With nearly 90% of all teachers experiencing moderate to high levels of stress it is very important that teachers use stress relieving techniques to improve both their career and their health.

While stress is evident in any job, teachers seem to face increased levels of stress due to their unique circumstances. Think about what a teacher must deal with day in and day out…high stakes exams, overcrowded classrooms, grading tests, grading homework, grading classwork, administrative paperwork, meeting with parents, department meetings, faculty meetings, challenging students, angry parents, an unsupportive community, and the list goes on…

Without using stress relieving techniques, teacher stress can manifest itself in many ways including headaches, back pain, frequent illness, heartburn, anger, impatience, depression, eating disorders, and insomnia. If not addressed, these manifestations may likely turn into heart disease and hypertension. Stress can even damage memory and cognitive skills.

What’s worse is that teachers often don’t know how to handle their stress and therefore it comes as no surprise that nearly 50% of all teachers quit within their first five years.

Fortunately, there are many simple stress relieving techniques that teachers can use that will help improve both their health and their career.

Here are five stress relieving techniques:

1. Get exercise! Do NOT use the excuse that you don’t have time. You must make time. Make it part of your routine everyday. While it may be tough at first, you’ll quickly find yourself with more energy and you’ll be much more efficient at work.

2. Learn to say no. This can be quite difficult…especially as a new teacher. New teachers think they must say “yes” to everything in order to keep their job, but this can quickly lead to teacher burnout.

3. Join teacher discussion boards/forums. There are many teacher forums on the internet where teachers can not only vent their frustrations, but get real advice from real teachers who have experienced the same problems.

4. Think positive. In fact, don’t just think positive thoughts, but actually say them out loud. In the morning, or on your way to work, say positive things about your job, about your students, about your colleagues. You’ll be amazed at the impact that saying these things out loud can have on the rest of your day.

5. Cool down and take breaks. Teachers have a tendency to go straight through the day (and night) without taking a break. This is unhealthy and only adds to your stress level. Make sure to NOT work through lunch. Take that time to eat a healthy meal and talk to colleagues about things other than school. In other words let yourself take a mental break from the job during the day. Also, at the end of the school day, make a to-do list for the next day and then take ten minutes to relax and cool down with some other stress relieving techniques such as deep breathing exercises, stretching, or visualization.

There are many stress relieving techniques you can use to improve your health and your career. To get 21 FREE stress relieving techniques and a FREE copy of How to Win Your War Against Stress visit www.1-800-Stop-Stress.com

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Is it possible to teach these days and still support a family?

Unfortunately, the answer is no.

These days, especially with the economy the way it is, it is nearly impossible to survive on a teacher’s salary. The cost of everything has gone up (gas, groceries, taxes etc.), yet teacher salaries have not nearly kept up the same pace. In fact, many school districts around the country are either freezing teacher salaries or even cutting teacher salaries.

Sure, if you live on your own and have no kids then yes, maybe, you can survive on a teacher’s salary. However, if you have a family then either you or your spouse has to work a second job.

Most every teacher I know works more than one job. Some teachers work nights in restaurants, some teachers work weekends landscaping, some have started their own online business (like myself), but the most common, and possibly the easiest way for teachers to earn extra money, is by tutoring.

Tutoring is great way for teachers to earn extra money. Most tutors simply put an add in their local paper or advertise at their local school and then go to their client’s house or have their client come to their home.

However, these days, with all the technology available, online tutoring jobs have become quite popular. Online tutoring jobs open up many more possibilities for both the student and the tutor. Online tutoring jobs provide tutors much more flexibility about when and where they can work. The best part is, by using today’s technology, online tutors can really motivate and inspire their students to learn. Not only that, but online tutors have a much greater reach than their local area and therefore can turn their tutoring business from earning a little extra cash into a real income producer.

In the end, online tutoring is a win-win-win situation. Everyone benefits…the parents, the tutor, and most importantly, the student.

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Is your teaching salary too low? Then you should look at online tutoring jobs!

To Download your FREE copy of

How To Start Your Own eTutoring Business

simply visit www.TeachingTipsMachine.com/online_tutoring_jobs.htm

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Lately, much of our professional development has focused on providing feedback…or rather, providing students with “specific” feedback on tests, essays, projects, class discussions etc.

While I agree that specific feedback is important, it is also important to realize that students, like us, can only accept a certain amount of information at one time…especially when it is perceived as negative.

For feedback to be really effective, teachers should focus feedback on what is most important…teachers should focus feedback on the objectives of the lesson, test, essay etc.

For example, if a student receives an essay back that is completely marked up with red pen (spelling, grammar, transitions etc.) there is simply too much for the student to focus on. However, if the objective of the essay was to focus on transitions and that is all that teacher comments on, then the student received not just “specific” feedback, but feedback that was “focused” on the lesson’s objective.

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Are you looking for more teaching strategies?

For more effective teaching strategies that you can start applying to your very next class make sure read eTeach: A Teacher Resource for Learning the Strategies of Master Teachers @ www.TeachingTeacher.com

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