Allow Time to Relax

While many teachers love to spend summer break researching new strategies and planning for the start of a new school year, it is important this year to take time to relax. Taking time to read for pleasure or enjoy nature is a great way to rejuvenate the mind. Another great way to relax might be to catch up on a TV series or movies that were missed due to grading papers throughout the busy school year. Some might even get lost in a hobby like painting, sewing, or gardening. The main idea is to allow the brain time to coast and the body time to re-center so that summer can be the break it is meant to provide.

Start New Healthy Habits

Many people developed some bad habits throughout the pandemic year. Whether it was eating more junk food or sitting around playing games and working on computers rather than exercising, the “COVID-15” became a real thing for many people as they gained weight from these behaviors. New Year’s is not the only time to put lifestyle changes in motion. This summer, starting new healthy habits can be just what is needed to help get re-energized for the upcoming school year. A cooking class, whether online or in person can be a great start to new healthy living. Riding a bike, going for a jog, or walking through the park are also ways to boost the endorphins that make a person feel better from the inside. If yoga or meditation are more desired activities, then find a quiet place to practice poses, breathing, and mental well-being. No matter what, a healthy change can be good for the body and mind.

Spend Time Reading

While it is proven that reading for pleasure is a positive means of supporting one’s well-being, many do not take time for this activity. Educators who want to relax, yet still stay connected to their profession might try reading a book from an inspirational author like Todd Whittaker, Dave Burgess, or Erin Gruwell. After this demanding school year, teachers may be ready for a book on teacher burn-out or becoming a Zen teacher. The Planbook website offers specific books that can inspire teachers over the summer to be better motivated for teaching in the fall.

Clean Out Clutter

Whether at home or within the classroom, there is always something satisfying about getting rid of clutter and becoming more organized. This is also a great means of preparing for the next school year without becoming mentally bogged-down with plans. Search online for creative, attractive ways to organize materials within the classroom. Go through filing cabinets to discard items that are not necessary to keep. Do whatever it takes to turn your classroom into a place where you want to enter in the fall and where you and students feel comfortable and want to learn.

Take Up Journal Writing

This brief summer would be a great time to reflect on the ups and downs of living and teaching through a pandemic. Believe it or not, there will be things that we will forget if they are not written down. By writing about these things in a daily journal, teachers can discover how changes in procedures might be worth continuing post-pandemic. Journal writing can also help teachers connect to their inner values and goals for their career.

Personal growth can be seen when time is taken to reflect and write about what is going on in the busy life we live. A journal can also have a focus on daily blessings. Taking time to find the small things daily that impact us positively is an essential means of energizing our minds and propelling us forward.

Watch Webinars or Inspirational Videos

For teachers who want to stay connected to school, one final way to get energized during this short summer is to watch an educational webinar or video series that can benefit one’s instruction and teaching strategies. Look for a series on time-saving strategies to help organize your schedule or find motivational speakers that will inspire you to reignite the passion you have for teaching. Watch with a co-teacher or small group and discuss the potential impacts on your educational vision. This collaboration will build camaraderie for the upcoming year as well. Together you can find ways to work smarter this year, not harder.

Above all, teachers should not feel guilty about taking a little time to rest and re-energize their body and mind. Educators need it, just as their students will need them to be mentally prepared to enter the 2021 school year ready to teach in a positive light!

References
Fifteen Inspirational Education Books Written By and For Teachers.

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Reflection allows a skilled educator to evaluate current practices to see if they are leading to desired results. If practices are not producing the desired results, an educator can refine current practices or brainstorm new ideas that could lead to heightened student achievement and growth.

Relaxation

Relaxation is necessary for a person to be able to grow and adopt new ideas. Time off is earned and allows a person to recharge for the journey ahead. While off from work, educators should avoid frequent building checks. Calling the school is harmful in two ways. First, it sets the tone that the person does not trust colleagues to make decisions and run the school effectively. Effective leaders understand that trust grows leadership. As a leader builds leadership capacity among the staff and staff build capacity within one another, building leadership grows exponentially. A second way that school checks are harmful is that it keeps the mind on the managerial parts of the job and hinders relaxation needed to open the mind for reflection.

The Importance of Sufficient Time Away from Work

Time away from work is earned and should be enjoyed to its fullest. Teaching and administration are extremely stressful careers that demand so much daily. Unlike many other careers, educators continue to work at home through grading, lesson preparation, answering emails, and communicating with stakeholders. There is no contradiction between loving your job as an educator and looking forward to time away from work. While working in education brings daily joys and fulfillment, it also is draining to the point of exhaustion on many days.

Few people will be remembered decades down the line for the amount of time spent at work. Yet, some people will be remembered within their careers for making innovative and lasting changes that bettered the future and led to a higher quality of life. Further, people who truly focus on making the school a better place for staff and students do not draw attention to the quantity of work they complete.

An educator’s own children provide the best opportunities for reflection as educators often gain new perspective in skill development, learning struggles, and adjustment periods as they watch their own children progress through the education program they had a hand in creating. We often see the parts that need refinement as we view the system through the eyes of a parent. Our children and family are an opportunity to leave the world a better place beyond our own existence. As such, it is important that we do not leave our children and family only the time and effort that is leftover. Time cannot be bought back so we must make the most of our time through modeling a good balance of hard work and time away from work. Few will say at the end of life that they regret not spending enough time at work.

Ways to Relax

Relaxation is a topic that is best personalized. An educator should relax doing what he or she enjoys. Ways to relax include swimming, running, hiking, visiting the mountains, visiting the beach, reading, and enjoying lazy days at home. While relaxing, you are not wasting time as these activities have a purpose, which is to allow you to reenergize.

Why Reflection is a Vital Piece for Quality Instruction

Master teachers reflect constantly to determine ways to refine and improve future instruction to maximize student achievement and growth. Reflection is necessary for educators to grow and improve their skills. As such, all educators can improve and should never beat himself/herself up during the reflection process. Being critical would defeat the purpose of reflection, which is to allow yourself to arrive at a place that builds confidence to try new initiatives that are strategically designed to increase student learning outcomes. A growth mindset is a pre-requisite for reflection as the educator must be willing to evaluate current instructional practices and try new strategies. Reflection is vital because it is an absolute necessity for growth for educators and, in turn, students.

Ways to Reflect

Ways to reflect and relax are difficult to separate entirely as one needs to relax in order to reflect with an open mind. Often relaxation happens before reflection, but at times the activities intertwine nicely. Whether reflecting while reading a book, lying on the beach, sitting on the porch, or attending a professional conference, the educator most often needs to be removed from the traditional career setting. Once a person is relaxed, he or she is more ready to reflect.

How to Fit Reflection into a Summer Schedule

Reading

If reading helps you relax, try reading a best practices or school culture book that is an easy read and has deep meaning. This practice is an excellent way to combine relaxation and reflection. As you read, you will get energized and reflect upon the previous year. Next, consider what could have been done differently. Quickly jot down some goals to return to later so as not to take away from this activity being relaxing. Later, this time will prove very beneficial to school improvement planning. When returning to work, use your banked energy from relaxation so that you can withdraw resources to regroup, plan, and implement new initiatives aimed at increasing student achievement and maximizing growth.

Summer Book Studies

School book studies often bring about reflection through open dialogue that fosters both reflection and collegiality. The key to scheduling these studies during the summer is to design a schedule that allows flexibility. School leadership should work with stakeholders to select a book that will energize the faculty, promote self-reflection, and align with the school’s mission and culture.

Faculty Retreats

Faculty retreats can be a wonderful way to promote reflection among the staff. The key to successful retreats is to get the date out early so that staff can plan vacations around the selected date. Further, retreats need to have the appropriate balance of fun, team building, and strategic planning. Strategic planning should come through a data review, reflection, and open discussion.

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Use Teacher Wellness to Keep Everyone Healthy

In order to have a healthy classroom, you must have healthy students, and the best way to ensure your students’ health is to teach them all about health and hygiene. From how to wash your hands to the nutritious foods that help you from getting sick, children need to learn how to maintain their health. They also need to learn how to keep the classroom clean in order to minimize spreading germs. In addition to the students keeping healthy, you also need to be healthy yourself. That means getting enough sleep and exercise, as well as eating the right foods to help you ward off any infectious diseases and germs that may be lingering in the classroom.

Build a Classroom Community

Another effective way to create a healthy classroom climate is to build a sense of community within the classroom. You can do this by connecting to your students, as well as having students build connections with their peers. Building a sense of community creates a learning space where students feel safe and welcome. Through morning meetings and team-building activities, students learn more about one another, which helps to create a strong bond within the classroom. A sense of community can also help you as the teacher, because when students get along, that means fewer issues dealing with classroom discipline.

Get Students Up and Moving

Start your day with movement, whether that means stretching next to your bed or going for a jog before work. When you wake up and move, it gets your day going in a healthy, happy way. Continue your day by having your students get up and move, too. Studies have shown that the more active you are, the better your focus will be. Studies have also shown that fidgeting can help improve your focus. So if you see students fiddling around in their seats, then you know that it’s helping them improve their focus. Another idea is to have students (as well as you) take brain breaks – small 10-minute breaks of short body movement in between lessons or classes. When you keep your body moving and are not sedentary throughout the day, you’ll increase the oxygen to your brain, which is a great way to boost your body and brain health.

Create a Shared Vision

You may have a vision of the kind of climate you want in your classroom, but that vision may not align with your students. For example, your personal vision may be to have a social-emotional healthy classroom environment where all students thrive, while your students’ vision may be something completely different. Take the time to talk with your students about how they would like the classroom climate to be. Tell students your own personal vision for the classroom, then have each individual student discuss what their vision is. Once you’ve discussed your visions with the class, then you can create one shared vision together. According to Peter Senge and the Learning Organization, a shared vision must come from a personal vision first; then the individual is more likely to be committed to the share vision.

Know Your Role as a Teacher

Many teachers find it a great challenge to create a social-emotional safe environment for their students while keeping their role as a leader, mentor and class disciplinarian. There’s a fine line that teachers do not want to cross when trying to balance between having a relationship with their students and keeping their role as a leader. However, you must never relinquish your role as a teacher – you must find the right balance between being an authoritarian and having a caring relationship with your students. Take the time to get to know your students on a personal level, because it will help you gain respect, but also do it in a way where students are aware of your role.

The bottom line is: in order to create a healthy classroom climate, you must not only take care of your students, but you must take yourself as well. Taking the time for teacher wellness, establishing a classroom community, creating a shared vision of what you want your classroom climate to be like, as well as knowing your role as a teacher, will all benefit you and your students. The amount of time and effort this takes will all be worth it in the end when you have created a positive classroom atmosphere where all students are thriving.

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Back-to-School Tips for Anxiety

Research shows that anxiety in women is more prevalent than in men, and with the teaching profession mostly made up of women, there is a greater risk that anxiety can affect teachers. If you or a colleague you know suffers from anxiety, don’t let it steal your desire to teach. Read and share the following tips from veteran teachers to help you beat those back-to-school blues.

Get Daily Exercise

If you are not an active person and you have anxiety, you may want to rethink your daily schedule and incorporate some exercise into it. Numerous studies have shown that physically active people have a lower risk of developing anxiety and depression than people who are not active. In fact, people who work out as little as once a week tend to be happier than people who don’t work out at all. When you exercise, it boosts your serotonin, which is a feel-good chemical inside your brain that helps to ease anxiety and stress.

Do Something You Love

Take the time to invest in yourself and do something that you love to do. Back-to-school time can be very chaotic, and with so many tasks on your to-do list, it’s easy to forget about yourself. Instead of spending all of your free time on completing your tasks, take time for yourself. If you love to go to a workout class, then be sure to schedule it on your calendar. When you make it a point to physically schedule in time for yourself, you’re more apt to go and do it.

Get Social

Do not isolate yourself. The last thing you want to do when you have anxiety is to keep to yourself. While it’s perfectly natural to want to be alone when you’re not feeling yourself, it will not do you any good. Get out and get social, even if you aren’t in the mood. If you’re the type of teacher that likes to eat in your classroom, don’t; instead go to the teachers’ lounge and get to know your colleagues. Make an effort to meet your friends and vent about what’s bothering you or Facetime a friend and discuss your feelings. Sometimes all you need is a friend’s shoulder to lean on when you’re going through a tough time.

Establish a Routine

Teachers who have lived with anxiety say that it’s best to establish a routine if you want to beat anxiety or those back-to-school blues. Routines help with anxiety, because when you stick to a regular schedule, you won’t feel overworked or overwhelmed. Set a schedule that works for you and that you know that you can stick to. For example, if you know that going to bed late means feeling groggy and having headaches the next day, then create a routine where you go to bed and get up at the same time every day. Or, if you know that staying late at work means not spending time with your family, create a routine where you only stay late once a week. Establishing a routine helps you be prepared both mentally and physically for the day. When you know what to expect, you’ll feel less stressed, which means having less anxiety.

Prioritize Your Health

Like it or not, your health plays a pivotal role in the way that you feel. When you don’t take the time to take care of yourself both mentally and physically, then there’s a good chance that you can develop anxiety or depression. Take time to make your health a priority. If you feel overworked, then take a mental health day to get yourself back on track. Listen to your mind and body. If it’s saying I’m tired and stressed and need a break, then take it.

Back-to-school anxiety is not something to just blow off and tell yourself that it will go away once you settle into the school year. In fact, some teachers say that if you don’t take steps right away to feel better, your anxiety will just worsen. When you hear that internal voice screaming that you don’t feel yourself, listen to it and take the steps mentioned above to do something about it – you will be happy you did.

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