The Health Of Our Educators

"Student success and well-being are the goals of all school staff, whether they are teachers or human services professionals such as counselors, psychologists, or social workers. Building Great Mental Health Professional-Teacher Teams examines how all educators can work together for maximum positive impact on students while making the most of the disciplinary orientation and strengths of each team member. With a focus on overcoming challenging situations and helping students who face adverse childhood experiences, this book provides a sound overview of many issues teams may encounter, from behavior issues to poverty and trauma, and guides readers to a thorough understanding of these problems, their causes, and potential solutions. Providing practical advice for the strategic implementation of action plans to support student success, Building Great Human Services Professional-Teacher Teams informs readers how to navigate inter-group tensions and achieve the shared goal of a school culture that fosters respect, involvement, and growth for all"--

Supporting Student Mental Health is a guide to the basics of identifying and supporting students with mental health challenges. It’s no secret that your responsibilities as a teacher go beyond academic achievement. You cover key socioemotional competencies in your classrooms, too. This book is full of accessible and appropriate strategies for responding to students’ mental health needs, such as relationship-building, behavioral observation, questioning techniques, community resources, and more. The authors’ public health, prevention science, and restorative practice perspectives will leave you ready to run a classroom that meets the needs of the whole child while ensuring your own well-being on the job.

This practical and accessible guide tackles the challenges that busy childcare educators face with their mental health in what is a wonderful, rewarding, but often exhausting role. Drawing from "day-in-the-life" experiences and case studies, this book sets out high-quality staff wellbeing practices that can revolutionise the way childcare practitioners approach their job and their own health. Chapters guide the reader through a process of reflection and development, encouraging and empowering them to create a workplace culture that positively contributes to their personal wellbeing. This book: • Focuses on the realities of Early Years education, combining the author's lived experience with examples of real-life practice. • Encourages educators to think and feel positively about themselves; to identify the individual skills, strengths and talents they bring to their work. • Can be used individually or collaboratively by team members, with guidance on creating a positive workplace culture with a shared vision, core values and beliefs. Essential reading for anybody who finds that the job they love can sometimes leave them feeling worn out, stressed and depleted, this book has been written to enrich the lives of all training and practising Early Years Educators.

Mental Health for Educators opens the heart of teaching and learning with a generous regard for the complexities of education as psychological phenomenon, emotional situation, and as an expression of life. Britzman and Güzel introduce a psychoanalytic vocabulary that touches the educator's affective experiences of teaching in crowds, online, in one's memories of schooling, in dreams, in anxieties over burnout and rage, in disappointment and victory, in matters of belief and disagreement, and in trying to get to know the lives of others. While most literature on mental health is dedicated to helping students and giving advice to parents, this book speaks directly to university professors, teachers, those learning to teach, those involved in the helping professions, those involved in the learning lives of others, and university administrators. With wit and clear analysis, selected topics bring into conversation matters of love and hate in pedagogy, problems of misunderstanding and loss of meaning, the handling of anxiety and inhibitions in university life, the dilemmas of helping and dependency, and pictures of mental life as our emotional situations. The book is written with style of inquiry that emerges from a view of education as a state of mind and a social bond.

Teaching can be a highly satisfying profession, but it can also be overwhelming. Stress management. Self-care. Mental well-being. Mindfulness. These words have become all too familiar, but what do they actually mean for you? And how can they help without adding to your to-do list? All teachers have different experiences and different needs. Through stories by diverse educators, this professional resource invites you to try different wellness strategies, explore varying perspectives, and consider new ideas of what it means to “be well.” Grounded in servant leadership and a holistic model, each chapter connects to Indigenous perspectives of wellness through remarks from Elder Stanley Kipling and Knowledge Keeper Richelle North Star Scott.

Schooling has long been held responsible for the health and well-being of children. However, against an international background of rising concern about students’ performance and well-being, schools and teachers have faced escalating expectations of their health-related work. While various stakeholders have ideas about what teachers’ health work entails, we know little about teachers’ contributions, engagement and personal satisfaction with this work. As teachers’ work represents a significant national investment, insight into the cost–benefit of teachers’ health work is vital to establishing the broader economic contribution of schools to society. Teachers as Health Workers offers a critical perspective on these matters, documenting the day-to-day work of Australian teachers as they grapple with the challenges, and joys, of balancing education and health-related responsibilities. Whilst shifts in policy, economics and globalisation influence localised enactment of teachers’ health work, the economic modelling, theorising and methodological innovations of this research address enduring themes and challenges. Consequently, this book’s critical perspective reveals policy-practice gaps in government strategies seeking to create a healthy and productive population. The book will inform education, health and industrial policies and provide direction for teachers’ initial or ongoing preparation as health workers.

This book brings together the most current thinking and research on educator stress and how education systems can support quality teachers and quality education. It adopts an occupational health perspective to examine the problem of educator stress and presents theory-driven intervention strategies to reduce stress load and support educator resilience and healthy school organizations. The book provides an international perspective on key challenges facing educators such as teacher stress, teacher retention, training effective teachers, teacher accountability, cyber-bullying in schools, and developing healthy school systems. Divided into four parts, the book starts out by introducing and defining the problem of educator stress internationally and examining educator stress in the context of school, education system, and education policy factors. Part I includes chapters on educator mental health and well-being, stress-related biological vulnerabilities, the relation of stress to teaching self-efficacy, turnover in charter schools, and the role of culture in educator stress. Part II reviews the main conceptual models that explain educator stress while applying an occupational health framework to education contexts which stresses the role of organizational factors, including work organization and work practices. It ends with a proposal of a dynamic integrative theory of educator stress, which highlights the changing nature of educator stress with time and context. Part III starts with the definition of what constitute healthy school organizations as a backdrop to the following chapters which review the application of occupational health psychology theories and intervention approaches to reducing educator stress, promoting teacher resources and developing healthy school systems. Chapters include interventions at the individual, individual-organizational interface and organizational levels. Part III ends with a chapter addressing cyber-bullying, a new challenge affecting schools and teachers. Part IV discusses the implications for research, practice and policy in education, including teacher training and development. In addition, it presents a review of methodological issues facing researchers on educator stress and identifies future trends for research on this topic, including the use of ecological momentary assessment in educator stress research. The editors’ concluding comments reflect upon the application of an occupational health perspective to advance research, practice and policy directed at reducing stress in educators, and promoting teacher and school well-being.

Physical and Health Education in Canada: Integrated Strategies for Elementary Teachers is a compendium of integrated, evidence-based approaches to physical and health education teaching from leading physical and health educators and researchers from across Canada.