Boosting the Morale of Teachers during Pandemic
Dr.Amparo M. Muñoz
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought teachers’ lives to a standstill across the world . It has created fear, worry, depression, and anxiety . They are feeling the extraordinary ripple effect of this pandemic and are grappling with uncertainties about how they’re going to facilitate instruction for the bulk of the 2020-2021 academic year.They did not have the faintest idea that this pandemic would compel them to teach in a dramatically different way .
While the “new normal’ set up in the classroom context can posit anguish to teachers, since they have not been trained for emergency online teaching and distant remote learning prior to this pandemic plus the nationwide trend that is being said about them such as receiving salary while working-from-home have resulted to a significant decrease in their over-all morale. ?Though they have shown a positive outlook in life amid the COVID-19 outbreak, they are still susceptible to the anxieties since the pandemic is still ongoing worldwide. Now, more than ever, teachers need and deserve all the support they can get to boost their low spirits during this unprecedented times.
Putting it into perspective, the bloodstream of the educational system is the daily toil of more than eight hundred public school teachers in the Department.It is them who design the lessons, facilitate the instruction, assess learning, and work collaboratively with colleagues, school heads and parents in the community. They also build the critical relationships with learners and create communities within classrooms and schools. It is ultimately the teachers that are charged with the task of achieving the broad goals of public education. Unfortunately, the current state of the teaching workforce does not provide an encouraging picture. The teachers’ morale has taken a serious tumble as they come close to class opening in October.
For so many reasons, teachers worry about how to deal with learners who have no digital equipment such as smart phones and computers to access easy communication for the approaching class opening. They are spending days and weeks devising learning materials in new formats for instruction since the educational set up has changed. They are forming support groups, sharing instructional materials, creating innovative approaches and continuing to spend vast amounts of time answering questions, working with incoming learners individually or in groups, and communicating with parents. No one needs to tell them that the instruction this time of pandemic isn't easy; they know it first-hand; they live it every day. And when schools reopen, they will place their lives and their families' lives in jeopardy, as they meet with learners and parents, just as they did before schools belatedly closed.
Apparently what the teachers are getting now such as online bashing, humiliating memes on social media and harsh unsolicited remarks are tearing their confidence .Now more than ever,they need to feel they are valued and recognized, because this current state in the school system they are all in is a new territory . It is like they are venturing into the unknown.
The lack of teachers’ morale affects the organization in more ways than you can expect. Overtly stressed and low spirited teachers will result in poorer quality of work which will be detrimental to the organization. Show our teachers some respect , support and love It will not cost us a cent to do that.
We don’t know what the future will bring for our educational systems during this crisis but we do know that teachers will play an important role in shaping plans that are best for our learners , for our school community and for our country .
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The author is Principal IV at Cristo Rey High School, DepEd Tarlac Province