Practicing Self-Care for Teachers
We love our teachers! Maybe it was the 6 years I was a teacher in the lower and middle school classrooms, the fact that my mom was a teacher, or that some of my fondest childhood memories are at school where some of my favorite teachers cared for and advocated for me, but I have the utmost respect for educators. The last two years of juggling distance learning, new protocols, and ever-changing benchmarks have left teachers more burned out than ever. The School of Education estimates that between five and 30 percent of teachers show distinct symptoms of burnout at any given time. National teacher attrition hovers around 8% year to year.
The weeks leading up to Spring Break can be frenzied and stressful. Students—and teachers alike—are counting down the days to their ski trips and beach vacations. We want to love on our teachers and help them curate self-care opportunities throughout their weeks to manage mental health, balance their workload, and recenter. See below for some helpful tips and tricks.
Self-Care Ideas for Teachers
Self-care is an important component of a teacher’s mental health, but there are misconceptions about what it is. It’s common for educators to dismiss the self-care movement as “selfish” or “superficial.” But for teachers, self-care is so much more than breakfast in bed or treating yourself to a spa day. It’s about taking care of your health so that you’re prepared to be the best teacher you can be for yourself and your students.
The definition of self-care is any action that you use to improve your health and well-being. According to the National Institute of Mental Illness (NAMI), there are six elements to self-care:
Physical
Psychological
Emotional
Spiritual
Social
Professional
Over 40% of teachers report feeling high stress every day during the school year, which ties teaching with nursing as having the highest stress rate of any career.
Causes of stress can include lack of resources, class behavioral problems, or pressure relating to standardized test expectations, just to name a few, but they all lead to the same outcomes: weakened physical and emotional health.
When left unchecked, teacher stress can lead to burnout and contribute to the high turnover rate in education. But self-care can turn this around and help keep teachers from getting burned out. This means that self-care isn’t just a good personal habit, but it’s in your students’ and colleagues’ best interest, too. By eating well, sleeping enough, exercising, and finding other ways to take care of yourself, self-care can help you reach your potential in the classroom, which will in turn help your students succeed, too.
Tips for self care:
make sure to plan at least 10 or 20 minutes a day where you can take a break and decompress by yourself.
Without a sense of compassion for yourself, you can’t practice positive self-care. If you struggle with low confidence levels, find ways to work on and improve your self-image.
Bring a self-care “emergency pack” to school with things you enjoy so you can de-stress during your break if needed.
Learning to recognize and process your emotions can lead to healthy self-care habits. Keep a journal and write in it to work through difficult teaching days when you feel overwhelmed.
Social support is an important factor in self-care, so find a way to connect with loved ones at least once a day. This could be having dinner with your family, calling a friend, or relaxing with your significant other.