There seem to be two starkly opposing trains of thought regarding stress in teaching and it is only fair that you understand both of them.
TM4T takes an unequivocal position: planning reduces stress and it must be done well in advance – you should certainly spend a significant amount of holiday time preparing for the following term.
The opposing view says that holidays are for relaxing. This counter-argument goes something like this: there is never enough information available to plan effectively before the term starts; you therefore need to plan-as-you-go during term time, even though that is desperately time-consuming and hence stressful; you will therefore inevitably be exhausted at the end of term, and you should really use the holidays to relax entirely and not think about work at all.
Now, I'm sure you can see the logic in this alternative perspective – I certainly can. The real challenge is to break this vicious circle wherein there is no time to plan during term time, too tired to plan during holidays.
For most of us, though, there are only a few brief windows of opportunity that we really must seize: the euphoric few days at the start of the summer holiday is the time to organise resources; the middle period of the holiday (after winding down) when we have time to think and plan; the week before teaching starts when we are itching to get started; the induction period which goes too slowly. This website will give you specific advice on what work should be done when, but this advice must be tailored to your specific circumstances.
If you are interested in the TM4T approach used in choosing what to do, click here.
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