STRESSOR: WORK-LIFE BALANCE
“Most of the time I work after the children are gone. Then I think of things to do for the next day or the week, so then when I leave school I'm free. I'm exhausted, that's true, but I’m free.”
“I don't have small children. I don't have to cook anymore—I have to take care of myself, mainly, and that's already a lot! So I can understand that it's difficult for people when they have small children.”
STRESSOR: BEING OVERWHELMED
“I CAN LET GO”
“It's very exhausting. So when you finish—from 8:00 till whenever, sometimes I am home it's 5:30—you're really exhausted.”
“I'm very in-the-moment with the children and it's not really useful to think [afterwards about] what I should have done and not have done differently. So I don’t stay on that.”
“Of course when you're really worried about a child, about their whole situation, then that's when I’m more concerned. But I can release it when I'm home. I mean, you can't save the whole world. It's just not an option, so you can do whatever you can do and talk to the parents and be there for the child. But if I didn't prepare a lesson well—so be it. You can let it go. I can let go.”
I HAVE A ROUTINE AND I’M ABLE TO IMPROVISE
“Also, I'm strong enough as a teacher that I can improvise in the moment. Of course I always have my [day pre-planned and my] lessons in mind—what I want to do with them—so normally that gives me [what I need]. So, for example, I started today with the opening songs we repeat every day—[about] the months of the year, the seasons, and so on. After the songs and [opening] questions, then I normally do Mathematics with them. Then we go outside and then we have some fruit and water and then we play. Then I work with a little group, for example (….) For lunch I always go home. That also makes my head feel good. Then I go back and normally in the afternoon we work on our theme—so the theme for that four- or five-week period. We do a lesson about our theme—that can be my own PowerPoint lesson and then some activities for them to engage and see if they have reached the learning objectives.”