The school holidays are here—or nearly here depending on which state you’re in! Whether that means you’ll be hitting the road for a trip with the family, looking for casual work to help achieve your financial goals, or taking some much deserved ‘me’ time, it’s crucial for all teachers to take time to unwind over the holidays. As well as helping you recover from the craziness of the classroom, taking time to unwind is an important step to ensure you return to school relaxed and ready to go once the new term rolls around. Whatever you’ve got on these school holidays, here are some tips to help you unwind and make the most of the time away from the classroom.
Reflect on the Term Gone By
One of the best ways to learn and grow as an educator is to stop and analyse your work. No matter what kind of teacher you are—a relief teacher, early childhood teacher, senior science teacher—there’s always room to improve in your craft.
Pick a time after term ends so you have a second to breathe, but soon enough that school is still fresh on your mind and sit down to reflect. It’s up to you how you approach this activity, whether you want to use a structured reflection or something more personal to you and your experience. Think back to the term gone by and think about what went well and where there is room for improvement moving forward. Taking the time to put pen to paper will remove the mental load and allow you to feel relaxed and ready to enjoy the break.
Make time to Relax
We’ve all heard the jokes about the number of holidays teachers get every year. Despite these welcome breaks from the school term, many teachers struggle to really switch off over the holidays. Whatever the reason for this, not using this opportunity to relax is doing yourself a major disservice and can impact your performance when the new term rolls around.
If you’re looking for some advice on how to relax and focus on your wellbeing as a teacher, check out this course from ClassCover Learn on 5 ways to recharge and renew your energy.
Knock Off some Teacher PD Hours
If you want to make sure you feel prepared and ready when the start of the new term rolls around, one of the best things you can do is accomplish some tasks to get you there.
An easy item to tick off your to-do list that will make life easier for yourself come term time is to complete some professional learning. We all know how easy it can be to push PD to the backburner once the craziness of the school term starts again, so now is the time to get on top of it.
ClassCover Learn has a library with over 140 hours of online PD courses to do at your own pace from anywhere with a Wi-Fi connection. If you want to give it a try, we have 10 hours of completely free PD courses for you to test out.
Here’s a look at some of our latest PD courses:
Prompt Planning
Empowering Self Motivated Learners
Look for Part Time Work
For casual relief teachers, the unique nature of the job means that you may need to look for additional work over the school holiday period to achieve your financial goals. If this is the case for you, one of the easiest ways to browse and apply for jobs in the education space is by using ClassCover Jobs.
If you haven’t checked it out, ClassCover Jobs is the place to find full-time, part-time, and casual jobs in education, located conveniently within ClassCover. If you already use ClassCover to book casual relief teaching days, you are all set to begin searching and apply for roles on ClassCover Jobs.
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