The Importance of Prioritizing Teacher Health and Wellbeing in Education

Teacher Well-being in today's educational environment is an important topic to consider to stop teacher burnout and high turnover rates. According to research (Bottiani et al., 2019), "Stress and burnout are pervasive among public school teachers and amplified in urban schools, where job demands are often high and resources low." (pg1, para 1) Teaching in an urban setting today is very challenging due to this issue.

Improving teachers' well-being is crucial to stop teacher burnout and ensure students receive an appropriate education. Students lose crucial instructional time when untrained substitute teachers fill positions that they do not have the certification to teach, or worse, classes are divided up amongst present teachers, which creates high-class sizes that do not provide an educational environment that is conducive to learning or well-being for teachers that continue to show up every day.

How do we help the teachers make a conscious choice to show up every day because they care about their students? They must be uplifted and supported. Students need teachers in the classroom to be successful in the future. Society needs students to grow up to be productive members of society. Of course, all teachers would appreciate a pay increase that would help them not have to work several jobs to meet their financial obligations. Communities should want the same for their teachers. Teacher retention is an ongoing issue in the majority of urban areas.

More importantly, finding ways to improve teacher's health and well-being must be addressed. One must find a way to renew their energy. According to Franklin Covey, Franklin Covey (n.d.), "When you renew yourself, you increase your capacity to produce and handle the challenges around you."(pg 1, para 2) Self-care is not selfish; it is essential to the educational warriors who continue to stay in the battle to educate students.

References

Bottiani, J. H., Duran, C. A. K., Pas, E. T., & Bradshaw, C. P. (2019). Teacher stress and burnout in urban middle schools: Associations with job demands, resources, and effective classroom practices. Journal of School Psychology, 77, 36–51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2019.10.002

FranklinCovey.com.(2019).Habit 7: Sharpen the saw.

https://www.franklincovey.com/habit-7/