#55 SEL in the Covid Classroom & Beyond: Faculty Well-Being Matters, Too!

Student well-being has been a hot topic in education for a number of years. Unfortunately, during this same time period teacher well-being has plummeted. According to a recent survey,

• 78% of teachers experience frequent job-related stress
• 27% of teachers are experiencing symptoms of depression, &
• 54% of teachers are feeling burned out.

For most of the people reading this post, I am sure this is not a surprise. You were (and still are) in the trenches teaching kids during a pandemic! It is important to note that although the pandemic may have exacerbated levels of stress it certainly did not create them. Teacher stress has been a problem for a long time and it is time to tackle it head on.  In this post, I will explore why teacher well-being is important and ways to utilize schoolwide SEL to increase teacher well-being.

According to CASEL, schoolwide SEL is "a systematic approach to infusing social and emotional learning into every part of the students' educational experience - across all classrooms, during all parts of the school day and out-of-school time, and in partnership with families and communities" (The CASEL Guide to Schoolwide Essentials). There are four steps in the process of implementing a schoolwide SEL model.

1. Build Foundational Support and Plan: This includes creating and refining the vision and developing an implementation plan.
2. Strengthen Adult SEL: Developing staff capacity for cultivating their own social-emotional competencies.
3. Promote SEL for Students: Implementing programs and practices that provide opportunities to develop SEL competencies.
4. Reflect on Data for Continuous Improvement: Collecting, analyzing and utilizing data to review and revise practices.

Adult SEL (#2) is an integral part of an effective SEL program. Adults have the same needs as students do to feel empowered, valued, and supported. Teacher well-being matters, too!

Why We Need to Start with Teachers

High levels of stress have a detrimental effect on the teachers themselves and the students that they serve. It leads to decreases in overall teacher well-being, reduced job satisfaction, and high teacher turnover. It is estimated that 50% of teachers will leave the profession within their first 5 years of teaching. The National Commission in Teaching and America's Future estimates the cost of teacher turnover at $7.3 billion per year! In addition to the negative impact that stress has on the teachers themselves, it also affects their students. Research shows that when teachers are highly stressed student performance decreases. In contrast, teachers who have been trained to implement a classroom management program with an SEL curriculum, reported

• Greater efficacy for managing student behavior
• Higher levels of personal accomplishment compared to teachers in control schools
• Lower job-related anxiety and depression
• Higher quality classroom interactions with students
• Greater teacher engagement, and
• Greater perceived job control. (Source)

Teachers who develop SEL skills experience greater well-being and their students do better, too!

How We Integrate Adult SEL
SEL is not just for primary schools. It's not all touchy-feely or just about emotions. It's about research-based strategies that can improve the well-being for every single person in the school building. We can examine the implementation of  SEL from three different perspectives:

1. Positive Lifestyle Practices: We must normalize self-care. Grading all night should no longer be a badge of honor. We need to focus on sustainable teaching practices and encourage teachers to incorporate restorative practices into their daily routines. For example, this year my district is implementing weekly yoga classes just for teachers. The instructor will be traveling among the buildings to teach classes before school to the teachers who are interested. Another  example of restorative practices comes from our Humanities Division. The Humanities Division Leader is incorporating breathing exercises and mindfulness into her division meetings.  I am asking the teachers in my division to take a strengths-based approach to goal-setting this year. They will all be taking the Clifton Strengths Inventory to identify and develop their unique strengths. All of these practices have been shown to improve well-being and reduce stress.

2. Professional Development: Teachers need to receive training on the SEL competencies. SEL is a lifelong process that is reflection-driven. If a teacher can connect the competencies to their own lives it will not only improve their own well-being but they will become more effective teachers when teaching these skills to their students. Buy in from the staff means a more effective program for the students. At my school, we have created cross-departmental teams who will be meeting throughout the school year. Each meeting will focus on a SEL competency. They will explore what the competency is and share ways that they already incorporate it into their own instruction. When teachers have the opportunity to share and collaborate great things can happen! We have to give them the time to do so.

3. Mental Health Support: Appropriate mental health supports need to be made available during and after school. Teachers care deeply about their students and they worry about them often. This can lead to empathetic distress. Empathetic distress can occur when an individual is routinely exposed to the traumas of others. We need to reduce the stigma regarding mental health and promote an environment in which honest and safe discussions can occur.

Resources and Strategies to Promote Adult SEL in Schools
I am including some of my favorite SEL resources. These can be used for adults or students!

• 
  Greater Good in Education: This site is full of resources for adult and student well-being. The "My Well-Being" section includes information on competencies like self-awareness and social awareness. Each section includes information about what it is as well as practices related to it. There are activities organized by topics like mindfulness. I know mindfulness is something that I continually strive to develop and grow in my own life. This section includes easy to implement activities like mindful breathing, a brief body scan, and self-compassion. It can be really hard to start a new practice for yourself. However, I bet you will be a happier and more effective teacher if you give it a try!
• Three Signature Practices: These three practices can be implemented at an administrative level or on a daily basis in the classroom. You can see specific examples of each activity in the CASEL playbook.

1. Welcoming and Opening Activities: Brief activities designed to welcome, include and connect to everyone into the classroom.
2. Engaging Activities: These are instructional methods that are explicitly tied to SEL standards. I bet many of you are already familiar with many of the methods including Jigsaws, Socratic Seminars, and Think-Pair-Shares but you might not have realized how they directly support the students' social and emotional needs. One thing that I really appreciate about the CASEL playbook is that it clearly links each method to specific SEL competencies.
3. Optimistic Closure: These activities shine a light on what was learned or accomplished during the class period. Learning is a journey and a strong closing allows the students to reflect on their own learning.

• SEL for Educators: Companion Guide: This tool was specifically designed for professional development, coaching sessions, and PLC's. It can be used in conjunction with the "Three Signature Practices" and provides educators with the opportunity to explore and reflect on topics like purpose, privilege, bias, emotions, and an assets-based approach to education. This is appropriate for any adult in the educational setting, not just teachers!

Educators are natural caregivers. I bet at some point in the last year someone shared the "Oxygen Mask Rule" with you: if you don't take care of yourself first, then you will be unable to take care of anyone else. By supporting teachers and focusing on their well-being we are allowing them to put on their "oxygen masks" first. They are then able to focus on the well-being of their students because both student and teacher well-being matter. 

Best of luck this year!

Cori

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Additional Resources:

Alber, R. (2018, April 18). When teachers experience empathic distress. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/when-teachers-experience-empathic-distress.

The casel guide to Schoolwide SEL ESSENTIALS. Essentials - Casel Schoolguide. (n.d.). https://schoolguide.casel.org/essentials/.

Greenberg et al, M. T. (2019, July 26). Teacher stress and health. RWJF. https://www.rwjf.org/en/library/research/2016/07/teacher-stress-and-health.html.

Steiner, E., & Woo, A. (2019, July 26). Teacher stress and health. RWJF. https://www.rwjf.org/en/library/research/2016/07/teacher-stress-and-health.html.

Walker, S. O. (2020, July 1). Teachers are living in a tinderbox of stressful conditions. these scientific approaches can help. - edsurge news. EdSurge. https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-07-01-teachers-are-living-in-a-tinderbox-of-stressful-conditions-these-scientific-approaches-can-help.