The Teacher Self-Care Manual: Teacher Tools, #6
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About this ebook
Self-Care Smarter, Not Harder
"Her message that teachers need to make themselves a priority and practice self-care is one that needs to be heard." — Robert Dunlop, Educator, Speaker and Author, S.T.R.I.V.E. for Happiness in Education
"A short, easily assimilated guide to teacher self care. The book contains a host of practical tips, looking both at what schools can do and how teachers can look after themselves better physically, and make vital changes to their mindset." — Rachael Roberts, teacher, trainer, life-coach and author of 30 Ways to Mindfulness
"Practical, to the point, and easy to read, this book is full of ways anyone can reevaluate their life balance and manage their day-to-day wellbeing" — Ruth Pearce, Author, Speaker, Transformational Leader, Project Manager at VIA Institute on Character
"Compelling and practical, Patrice provides teachers with actionable self-care strategies for right now, no matter how busy or overwhelmed you might be. Giving yourself permission is the hard part. Consider this your permission! Once you do, it only gets easier create time for yourself so you're a happier, healthier, and more engaging teacher." — Annemarie, Founder of Speak Confident English
Teachers can't be all-wise, all-knowing, all-caring, and always positive all the time in the classroom. We can't go home and prepare 5 lessons a day, grade 50 quizzes, record a video of highlights from class, fill out student progress reports, and then cut out holidays shapes for the bulletin boards. Not every day, even though we'd like to.
It is only recently that we've realized that our expectations for teachers are just not healthy! We can't be everything and everyone to all our students, all the time, much as we wish we could. But so many teacher self-care books encourage you to do even more! Now you have to find time for journaling, yoga, coffee dates, and more. Plus you feel guilty the whole time, because you're not planning lessons or buying pencils to give your students before their big exam Friday!
The Teacher Self-Care Manual: Simple Strategies for Stressed Teachers by teacher, trainer, and coach Patrice Palmer provides simple, easy-to-apply strategies that will help you take care of yourself. Patrice leads you through the simple processes of changing the mindsets and habits that make us work until we burn out!
Clearly and thoughtfully written, Palmer gives you the awareness and tools you need to be a great teacher without sacrificing yourself! And she should know. She's been through teacher burnout and come out the other side.
The book also features:
- Tips you can apply right now
- Activities to help you find your strengths
- Exercises to share with your students
- Advice for administrators to support teachers and their own mental health
- Book-club discussion questions
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The Teacher Self-Care Manual - Patrice Palmer
Dedication
To Andrew - thank you for helping me learn what is truly important in life.
With love, Mom
To Ray - your ability to see in me what I haven't seen has got me to where I am today.
With deepest gratitude, pp
INTRODUCTION
"Self-care is not selfish. You cannot serve from an empty vessel." Eleanor Brown
When I first read the quote above, I felt like Eleanor was speaking directly to me using a nice soft, caring teacher voice. Unfortunately, by that time I had left a career that I loved because of professional burnout. It’s not like I woke up one morning burned out; it was a long, slow burn. I felt guilty because I felt like I wasn’t strong enough or superwoman
enough to do it all.
As teachers, we give so much to our students. Our career is a labour of love and we pride ourselves on our ability to care and help others. Teaching is a profession that requires giving of oneself to make a difference for students. The ability to empathize with our students often takes place in an environment with little or no job security while meeting the demands of exhausting workloads. The chronic use of empathy and depletion of emotional resources are strongly associated with emotional exhaustion and/or professional burnout (Maslach, Schaufeli & Leiter, 2001). For example, students may have faced trauma; in the case of ESL students, they may come from war zones or refugee camps. Sometimes the teacher is the only trusted person in that student’s life. It is difficult not to care for our students when they confide in us or ask for help.
Another problem in higher education is the rise of precarious and insecure work. Part-time positions rarely include health benefits or pay for sick days and that can lead to harmful health effects. At one point, I had seven part-time contracts at one college in order have the equivalent of a full-time
salary. These jobs
ranged from teaching, developing curriculum, managing ESL programs, and recruiting students for specific courses. Precarious work is a growing trend especially for ESL and post-secondary faculty in Canada and other parts of the world. Precarious workers are three times more likely to rate their health as less than good, so the promotion of well-being through access to health benefits is needed along with more stable employment (Access Alliance, n.d.). Emotional depletion, burnout, and high attrition in the profession may be costly for the educational system—both financially and academically (Klusmann, Richter, & Lüdtke, 2016). There is considerable research that further supports this:
Teachers experience as much stress as paramedics and police officers. (Johnson, 2005)
Teaching was ranked as the number one most stressful job in the UK in a comparative study of stressful occupations. (Johnson, 2005)
Teachers are among those professionals with the highest levels of job stress and burnout across many countries. (Stoeber & Renner, 2008)
Teachers can be involved in 1,000 interpersonal connections in a day (Holmes, 2005). All that contact can be wearing.
40% of teachers in US schools leave their jobs within first five years (CPRE, 2014). Increased legislative and administrative regulations, as well as raised education standards contribute to stress, particularly when introduced with few professional development opportunities, planning time, support, or resources (Action & Glasgow, 2015, Spilt, Koomen & Thijs, 2011, Curry, 2012).
WHAT IS TEACHER WELL-BEING?
Key Definitions
Teacher Well-Being—There has been a significant increase in scholarly research related to well-being. Even though teacher well-being has proven difficult to define, here is one definition that I like:
Teacher well-being includes a sense of personal professional fulfilment, satisfaction, purposefulness, and happiness, constructed in collaboration with colleagues and students (Soini, Pyhalto & Piertarinen, 2010).
Generally speaking, the research agrees on two things:
1. If teachers can model positive well-being strategies, this will have a positive influence on student well-being, and;
2. teacher well-being is critical for whole school well-being and for students. (McCallum