My last blog post had more of a negative tone to it than I originally thought it would have. I thought about editing it, but I realized that the point it was driving home was important. Many of our students are struggling, many teachers feel they do not have the tools they need to support them, and this is just one more thing that is added to teachers’ plates. Teachers have a lot on their plates and this is leading to a huge increase of teacher burnout. In this post I will talk about; teacher mental health struggles, self-care and why it is important, the importance of strong leadership, teacher wellness committees and I will end with a simple wellness activity. Thank you to everyone who has read my posts and commented. I hope you have enjoyed following along on this learning journey, I have really enjoyed creating these blog posts and I now have a long list of books to read from the wonderful suggestions made in the comments! Struggles We are seeing higher numbers of teacher burnout than we have ever seen before. I believe that it is because we are asked to do more with less and because teacher education programs are not properly preparing new teachers. New teachers are entering in the work place with no resources, not knowing how to teach and feeling as though they need to reinvent the wheel (Forst, 2020). Burnout can be described as "a state of chronic stress that leads to physical and emotional exhaustion, cynicism, detachment, and feelings of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment," (Tapp, 2021). To avoid teacher burnout, teachers should incorporate self-care into their daily lives and seek life-balance (See Wellness Wheel activity). Self-Care According to Sarah Forst in her book, The Teacher’s Guide to Self-Care, Self-care “encompasses all areas of taking care of yourself, including physical, emotional, social, intellectual, vocational, and environmental,” (2020, pp. 12). By incorporating self-care into their lives, teachers can ensure that they have a long and healthy career. Something that Forst points out that I think is important is the different between self-care and self-soothing. “Self-soothing is not inherently bad... However, we need to be aware that self-soothing isn’t a replacement for self-care, and extensive self-soothing can be a form of avoidance,” (2020, pp. 17). She goes on to state that three of the most common self-soothing activities are, drinking alcohol, consuming sugar, and watching tv. What this means is that while buying a fancy coffee or binge watching your favourite show may make you feel good, it does not count as self-care. These activities do not have a long-term relaxing effect on your body. Forst also mentions the pushback on self-care and that she has heard many comments such as, “bubble baths won’t make teachers more valued or better paid,” she whole-heartedly agrees with this but refutes it with, “as Shovolt and Trotter-Mathison warn in The Resilient Practitioner, “Be careful about waiting for others to care for you,” (2020, pp. 22). I think that the idea that Forst is driving home is an important one, we cannot care for others if we are not caring for ourselves first. Here is a chart from Forst’s book with examples of self-care activities (2020, pp, 31): Leadership
It is important that schools are safe and healthy working environments for teachers and that teacher health is encouraged and valued by school leaders. In the article, “How Administrators Can Help Prevent Teacher Burnout,” Prendergast explains that “Leaders are key players in reversing the tide of teacher burnout,” (2022). Leaders should work hard to protect teacher-time, ensure staff are getting their preps, that meetings are purposeful, and that expectations are clear. When policies and student expectations are clear and teachers know that their administrators have their backs, they do not need to stress about what to do when something goes awry. This takes one thing off their plates. Prendergast also explains that admin should be careful about what new initiatives they introduce to their schools and should make sure that they are not overloading their staff with new curriculum and ideas. “Behavior isn’t the only area where teachers need the support of leaders to ensure focus and stability. Schools are increasingly at risk for “initiative overload,” as a result of the myriad efforts to address the impact of the pandemic.” While leadership is not the only answer to ending teacher-burnout, having supportive admin can make a world of difference. Teacher Wellness Committees Last year, I had the opportunity to participate in a committee, with a group of other teachers in my school division, on how to start a teacher well-being team within our school. A teacher well-being team ensures that teacher wellness is being considered at school, provides activities and games to boost staff morale, and provides support and resources for teachers who are struggling. While playing staff games may seen kind of kitschy, the feedback we received was very positive. We had noticed that our staff culture was suffering, the games that we implemented did not take up a lot of time, were optional and ran in the teachers lounge and teachers could participate at any time. This ensured that the teachers lounge became a place for self-care practices to happen. I highly encourage you to look into teacher well-being teams, New Brunswick Teachers Association does a great job and their resources are found at www.teacherwellness.ca Wellness Wheel Activity The Wellness Wheel activity is a very quick but impactful activity in the book “the Well-Teacher” by Wade Repta. The image for the Wellness Wheel is just below this post, in the bonus post for shared resources. In the book, Repta explains that a huge part of wellness is having balance. Not just work-life balance but, whole-life balance. On the wheel, there are 8 categories; physical, environmental, financial, occupational, intellectual, spiritual, emotional and mental, and social. From the spokes of the wheel are ten tick marks that represent numbers, one in the center and ten on the outside of the wheel. To complete the activity, rate your wellness on a scale of 1-10 for each category. How are you doing physically? Emotionally? Financially? Etc. After marking down your scores connect the dots, you have made on the wheel, does it look like a balanced circle? Would your wheel roll? This is a great visual to check in and see how you are doing, and what aspects of your life need some care and attention. This is also a great activity to do in a staff meeting or when introducing a Teacher Well-being committee. Stay well, Laura References Forst, S. (2020). The teacher's guide to self-care: Build resilience, avoid burnout, and bring a happier and healthier you to the classroom. The Designer Teacher, LLC. Prendergast, L. (2022, July 28). How administrators can help prevent teacher Burnout. Edutopia. Retrieved October 25, 2022, from https://www.edutopia.org/article/how- administrators-can-help-prevent-teacher-burnout Repta, W., & Repta Andrée. (2018). The well teacher: Everything Teachers Need To Know to be well and stay well in the classroom. Humanworks Press. Tapp, F. (2021, February 10). Teacher Burnout: Causes, symptoms, and prevention. Hey Teach! Retrieved October 25, 2022, from https://www.wgu.edu/heyteach/article/teacher- burnout-causes-symptoms-and-prevention1711.html
6 Comments
Jennifer Horst
10/29/2022 06:02:52 pm
What a beautifully honest post. I would agree that we are seeing more teacher burnout than we have ever seen before. Just this week, I had a few more heart to heart conversations with a staff member as we notice more and more staff on burnout. I like how you distinguish between self care and self soothing. I also agree with that statement that schools are increasingly at risk for “initiative overload,” as a result of the myriad efforts to address the impact of the pandemic.” I sense that some of our school and board initiatives would have been before off delayed a year or two while we dig ourselves out of the mental, social and physical strain the last few years have been! Nonetheless, we have to deal with what is laid out before us and so things like taking care of our selves has become even more important than ever in order to remain effective in our roles as educators and keeping ourselves healthy!
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Laura
10/29/2022 08:01:34 pm
Well said! It is so important to take care of ourselves. I am really enjoying Sarah Forst's book. It is an easy read and is so relatable!
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Corrine Merx
10/30/2022 11:41:39 am
Hi Laura Shirley,
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Corrine Merx
10/30/2022 11:42:59 am
P.S. I may have added Forst's book to my Amazon cart! lol!
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Laura
10/30/2022 06:07:44 pm
Hey Corrine,
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Katherine Sliwka
11/6/2022 06:42:25 pm
Thank you for sharing and being honest. I was able to relate to your post. I've been teaching now for five years and I still remember in teachers college how much they talked about the 5 year burnout. In the past 5 years I had to learn how to teach, manage my classroom, learn different teaching techniques and constantly pivot to virtual learning. As you said, teachers college does not prepare educators for what is to come. Before teachers college I did alot of volunteering in the classroom but I did not realize how much educators do until I was left all alone. I think that there should be education within teachers college on how to manage our own mental health and create a healthier work life balance.
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