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CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — With Prince’s “Raspberry Beret” blaring in the background, about 20 New Hampshire teachers grabbed wooden sticks and began pounding their desks.
Emily Daniels, who was leading a two-day workshop on burnout, encouraged a group of teachers, school counselors, occupational therapists and social workers to stand in a hotel conference room. Soon the team found walls and anything else. Laughter filled the air. A few started dancing.
“Rhythm work gives the body a different predictor of what you can do each day,” says Daniels, a former school counselor who created a control unit that teaches teachers how to manage their own nervous system and reduce stress in turn. in the classroom.
The training session is a growing and, some say, effort to address the mental health of teachers is long overdue.
Addressing the mental health challenges of students emerging from the pandemic has become a top priority for schools nationwide. Many districts, facing recruitment challenges, are looking to teachers as a way to help and retain students, with concerns ranging from behavior problems to gunshot wounds.
School districts have provided additional mental health training to staff, classroom support, and resources and systems focused on identifying burned-out teachers and empowering teachers to help them.
Karen Bowden-Gurley, a fifth-grade teacher who participated in the training in New Hampshire, said she felt teacher burnout but also student burnout.
“The demands on all of us were very high and we were trying to make up for the two years they missed in the curriculum. But we forgot that they missed that social-emotional component because they were out of school for two years. We’re addressing that in the classroom.
According to a survey conducted by the Rand Corporation, principals and teachers experience work-related stress twice as often as other working adults. In a study by the New Orleans Coalition of Mental Health Organizations, teachers working during the pandemic reported similar rates of mood disorders to health care workers – 36% positive for anxiety, 35% for depression and 19% for post-traumatic stress disorder.
“It’s all very bad,” said Leigh McLean, principal investigator at the Delaware School of Education’s Teacher Emotions, Behaviors and Health Lab, which finds depression, anxiety and emotional exhaustion among elementary school teachers. 100 to 400% higher than before the pandemic.
She has seen those issues increase among early career teachers and teachers of color.
“So the pattern among teachers seems to reflect the inequity that we see in the general population, with underrepresented groups being hurt the most, which is really sad,” she said.
Some districts are planning to invest federal Covid-19 aid money in teacher mental health, seeing it as a way to improve classroom environments, increase retention and ultimately benefit the students themselves. Among the states that have made teacher mental health a priority are Nebraska and Pennsylvania.
The Atlanta School District started a service with Emory University using federal funds to provide mental health services. Dubbed Urgent Behavioral Health Response, it will provide funding from Emory for 11 clinics that provide emotional and behavioral support to school staff who struggle during school hours.
The Delaware district has hired two social and emotional learning coaches who work to address the challenges teachers face in the classroom.
John Cooper, director of health and wellness at the Colonial School District, said, “If a teacher can imagine having a classroom where students are engaged, helping each other and having a positive culture of support, their job satisfaction is likely to be higher.” Division of health. “They are less likely to leave the profession, and this also supports their security.”
Houston Independent School District, which has started building calming rooms where students can go to decompress, hopes to do the same for teachers, said Shane Ricks, senior manager of crisis intervention for the Houston Independent School District. who were in distress.”
The rooms will be different from traditional teacher break rooms and places where teachers can go “to calm down and relax” during breaks, Ricks said, adding, “It could have some aromatherapy, maybe soft music.”
“We want them to understand that sometimes during the academic day we need to take a break and take care of ourselves,” Ricks said.
An elementary school in Indiana kicks off the week with a surprise Monday, when teachers lead their classes through deep breathing techniques. There are also Thinking Thursdays, where students are invited to write letters to show appreciation to a staff member, and Focus Fridays, when students and teachers talk about self-care.
“My teachers know they need to take breaks throughout the day,” said Alison Allen-Lenso, principal of O’Bannon Elementary School.
A growing number of groups offer training that includes breathing exercises, yoga, gentle movements and meditation.
One of these is developing awareness and resilience in education or care. In a study of 224 New York City teachers using it, researchers found statistically significant improvements, including reductions in psychological stress, stress from not having enough time, and quality classroom interactions. Researchers have found that students who show an increase in engagement do so as well.
Tish Jennings, a professor of education at the University of Virginia, who led the team that created CARE and is the lead researcher, said: “Because your attention is working externally, your stress levels can be elevated without you even realizing it.” Studying the program. “So what these practices do is build a capacity to become more aware of how you’re feeling at any given moment, so you can be alert.”
Back in New Hampshire, the instructors pushed aside the tables and mastered a series of stretching exercises known as qigong. They then gathered in a circle for an exercise aimed at synchronizing their nervous systems. They started clapping their hands and snapping their fingers in unison, known as collective rhythm making.
The teachers in the classroom training are encouraged by these new tools – even if they are a little unusual at first glance. Bowden-Gurley felt they allowed her to “train her brain to think differently” and planned to build a better sense of community in the classroom and build more confidence with her students.
Kindergarten teacher Kelly Hurd said the training helped her figure out what to do in the new school year.
“I love teaching and I love the kids, but it’s also hard,” said Hurd, who experienced burnout before the outbreak and was part of the New Hampshire training. “The epidemic was very severe and very impactful and very stressful. I feel rejuvenated and happy and I feel like I’ve been given permission to have more fun and focus on the joy of school.
(Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This article may not be published, distributed, rewritten, or redistributed without permission.)
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