teacher burnout 2025-09-15T15:10:09Z

The fluorescent lights buzzed like angry hornets overhead as I stared at the digital carnage on my screen – seven different tabs open, each a separate purgatory. Google Classroom for assignments, Zoom frozen mid-buffering panic, an Excel spreadsheet vomiting conditional formatting errors, and Slack pinging with frantic parent messages. My coffee had gone cold three hours ago, and the phantom smell of burnt circuitry haunted my nostrils. Another late-night grading marathon was collapsing under th

The fluorescent lights hummed like angry hornets overhead as I frantically shuffled papers, my left hand stained blue from a leaking pen. Deadline day. Again. District curriculum updates, union meeting minutes, and that elusive grant application window—all scattered across seven browser tabs that kept crashing my ancient school-issued tablet. I’d already missed the statewide literacy initiative sign-up last month. My principal’s disappointed sigh still echoed in my third-period planning block. T

The scent of stale coffee and adolescent angst hung thick as I stared at the blinking cursor on my ancient laptop. Third-period algebra groaned before me like a wounded animal – calculators clicking, paper rustling, and Tyler's defiant chair-scrape echoing my internal scream. My meticulously planned lesson on quadratic equations dissolved when the projector bulb chose martyrdom mid-sentence. Thirty expectant faces swiveled toward me, their expressions shifting from boredom to predatory curiosity