Teachers Need That Too (A Mini-Series Advocating for Teacher Wellness)
Your students’ needs are important. If students aren’t getting their basic needs met, it is infinitely more difficult to learn.
Teacher needs are ALSO important. If teachers aren’t getting their basic needs met, it is infinitely more difficult to teach.
I have met many teachers who regularly advocate for the needs of their students. , but I have also met many teacher who struggle to advocate for their own needs.
I created the following mini series, “Teachers Need That Too”, to help empower teachers to advocate for their needs in the same breath that they advocate for their students’. It's pretty interesting how often teachers are in need of something similar to what their students do.
These posts are not here to diminish the fact that students have basic needs that must be met before they can effectively learn, but to point out that teachers need the same before they can effectively teach.
If you are a teacher reading this, I hope you find these posts inspiring and empowering this school year - advocating for your needs and the needs of your fellow teachers will be more important than ever in the current world climate.
If you are a school administrator reading this, I hope these posts help you brainstorm ways you can continue to support your staff, just as you work to support your student body (And I hope it helps you think about your own wellness needs as well!).
Somewhere along the way, teachers have been handed an immense burden to carry during the school year, but at the end of the day, we’re all human. We all need basic needs met before we can show up as the student, teacher, administrator, or person we want to be.
Without further ado, check out this mini series, “Teachers Need That Too”:
Student is just one small component of the identity that makes up a person.
Teacher is also just a part of a person’s identity.
It’s so important that both students and teachers have time to nurture parts of themselves outside of teaching.
However, you’ve probably heard the phrase “students need time to be kids” more than “teachers need time to be human”.
What can you do? Prioritize some time every day where you can take off all the hats - the teacher hat included - and just be yourself for a bit.
You’re on so much of the day, give yourself permission to just be.
I have met too many teachers who do not actually get their assigned planning periods during the day. They get taken up by meetings, or extra duties, or the needs of a single student.
And that’s if they get a planning period to start out with at all.
That time during the day is essential for teachers to do the planning, grading or paperwork that would otherwise have to be done outside of school hours.
That time is also essential for the mental health of our teachers. That brain break is needed after hours of being “on” in the classroom.
Just like your students are deserving of recess to help their learning during the day, each individual teacher is deserving of their actual, full planning periods to use as they wish.
Does it go against the culture of your school to take your full planning period? I urge you to talk to an administrator about it.
Not having those breaks during the day, over time, is slowly what leads to the burnout of some awesome teachers, just like a student without recess would burn out by the end of that school day.
Would you expect their highest quality work from an upset, overwhelmed, or frustrated student?
Escalated students typically have an opportunity to calm down before rejoining the class.
What about teachers? I’m pretty sure every teacher has experienced a day at some point where something upsets them. Unfortunately, many teachers feel like they have to push through anyway
When this happens, do you give yourself a moment to calm down, or do you push on through anyway.
I understand why you might want to push through. Maybe taking a second for yourself feels selfish. Maybe you feel like there isn’t enough time. Maybe you would need to ask for help to get those few minutes, and that’s uncomfortable to you.
I get it, but think of it this way - A few minutes to calm down could change the whole course of your day. It could make you more present and positive for your students.
The next time you feel escalated during the school day, try taking a few minutes to breathe and calm down before immediately jumping back into work.
Raise your hand if you have taught about growth mindset to your students.
Who here feels confident they themselves practice growth mindset?
It’s hard to find a teacher who hasn’t heard about Carol Dweck’s concept of growth vs. fixed mindset. But from the teachers I’ve talked to, not many feel like they have growth mindset mastered in their own lives.
I meet a lot of teachers who are really hard on themselves when they make mistakes - would you ever be that hard on your students?
Allow yourself the same grace and permission to make mistakes that you give to your students.
Especially during this unprecedented school year, we are all learning how to do things from ground zero. Mistakes will be made.
The next time you are tempted to be hard on yourself, remember: You are still learning too.
Any teacher will tell you that their work day starts well before the first school bell, and ends well after the final one.
A lot of teachers also report working on weekends.
It’s too much.
One 2016 study shows that working over 40 hours of work a week is correlated with burnout, and over 60 hours a week is strongly correlated with burnout.
If a teacher works from 7am-5pm most days, and only works the week days, that’s already 50 hours. And I’ve known teachers to do more than that.
It’s too much.
And those hours outside of school lesson planning and grading, aren’t often compensated.
What can you do? Get strict with your own working hours - and set aside times when you are definitely not working on anything school-related.
Have cutoff times for your work hours and be very careful in making decisions to work on the weekend.
Your mind and body will thank you, AND it will improve your ability to stay in this career and continue to help your students long-term.
As a health coach for teachers, one of the most common things I hear among my clients is that they don’t get adequate time during the day to stop and eat their lunch.
They are either eating on the go, or get so distracted by other demands that they hardly eat at all.
It’s also common to hear a teacher say they don’t have time for breakfast.
Every human being, in whatever career they have, should be given time to meet the basic need of hunger.
It is infinitely more difficult to learn if you are a hungry student.
It is also infinitely more difficult to teach if you are a hungry teacher.
Low blood sugar makes it difficult to focus, be creative, be present…the list goes on.
And you need all of those things to be an effective teacher.
What can you do? Advocate for a lunch break. An actual lunch break. For you and your fellow teachers. And if you already have a lunch break, take it. It’s there for a reason. It’s there because you are not a teaching robot, but a human being with a basic need that must be met to function properly.
Just like you would not expect a student to go hungry during the day, do not expect yourself to do so.
If you all like this series, let me know in the comments! It could become an ongoing series - I have more where these came from!
