1. Make teacher salary more competitive.

Teachers must earn bachelor’s degrees at minimum to obtain a teaching position, which is a big “duh,” but in some places, master’s degrees are required. Comparable fields that require the same amount of schooling pay considerably far more than teaching. According to Money.com, teachers earn 18.7% less than workers in comparable fields. If you need money to live (spoiler alert: you do), this isn’t good news. Why get a teaching degree when you can put in the same time and effort in another field and make significantly more money?

2. Help teachers eliminate student loan debt.

Speaking of salary, a good chunk of it goes to paying off student loan debt. Unless you’re somehow magical (if so, please teach us your ways, sensei) or you received a large inheritance, most people need to take out student loans to attend college, especially when getting advanced degrees. Depending on how much of your schooling you had to finance, beginning teacher salaries often don’t support individuals paying back their loans.

3. Create a culture that makes it acceptable for teachers to only work contract hours.

In case anyone was still confused, teachers DO NOT just work from 9 to 3 or whatever hours the students attend school. Lesson plans, prepared materials, and graded work doesn’t just magically land on teacher desks each day. Most of that is done on evenings, weekends, and school breaks. Teachers who try to create boundaries and only work their contracted hours are often shamed. The workload and actual working hours required to manage that load needs to be overhauled from the top or teacher burnout will continue.

4. Get rid of unrealistic pressure on teachers.

Not only do teachers work crazy hours attempting to complete the most fundamental aspects of their job, but more to-dos are also added yearly. Just when you think you have a sound multi-tasking system that just barely keeps your head above water, a new task is added, and back to drowning you go. And that’s without the added pressure and responsibility of pandemic teaching.

5. Show teachers more respect.

Oh, the disrespect. It comes from every angle, and it’s relentless and suffocating. In what other career do highly qualified individuals have their ability to do their jobs questioned and nitpicked daily by laypeople who have not one iota of what it takes to teach? OK, so there are other professions, but they get paid enough to make up for the disrespect.

6. Mentor and support new teachers.

Often new teachers are thrown into the ring with very little to no help from mentors or administration. Sure, we learn the concepts, theories, and best-case scenarios in school, but teacher college doesn’t prepare for the utter insanity that is teaching. New teachers are much more likely to make it the first year when they have someone checking in on them regularly with words of encouragement and advice about what to do when a student cuts their hair off during that cute art project you just knew would be a total hit.

7. Allow teachers to focus on teaching instead of discipline and safety concerns.

From writing profanity on the whiteboard for the teacher to find after a sub day to actual dangerous situations, teaching at times is 90% behavior management and 10% actual teaching. When there isn’t adequate support coming from school admin and parents at home, teachers are left to handle situations that are 100% outside of our paygrade.

8. Administrators need to take a hard look at their role in the teacher shortage.

Whether a teacher makes it the first few years is largely dependent on their administration. If admins are supportive, handle discipline issues appropriately, and lay off as much as possible with the micromanagement, new teachers (and experienced ones, too) are less likely to leave the profession screaming.

9. Let teachers just teach.

Imagine making the salary teachers do and ONLY needing to teach. Teacher pay would ALMOST match teacher duties. But no, teachers are now, along with being teachers, counselors, social workers, custodians, doctors, foster parents, and hostage negotiators. The demands and responsibilities of teachers are too demanding even for the most seasoned, hardened educator. Now imagine a brand new, unsuspecting teacher being tasked with curing all of society’s ills. It’s a load to have for many teachers to carry for long.

Teachers have a passion for what they do. and want to make a difference in their students’ lives. However, teachers deserve fair wages, support, and respect in line with what other professionals receive. Until that changes, the teacher shortage is likely to worsen.

Reference: https://www.boredteachers.com/post/as-long-as-theyre-reading

1. First, recognize that your struggle is valid, no matter what you’re struggling with.

Don’t be ashamed of what makes you stressed. “A lot of people say, ‘Well, I wasn’t in a war…’ They have to learn what the most common adversities are and see those as being legitimate chronic stressors.”

2. Then realize the ways you’re already resilient.

“You may not have alcoholism or drug abuse in your home, but I’m guessing you’ve been through something. Think about, ‘What were the three toughest times in my life? How did I get through those things?’ You probably already know something about being resilient.”

3. Don’t wait for the situation to fix itself.

“Resilient people tend to be active copers. They say, ‘What am I going to do about this?’ versus, ‘When will I be released from this?’ It may not be solved overnight, but every problem can be approached somehow.”

4. Know your strengths and use them.

“In general, resilient people tend to use the strengths they have. For different people, those are different. Some people have a great personality. For other people, it’s smarts or some sort of talent or a real work ethic. They use that to grab onto, to get through whatever’s in front of them.”

5. Don’t try to do it alone…

“One of the biggest predictors of faring well after an adversity is having people who cared. One thing that resilient people do is they seek support. It doesn’t have to be a therapist; it could be a best friend or an aunt or a partner. Resilient people actually use other people — rather than not let themselves need them.”

6. …but know that it’s okay not to tell everyone.

“Increase the number and quality of your relationships however you see fit. For some people, that will be, ‘There are two people in the world who know all of what there is to know about me.’ For other people, they’ll want to be known by a bigger community. Love is very powerful, and love is love. The brain doesn’t know one kind of love versus another. It just processes when it has a positive experience with another person. Get out there and feel like there are people who see you and understand you and who care – that’s it. It doesn’t matter where you’re getting that.”

7. Find your favorite way to take a mental break.

“Many people use fantasy or books, or dive into their hobbies, or hang out with their friends to take a mental break from a situation that they cannot solve overnight. You may not be able to fix that problem, but you can protect yourself from feeling overwhelmed by it. As an adult, you can do the same: read a book, pick up your Frisbee, hang out with your friends, turn off the news alerts on your phone. There’s a lot in the world right now that feels overwhelming. Resilient [people] fight back where they can, but they also learn to take a mental break.”

8. Be compassionate with yourself and realize all the ways adversity has made you strong.

“People who face some adversity in their lives become stronger. Of course, it depends on a lot of other factors — how big is the adversity, how much support do they have, how did they cope — but by learning to cope with stress and having that experience, we gain confidence and we gain preparation. I think sometimes we forget that. You see how you’re broken rather than how you’re strong. Focus on the resilience and see yourself as someone who is even better prepared for life than the average person because you’ve already lived so much of it.”

Reference: https://ideas.ted.com/8-tips-to-help-you-become-more-resilient/?fbclid=IwAR122F6Dgf-M5yEa5128Hyjfpbq4x7cWqyWNTRTKkt06oR64O6ZtLcIEnNM

Imagine if teachers could bill their hours like lawyers do…. instead of working many unpaid hours beyond contract time. If you’re finding the hours too long and onerous, check out this list to see if you’re inadvertently making more work for yourself. And yes, some of these aren’t possible to change in a pandemic, but here’s hoping COVID protocols won’t be a permanent fixture in our classrooms!

Teachers, here are some ways to stop making more work for yourselves.

2. Writing full lesson plans

Speaking of lesson plans, if you’re still writing them out in full, throw on the brakes. Only subs and admin need to see the real deal. So on a daily basis, as long as you know in your head what you want to accomplish, and can justify doing it if anyone asks, quick jot notes will do.

3. Not having students check their own work

On rote tasks (think skill and drill math sheets), marking 27 worksheets is a real time-killer when you could get the students to mark it themselves. This can be done individually, in pairs, in small groups, or as a class. Bonus: it forces them to pay attention to their mistakes.

4. Over-planning activities

Do you spend a lot of time making sure everything needed is all laid out and organized? Instead, try having the students figure out what they need to complete the task, then gather their own materials where possible. It gives them ownership while taking the load off you.

5. Not allowing students to lead their learning

Student-led learning puts a lot of the process in the hands of the students. Sure, you can plan the task, write the rubric, create the graphic organizers, set up the slides, and give students the information. Or, you can have a guided class discussion where they brainstorm ideas for the task, generate a checklist, and decide what format they’d like to use. Then let them run with it while you monitor the process and progress. Project planning: check. Done within the school day: check.

6. Writing new rubrics for every project

Speaking of rubrics – if you are making a new rubric for every project, you probably don’t need to. Reuse generic ones and tweak them slightly as necessary. Make sure your key look-fors are included in the generic rubric, such as planning, organization, communication, collaboration, etc.

7. Over-communicating with parents

Are you emailing or texting parents simple information that your students are capable of communicating? Save time by putting them in charge of their own agendas/planners. Build in five minutes at the end of the day for students to write down their homework and upcoming dates. Then save the emails for less frequent, more pressing communication.

8. Making everything Pinterest-perfect

Making fancy learning games and materials can be a fun and engaging way to get kids interested in academic concepts. But it isn’t necessary all the time. Not everything needs to be complicated. You can color, decorate, and laminate those fancy signs, or you can quickly print them on post-it notes. If the game is fun, the kids will be hooked, post-its or no. And hey, if it goes well and you want to keep the game for later, laminate the post-its!

9. Spending hours on bulletin boards

Are you in love with awesome bulletin boards and amazing door decorations? If so, go for it! But if thinking of decorating your classroom is overwhelming, simply put plain fabric on your boards and edge them with borders. Then have the students do the rest. They love cutting out and coloring letters to top the boards. Use their art and schoolwork to fill in the rest. It’s their classroom too, so let them put their stamp on it. You save time, and they feel ownership of their space. Win-win.

10. Cleaning up after students

And finally, stop cleaning up after your students. At least, when the pandemic is over, that is. Kids can dust, kids can organize, kids can sweep, kids can tidy up. The math manipulatives are out of control? Art cupboard overflowing? Let the students take care of it. They absolutely love to help, and they can do a pretty good job with some direction too. Check out these awesome student-led organization hacks for more ideas!

Now all that’s left is to decide what to do with all this spare time you’ll have… (sarcasm intended).

Are there other ways teachers are making more work for themselves? Let’s disucss in the Empowered Teachers community!

Reference: https://www.boredteachers.com/post/teachers-making-more-work-for-themselves?fbclid=IwAR3W-M11XdICTxGvO5AKxq7CY4pV8DnqP1–aPkEvjqXKrAixczga27Ffto

Stress isn’t always a bad thing; it can be handy for a burst of extra energy and focus, like when you’re playing a competitive sport or have to speak in public. But when it’s continuous, it actually begins to change your brain. Madhumita Murgia shows how chronic stress can affect brain size, its structure, and how it functions, right down to the level of your genes. [Directed by Andrew Zimbelman, narrated by Addison Anderson, music by Josh Smoak].

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105. Reference: https://www.boredteachers.com/post/100-positive-comment-for-student-papers?fbclid=IwAR20FSxqVWnAGbILhZ2zPxcd0tzmAUsiZej0Rm6acyIOO2tSvyxl7mzSS0A