Why Wellbeing is necessary for Teachers
There is much talk and literature about student wellbeing and resilience. However, we cannot separate student wellbeing from teacher wellbeing.
Teachers need to not only teach wellbeing and resilience but also model wellbeing and resilience. It’s hard to imagine that this can happen with the increasing trends in teacher burnout.
You will learn:
- How to anchor emotional states so you can access the emotion you desire quickly and easily
- How to change your mental and emotional state through your body, focus and asking “power” questions.
- Release muscle tension with progressive muscle relaxation
- How to place yourself in a deeply relaxed state using a simple self hypnosis script
- To increase your energy and vitality through
- Breathing techniques
- Eating habits
- Secrets to good sleep
- How to relax and reduce stress and anxiety via Psychological Acupressure (Tapping Technique)
- Wellbeing Strategies with Positive Psychology
- To practice mindfulness and meditation
- Mindfulness and the mind-body connection
- How mindfulness works with stress
- Mindfulness of the body
- Meditation for anxiety and stress
Teacher Burn Out
The teaching profession is thought to be one of the nobler jobs in the world, highly revered and appreciated everywhere, but is also believed to be one of the more stressful. Recent statistics show that one in four teachers suffer from “emotional exhaustion” and are close to burning out. A significant amount of research has been conducted in order to explain why teachers are unable to function at times when they are most expected, or why they are no longer able to stand for the reasons why they teach, such as guiding students in their formative years, and encouraging them to make a positive difference in society. These researches identify stress as the foremost cause of emotional exhaustion of teachers.
Teachers these days take on more roles and deal with more responsibilities than teachers in previous decades. What accounts for this increase is the rapid rise in the amount of information that become available and must be taught to students. Teachers need to constantly update themselves on developments in their respective subject areas in the use of technology in teaching methods. If this isn’t stressful enough, packaging information so that they’re significant and interesting for students usually is. What’s even more stressful is that the roles that teachers take on all require a great level of patience, doting, and care, thanks to increased expectations from society.
Educators, in general, will keep wondering when the expectations are going to stop. They realize that the apparent way out is to stop teaching, leave the workforce, or retire early. So instead of stopping, they adopt known coping methods and techniques to help them with their stress, or may use alternate or unique methods that work best for them. Different teaching-support groups or advocacies will focus on this area of help for teachers by providing resources, such as training on the use of technology as a teaching tool, or by developing self-help materials that affords some flexibility to teachers as they teach new information.
Unfortunately, the general direction and focus of help is on facing or dealing with stress, thereby lowering the chances of reaching emotional exhaustion. Focus in therapeutic help or in overall well-being is often not given sufficient emphasis. As in most burnout cases, teachers do not readily share or open up to colleagues about the stress they experience.
This is because they fear that they will be seen as unable to cope. They try to deal with their stress alone, but because they are unable to share or air out their experiences to anyone, stress builds up continuously, and the teacher starts exuding negativity and channels this towards colleagues and students.
The warning signs of stress is difficult to detect until it’s too late, when the problem’s grown too big and too serious without significant intervention.
The importance of well-being cannot be overly emphasized. All the more that teachers take on the roles of parent, social worker, and nurse, should their well-being be an institution’s priority. If there are no support programs that focus on well-being, one must be adopted immediately.
Not only will programs like these ensure that teachers’ health is checked, but these also make sure that they will always have the patience, doting, and care expected of them; at any time they interact with their students.