As we put the finishing touches on this book, another large school district has announced a teachers’ strike this week. If the canaries fleeing the coal mines are our gauge, then it appears our system is in crisis. We live in a country that values education, but does not value the well-being of our educators.
Sadly, the conversation around this educational crisis has become all too familiar, predictable, and mundane. It has become the background to our educational tableau. We all sit motionless and frozen in the conventional wisdom of the age, while the needs at the center of our crisis, those of our teachers, do not hold our attention longer than it takes Channel 7 to pack up their news camera and head home.
This conventional wisdom dictates the conversation around teacher needs lands somewhere between summers off, merit pay, and class sizes. While all these issues are important, this conversation has become stale, and often misses the concept of well-being altogether.
Education has become accustomed to the framed, quick fixes of “7 Habits of X” or “5 Steps to Y” or “3 Solutions for Z” all of which are theoretically workable within that safe, conventional wisdom of our current system. We want change so we listen to the talks, we buy the books, and we laminate the posters all without challenging the current thinking which is, in this case, that students’ achievement must frame the conversation leaving everything else, including those things that are critical to that achievement, as afterthoughts.
It is almost as if we a fear a departure from this conventional wisdom would open up a Pandora’s box of teacher resentments that we, as a system, would not be able to shut. If we host the occasional teacher wellness day with a salad bar and an inspirational speaker we can engage in the willing suspension of disbelief that this talisman will safeguard against the burnout, isolation, depersonalization, compassion fatigue, and emotional exhaustion that is causing teachers and administrators (as administration attrition rates are also alarmingly high) to leave the profession in droves.
Of course, this talisman doesn’t work. We are taking an aspirin for a stomach ache. The result is that education is experiencing its own type of Brexit. Neither teachers nor administrators are 100% certain of the factors that have gotten them here or the path that lays in front of them, they just want to take back control and extrication feels like the only way.
Kids don’t say that they want to be teachers anymore, because teaching just doesn’t look fun. College students don’t declare education as a major anymore, because the vague promise of impacting lives doesn’t convincingly counterbalance the realities of the twenty-first-century classroom or the weight of student loans. Those holding up our schools have been departing at a rate that we have become so cozy with we forgot that it would be cause for alarm in almost any other industry besides nursing.
Teachers have been leaving education for years, but with plenty of teachers there was no need for us to pay attention. We were able to hire all the teachers we needed. We turned a blind eye to teacher needs and kept the conversation centered around student needs. We are not listening to John Hattie and investing resources in those who have caring relationships with our students.
How did we find ourselves here? Instead of looking to the root cause, some of us are doubling down on spending district resources on teacher recruitment. Spending dollars to recruit new educators instead of retaining the high-quality, dedicated teachers and staff that we already have. Instead of changing our structures to honor the needs of the people that are already in our buildings who, most importantly, have already formed the invaluable connections with our students that make them want to come to school, stay in school and learn, we spend money recruiting new faces.
A critical first step lies in the power of naming the problem. Shifting the narrative from discussing only students’ needs to also prioritizing the well-being needs of our teachers in a consistent and meaningful way. Not because teacher and administrator suicide rates are cause for alarm, which they are. Not because teacher and administrator retention rates are cause for alarm, which they are. But because it is our obligation to care about the well-being of those that have given their lives to our country’s youth. Not a legal obligation, but a moral one.
Call to Action: We Must Take Care of Those that Take Care of Our Students
Continue the conversation with Carla by visiting ITeachBecause.com! ITeachBecause.com is a free platform, to connect teachers and school stakeholders to inspire and get inspired.
Carla and her team created ITeachBecause.com to break down the isolation between teachers and their colleagues and give voice to their victories and challenges. By joining the free, online community participants open the door to inspiring others and being inspired. Sharing our stories helps us all remember not only why we teach but also that we are part of a larger community.
Teaching can be a lonely profession. Often when we close the door, it is just us and the students. People don’t have to feel alone. Let’s move past our silos and champion the message of school stakeholders across the country and help advocate for teachers in Washington.
We all have horrible and wonderful stories. Tales that don’t only belong to a high-school teacher in Iowa or a PE teacher in Brooklyn, but to all of us.
Our challenges – just like our successes – are shared and need to become part of our national conversation on education, if we are going to have real conversations about the well-being of our educators. Moving from tired conventional wisdom and remarks of “those that can’t do,” to honoring the needs and well-being of those that CAN do.
Idealistic? Yes. But, without idealism there would be no social progress.
Let the take away from this book be more than practicing tree pose or a mindful breath each day. Instead, let it be something just as fun, but more noble.
Mobilize as a community of caring adults who work in schools. Advocate for educator well-being. Create a collective community. Shift the climate and culture of education. Move past the conventional wisdom of teachers vs. students.
If you don’t have time to start your own community, then join our ITeachBecause.com community and lift up one another. It is more than a collection of individual stories. It is a collection of voices, a chorus of inspiration and shared challenges woven together to illuminate the needs of today’s teacher. Share your story and inspire thousands of educators, administrators, and school stakeholders across the country. It doesn’t matter what your background is, your race, your gender, what town you are from, what your politics are, if you are a PC or Mac person, if you have purple hair, or a unicorn horn we are all educators who need our voices to be heard and our well-being needs met.
If it were 1968 we would take to the streets. But in 2019 we mobilize in a different way – our tweets, our shares – to spread the word, raise awareness to tell our story so it doesn’t get drowned out or muddled in politics or agendas. Now, we need to learn the lessons of other movements, like Occupy – it fizzled, because no one knew what they were working toward. What are we working toward?
What’s our goal? One million voices who have joined the ITeachBecause.com community. One million people who have shared stories across the country. One million teachers and school stakeholders coming together to reinvigorate their passion for teaching. And we will keep going until one million voices have been heard!
We MUST harness the power of the community narrative.
In today’s political age, we need to change the way lawmakers view education and the well-being needs of our educators. We have to remove the barriers and get school stakeholders, policy makers, legislators, and teachers on the same page. We have a moral imperative to give our students and our teachers the well-being tools they need to succeed – not just in school, but in life. We need to deliver on solutions for the caring adults in our school buildings who get out of bed every morning to do this tough and important work.
Idealistic? Yes. But, without idealism there would be no social progress.
Connection and conversation is how we sustain ourselves as a movement and shift the national dialogue. Can we change the education industry? Can we put teacher well-being at the center of the education conversation? Yes. Think seat belts.
Sixty years ago people didn’t care about seat belts, never mind car seats. Conventional wisdom was that people wouldn’t wear seat belts. No interest. In fact, legislators had to fight to convince us all otherwise. Now, we would never even think about getting in without buckling up and making sure our adults and children were secured. The very thought is ludicrous.
As an industry, education, let’s be on the right side of history here. Let’s get a place where taking care of those who take care of our students is the new standard. We see the problems in education. We need to own the solutions. This is our seat belt moment: Education. Let’s seize it!
By stating that we acknowledge the well-being needs of our teachers and students collectively, we create the space to move past the convenient conventional wisdom of the day. Let education be the paragon of equity in these polarizing political times. Let all voices that create a school’s climate and culture be heard. Let’s move the past teachers vs. students vs. administrators vs. support staff mentality that has dominated educational culture for years. No longer one need over the other; both needs are highlighted. By addressing the needs of the teachers we uplift the students as well.
Another step in addressing the needs of teachers and school stakeholders is providing time for educators to share openly about their successes and struggles. In this tough, crazy, draining climate in education, many teachers, school stakeholders, and administrators find themselves asking why they teach. Let’s face it, the job is tough.
In her work across the country, Carla went on a listening tour asking these very questions:
Why do you teach?
Is your well-being a priority to your school?
Do you connect with your colleagues daily?
Carla noticed that engaging school partners in conversations about why they do what they do, what challenges they endure and what successes they can celebrate created a bridge that brought them together. By not limiting “teaching” to the delivery of academic content – but to anyone in a school building who teaches a student how to be their best self in the world – she allowed every caring adult in the school building to be part of the conversation.
These conversations were transformative for school partners, moving them beyond conventional wisdom and quick fixes to balanced solutions that address both students’ and teachers’ well-being needs equally. It didn’t matter what role the adult played, the type of school, or where it was located. Teachers all teach because they want the best life for their students, they all face challenges in reaching that goal and those challenges often negatively impact their well-being.
We have found that those districts that have the most success including teacher self-care into the fabric of their climate culture do two things well: they plan together and they practice together. First, when planning together, they come up with 3-, 6-, 12-, and 18-month tangible, intentional goals. These goals do not live in “Google docs,” these goals are known by all stakeholders across the school community. Second, these succesful districts practice well-being strategies in ever corner of every school building. This does not mean they all get out yoga mats every day (although that would be great!), instead they do simply things: starting every faculty meeting with a 3-minute centering activity, ending every team meeting with a one-word check out. What makes these districts successful is they see this planning and practice infused in the climate and culture of their school buildings. Teachers feel more comfortable including well-being practices into their daily routines because their principal is leading them through those same practices during weekly faculty meetings. Self-care moves from smelling of compliance to feeling, and being, a priority for all.
Included below are some sample well-being activities adapted from Carla’s Social-Emotional Learning series Everyday SEL (Routledge). These strategies can be practiced, along with the activities in previous chapters, to begin or end a faculty meeting, by individual teachers who would like to take a moment to pause or by any adult or child who is in need of a moment to center.
Facilitator will turn off all screens, projectors, computers in the room and will cue participants to turn off and put away all personal devices. The faciliator will instruct all stakeholders to visualize a blank sheet of paper and clear their minds of all thoughts. The facilitator will cue stakeholders to place one hand on their stomachs and one hand on their collarbones to follow the rhythm of their breath (without the need to control it). Setting the timer for one minute, the faciliator will give stakeholders the option of closing their eyes as they sit together in stillness and breathe.
Activity: Owning My Story Journal
Stakeholders each receive a piece of scrap paper or index card. The facilitator sets a timer for two minutes. The stakeholders each draw their response to the prompt, “Today, my self-care story is …” Each stakeholder will write their well-being successes and challenges from a place of observation not judgment. When the two minutes has concluded, each stakeholder will pause to read what they wrote. On the back of their paper or index card, they will write a simple goal that they can accomplish in the next two weeks to help meet their sample self-care needs, such as going to yoga class, or taking at least 30 minutes to connect with a co-worker.
Activity: One-Word Check-in/Check-out
Stakeholders form a circle. Select a stakeholder to open the activity. They will share one word that reflects something they are grateful for/inspired by/feeling in that moment. Moving to the left, each person will share a word until each person in the circle has shared. (People may opt to skip their turn, merely by saying “Pass.”)
Stakeholders each receive a piece of scrap paper or index card. The facilitator sets a timer for two minutes. The stakeholders each draw their response to a prompt relevant to the theme of the meeting/current events. Sample themes could be “Compassion toward self and others,” “Boundaries for myself with others,” “Balance between my needs and the needs of my students,” or “Self-care for me and my students.” When the two minutes is up, each stakeholder turns to the person next to them to share their drawings. (People may opt to skip their turn, merely by saying “Pass.”)
It is our intention that the tools in this book will hopefully create a bridge to bring your school community together, rallying around the importance of teacher and student well-being. By providing our readers with not only the “why” behind the work, but also practical, easy-to-implement strategies that illuminate the path to “how” as well. Well-being starts with teachers and school stakeholders, who own the work and model practices, successes, and learning from failures daily. Educator well-being is not about perfection – it is about being true to who we are and what we need so that our students can find the courage to do the same.