Keeping Your Teacher Battery Charged Daily
Effectively managing resilience has never been more important for educators. In the first of her five-part series, Julie Schmidt Hasson shares what she has learned about managing her level of energy and helps you create your battery management plan.
By Julie Schmidt Hasson
I locked the front door early on a misty August morning, leaving my home in the mountains of North Carolina and heading for Utah. Arriving at the terminal just in time to board the plane, I decided to forgo the work I brought, and instead, watch a movie on my phone.
Exiting the plane for a brief stop in Dallas, I felt a buzz in my hand. The low battery alert initiated a wave of anxiety. My phone is my lifeline when traveling, and I had just 10 minutes in the airport before boarding for the next leg of my journey. I dug through wrappers and receipts to the bottom of my tote and pulled out my charger, my eyes scanning the walls for an outlet.
I spotted one a few feet away, but hordes of other travelers before me must have also discovered this metal framed beacon of hope. It was so loose that my plug kept falling out. Moving toward the gate, I found another and then another, but none worked. Finally, next to an empty seat at the gate, I found one last outlet, plugged in, and felt the vibration signifying charging in progress.
I managed to get back to 27 percent before boarding the plane. By the time I landed in Salt Lake City, my phone’s charge was dwindling, and I had to stop and charge again before heading to the rental car counter.
During the two-hour drive to the hotel, I chastised myself for not managing my battery better. I love a good analogy, and I couldn’t help but make connections between my phone battery and my own internal battery. I knew I wasn’t managing my battery effectively, often just getting through the day, feeling depleted and discouraged by day’s end. Distracted by my full schedule, growing to-do list, and a multitude of meetings, I often allowed my charge to dwindle without even noticing. Maybe you’ve been there, too.
As educators, our level of impact is correlated to our level of energy. We’re not effective when our batteries are low, and over time, depletion can lead to burnout. Nearly half (44%) of K-12 educators report feeling burned out at work always or very often, according to a Gallup Workforce Study, and burnout poses serious risks to a teacher’s physical and mental health.
Teaching has always been a challenging job, but increasing student needs, continuously changing policies, and a difficult political landscape have made teaching even more difficult. And the pandemic exacerbated the challenges. Effective battery management has never been more important for educators. In this five-part series (to be published over the next five weeks), I’ll share what I’ve learned about managing my own educator battery and help you create your battery management plan.
Resources and Demands
Depletion (and eventually burnout) happens when the demands of our work exceed our resources to meet those demands. We naturally lose battery strength as we go through the day, but when the workload is excessive and the schedule is packed, we deplete even more quickly.
Educator batteries (like phone batteries) deplete automatically, but recharging requires intention. When we go through the day unaware of the charge on our batteries, we miss opportunities to recharge, and instead, we move closer to depletion. Adding regular battery checks into the daily routine can help us identify a depleting battery in time to adjust, which helps us better serve the ones we teach, lead, and love. And regular battery checks can help us be happier, healthier humans. We can end the day without feeling depleted. We can impact lives and still have a life.
Battery Check
How much charge is on your educator battery right now? The only way to know is to pause for a moment, tune out what is going on outside, and tune into what’s going on inside you. For educators, trained to constantly be aware of what’s happening around us, this is no easy task. On a scale from zero to ten, with ten being fully charged and zero being totally depleted, what number would you give yourself?
Perhaps it would be helpful to consider capacity. Think about the demands still ahead of you today, both in your professional and personal life. Do you currently feel like you have the capacity to meet those demands? If you know you don’t have the juice, don’t fret. Just knowing that you are depleted is important. In this case, knowledge is power. Your battery is rechargeable, and we’ll get to the how of recharging later in the series. First, let’s find a way to make a quick battery check a regular part of your day.
Regularly checking in with yourself throughout the day helps you stay attuned to your physical, mental, and emotional needs. This practice not only prevents burnout but also fosters resilience. The American Psychological Association defines resilience as the process of adapting well in the face of adversity and significant sources of stress. In simple terms, resilience helps us move through challenges with greater ease and bounce back better and faster when challenges knock us down.
Resilience involves behaviors and practices that can be learned and developed. By practicing regular battery checks, you can identify small stressors before they become overwhelming.
First, schedule a time in your day to check your charge. You could schedule a check in to coincide with a regular activity, like taking your class to lunch. Or you could just set reminders at intervals throughout the day. I know your schedule can be unpredictable and can change. You can squeeze in a check any time, any place.
Your body (physical well-being), your heart (emotional state), and your mind (mental well-being) are connected, which makes a quick check in all three areas ideal. Begin with your physical state. How does your body feel right now? A quick body scan is helpful. Start at the top of your head and scan down to your toes. Do you feel any areas of tension, pain, or fatigue?
Then place your hands over your heart and focus inward. How are you feeling emotionally right now? Can you name the emotion?
Finally, check your mental state. What thoughts have been most prominent in your mind today? How is your mental load? Do you feel a sense of ease or overwhelm? Checking in with your body, heart and mind gives you important information. Once you are aware, you can adjust.
Chargers and Drains
My tech savvy friend once tried to explain how I could optimize my phone battery. Our internal, educator batteries are even more complex and much less standardized. That’s why, in addition to adopting a regular practice of checking your battery, it’s useful to cultivate an awareness of what charges and drains you.
Brainstorm in a simple two column list, with chargers on one side and depleters on the other. To go a bit deeper, try a battery audit. For an entire day (or two or three), keep track of your tasks and activities and record how much charge or drain you feel related to each one. You will certainly identify sleep and vacations as chargers, but when your battery is low, you can’t wait for bedtime or summertime. As we go through the series, I’ll help you create a menu of quick and easy chargers.
What charges or drains your battery is unique and very personal. However, some chargers are universal, and we’ll be exploring those together. I’ll be your guide on the side as we focus on ways to increase your chargers and reduce your battery depleters. We’ll dive into four battery charging practices: regulating, relating, reframing, and reflecting. Then we’ll put it all together in your personal battery management plan. With effective battery management, you can stay longer, grow stronger, and keep making an impact.
Dr. Julie Schmidt Hasson is a professor in School Administration at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. A former teacher and principal, she now teaches graduate courses in school leadership and conducts qualitative research in schools. Julie’s research on long-term teacher impact is present in her books, including her latest, Lessons that Last: 185 Reflections on the Life-Shaping Power of a Teacher (Routledge/Eye On Education, 2024 – see our excerpt), her professional development programs, and her TEDx Talk. Julie is also the co-host of the Lessons That Last podcast.
Julie studied to become a Certified Resilience Trainer under the guidance of Dr. Amit Sood. Intentionally building her resilience has made a big difference in her work and life. She shares the impact resilience can have on educators in her book, Pause, Ponder, and Persist in the Classroom: How Teachers Turn Challenges into Opportunities for Impact, her website Teacher Recharge, and her five-part MiddleWeb series. Follow Julie on Bluesky, X-Twitter and Instagram.