Teacher Well-Being in Today's Educational Environment

Teacher Well-Being in Today's Educational Environment

Click here to watch a video about my take on the challenges of teaches today:

The Teaching Landslide 

For a complete video transcript and references see below:

    My presentation is the teaching landslide. 

    The reading I’ve done made me think about the Landslide song from Stevie Nicks. And as I went

through the different materials from Ginley’s Voices from the Field and from the Loewus Ed week

article, certain lyrics popped in my head throughout the time and it kind of seemed appropriate while I

was reading.A little bit about me, I‘ve worked in technology HR and Behavioral Healthcare technology and I felt like I

had climbed up that mountain. And every time I turned around, especially when I was working in Chicago and Philadelphia, we were working in public schools that had classrooms that had behavioral specialists and I just wanted to be in the school.  I always wanted to be a teacher. And every time I went to one of the classrooms, I just, it just, kept that fire burning inside me. So this is now my eighth year teaching. I taught in a voucher School in Wisconsin that was in between Milwaukee and Chicago and I teach now is Southeastern Georgia West of Brunswick right by the Okefenokee Swamp. I've taught gifted kindergarten, first grade, fourth grade, inclusive, just Ela sometimes, in person, digital distance, using paper packets, which is its own challenge. And also I've been ELA chair and grade-level chair for a few years. 

    Now, the ocean constantly changes and over the five years that teachers teach the some of them

do lose their passion. Why? Because of the low earning the working conditions, the lack of mentoring

collaboration. That was something that really resonated with me, discipline issues, lack of support,

respecting the resources, the pressure of these high-stakes testing that we do plus all the data

collection, and then there's a developmentally inappropriate expectations that are tested on the

high-stakes testing.

    This is a picture from our opening session pep rally that we had in July and we had a Wordle based

upon a survey that we have taken while we were there in the audience. There's a thousand staff from bus

drivers to teachers to admin to kitchen staff and our presenter was saying, “look at how excited everyone

is!” and the murmur in the audience was pointing out that we are worried and cautious that we are

overwhelmed. That we are challenged. We are scared. We are scared to death. We are apprehensive

and exhausted. We have anxiety. We're concerned. We have all these other feelings and they're just not

being addressed, and it's overwhelming, yet still a little exciting because it's what we love to do, but

there's so many other underlying emotions there, too. 

    So why do we stay? Well, you know, time does make you bolder, you have a love of the field that

you're not willing to give up and you see the progress being made. Some of it is so helpful when you

have good, collaborating and wonderful, professional development and when you can get that support

within your school from the parents, from the community, that's why we stay. 

So why do I personally stay? You know, last year is, this is my bitmoji classroom for when I was digital

and, you know, as challenging as everything was last year. I love and I understand my students and year

after year that's why I stay; it’s for the students. I love them so much and I can see that. I am actually

helping not just in the data but also in them as people and I'm inspired by unicorns, unicorns of

professional development like Annette Breaux and Ron Clark, being able to meet them and to be

inspired by them and for them to still make themselves available even after the sessions over and to

answer questions and to continue inspiring is just something that keeps me wanting to stay. 

    So, what threatens our passion? Well, you know as much as you build your whole life around

teaching, sometimes there's that threat and you might succumb to it and want to quit, there is politics within the school outside the school, the school board, the state, the federal Politics, the changing

climate of teaching be at the digital situation, or even just this testing that we have to deal with and all of the stress. It's such an incredibly stressful career. These are all my references that I used, and it was a pleasure of presenting to you. 

References

Ginley, Mary. “Chapter 2.” Why We Teach Now, edited by Sonia Nieto, Teachers College Press, 2015, pp. 23–35.

Landslide [CD]. (n.d.). 1975. Stevie Nicks.

Laureate, Inc. (2019f). Voices from the field: Learning environments and changing students. [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Loewus, L. (2021, June 04). Why Teachers Leave-or Don't: A Look at the Numbers. Retrieved from https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/why-teachers-leave-or-dont-a-look-at-the-numbers/2021/05

Plan to Have an Impact on Positive Social Change

 Plan to Have an Impact on Positive Social Change

My own definition of social change is changing something that affects society/the community to the point

where it changes. It may be quick or slow going depending on the change. 

After reading about Walden’s mission and vision, I find my definition coincides with Walden’s ideas. One of

Walden’s goals is to create “change-makers” (Walden-a, pg. 21). By definition the person or people who

cause change are change-makers.

It is important to note that social change can be good or bad. There is a great need for positive social

change in the global education environment. In the past, it seems like education was not geared towards

making a social change unless that was the exact major. However, nowadays, as evidenced in Walden’s

Mission and Vision, education can include gaining the knowledge to empower someone with the

confidence to initiate change.  Local change is no longer done in a  vacuum. With magazines, newspapers,

and social media in general, local change can spread quickly to a wider environment. 

I feel empowered to lead a change in my local school setting. My school leadership encourages cautious

growth, development, and sharing of knowledge. I have been able to lead certain curricular changes and a

few social changes related to diversity recognition within my school. I plan to continue this growth and

development with myself and my students.

References

Walden University. (2017). Walden 2020: A vision for social change. https://www.waldenu.edu/-/media/Walden/files/about-walden/walden-university-2017-

social-change-report-final-v-2.pdf?la=en

Walden University. (n.d.). Social change. https://www.waldenu.edu/about/social-change

Walden University. (n.d.-a). 5 things that everyone should know about social change.

https://www.waldenu.edu/about/social-change/resource/five-things-that-everyone-should- 

 know-about-social-change

Teaching and Learning Issue

 Teaching and Learning Issue

The importance of our students' social-emotional well-being has been highlighted in the time of the Coronavirus pandemic. My team came together and discussed CASEL's social-emotional learning competencies then collaborated on an informational journal. An excerpt containing my thoughts is below:

SEL and Cultural Competence in Ware County School District

District-wide Plan 

Like many school districts throughout the country, Ware County School District, located in

southeastern Georgia, needed to reflect and regroup before reopening in August 2020. In response,

Ware County School District formed a Reopening Committee consisting of principals, Board of

Education members, and select additional staff. The Reopening Plan for the 2020-2021 school year

that was created included a Social-Emotional Learning section. 

 The Social-Emotional Learning section included five action items. Ware County School District

hired additional mental health staff. They also provided information to access resources for teachers,

staff, students, and their families. Ware County School District also provided targeted assistance for

“at-risk” or identified staff and students that would benefit from mental health counseling support.

They were also implementing digital student surveys in order to gauge the students’ social-emotional

well-being from grades K through 12. And lastly, Ware County School District was adding more

professional development focusing on social-emotional learning for staff (Ware County, 2020). 

Inside the classroom, many of the social-emotional learning activities fall under the Positive behavior

Interventions and Supports (PBIS) framework. For example, a house system licensed and modeled

after the Ron Clark Academy House System was rolled out in various schools to create a feeling of

belonging and camaraderie among students and staff. Houses have staff mentors as well as older,

more senior students taking on leadership roles.  Four-year-old kindergarten uses the Second Step

program in the classroom. The digital Kelvin Survey was given to the students periodically in the

form of a brown dog who pops up on their screen after log in who would then ask social-emotional

questions and check-in with the students.  The results are basically anonymous. Feedback is

categorized and returned to mental health staff. However, any alarming responses were noted, and

then the company would provide that user’s information so the School District could reach out to

offer assistance.

To read this journal in its entirety: click here