COPING MECHANISMS OF TEACHERS IN THE NEW NORMAL

Rizalina R. Nacpil

If we are to talk about stress, no one can better explain it but the teachers. In the midst of the new normal phenomenon, teachers though not teaching face-to-face are facing the most difficult and challenging times more than ever.

Though already used in multi-tasking, teachers have undergone burnt out on the onset of the pandemic because of the adjustments they needed to adapt to. Instead of spending vacation as what they were used to, they were bombarded with a lot of virtual webinars which resulted to brain drain and physical exhaustion. They were also immersed in the creation of modules and Learning Activity Sheets in order to continue with alternative learning modalities to deliver quality basic education to learners. Printers and bond papers were also one of the biggest stressors they faced because DepEd do not have enough budget to allocate for the said printing of instructional materials. Along with these, reports and surveys regarding the conduct of new normal education filed up their list of things to do, stressing them with deadlines and unprecedented additional tasks. With so many this and that, teachers still have to function as parents, husbands or wives, sons or daughters, brothers or sisters, friends and co-workers, etc.

Now that the modules are intact, some divisions are requiring the teachers to come up with video lessons out of the Modules and LASs they had prepared from the last school year. Indeed, there are so many stressors every teacher is facing.

According to a research article from international journal of current research, there are two classifications of coping mechanisms as identified by Folkman in 1984 as cited by McLeod (2015). These are Action-Based Coping Mechanisms which involves directly dealing with the cause of stress and devise a solution to overcome it. The other one is the Emotion-Based Coping Mechanism which involves relieving stress through indirect ways like denial, distractions, humour or relaxation.

One common form of coping mechanisms according to the cited source is to know the cause of stress. If a teacher can identify what exactly stresses her, she will take action that will make the stressor easier to handle. For example, her stressor is the checking of LAS, she can design a plan on how to make it easier to check them. She can start immediately as soon as the first parent submits while waiting for other parents during the release and retrieval of LASs.

Another is the reinvention of skills and development. During the pandemic all of us were compelled to stay at home due to the ECQ. Because of social media, some teachers grabbed this opportunity to learn new skills or practice old skills they did like being plantitos and plantitas, embroidery, painting, dancing, singing, etc.

One more thing is keeping a healthy lifestyle. Because teachers have sedentary lifestyle like always sitting in front of the laptop, health issues continuously rise so they combat this stressor by engaging themselves in exercise like running, biking, Zumba, and other worthwhile physical activities while watching over their diet.

The last one is keeping the connection. Covid-19 pandemic has socially distanced us. Consciously or unconsciously, it stresses the teacher because it limited their ability to travel and visit friends and love ones. With this, teachers made sure their connection is intact even through social media. Teachers need to feel they are loved, cared for, are important and has a big role in the community. They get this feeling of selfassurance through maintaining their connection intact.

Teachers are teachers. No matter how stressful life maybe. They will continue educating the minds of their learners. Their value is at par beyond expectation.

The author

is Teacher

--oOo-

III at San Manuel Elementary School