Mental well-being is a very important part of being a healthy human. When someone’s mental heath is suffering it is hard to push through and get daily tasks done. Many of our youth in America deal with mental health struggles on a daily basis. Often times, these issue bleed into school work and grades. What can teachers do to better support their students? What can they do to improve their own mental health struggles?
One strategy for teachers is to practice emotional literacy in their classes. This allows teachers to help their students without putting too much stress on themselves. Emotional literacy is having awareness of your emotions and being able to manage them, as well as recognizes others’ emotions (emtionallyhealthyschools.org). Emotional literacy can be incorporated into lesson plans and taught within the curriculum. For example, “English teachers can have students discuss character emotions, while a science teacher can discuss the nervous system and how to stay calm” (edutopia.org). This is an easy and effective way to get students comfortable with talking about emotions and regulating them.
Another good skill set for teachers to have is empathy and sympathy. Empathy is the ability to understand others’ emotions. Many students silently suffer mentally and aren’t willing to speak up, or when they do, they are dismissed and treated rudely. Everyone has emotions, and especially as an educator, I think it’s important to value them. Simply being understanding of a students struggles and helping them can make a huge difference. Helping can be allowing them to go to the counselor during class, giving them a day extension on an assignment, or giving out candy to lighten their mood. In addition to this, sympathy is a sincere feeling of concern for someone else. Sympathy allows you to feel for someone else and get help. If a student is raising a concern, voice your concerns. This could save a student both physically and mentally. These two qualities being used together, can improve student’s mental health while not compromising the teachers.
Lastly, for students, teachers should attempt to implement stress-free class days. Whether it be once a week or once a month, there should be a mental health day in class. Teachers could play games with students, give out candy, give homework time, give free time, bring them outside, etc. These types of days allow students to “play and experiment” (arthurmorganschool.org). It takes stress away and gives students a chance to take a break. Free time is also beneficial to education. “It promotes growth and gives students the chance to internalize their educational skills” (arthurmorganschools.org). Free time is imperative for focused learning and maintaining the interest of students. The one stipulation for free time, is that there should not be an expectation on it. Free time is not free time if it’s only meant for homework. Encourage students to talk, play games, or do a fun activity with them.
Now, how can teachers take care of their mental health? Start to incorporate stress relievers into your everyday life. This could be exercise, watching your favorite show, getting a sweet-treat for yourself, or any form of self-care. Making this apart of your day can increase serotonin and improve your overall mood. This makes you a kinder and more patient educator. Prioritize lower stress overall. This will improve the quality of your job and daily life as a whole.
Next, hold reasonable expectations for yourself and what you are able to accomplish (tuipay.com) When teaching, there are countless way teacher look to improve their student’s learning and their environment. However, sometimes they are not all achievable. Prioritizing the things you can or need to over the things you want to do prevents excess stress. Make a list of things you are fully capable of doing and that will improve the education process for everyone, including yourself.
Lastly, set goals for yourself only (prodigygame.com). Make these goals something that will make you not only happy, but fulfilled. These goals shouldn’t involve teaching at all. They should be things such as, saving up for a weekend away, going to the gym everyday, separating work from home, making more you time, etc. Some of these goals are bigger and some are smaller, but they all prioritize you.
In order for a classroom to work, teachers have to support their students in a safe and effective way. That being said, teachers also need to take care of themselves to be able to be a good supporter of their students.
https://www.edutopia.org/article/the-doctor-is-in-your-classroom/
https://www.prodigygame.com/main-en/blog/teacher-self-care/
