Photo by Bernard Hermant on Unsplash

LOL!

This was the first reaction from both my partnering educator and another teacher when I asked them about their self care practices. One EA told me that when I choose this profession I’ll need to give up on some things – and my first reaction to that was “F*ck that…”

How can self care be the thing that is dropped from a person’s life when things get busy, more importantly – WHY is it the first thing that gets kicked to the curb. There are so many quotes about self care –

‘If you don’t take care of yourself, who will?’

‘If you do not make time for your wellness, you will be forced to make time for your illness’

‘If the Mamma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy!’

And yet, people will put their needs aside for other ‘responsibilities’ – family and work mostly.  Mom guilt and work guilt is a real thing for some people.

What was also really interesting is that these teachers are including mindfulness practices into their classrooms, yet sound like this is not something practiced at home. Mindfulness seemed  to be used to help with transitions from higher energy activities to lower energy activities (retuning from recess and transitioning to learning for example). While I am in favour of bringing these skills into the classroom, I think there needs to be more purpose behind it other than calm them down in the moment.

With the rise of anxiety in youth, bringing in tools and teaching skills for self-regulation would be very helpful in a classroom; one teacher said their school starts introducing it as soon as Kindergarten and how beneficial that is. As they start to get older they recognize when they need help and know what tools to use to support them selves when things get too overwhelming for them. What a gift.

My question then is, if a teacher is not practicing self care and burning themselves out, how are they able to be a role model to students when they are showing signs of burnout? If there is one thing that can turn a bad situation into a worse situation is when an escalated person is trying to de-escalate a person…

Photo by Andre Hunter on Unsplash

So, my aim is looking at ways to take care of myself so I do not burn out and I am available to support students who are dealing with their  many emotions and behaviours.