REFLECTION - Helping Teachers Thrive

Helping Teachers to Thrive and Build Resilience

https://www.edutopia.org/article/helping-teachers-thrive

How are we doing against the following ??

1. Accept emotions. Teaching is emotional labor. Human beings have emotions. When teachers demonstrate emotions, you don’t have to fix them. People often feel better when their emotions are simply acknowledged. You can say something simple like, “I can see that you’re feeling anxious,” or “I hear the frustration in your voice.” Make it OK to have feelings and OK to express them. Know that you may need to help people learn some ways to respond to and express their feelings in healthy ways. This speaks to your own emotional intelligence in that you can recognize other people’s feelings and manage your own feelings about their feelings. The emotional intelligence of a leader is a primary aspect of leadership.

I have been working hard to listen more and respond less.   Helping teachers to name how they are feeling and then manage my own feelings around this has been an area I have been trying hard to grow in.

2. Prioritize improving relationships with students. When teacher burnout has been studied, student behaviour has been the top complaint to which secondary teachers attributed their own burnout. We need to coach and guide teachers to reframe student behaviour, to build relationships with kids, and to activate their empathy for students. Do this in simple ways in conversation, saying for example, “I hear that you felt disrespected when Cherrie rolled her eyes. Is there another way you could interpret her behaviour? What do you think she might have been feeling?” A teacher who has poor management is a teacher who has weak relationships with students. Focus on what’s most within the teacher’s sphere of influence—his or her relationship with children.

Relationships continue to be our number one focus.  Nathan and I have both been working to coach our teachers around the importance of getting these right, both with children and whānau (even more important in the face of complex issues).

3. Make it normal and acceptable to seek help. Teachers tend to keep their doubts and concerns about their practice from colleagues for fear of appearing vulnerable and inadequate. Create a climate in which asking questions, taking risks, making mistakes, and asking for advice is valued and appreciated. Model this yourself: Ask for advice, say you don’t know something, acknowledge the mistakes you’ve made, and share the risks you’re taking. And when you’re in a hard moment, ask yourself, “What can I learn from this challenge?” Simply asking that question can boost your resilience. Celebrate vulnerability, struggle, and growth. This is particularly relevant for new teachers, who need intensive inoculation in their first years of teaching from the stressors and challenges of the profession.

We are growing a culture of being in "the learning pit" as with look to improve our practice constantly and it is something we work hard to model from the SLT.  It's ok to be vulnerable and to struggle - we want our teachers to seek strength from within but also from each other (the trees in the background of our values graphic).

4. Build support structures between people. Some research indicates that support from a teacher’s peers or co-workers is the most important buffer against burnout. Then again, if you’ve ever had a fantastic, supportive network of colleagues, you don’t need this research to know that you not only managed the stress more easily but enjoyed work more. And remember: Joy should be our ultimate aim. School leaders, this research is liberating because it suggests that you don’t need to take care of everyone; you just need to build teams that can support each other, provide new teachers with coaches and mentors, and establish nets that teachers will fall into when they inevitably fall.

Our collaborative teaching teams and agile SLT provide the safety nets that we each need in times of difficulty.   These teams work so closely together that they are becoming better at instinctively knowing who and when their teachers need a bit more support.

5. Foster a culture of appreciation.   Start the year by asking staff how they like to be appreciated and what they hope to be appreciated for, and ask for a few examples of things they did last year for which they wish they’d been acknowledged. Then make routine your appreciation of staff. And establish structures in meetings so that people can appreciate each other—and themselves. Know that you don’t have to do all the appreciating. In a healthy school culture, appreciation flows between teachers and children, parents and staff, staff and parents, and so on. It’s your job to get this culture going strong.

I would like to do more obvious things in this area.   My weekly emails out to the whole staff focuses on being appreciative for their contribution to our team and focuses on the positives from the week.    How to acknowledge individuals in small ways??   Wine for wellness draw to begin ...  Fill my bucket compliments.  
Friday drinks ... morning teas.   Support staff week.   TAide coffees for their meetings.  What are some other ideas ???