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As a novice teacher, John Spencer set a lofty goal for himself. In his classroom, he planned to emulate the gifted and charismatic social studies teacher who鈥檇 inspired him as a young middle school student.

Very soon, he realized that this might be an unattainable objective.  

鈥淚 wanted to be just like that teacher I looked up to. I might not have articulated it that way at the time, but my own perfectionism stemmed from that picture in my head of what 鈥榞ood teaching鈥� looks like,鈥� says Spencer, now an and associate professor of education at George Fox University. As those first weeks and months of the school year rolled by in a blur of late-night grading and lesson planning, the difficult realization set in that 鈥淚 could never be that teacher,鈥� and he said to himself, 鈥淚 would only be a worse copy.鈥� 

Meanwhile, in Lisa Dabbs鈥檚 first kindergarten classroom, a similar storyline was playing out. 鈥淚t all started with making sure that my room was painstakingly organized, down to the last color-coded crayon holder,鈥� writes Dabbs, who eventually became an elementary school principal. 鈥淭his carried over to the ritual of covering all my white cardboard box storage containers (no plastic for me) with decorative contact paper.鈥� Bulletin boards had 鈥減erfect themed borders, selected by season or lesson focus.鈥� 

Lesson planning, of course, required similar attention to detail, eating up the fledgling teacher鈥檚 evenings and weekends. 鈥淚鈥檇 spend most weekends on the living room floor with curriculum tools spread around me,鈥� Dabbs recalls. 鈥淚鈥檇 forget to eat at times, turning down social invites, until the perfect lessons were developed.鈥�

Perfectionism, the insidious notion that we must not just be good, we must excel at everything we do鈥攃lassroom management, lesson planning, color-coded classroom supplies, and picture-perfect decor鈥攃an be an especially powerful drive among new teachers. At its core, it鈥檚 the belief that 鈥渋n order to be loved and accepted, we must strive to act and be the best at all times,鈥� writes author and educator Elena Aguilar in a three-part . This harmful (and futile) tendency 鈥渃onsumes a great deal of time and energy because every time we feel shame, blame, or criticism, our response is, 鈥業 wasn鈥檛 perfect enough. So let me be more perfect next time.鈥欌�� 

Unchecked, perfectionism is 鈥渁 career-killer that will rob you of your joy,鈥� says Spencer. For new teachers, it drives them to meticulously grade everything, overprepare for class time, volunteer for too many extracurricular activities, and expend energy addressing every single hiccup or misbehavior in the classroom. It leads to burnout and an .

Is it just an artifact of time and place鈥攁 natural-enough inclination for new teachers, given their abundance of energy and hope? In search of answers, we spoke with teachers and dug into our archives to collect advice and strategies that might help novice teachers prioritize what truly matters and embrace their imperfections.

Accept the Messy

If there鈥檚 one thing veteran teachers come to accept, it鈥檚 that kids and the day-to-day classroom environment are unpredictable and sometimes chaotic, even with extensive planning and oversight. 

鈥淲hen the wasp enters the room, when the brand-new assessment that the district purchased fails to load on the laptops, when the substitute list has been expended鈥攖here are multitudes of challenges that wait for teachers (and students) each day in the classroom,鈥� writes Jason DeHart, a high school English teacher and author. But teachers aren鈥檛 鈥渓imited to the trajectory of curriculum or the next line of a script,鈥� says DeHart. 鈥淭eachers are the scientists and artists who deal with the changing demands of the classroom.鈥�

Starting from a place 鈥渨here you recognize that you鈥檙e going to be imperfect, that teaching itself is going to be messy and there will be mistakes,鈥� is key, says Spencer. Because when you always expect perfection, you lose 鈥渢hat sense of joy and accomplishment. That鈥檚 a huge part of avoiding burnout, the feeling that what we do matters.鈥�

Classroom Backups

Delivering perfectly tuned lesson plans every day may be the goal, but it鈥檚 also unrealistic. To fill in the gaps, create and keep updating a set of backup strategies, a tool kit for when things get messy and don鈥檛 go according to plan鈥擠eHart calls it having a Plan B (or C). Some of his favorites include a wall chart with ideas for early finishers or craft projects 鈥渢hat can be pulled out in a moment to continue the conversation about content in a new light.鈥� 

Collect a few simple graphic organizers, prepared question stems, or a 鈥渜uickly drawn to explore a story or the that could be traced on the wall.鈥� During unplanned free moments, have students do sticky-note annotations or journal jots responding to a text they are reading or connecting what they鈥檙e reading to everyday life ( suggests that this links learning to purpose and drives better academic performance). Developing an evolving set of these types of strategies鈥攃heck in with colleagues for their favorites, as they鈥檙e likely to have their own clever go-to strategies鈥攁llows for quick adjustments when things don鈥檛 go according to plan. 

鈥淔reedom can be found on the other side of a panic-stricken moment to engage in some of the work that we鈥檝e been meaning to get around to,鈥� writes DeHart.

No Trophy Is Forthcoming

As a new teacher, Spencer 鈥渂elieved I had to give 110 percent in everything I did,鈥� he . 鈥淚 thought that the best teachers were the ones who arrived first and left last. I was a busy teacher, taking on all kinds of committee work and saying yes to every project.鈥�

Eventually, when exhaustion began to take its toll, he realized that 鈥測ou don鈥檛 get a trophy for packing your schedule with more projects and more accomplishments and meetings. All you get is a bigger load of busy.鈥� He dialed back his work commitments, set a time when he鈥檇 leave the school building each afternoon, and made choices about where to go all-in and where not to. 

Today, with the benefit of hindsight, Spencer advises new teachers to 鈥渕ake a list of the things that have to be great, and the things that can be mediocre.鈥� For him, lesson design and assessment were important, and conferencing with students was important. 鈥淕rading everything was not, so assessment was on my great list, grading was not. 

鈥淢y goal was to narrow it down to five key things in the important list of what I want to be good at. That didn鈥檛 mean I鈥檇 be great at them all the time, or even perfect,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut I had to find where I鈥檇 give 100 percent, and where I鈥檇 give 20 percent. You just have to do that.鈥�

The Scrapbook Years

In that first year in her 鈥減erfect classroom with the perfect lesson plan, hoping to be that perfect teacher,鈥� kindergarten teacher Lisa Dabbs was astonished when the day-to-day reality of her new profession set in. 

By year two, weary and overwhelmed by new schoolwide initiatives and sometimes-fussy students, she made the 鈥渄ifficult discovery鈥� that she鈥檇 gotten it all wrong: 鈥淪eeking 鈥榩erfection鈥� from myself as teacher was not what it was about,鈥� she writes. 鈥淩ather, it was about the journey or progress that I made in my work as a new teacher, and about how I unpacked that learning, set goals for myself when I failed, and laughed out loud with my kids that made a difference.鈥�

Tracking that progress, including the highs and lows as she learned and grew as a teacher, became her focus: She snapped photos of the less-than-perfect moments, and of her classroom, her colleagues, her lessons, events, and students. In that same vein, teacher Lisa H. told us via Facebook that she keeps a 鈥渇eel good鈥� box where she collects nice things students give her: notes, drawings, trinkets, etc. 鈥淭hen on those days when you wonder what you were thinking when you became a teacher鈥攁nd you will have those days鈥攍ook in your feel-good box to be reminded that you are loved and are making a difference.鈥� 

Dabbs also took a few minutes to journal, either daily or weekly, tracking the hits and misses so she鈥檇 have a 鈥渓ens into the who, what, and when鈥� of her work, a long view that gave her perspective and a feeling of accomplishment.

Balance May Not Be What You Think

Educators are 鈥渃onstantly told that we need to make sure we have a good work-life balance and that we need to embrace self-care,鈥� writes Joe Mullikin, an elementary school principal. 鈥淭o the point where a quick Twitter search will provide you with literally thousands of self-care, relaxation, and #InvestInYourself tips.鈥�

For all educators, but especially new ones, work-life balance is an elusive, often guilt-inducing, concept, and a very difficult equilibrium to establish and maintain, given the reality and unpredictability of teachers鈥� busy lives. Refusing to take work home, for instance, is a common鈥攂ut unrealistic鈥攕uggestion, maintains Crystal Frommert, a middle school math teacher. 鈥淚f a teacher has an unusually busy week and must take work home, is she 鈥榦ut of balance鈥�? It鈥檚 inevitable that work will occasionally seep into personal time and vice versa. Work and life are not a zero-sum game,鈥� writes Frommert, who favors the system of prioritizing tasks by urgency and importance.

Other time- and sanity-saving approaches: Develop high-level strategies that put more of the responsibility for learning in the hands of students by assessing more, grading less; reducing teacher talk; and encouraging students to hunt for answers rather than immediately asking the teacher.

Meanwhile, although establishing boundaries around teacher work and personal time is important, there鈥檚 another definition of balance that鈥檚 worth examining. 鈥淔inding balance isn鈥檛 necessarily about a scale, like a device that moves back and forth as you add or remove weight on either side,鈥� says Spencer. 鈥淏alance is the ability to get back up when you fall down. You鈥檙e going to fall down a lot as a new teacher.鈥� Have you developed strategies that allow you to recover, both emotionally and in terms of time management? 鈥淐an you get back up?鈥� Spencer asks. 鈥淎re you developing that sense of balance?鈥�