Teacher Overstimulation Is Real: Help to Slide Into Summer Instead of Crashing Into It
Too many tabs open, too much noise, and someone has called your name forty-seven times before lunch. Here's how to actually get through the last stretch.
I'm writing this fresh off of art show season, which means I have been running at maximum capacity for the past week, surrounded by clay projects and glitter and about six hundred kids' worth of energy, all while trying to keep approximately one thousand details from falling through the cracks simultaneously.
I love it. It is also a lot. And right now, my brain has more tabs open than a teacher on a Sunday night trying to write sub plans.
But here's the thing: that feeling isn't just an art teacher problem, and it isn't just an art show problem. It's an end-of-the-year-while-still-being-a-person problem, and I'm guessing your tabs are pretty full right now too.
So let's talk about overstimulation, why it's hitting especially hard right now, and what to actually do about it before you spend the first two weeks of summer face-down on the couch wondering what happened to you.
Why the End of the School Year Is Overstimulation Times Infinity
Everything that's been a lot all year is now compounding all at once. The noise, the tasks, the drama, the stuff, the smells, the people, all of it, and all of it at the same time. If any of the following has been getting to you lately, you are not alone, and you are not being dramatic.
The noise level in schools this time of year is something else entirely. Add field trips, end-of-year events, and kids who have collectively decided that indoor voices are optional, and you've got a sound environment that no one person was designed to absorb for seven hours a day.
Then the tasks keep multiplying: every time you check one thing off the list, two more appear like they've been waiting in the hallway. The talking, both from students and from colleagues who are processing all the end-of-year gossip and next-year speculation, can put you right on the edge.
The stuff is everywhere: clay projects, papers, glitter, supplies that have migrated from their homes and now just live on every surface. And the smells. The smells are a thing.
And then there's this one that only a teacher will truly understand, and that's hearing your own name. The sheer volume of times your name gets called in an average day by the end of the year is somewhere between being a minor celebrity and having a recurring nightmare. It just never stops. Half celebrity, half bad dream. That's the end of May. Is it any wonder teachers need help for overstimulation?
Why Powering Through It Doesn't Actually Help a Teacher from Overstimulation
Here's what most of us do with all of that stimulation: we absorb it, we manage it, we push through it, we tell ourselves we just have to make it to the last day. And technically that works. We do make it. But here's the cost.
When you just keep absorbing the overstimulation without doing anything to address it, you hit the first day of summer, and you crash. Hard.
And then the first week or two of your break gets spent trying to crawl back to baseline instead of actually resting and recharging. People like to say how nice it must be to have summers off, and sure, it is a reprieve, but a lot of us are spending the front end of it in recovery mode because we've been running on fumes for so long that the sudden stop knocks us flat.
There's a better way to do this. Not a perfect way, not a completely stress-free way, but a better one. And it doesn't involve breathing exercises or grounding techniques, because you can Google those and they exist and they're fine. I want to talk about some things that are a little more personal and a little more practical.
You Don't Have to Go All Out to Make the End of Year Memorable
Before we get to the framework, I want to say something that might ruffle some Pinterest boards: good end-of-year teaching does not require bling. It does not require over-the-top events or elaborate experiences or adding more sensory chaos to an already overwhelmed classroom. No joke.
Memorable and meaningful are not the same thing as loud and busy. Some of the most impactful end-of-year experiences are the quiet ones, the reflective conversations, the time you gave kids to just talk to each other, the letter you had them write to next year's class, the moment you slowed down instead of speeding up. Those things stick. And they don't require you to manufacture excitement you don't have in you right now.
If you are overstimulated and tapped out, you are not going to create a magical high-energy end-of-year experience for your students. You're going to create a frazzled one. And a calm, grounded teacher who slows the room down will do more for those kids right now than a teacher who keeps turning up the volume because that's what it looks like everyone else is doing online.
Your students will not be missing out. There will be plenty of field day, plenty of assemblies, plenty of events that ramp up the energy whether you add to it or not. Your job is not to keep the hype going. Your job is to keep yourself regulated enough to actually be present for the last few weeks.
It's Okay to Say No to the Extras Right Now
While we're here, let's talk about the voluntold situation at the end of the year, because it is very real. I have a YouTube video about being voluntold that's worth watching if this hits close to home.
If you are being asked to contribute to extras right now and you genuinely do not have it in you, it is okay to say no. I'm not saying blow everybody off. I'm saying that if you are anxious, on the edge, or close to tears, that additional volunteer task is not yours to take on. The people around you are adults. They are responsible for their own feelings about it. And the only way things actually shift in education is when teachers start being honest about what they can and cannot keep doing.
Say no when you need to. Mean it. And then let it go.
The Three S's for Managing Teacher Overstimulation
Alright. Here's the actual framework, and yes, they all start with S, which was not planned, but I'm not mad about it.
Silence. We do not work in quiet environments. Most of us haven't had a genuinely quiet moment at school in weeks, maybe months. When you are on sensory overload, silence is not optional; it's necessary. Even just a few minutes of actual quiet, in your car after school, in a room with the door closed, wherever you can find it, gives your nervous system a chance to start coming down from the noise.
Stillness. Not scrolling through your phone. Not answering emails. Not planning anything or creating anything or thinking through your to-do list. Just being still. Doing nothing. I know that sounds impossible and maybe even a little alarming if you're deep in Teach-aholic mode, but sometimes doing absolutely nothing is the most restorative thing you can give your body. Boredom is underrated, especially right now.
Sleep. I know. You've heard this before. But over the past year and a half, I have made sleep genuinely sacred, and it has made a meaningful difference in how I function the next day. Set a time to start winding down. Lower the lights, put down the phone, stop creating or planning for the evening. Make the bedroom somewhere you can actually disconnect from everything that has had your brain running all day. When I started doing this consistently, I slept more soundly and woke up better equipped to handle whatever the next day brought. And at this point in the year, that matters a lot.
Finding Your Peace Pocket
Here's one more concept I want to leave you with, because the three S's are great in theory, but you have to have somewhere to actually do them.
Find your peace pocket. A peace pocket is a quiet place that is yours, away from the noise, where you can let your body and your brain actually decompress. It can be your car, which is honestly underrated as a cocoon of solitude. It can be your bedroom. It can be a closet if you've got a good one. It can be a she-shed if you have one, because honestly, those look incredible, and I am genuinely considering looking into it.
Wherever it is, it needs to be somewhere you can shut everything out for a little while, somewhere with no tasks and no noise and no one calling your name.
If you're a parent going home to your own kids after a day of other people's kids, finding that pocket might feel almost impossible. That's real, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. But even fifteen minutes in your car before you walk in the door counts. Give yourself that transition time before the second shift starts.
Slide Into Summer, Don't Crash Into It
This is the last solo episode of the season, and I want to leave you with this thought, because I mean it.
You do not have to spend the first two weeks of summer recovering from a crash landing. You can do things between now and the last day of school, small things, quiet things, consistent things, that help you actually arrive at summer instead of collapse into it.
Silence, stillness, sleep. A peace pocket. The permission to bring the energy in your room down instead of up. Saying no when you genuinely need to. These are not big dramatic changes. They're the small, real, sustainable things that keep you from burning to a crisp before you even get to July.
You can get through this. And more than that, you can finish the year as a whole person, not just a teacher-shaped shell that made it to the last day on caffeine and force of will. That version of you, the one who actually took care of herself a little bit along the way, is the one who shows up better for her students, her family, and herself all summer long.
Go find your peace pocket. Get some sleep. You've got this.
Teachaholic is on Amazon in Kindle and paperback for when you're ready to go deeper into what sustainable teaching actually looks like.
Looking for a way to save yourself from burnout without leaving the classroom? I've created a free guide with reflection questions, graphic organizers, and a quiz to help you get started on your journey. Download your free Teachaholic Action Guide to get started on your journey below!
Comments