix up your classes and make small changes. This could even be down to a simple change of teaching the class in a different environment or finding a new way to teach a topic.

Look at how you can change things around to make it feel refreshing not just for your students but also for yourself.

Teach Something Meaningful

Connecting with your students on a much deeper level can help you to increase the support you offer them.

By feeling more connected to your students, you can see the impact of your teaching and find real purpose in your role.

If you’re struggling to find real meaning in the topic you’re teaching and would like to teach something more meaningful, look at running a lunchtime or after school club about an area that you’re passionate about.

This could provide further help and support to students on topics that are perhaps not generally covered in the traditional curriculum.

While a little anxiety is completely natural it’s important to recognise if these are going back to school nerves, or a bigger problem that you need to address.