emotional resilience

A growing area of interest in teaching and teacher professional development that impacts the work of all teachers, but new teachers in particular, is emotional resilience. Not only cultivating emotional resilience in students, which is influencing schools a lot lately, but also cultivating emotional resilience in teachers.

This spring, I was fortunate enough to attend the New Teacher Center annual conference and attend a session with Elena Aguilar, a teacher, coach, and writer who works with teachers about cultivating compassion and building strong communities of teachers. I went to her talk on emotional resilience. In addition to helping students develop emotional resilience in the face of adversity, we need to be talking (and doing something) about this to support teachers, particularly new teachers. You can read more from Elena Aguilar about emotional resilience here and here.

In this article (read the whole thing – lots of great tips!), Aguilar discusses ways to cultivate emotional resilience. She names three specific ways to develop emotional resilience: building community, knowing yourself, and creating a plan for self-care.

Building community helps teachers feel connected. When teachers know their colleagues, students, parents, and the community, sharing stories and learning about one another, it reduces the isolation teachers can feel. Another way to build community is through professional networks. I’ve written about that here.

Another important act for helping build emotional resilience that Elena Aguilar writes about is knowing yourself. What are your teaching motivations? What makes you happiest as a teacher? How can you build on knowing this about yourself? She recommends reading Daniel Goleman and resources from the Positive Psychology Center.

And finally, find time to care for yourself. I’ve written a number of posts about this. You are a better teacher when you are taking care of yourself.

rejuvenation

It's hard to believe that it is already mid-Oct, and for those in Minnesota, that means it is MEA weekend. The Education Minnesota conference is going on today and tomorrow, and it provides teachers a chance to connect, learn, get some freebies, and have lunch for longer than 18 minutes with friends and colleagues. For others, this weekend is a chance to get away - one last fall weekend to the cabin. The chance to play with your children, read a book, knit, work on the yard or house projects that desperately need finishing before the winter. Whatever you do this weekend, take some time for yourself. Take a few minutes to do something YOU love to help you handle the stress of being a teacher. It is HARD WORK being a teacher, and you are pulled in many directions all at once. Sometimes we need a break.

While you're at it, perhaps you can develop some ways to handle the stress of teaching during the week too. Some teachers I talked to recently said they started to walk around the block at lunch. They ate their apples and yogurt on the go while chatting and getting some exercise. Since we all know how long the winters get, being able to get outside, even for 10 minutes, can boost our spirits and make us happier and more patient in the classroom. Maybe you could start noticing things your colleagues are doing well and write them a post-it note to leave in their mailbox. It might start a trend of positive feedback throughout your building. Maybe you want to learn about meditation and think a few minutes a day might help. Of course, there's an app for that. Or maybe, just maybe, you can ask for help. Think about what really stresses you out the most and ask for help.

Check out other posts about taking care of yourself here.

disillusioned

It is likely for many of you first year teachers that you are in a phase of disillusionment. This typically happens for first year teachers after a couple months of school and can last for quite a while. You may have been observed and evaluated by an administrator, which can add a lot of stress to an already stressful job, leading to uncertainty in your competence as a teacher. The reality of the commitment to teaching isn't always clear before you start teaching, and during the disillusionment phase, teachers can sometimes question their decision to become a teacher. You might have been sick once or twice (or more!) which compounds feelings of dissatisfaction. The needs of students feel urgent but classroom management issues might be getting in the way of accomplishing what you want to academically with your students.

What you need to know is that you are not alone. It might not help to know that others feel this way, but they do! I did big time in my first year of teaching, and still feel this way at times. It does go away, especially if you have a supportive network of folks to talk about this with - either at your school or friends from your preparation program, or friends who don't know teaching but know you and can provide some boosts to your self-esteem. But this feeling of disillusionment can be a very difficult challenge to get through in your first year of teaching. It is a very real and frustrating phase.

Winter break will provide you an opportunity to reflect and reset. You need some time to build yourself back up. Take lots of time for fun, and set some realistic goals for the spring, both professionally and personally.

I'm off next week, but will be back posting in 2012. Happy holidays, dear readers, and a warm, healthy, happy new year!

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References: http://newteachercenter.org/blog/phases-first-year-teaching

recharge

For all teachers, but particularly first year teachers, Education Minnesota Conference weekend can provide some necessary reflection time. At this point, you've likely fallen into survival mode. The newness of the year has worn off but you still can't quite catch up. This weekend can be a great opportunity to stop, connect, and recharge. If you're like me, you spent some time at the Professional Conference today, which is always a great opportunity to network or learn something new. But, as I would suspect, some of you took the opportunity to slow down a bit.

This long weekend might be a great opportunity to send an email or make a phone call to another new teacher you graduated with or you met at new teacher orientation. That person you've been meaning to find out how their year has been going but just haven't had the time? Yeah, that one. These friends can offer important personal and emotional support for you in this tough first year. They can also be a sounding board for instructional reflection and problem-solving. Particularly in my first year of teaching, I needed people to talk with about "my kids," people who understood how hard this job was and how nagging the concerns for students can be. How best intentions fall flat. How exhausting it is to plan 6 straight hours of instruction. every. day.

Even if you've been too busy to connect since you've left your programs or orientation, set aside a few minutes this weekend or in the next few weeks to reconnect with someone who can relate to where you are in this journey of your first year of teaching.

Whatever you have planned for this weekend, the conference, yard work, a last trip to the cabin, sleep, I hope that you can find some time to recharge.

take the time

Week 2 (or maybe 3 or 4!) is done. Phew, you made it! You're likely exhausted and under a pile of paperwork, grading, planning, and organizing. And if you're like me, you have plans to work most of the weekend. I've been teaching for 13 years, and I still take home work most nights and weekends. But, in reading English teacher Jim Burke's Letters to a New Teacher, a book I'll return to soon in another blog post, he says it well:

This work of ours will never get simple and never... get under control. We work in the midst of barely controlled chaos. You must set aside time for yourself on the weekends and each day during the week (even if it's only fifteen minutes!) to tend to your own needs. This is how I began reading poetry again. It's why I listen to books on tape. Because our work is never done, we can always be working. And then it consumes you and the next thing you know you lose the joy of teaching, and you join the ranks of the 60 percent who leave the profession within the first five years. You must teach yourself the habits that will allow you to sustain not only your love of teaching, but your love of life... You must, as hard as it can be, give yourself permission to get up from your desk and go into the garden, out to the beach, over to a friend's, or out to dinner for conversation about things other than teaching and school. This is essential for your personal and professional health. (p. 12)

You might not find an exact work-life balance (I still struggle with that), but you need to try. From experience and from watching many others suffer through it, if you are not happy and healthy, it won't make a hill of beans difference how late you stayed up to grade that last math quiz or make that new bulletin board. You have to do those things too, of course, but find some time every day for what nurtures you - work out, make a nice dinner, read Hollywood gossip, chat with a friend. You do have time. And it will pay off in the end.