Dry eyes for teachers

Teachers’ eyes dry out because classrooms combine several drying conditions at once: heated or air-conditioned air, projectors and screens that reduce blinking, dusty boards, and long nights grading. Turn vents away from your desk, look away from the screen regularly, wash your hands before touching your eyes, and keep a lubricating drop in a locked desk drawer, out of students’ reach. Persistent dryness needs an eye doctor.

What a school day does to your eyes

Think about where your eyes spend a typical teaching day. Mornings start in a building where the heat came on at 5 a.m. and has been drying the air since. You glance between a projected slide, a laptop, a page of student work and thirty faces, often under fluorescent lights. Blinking slows when you concentrate, and partial blinks leave part of the eye’s surface uncovered. By last period, eyes feel tired and gritty. Then many teachers go home and grade on a laptop.

The classroom air

School buildings move a lot of air. Unit ventilators under the windows, ceiling diffusers and radiators keep rooms comfortable for a crowd, but heated air in winter and cooled air in early fall are both dry. If your desk sits in the path of a vent, the air moving across your face speeds evaporation from the tear film. Office workers face the same thing, and dry eyes in a heated office has more ideas that carry over to a classroom.

• Move your desk or chair out of the direct path of a vent or unit ventilator if the room layout allows.
• Ask facilities whether a diffuser can be redirected; many have adjustable vanes.
• Keep space heaters, if your school permits them, pointed at your feet, never your face.
• Check with your school before bringing in a humidifier; some districts restrict small appliances in classrooms.

Projectors, smartboards and screens

Teachers look at screens more than ever: the projected lesson, the student-information system, email, and online grading. When you read or concentrate on a screen, you blink less, and the tear film thins between blinks. Screens and your tear film explains how that works.

• Position your laptop a little below eye level so your lids cover more of each eye.
• While students work, look up and across the room at something distant, and blink slowly a few times.
• Avoid standing in the projector beam, which is bright and can make you squint.
• Turn up text size on your laptop rather than leaning in.

Chalk, markers and classroom dust

Chalk dust, eraser dust, paper fibers and the fine grit that collects in carpeted rooms all float in classroom air, and erasing a board puts a cloud of it near your face. Particles on the eye add to the feeling of dryness and irritation. Wipe boards with a damp cloth rather than a dry eraser when you can, step back while erasing, and wash your hands after handling chalk. Shake erasers outdoors, away from your face, or let a custodian handle it.

Talking for hours and grading late

Teaching is physically tiring, and tired eyes feel drier. Talking for hours dries your mouth and throat, which often goes along with not drinking enough water. Keep a water bottle on your desk and drink between classes. Grading late at night on a laptop adds a second screen session to a day that already had plenty. If you can, grade on paper some nights, set a time to stop, and give your eyes a rest before bed.

Keeping eye drops at school

A small bottle of drops in your desk makes sense if you use them, but a classroom has rules a kitchen doesn’t. Quell’s label carries the standard caution about children: If swallowed, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Center immediately. Keep the bottle in a drawer that locks, or in your bag, never on top of the desk where students can pick it up.

• Wash your hands before putting drops in; classroom surfaces, papers and keyboards pass through many hands.
• Use drops when students aren’t watching closely, such as during a planning period, so no one copies you.
• Never share your bottle with a colleague or a student.
• Watch the temperature. The label says Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F). Classrooms where the heat is turned down over winter break, or a car parked all afternoon in August, can fall outside that.

If a student asks to use your eye drops, the answer is no. Quell’s label doesn’t give directions for children, and student health questions go to the school nurse and their parents.

Using Quell as labeled

Quell’s Drug Facts panel lists its Uses as For use as a protectant against further irritation or to relieve dryness of the eye, and its directions as Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye. It’s designed to reinforce the tear film’s oil layer to help reduce moisture loss. A practical rhythm for a school day might be one drop before first period, one at lunch and one after you get home, which fits the label’s three times a day. The bottle is multi-use, so the label’s handling line matters: Do not touch tip of bottle to any surface to avoid contamination. If you wear contact lenses, the label doesn’t cover use with them; ask your eye doctor.

Recess duty, bus duty and field trips

Outdoor duty on a cold, windy morning dries eyes in a different way: wind speeds evaporation and makes eyes water, and that reflex tearing doesn’t last. Sunglasses help on bright days, and a hat with a brim cuts glare. On field trips, carry the bottle in an inside pocket rather than a bus bin that may sit in the cold or the sun.

Summer break is a good test

If your eyes feel much better in July and August, the classroom environment is a likely contributor, and the changes above are worth pushing for. If dryness stays the same through summer, or gets worse, see an eye doctor. Working out what’s behind it is their job, and the dry eye self-check can help you describe your symptoms before the visit. The label says when to stop: Stop use and ask a doctor if you feel eye pain or changes in your vision, if irritation or redness continues, or if the condition worsens or persists for 72 hours..