How Teachers Can Recharge Over Winter Break

Many academics could be experiencing “outrage fatigue” at this time of year, writes Anthony Ocampo, associate professor at California State Polytechnic University and director of campus workshops at the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity, and Kerry Ann Rockquemore, founder of the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity. In a recent Inside Higher Ed op-ed, the pair discusses how burnout arises in teachers who overload on social media, daily news, and current events, and ways that they can recharge for the upcoming semester.

Ocampo and Rockquemore lay out four tips for combatting fatigue, including engaging in radical self-care, or checking in with your body and mind to figure out what they need; unplugging from social media or cable news; finding joy, or cultivating activities or relationships that bring you happiness; choosing your actions, or refocusing on what you can control and what really matters; and reading texts you enjoy to relax and recharge.

“…(M)ay we gently and lovingly suggest that you try one of these experiments over the break to re-energize for January. Our hope is that any one, or a combination of, these strategies will position you to make important contributions to the causes you care about. Not just today or next semester but for many years to come,” write Ocampo and Rockquemore in the op-ed.