So, this is something that we see at Beacon sometimes, and from conversations I’ve had with other teachers, I don’t think it’s an isolated problem.

I call it "Hardest Working Teacher in the Buildin Syndrome," and it’s not a good thing. It’s what happens when teachers — often young teachers — forget that in any good school lots of people work hard. And it’s an easy trap to fall into, one I’ve fallen into myself.

It’s this: It’s never a good thing to think that you are the hardest working person in a school. One, it’s rarely true. Two, even if it is, it’s of questionable use to think of it that way. All good teachers work hard… and a lot of the average ones do too. When Hardest Working Teacher Syndrome hits, that’s when you forget to be polite to people because you are so convinced that you are just too busy. It’s when you stop recognizing the good work that everyone around you is doing, and it’s when kindness goes out the window because, really, who has time for kindness when you are just so busy.

Fortunately, it’s easily curable.
1) Get yourself into a colleague’s classroom. It doesn’t matter if you don’t think you have enough time. Even if it’s just fifteen minutes, go remind yourself of the amazing things going on around you.

2) Go home on-time one day. It doesn’t matter how much you have to do. Go home. Go take a walk in a park or see a movie or get coffee with a non-school friend. Remind yourself of the rest of your life.

3) Be collegial. Say hello to your colleagues. Ask them how they are — and listen when they answer. It’s easy to close the door to our classrooms and stew in our own juices, but again, that’s rarely a good thing.

4) Go to an after-school event. See your students and your colleagues doing something they love.

Schools are tough places to work. We can never give enough to all the kids, and it’s easy to develop a martyr complex pretty quickly, but schools are healthy places when we all remember that the vast majority of folks in the building are working hard and pulling toward similar goals.