Teacher Mental Health

As we round out another teacher appreciation week I want to thank those of you who are educators out there. Often times it may seem like the work we do is thankless at times but know that we are making a difference. I was reminded of that by a story a colleague shared this week about a student they had who was what I often times call a high energy student. You know the one I am talking about as we all have our names for those students that push us to our limit and back again, and we all have our names for them. I choose the term high energy because that is what I truly see them as having or needing high energy. Although I digress. My co-worker shared with me that they ran into this student at a local fast food establishment and said student was a manager. In their conversation the student tool my colleague that they were sorry for the way they acted and now understand why it was so frustrating working with kids like this student. The former student was now a manager and shared how hard it was to motivate and manage people who didn't want to work or were as I say high energy. It is little stories like these that remind me the pay off in teaching is sometime much farther down the road for us that we may like. However it also brought me to another realization the stress that as teacher are under throughout the day is enormous then you add to that the stress of every day life and it is a wonder you don't see teachers snapping.

How do we as teachers do it? How do we keep from snapping? like the ones you see on TV for "taping" a kid to a chair, kicking a student, cutting their hair while singing the national anthem.

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I know between the stress of kids testing boundaries, grading work, students hounding me to get missing work graded and turned in, on top of dealing with neighborhood stress, stress of severe health issues of loved ones, and I could go on I sometimes worry I might end up on TV. I know what you are going to say; maybe it is time for a break or time to look into doing something less stressful. I know I often times think about that as well but for one like me it is not that easy. I do truly enjoy the work/art/science of teaching. I crave that aha moment when a student gets it. Also taking a break is easier said than done. Often times I get into a discussion with friends over how much time off teachers get and how "lucky" we are. I don't want to get too into this discussion but Il I will say that if you looked at my summer schedule you would wonder why it is called summer vacation. As teachers time off is not always a break but a chance to get caught up on the back log of work, required training, and planning. But after reading an article in the May 2019 issue of Men's Health entitled "My First Mental Health Day" I want to encourage my fellow teachers to change their tune on breaks.

Taking a break from work, stress, life, etc. is essential as hopefully we all know. At some point you will break if you don't have fun or relax.

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However as teachers we don't get or take breaks often enough in my opinion. I know what you all may be saying: "I don't have time", "I have students coming in to work", "I hate taking time off because of writing sub plans", "Work won't get done if I am not here", and I could go on and on. I have used many of those excuses in the past and still do. However I was reminded of the power of taking a day for myself earlier this week. It was my twice yearly trip to the dentist that reminded me of the importance to take a day. I know what you are thinking how can a trip to the dentist be low stress. Well for one he is my uncle and I enjoy seeing and catching up. Also I am hearing those of you getting ready to ask my why I took a whole day for a routine cleaning appointment. Well I learned long ago that trying to schedule an appointment early or late enough I could take a half day off was a pain. So I decided that I would take a full day and schedule it when it worked into their schedule. Oh man what a relief that was. it also gave me a day to do things like run errands for my wife so she could rest and also open up my weekend. It was nice to be able to take a mental deep breath for a day. Even with all the emails coming in from students and staff. I was more relaxed when I got back to work and those high energy students weren't as stressful to deal with. Case in point, rather than yelling and lecturing a couple of students who drive me up the wall, I simply had a good heart to heart with them and moved on. I think I may have confused one as he walked away I could tell he was thinking "why didn't Mr. G go off on me" (Chalking one point up for Mr. G).

It was a day like that that reminded me that I need to do that more often during the year. Take a day for myself to take care of myself. Go to the doctor, take care of appointments, be there for my family, etc. Yes I know I will have to write sub-plans, deal with the lack of production, and on and on. But in the long run I believe taking that day here and there may help keep me sane. That being said I also think we as teachers also need to find time during our day to de-stress. I am often times asked why I don't let kids in for lunch to work. I tell colleagues and kids alike that that is my time to get out of my room have adult time. Yes going tot he staff room can be stressful but just taking the 30+ minutes we get to be "duty free" should be that "duty free". I also want to encourage teachers to take some time during the planning to breath and reflect and not "plan". Take a moment to meditate if you can be mindful. At the end of the day leave work at work. Go home and spend time with family and/or with you. Do something you want to do not sit and grade papers, plan out the next months lessons, etc. Maybe sit and watch TV, read a good fiction book, or just let life pass by as you observe it. It is ok to do this once in a while.

Lastly I would like to encourage our unions and administration to seriously look at providing not only mental health days and/or personal leave time in the contracts but look into providing time and/or language in our contracts for mental health both of teachers and students. Lets look into giving teachers a break beyond planning during the day. What I wouldn't give for a para to stop by once or twice a day to ask if I needed a break to go to the bathroom (although I often joke about invoke the power of teacher bladder) so we don't have to hold it for hours between our planning or lunch.

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Wouldn't it be interesting if all staff had a 4 hour aide to work on grading, organizing, etc. What might it be like if we had an hour lunch rather than 30 mins? I know these would cost money and possibly add time to the day but I wonder what we might find in the way of job satisfaction and learning if we did? Also I wonder if we might see a reduction in news stories about teachers snapping.

What are your thoughts? How can we help ourselves be mindful of and deal with our stress? What do you do to get through the stress? I can't wait to see your thoughts and comments.

As always:

Go Forth and Do Great Things.