Teachers: between professional risk taker and elite athlete
I ended my last post with the statement that “only highly motivated and trained teachers will be able to bring the necessary changes to our classrooms”. But in these times full of uncertainty, are we providing teachers with the support they need?
Without doubt, as a result of the experiences and emotional stress of the last months, we are all more vulnerable and more exposed to our emotions. The difference is that teachers do not only have to manage their own feelings and stress, but, at the same time, we expect them to be role models for their students. We hope that they will help our children to manage their uncertainty and their frustration with the current situation.
In a recent interview with RE.SCHOOL, Anna Ramis, teacher and pedagogue, called teaching a “risk profession”, as teachers “act on the front line with emotions and feelings” (watch the whole interview here, in Spanish). Not without reason, one of the main causes of teachers’ sick leave is emotional stress. And in many countries, teachers’ sick leave has reached all-time record numbers.
According to Ramis, in general, teachers lack the knowledge, support and tools to manage stress. In our current complex times caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, three levels of stress in particular need to be addressed:
Management of groups of students: while teachers are well prepared to deliver the curriculum and their lesson’s content, many teachers lack the skills or support to deal with challenging students or groups.
Stress caused by their relationship with families.
Internal difficulties within the school or amongst colleagues and constantly changing criteria and rules imposed by COVID-19.
We will address these and other questions related to teacher wellbeing in our upcoming RE.SCHOOL Bite on October 28th, 2020 (6pm London time). Under the title "The teacher, an elite athlete”, Xesco Espar, former handball coach and professional trainer; Fidelma Murphy, Director of Cognita International Schools in Spain; and Julia Merino, Olympic athlete who is currently responsible for educational innovation at the Junta de Castilla y León, will discuss ideas and solutions for maximum stress situations. The event will be held in Spanish, but we will publish an English-language summary of the discussed insights after the event (I will update this post with a download link once published).
Interested teachers can sign up here for free.
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