It’s half-term for most of us and, as we put those newly purchased blue-light blocking glasses to one side, many of us are feeling like we’ve overdosed on screen time.
Most teachers have spent the last half of the term working from home, at least for part of the week. Working from home has its advantages as well as disadvantages. One big advantage is having all the tea I can drink (which, it turns out, is a lot) on tap, plus the ability to nip to the facilities as and when necessary.
A big disadvantage for me has been the lack of work-home boundaries. If I’m honest, the boundary between work and home has always been quite blurred for me, and I’m sure I’m not alone in this. Teaching is one of those jobs that takes over your life, if you allow it to.
Online learning: Teachers in danger of never switching off
That said, when we were physically leaving a school building at the end of the day, that was a big cue to our subconscious selves that we were finished working. Now that many of us don’t have separate work and home environments, are we in danger of never properly switching off?
Even when you’ve decided that the working day is over, it can be hard to resist the siren “ping” of several different devices going off at the same time.
Is it FOMO that makes us reach for that device to check the notification, some misplaced sense of being on call 24 hours a day, or just habit? Whatever the reason, many of us are being bombarded constantly, particularly as we’re responding to our pupils all day via Seesaw, Zoom, Teams and so on.
It’s not healthy and it’s not sustainable. Right now, in the profession, there is a real sense of pressure building up before the inevitable burnout.
It’s very evident in the recent tense exchanges on edu-Twitter, which have surprised even the hardiest of us. Teachers are on the edge - and unsurprisingly.
We can’t do anything right at the moment. We’re simultaneously accused of being lazy and of setting too much work. Teachers across the country are screaming at their televisions as the media keep showing empty classrooms instead of the reality.
Turn off, tune out, drop everything
So, what’s the solution - turn off, tune out, drop everything? Well, in a word: yes.
It’s easier said than done, though - if anyone actually manages to do this, you have my utmost respect. For social-media junkies like me, though, this kind of cold turkey isn’t feasible. In fact, actually trying to enforce it might be more stressful than the problem it’s attempting to cure.
But there does seem to be an appetite for lessening the amount of time spent on devices, with mobile phones now helping you track and manage screen time.
I checked - ironically, after seeing a tweet about it - and was surprised at how much time I’d managed to spend on WhatsApp. I’m not quite ready to limit my use of Twitter yet, but I have taken the first tentative step by limiting my daily usage of WhatsApp.
Why not give it a go? Start off small and with an app you’re not really that bothered about. Quick wins.
Maybe the Why Don’t You gang (anyone under the age of 35 may have to Google the reference, which, I realise, defeats the point slightly) had a point after all: turn off your TV sets and do something less boring instead. Especially during half-term, when you’re not actively required to be staring at a screen.
If only there was actually something less boring to do right now…
Laura Baxter is a curriculum leader at a primary school in Birkenhead
