De-stress teachers — safeguard prep time
Teachers returned to school campuses last week. When not in meetings, they were busy arranging desks, decorating walls, checking out textbooks, and teching-out hardware and software issues. Collaborations with colleagues about pacing and activities translated to lesson plan creation for when students arrive on Thursday. As opening day for students approaches, teacher excitement is mixed with some nervousness.
Concerns range from disruptive student behaviors to delivery of new tech-based lessons. Invariably changes from last year can be stress inducing like new colleagues, classrooms, grade levels or content. Challenges of time constraints from meetings that limit classroom access also cause stress as teachers worry about being ready to start.
Stress exists on a continuum. The unhealthy end of the stress continuum feels more desperate and panicked with sleepless nights, tears and overwhelm. The teacher shortage means candidates with less preparation are filling our classrooms and may need more support. One of the most powerful mitigating factors to de-stress teachers is an understanding administrator who sets a positive tone for the year. Yet principals also face pressures from parents, community members, the district office, board members, students, and staff. They have to enforce mandates they didn’t make. Issues of safety as well as budget decisions weigh on them. They do things for kids no one ever sees.
Teachers have colleagues to vent to, but many of administrators’ toughest issues are confidential and shouldered alone. Teachers get to experience the joy of educating young people, while principals often miss out on the positive student interactions because they’re constantly putting out fires including making decisions that often disappoint someone.
Jennifer Gonzales in her Cult of Pedagogy blog post wrote a letter to administrators highlighting several actions principals could take that would help de-stress teachers so they can better serve students. She said teachers feel supported when prep time is safeguarded, training is differentiated, and specific feedback is offered after observations.
Teacher time is a precious commodity that needs to be safeguarded. Prep time when students are not in class is usually less than an hour a day during which a whole host of responsibilities must be handled.
Teachers create lesson plans, correct assignments, copy new activities. They communicate with parents, collaborate with their colleagues, and meet with students for extra help. Troubleshooting technology, entering electronic grades and completing additional paperwork is also needed.
This is too much to get done in the time slot provided so they have to decide if they’re going to take work home on evenings and weekends or just not do it. Consequently, lessons aren’t as engaging, feedback isn’t as meaningful and collaboration gets postponed. Time is a resource that can’t be recovered and quality of instruction suffers when it’s lost.
Gonzalez described a teacher’s workload like a heavy backpack with no room left for adding anything else. They would appreciate being released from an old requirement in order to fit in a new task. Reducing the number of staff meetings, keeping classroom interruptions to a minimum and allowing them time in their rooms to implement the things they have already learned is treating them like the professionals they are.
Teachers have unique strengths and weaknesses and need different levels of support. Differentiated expectations about the submission of lesson plans might mean newer teachers needing this support for their success submit weekly plans while experienced teachers don’t have to submit at all.
Providing choice for professional development allows differentiation because teachers rarely need to hear one speaker deliver one message. Offering an array of professional development sessions lets them pick the one that most directly aligns to their needs.
Specific principal feedback after a classroom visit helps teachers feel appreciated and improves their instruction. For example, “You redirected that student respectfully and made sure to allow enough think time.”