Educators need me time, too

Taking regular breaks and practising empathy key to managing stress

IN the aftermath of the Covid-19 outbreak, teachers have had to cope with delivering their lessons via online instruction, while ensuring their students are not left behind in their studies.

After months of pressure getting their students through the syllabus, many teachers such as Shaarmila Jeyaraman are feeling burned out.

Shaarmila, a teacher at an international school in Kuching, Sarawak, said her resistance is tested every day as she juggles various roles and responsibilities.

Shaarmila was one of the 441 teachers nationwide who took part in the Positive Education online conference organised by Heriot-watt University Malaysia (HWUM) recently.

The conference, themed Resilient Online Teaching, sought to provide Malaysian teachers with the practical knowledge and tools to better cope with the stresses of online teaching.

It also aimed to promote the importance of mental health and positive education, which can empower teachers to manage stress and be more satisfied at work.

The two-hour session featured a talk on the science of resilience by HWUM Department of Psychology head and professor of positive psychology Prof Deborah Hall, as well as a practical sharing session on coping with online teaching conducted by the university’s Department of Teaching and Learning effective learning manager Stella Marie Galimpin.

Prof Hall said the university hoped to achieve two main objectives through the positive education campaign.

“The first was to publicly recognise and highlight the challenges faced by our teaching community in Malaysia, while the second was to share our knowledge and expertise with schoolteachers,” she said.

It is hoped that by doing so, there would be an increase of awareness among the public, policymakers and other stakeholders about the achievements of teachers in the face of adversity, she added.

Here are a few tips on preventing burnout and building resilience, as shared by the two experts: