The start of the school year can be taxing. As you re-enter school you may be bombarded with logistics, training schedules, extra meetings as well as the typical stressors you incur while working in a school. Balancing administrative initiatives as well as creating a high standard for your classroom has its ups and downs. Teaching has its challenges but is probably one of the most, if not most rewarding career paths one can take. Although we are not educators, we spoke with teachers across the country to try and get a better understand of the common challenges teacher’s face but to better learn how to support educators but provide them with a tool that can considerably enhance their communication experience not only throughout their school but with the surrounding community.
Let’s take a closer look at what, you, the experts say are the most challenging parts of teaching:
1. Time
As an educator, running thin on time is an all but unfortunate industry standard. With so many moving parts of the day – from students running in and out of your classroom, grading papers, parent-teacher conferences and supporting your students – time management can be tricky. As much as we’d love to say this article can add extra hours to your day, the reality is for most it is a balancing act that even the most skillful struggle attaining. 
Attempting to integrate your entire lesson on a given day and making time to thoroughly answer questions students may have can present unforeseen challenges but you will always want to support your students first. To top it off these challenges it can be considerably hard to do when additionally balancing district initiatives and expectations. At the end of the day, take time to nourish yourself, as arduous as that may be, as doing that you are able to be completely present for your students the next day.
2. Screens
Take a moment to walk around and observe human beings in their natural habitat – whether they are waiting on-line at a grocery store, riding on public transportation or sitting in a coffee shop. If you stopped and paid close attention you’d presumably observe that most individuals are glued to their cellphones.
If you grew up in an era where cell phones were not prevalent you’d recall life as a student, sitting in class with a pencil and paper in hand, gazing up a chalkboard or overhead projector. While we may reminisce about simpler times the reality is that kids today rely on screens for just about everything.
Struggling with the assumption that you might incorporate EdTech tools or feel obligated to teach directly can be a balancing act and a common challenge that teachers face. Determining how you can help students deal with the anxiety and stress in general and what now goes on in these classrooms can be a daunting task. Especially when they spend most of the time texting with friends and their social media attachments that might make them feel inadequate and self-defeating.
3. Turnover
Every new year brings not only new students but new teachers to your building. Warmly welcoming these new hires and making them feel honored to be an educator can be 
4. Missing Out on Tone
As technology advances, we are constantly trying to reinvent the wheel. By challenging one another and traditional teaching methodoligies it should not make others feel inferior or unappreciated. Using one’s voice to communicate whether it be in person or with an audio messaging app as opposed to email it can alleviate some ambiguous undertones that might be prominent otherwise.
5. College Anxiety
Kids today, start planning for college as early as sixth grade. That’s a lot of pressure for a twelve-year-old. It is important to make students feel supported and not base their worth upon a letter grade.
Helping students grow life skills through self-assessment so that they can go through life with not only the academic skills but tools to deal with the overarching stressors maintain some amount of equilibrium. As educators trying to create a student body of lifelong learners will not only be helpful in easing their anxiety but motivating them to love learning.
6. Different Schedules
Due to schedules that typically do not align it can make it hard for educators to chat throughout the course of the day. Making collaboration extremely difficult or to disseminate information when not present at school. Luckily, with an audio messaging app (like our own, Voxer) you can create chats with your network or reach out to other educators in a similar situation as yours to collaborate on ways to make changes in the classroom, impact your students and develop your skills as an educator.
How To Eliminate Some Common Challenges Teachers Face
It’s no doubt that educators have one of the hardest jobs out there. Rather than trying to add more time to your day (which will surely be impossible), we’d suggest included some tools into your repertoire so that you can ease the headaches caused by some of these common hurdles if not eliminate them altogether.
As much as we’d like to think we have a solid answer of how to eradicate these concerns altogether it isn’t that simple.
We do believe that having a solid communication system in place school-wide, creating a welcoming environment for all and trying to maintain a work-life balance can help alleviate some of the stress caused by these common stressors and obstacles.