Are you even a teacher if you didn’t break down and cry during your first week back to school this year?
Being a teacher is unbelievably hard and incredibly stressful. Teachers work endless hours beyond the school day, with low compensation, infrequent praise, and the pressure of increased demands being dumped on them by non-educators. This is the story of nearly every teacher in America.
The excessive amount of work a teacher attempts to accomplish in a single day is unbelievable and overwhelming. From planning lessons, teaching, managing students (and sometimes parents) behavior, assessing crashing learning platforms, dealing with fights, general student triage, writing reports, grading tests, monitoring classrooms with virtual rooms, lunch duty and meeting with the parents… and more. Being a teacher requires more than just intellectual commitment it requires a superhero.
Considering the numerous tasks teachers juggle with on a daily basis, their stress levels are often immensely high, which can lead to rapid burn-out and the birth of mental illnesses such as anxiety disorder, depression, addictions, and may even trigger suicidal thoughts.
When it comes to mental health matters and extreme stressors, many may still advise “it’s all in your head” or “it will eventually get better” until their body and minds start showing signs of wear.
What’s a good way to deal with teacher stress?
Developing the skills that teachers work tirelessly to cultivate in their students, is crucial. Self-awareness, self-care and self-control through social-emotional learning (SEL), is key.
SEL not only helps educators better manage their daily stressors, it’s also something your students, colleagues and family, will benefit from. With adequate social-emotional skills, one is able to recognize and understand his/her emotions, thoughts, and the impact their behaviors have on those around them.
Enhancing teacher health, can be cultivated by:
- Identifying and expressing emotions in a healthy manner.
- Recognizing and celebrating your personal strengths and challenges. Talking with colleagues.
- Having adequate self-confidence and an accurate self-perception of abilities and needs.
- Manifesting a growth mindset.
If you feel like work is a crisis in the making, you are short-tempered and stressed out to the max, look within and self-reflect. The work needed to develop and improve coping and conflict-resolution skills, will pay-off, tenfold.
In case your mental health does not seem to be improving, consider reaching out to your Employee Assistance Program (EAP counseling is usually FREE), or reach out to a counselor. Teachers, take care of yourself, so you are fully capable of being the best teacher (superhero) you can be.