Every Computer Science teacher has lived this moment:
You walk into the classroom already tired.
The code won’t run.
Three students can’t log in.
Someone has lost their file again.
And before 9:30 am, your patience and your passion have both taken a hit.
It’s not you.
It’s the system — and it’s heavy.
Schools run on heroic teachers pretending they aren’t exhausted.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth we never say out loud:
A drained teacher can’t build thriving students.
A thriving teacher unlocks everything.
Your wellbeing isn’t soft. It’s strategic.
We’ve convinced ourselves that caring for ourselves is optional —
something to “fit in when the marking’s done.”
But the marking is never done.
The inbox is never empty.
The to-do list breeds overnight.
So you don’t wait for space —
you create it, and you teach from it.
Not by working harder,
but by working smarter, together with your students.
Make Students Part of the System
Not passengers.
Not spectators.
Partners.
Here are 8 teacher-energy savers that actually grow students too:
✔ Ask 3 Before Me
Before asking the teacher for help, students must check their code and ask three classmates first.
This builds confidence and stops everyone lining up at your desk at once.
✔ Pair Programme (with roles)
One student types (driver) while the other gives ideas and checks for errors (navigator).
They swap halfway, so both learn and fewer hands shoot up for help.
✔ Debug Stations
Put the most common Python mistakes on posters around the room.
When students get an error, they visit a station and try to fix it themselves first..
✔ Student Tech Helpers
Choose a few students each lesson to help with quick jobs like log-ins, file saving or uploading work.
They feel important, and you save energy for teaching the tricky stuff.
✔ Peer Explainers
If someone cracks a problem, they teach it to another student.
Explaining something helps them understand it even better.
✔ Code Review Circles
Students swap laptops in small groups and give one improvement to each other’s code.
It makes everyone look more carefully at their work — just like real programmers do.
✔ Debug Detective Game
Give students code with a mistake and let them hunt for the bug like detectives.
Finding the problem becomes exciting instead of scary.
✔ Build-Once Projects
Instead of starting from scratch every lesson, students add new features to one project over several weeks.
They see their work grow stronger, and you spend less time explaining brand-new tasks.
Every one of these strategies buys you minutes,
calm,
patience,
and presence.
And those are the things students remember —
not whether your PowerPoint had animated bullet points.
Wellbeing is not a luxury — it’s oxygen
When CS teachers look after themselves:
- lessons aren’t rushed
- students take more responsibility
- classrooms feel lighter
- curiosity stays alive
- mistakes stop feeling like failures
You show kids the most powerful lesson in tech and in life:
Great work comes from a clear mind, not a burning fuse.
You can’t fix the whole system — yet
But you can build your own inside it:
small routines, shared responsibility, boundaries you honour,
and clever habits that protect your energy.
Because when the teacher is well,
everyone rises with them —
the tired ones,
the quiet ones,
the code breakers,
the future engineers.
And that’s the game:
not just teaching computing…
but building humans who believe they can solve problems —
because they watched you model it one day at a time.
