Based upon your observations and experience in your classroom and school what are your ideas for improving mental wellness for your students? For your fellow educators? For yourself?
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Responses
Chronic Stress, economic Insecurity and mental health
Speaking for my self and generalizing to others, I feel that I/we still haven't recovered from the stress of the pandemic. I teach in higher education, and have a daughter and step-children that gives me a good sense of the emotional impact of everything we have been through. My intuition (and understanding of the research) says that economic and other "threats" have an ongoing impact of the emotional outcomes we are seeing in our kids and communities. I think as educators we are in a position to advocate for a more holistic approach to education policy, that includes access to…
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Mindfulness
I have found that even small mindfulness moments during the day can be helpful for all ages. It can be as simple as shutting off the lights for two minutes and sitting in silence. Playing white noise, ocean waves or soft music, plugging in a room freshner/incense, light a candle, opening the windows, closing eyes and imaging your favorite place to be, deep breaths, drawing in the mindfulness coloring books, flipping through a photo album. I could go on. My point is that almost any thought can be turned into a mindfulness moment as I call them. You don't need…
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Educator well-being and identity
A key element to educator mental wellness is ensuring that educators have the tools to understand that their work is one part of their identity. We are people first, and educators second. Popular culture is so full of ideas that perpetuate a standard of educators as martyrs. "In it for the outcome, not the income" needs to be relegated to the history books. Educators work for a paycheck - just like every other worker - and deserve to be compensated fairly for their labor.
We need to work together to ensure our union is leading the…
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