7 Ways of Coping With DEVOLSON: The Dark, Evil Vortex of Late September, October, and November

Folks: We are squarely in DEVOLSON season. This is an acronym I coined as a way to describe the busiest and often most difficult time of year to be a teacher: the Dark, Evil Vortex of Late September, October, and November. (Obviously it doesn’t always feel dark or evil, but the acronym isn’t as fun without dramatic adjectives.)

When I found myself in DEVOLSON during my first two years of teaching, I didn’t know how to cope. In fact, I didn’t know I was even in DEVOLSON; all I knew was that I was miserable. Unfortunately, I adopted a routine that involved whining to my loved ones, shutting myself in my house, buying things online I didn’t need, and scrolling the employment website during my lunch break, trying to find a job that wouldn’t leave me so stressed or exhausted.

But during my third year of teaching, when the hopeless feeling of late September hit, I recognized the pattern.

Hmm, that’s funny, I thought. This keeps happening at exactly the same time every year, and even weathered veterans report the same feelings. And that’s when I realized it was DEVOLSON, and not just something that I was dealing with solo. If you’re having similar feelings, know that you are not alone. Here are a few ideas on how to cope. 

1. Learn to recognize the signs of DEVOLSON.

Not only is it free of significant breaks, but DEVOLSON immediately follows summer. It’s like getting up and running a marathon when you haven’t walked more than a mile in nine weeks.

As a veteran teacher who has seen her fair share of DEVOLSON, here are a few things you might want to look for:

• It creeps in once the shiny, fuzzy feelings from the first few weeks of school have worn off (around late September for most people, especially in areas that go back to school in August).
• It’s is the longest period of time during the school year without a significant break, leaving students and teachers exhausted and stressed.
• Paperwork seems to be everywhere during DEVOLSON. For parent conferences, 504s, IEPs, Title I paperwork, literacy tests, ELP screeners … that’s just off the top of my head, but I know there’s more.
• You’re so tired you start doing very silly things. Trying to unlock your classroom door with your car keys. Making coffee but forgetting the water. Making coffee but forgetting the beans. Making coffee but forgetting the filter. Using your Smartboard remote to turn your students’ volume down. Going to the grocery store with your husband and leaving without him. You get the picture.

2. Accept DEVOLSON. 

A thousand years ago (in some context I don’t remember), I heard a martial arts master talk about “absorbing the blow”—protecting yourself by moving in the direction of a punch instead of squaring up against it. He talked about how when we embrace difficulty and learn to move with it, we create less friction and tension for ourselves than trying to fight or deny it.

I think the same of DEVOLSON. Accepting it doesn’t mean giving up and stewing in misery, and neither does it mean pretending it’s not happening. Acceptance means learning to move with DEVOLSON—recognizing the pattern, finding healthy coping strategies, and riding out the wave bravely and with aplomb.

Once I gave the pattern a name, DEVOLSON was so much more manageable. It was like suddenly having a diagnosis for a two-month-long illness that I was getting year after year. When I found myself doing anxious thinking (“I’ll never be good at this,” “I should just give up and do something else”), I could stop and think, “Hey—my feelings are valid, but that’s probably DEVOLSON talking.”

That doesn’t mean that DEVOLSON is easy or stress-free now, but it means that it’s a lot more manageable, a lot less scary, and, if you can get your coworkers in on the acronym, DEVOLSON becomes something to tackle as a group instead of some burden you have to shoulder on your own.

3. Create emotion-focused time for yourself.

Before starting therapy, I would often bottle up my feelings until I had a dramatic private meltdown, and DEVOLSON tends to exacerbate this condition. During this time of year, I like to take things into my own hands by finding ways to access and channel my emotions before they get the best of me.

What do I mean by “emotion-focused”? This looks different for everyone, but for me, art is the quickest way. Both creating art (singing*, drawing, collaging, writing) and consuming it (going to an art museum, watching Les Miserables, putting on a good playlist).

Of course, one of the best (and safest) ways to access and process your emotions is through a mental health professional. Ask people you trust for a recommendation for a therapist, or check out our resources for free counseling for teachers.

*Do not ask anyone who’s heard my singing if they would categorize it as “art.”

4. Take up a nondestructive hobby.

I know that it sounds like the last thing you’d want to do during DEVOLSON is find something that takes up more time, but it works in this inexplicably weird, backward way to distract you from the chaos at school. Here are some nondestructive hobbies for you to consider:

• Join a nontraditional sports team. Most cities now have leagues for kickball and whiffle ball, neither of which require extreme athleticism, and they are usually full of fun people.
• Learn a new skill. Cook, spin pottery, repair a car, attack another human’s pressure points, speak Old Norse, whatever. You’ll learn something and have a new party trick!
• Read some of those books that have piled up on your nightstand but you haven’t gotten to yet.
• Make your way down the list of Academy Award winners for best picture. This is how my mom and I discovered Katharine Hepburn, our latest lady crush.

5. Have your students write thank-you notes to a fellow teacher or school worker one day.

This never fails to put me in an awesome mood. Sometimes I have an actual reason for it, like thanking people who have donated classroom materials or partnered with us for a project, but other times I have students do it just to practice gratitude (and maybe give me time to do some planning if I’m super behind). It’s so sweet to watch their earnest enthusiasm about thanking people that my heart almost explodes.

6. Get your coworkers in on DEVOLSON.

Make each other DEVOLSON greeting cards or Taylor Swift–style friendship bracelets. Hold competitions to see who has the best story about goofy things they’ve done out of DEVOLSON exhaustion. You could even make DEVOLSON bingo cards with the following squares:

• Locked self out of classroom
• Locked self out of car
• Called spouse or friend the name of a student or coworker
• Laughed self to tears at something that’s not really that funny
• Walked into a room and completely forgot why you went in there
• Went to bed before 8:30 p.m.
• Ate microwave dinner or fast food more than 10 times in one week
• Answered your home or cell phone and said what you say when you answer your class phone
• Tried to use your house key to open your classroom or vice versa
• Had a stress dream about school
• Looked at your bank statement and honestly thought you’d been a victim of credit card fraud before realizing it was all the money you were spending on school supplies

7. Watch for one good thing every day.

This was a suggestion from one of the wisest ladies I know back during my first year when things had gotten really, really bad. Even on the worst days, something good happens. Watch for it!

Here’s wishing you the happiest DEVOLSON possible. When it gets tough out there, just know that: 1) you’re not alone, and 2) what you’re doing is making a difference, even if you can’t quite see it yet.

And 3) you can’t spell DEVOLSON without “love” (even if it’s spelled backward).

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