TT0305: 13 Ways to Increase Teacher Happiness

Last episode we talked about leaving teaching, because it’s a reality that a lot of people are leaving. However, one of the goals of Teacher Tribes is to help find ways to support teachers so that they will stay in the profession. There are so many different things that contribute to whether a teacher is happy in their position. We can identify many aspects that affect professional satisfaction: support of administration, proper training, sense of community among teachers, materials and resources, and many more. For this episode, we’re going to focus on the sense of community among teachers, because that is something that we can work towards now regardless of the other factors. Your school may already have something in place, but there are always things you can add to make your school a happier place. Happier teachers = happier school. The thing is, some things are out of our control. What we need to focus on are the things that we can control and the ways that we can make a difference to make our school, and ourselves, happier. I’ve broken these happiness boosters down into four categories based on where or when they can be implemented: PD Days, Lunch, Outside of School, and General School-Based Incentives. These are all things that I have experienced at my schools in the past. Obviously, these strategies won’t fix everything if you’re in a really toxic school, but every little bit can help. Do what you can to improve your situation, and don’t be afraid to reach out and try to put these into place. It’s likely that if you need it, so do others. School-wideFirst up are the school-wide initiatives. At my first school, we recognized teacher morale dipping after we doubled in size. Those of us who had been through the first year together were deeply bonded and although we knew it was necessary to bring in new teachers, we were wary of them. We recognized that this was unhealthy, and worked on ways to heal our relationships as a staff. And thus, the SMILE committee was born. We formed a committee of teachers with the intention of bringing teachers together in the building so that we could become a united staff. SMILE was also an acronym, which stood for … Staff Motivation in Learning and Education. We created a system for teachers to leave notes of appreciation or inspiration for each other. There was a box in the teacher workroom with SMILE notes. Some of them were pre-printed with quotes about teaching, while others were left blank, giving someone the opportunity to write a more personalized note to another teacher. The SMILE committee was then responsible for taking the notes from the box each week and delivering them to the individual teachers’ mailbox, hopefully bringing a smile to their face. At my school now, we have a culture and climate committee. Its intent is similar to the SMILE committee. The goal is to create a positive culture at our school where teachers feel supported. They recently implemented an “egg of gratitude” slip that is similar to our smile notes. There is a box in the main office where both teachers and students can write a note of appreciation to another student or to a teacher. They also issue a teacher of the month award. At the beginning of each month, they send out an email to students and teachers, asking them to complete a form nominating a teacher and explaining why. At the end of the month, the Culture and Climate team goes through the nominations and determines a winner. The winner or winners are announced during morning announcements and some of the comments about them are read. Each teacher that was nominated also gets a copy of the nice things that others said about them, whether they won or not. LunchOne thing that teachers are always short on is time. Finding that time to interact can be a challenge. As a result, teaching can also be a very isolating job. I have taught with my best friends in the past, but still gone weeks without seeing them. We are surrounded by people, students, all day, but we don’t always get time to process and reflect with other adults. Sometimes we just need to have time to chat with someone who understands our job, our students, and the challenges we face. It’s so important that we make this time for ourselves, and find time to connect with others in our building. One of the best times available to us is lunch time. A lot of us work through lunch, but if we can at least work through lunch together, that can be an improvement. It’s not uncommon for a few of us to gather in one person’s room to eat lunch together if we have a common prep. Just finding out who has a common lunch period and designating a space for those people to eat lunch together if they are able can be a step in the right direction. The simple act of sharing space with others can sometimes be enough. Once you’re there, you can decide if you want to work, or socialize. The time is there as a break, so I strongly encourage you to take it. At a previous school, we had a lunch group. Each day of the week, someone was tasked with bringing lunch for everyone. We got to try things that we had never tried before, and it took off the pressure of us having to bring our own lunch every day. It also gave us time to decompress and spend time together. Sometimes people couldn’t stay because they had meetings or certain things to get done. Other times we might bring work and do it while we ate. But a lot of the time, we tried to hold that time sacred as time for us to take a break. Another option would be a lunch and learn. If there are topics people are needing help with, that could be a time to both socialize and improve your practice. This can double as professional development and social time. Outside of SchoolIf I’m being completely honest, one of the biggest bonding times for us as a staff was through weekly happy hours. We had a code for talking about them in front of students. We called it book club or game night, so the kids didn’t know we were going to have a beverage or two and talk about school. Now that I think about it, though, a staff book club or game night would be a great idea too! I think it’s important to recognize that not everything that we do together has to be about teaching. We are people outside of who we are as teachers. It’s important to talk to people who understand our perspective, but also encourage each other to explore other interests as well. We would have weekly get togethers and a few times a year we would have bigger celebrations. Sometimes we went bowling together, or just had bigger events in different places. We know that bringing work home is an unfortunate necessity of our job, especially grading. During times when everyone had a lot of grading to do, like finals week, grading parties are a good way to reduce the stress a little. If everyone has to do it, why not come together and get the work done in a common place. This makes the work a little more fun and also provides more quality time with colleagues. I know that there have been teachers who run and decide to form a group that meets up and runs together. Others have formed groups to just get out of the building and go for a walk during a lunch or prep period. My students have started a yoga club after school, and teachers are welcome to join that as well. I’ve known other teachers to set up work out dates, so they have someone to keep them accountable and go to the gym with after school. The possibilities are endless here. PD DaysMost schools have in service, or PD days scattered throughout the year, when students don’t attend, but teachers do. These can sometimes be some of the most painful days, but if you have a willing principal, there are ways to make it better. At the very least, this can be an opportunity for larger groups of people to share a meal. In the past, these have been the only days I was ever able to leave the building and have enough time to actually go out to lunch. It can be hard to put yourself out there and plan something like this, especially if you want to extend an offer to the whole staff, but all it takes is a quick email. On the last day of our summer professional development days, I sent out an email inviting everyone to bring their lunches to a central place so that we could sit together and get to know each other a little better. We were already gathering in the library for a staff photo, so it was easy to just stay there. At one of my schools, there were a couple of times when a full day PD day turned into a Wellness Day. Different people offered different stations: yoga, dancing, juicing, all types of things. We got to spend the day together taking care of ourselves and sharing space together in a fun, relaxing way. You would definitely need admin fully on board in order to pull this off, but it would definitely be worth asking. Finally, some time on PD Days could be spent on team building. I know these activities can be cheesy sometimes, but they can also be really helpful. They can get us all interacting in different ways and help us get to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. When it comes down to it, all of the staff that makes up a school needs to be a team. I think it’s rare that things feel that way, but these are some of the things you can do now to try to change that and bring people together. These are just some ideas that I’ve heard being implemented in schools. I know that as teachers we never feel like we have enough time. We give so much for our students and sometimes even feel guilt if we take a moment for ourselves. Here’s the thing, though, that’s not sustainable. If you are consistently draining yourself and depriving yourself of a break every day, you will ultimately not be serving your students. That pile of work isn’t going anywhere. When you’re scheduling your to do list, 30 minutes a day for yourself during the school day is not too much to ask. Structure your day, and your time, and give yourself a break!! What kinds of things are implemented in your school to bring teachers together? What do you wish you had? The post TT0305: 13 Ways to Increase Teacher Happiness appeared first on Teacher Tribes.