Every Child. Everywhere. Feels Safe. Prevent Bullying in your school. Stop. Take a break. ‘Wellbeing week’ at an IB World School in Australia offered everyone a chance to slow down, mindfully participate in community activities and build relationships At the end of a busy term, when things can start to get frantic, Rivercrest Christian College in Australia, came together to remind the school community of the importance of taking care of their wellbeing.
‘Wellbeing Week’ is an end-of-term awareness campaign aimed at raising the profile of social and emotional learning (SEL). Staff, students and parents learned about positive emotions, such as gratitude and joy. These emotions have strong links with developing wellbeing, according to psychologist Martin Seligman. Matthew Scott, Deputy Head of Primary: Wellbeing, says: “Wellbeing Week was established as part of our ongoing efforts to engage our students, staff and families with the importance of developing wellbeing and the IB Learner Profile attributes as a community.
Wellbeing is continually promoted at Rivercrest. The importance of the school staffroom - Teacher. A school staffroom is the place in which educators spend the majority of their non-teaching school time.
In today’s article, a West Australian principal shares why he believes a staffroom is important for improving staff wellbeing, and building a sense of community and connectedness. On any given day, the school staffroom at Vasse Primary School is filled to capacity with teachers, school leaders and support staff. For the first day of the 2017 school year, the 75 staff members at the West Australian school were welcomed into an upgraded staffroom space. The facility, which had not been updated since the 1980s, now included high tables, a mobile kitchen bench and a collaborative seating space in the middle of the room. ‘We wanted our teachers to not only engage in their rooms, but also have those learning environments in our staffroom,’ Principal Sinan Kerimofski says. ‘Obviously the colours lend itself to the nice feel and soft tones.
References: Re-imagining School for Introverted Teachers - John Spencer. There are days when I am working that I don’t feel like I’m working. I sit down for three hours and plan out the anatomy of a course. I chip away at a new syllabus. I hop over to a Google Document and leave feedback on student work. I read up on some research, work on a book or plan out an article. In these moments, I feel like I’m getting away with something — like I’m not actually doing work. This is my life as a professor.
Over the years, it became harder and harder to be an introverted teacher. There is nothing inherently wrong with the trends toward community collaboration. What would it look like for schools to accommodate introverted teachers? Provide professional development credit for personal learning. I realize that many of these ideas require leaders to change systems and structures. Teacher Burnout Is More Likely Among Introverts - The Atlantic. Jayson Jones was my favorite person to call when I needed a substitute for my high-school English classes.
Jayson was an aspiring teacher who was extremely popular with the students and related especially well with many of the at-risk kids. One day, I walked into the classroom at lunchtime, and he was sitting alone in the dark, listening to music. “Oh, an introvert?” I said. “I had no idea.” I’ve written about the challenges faced by introverted students in today’s increasingly social learning environments, but the introverted teachers leading those classrooms can struggle just as much as the children they’re educating. The term “introversion” can mean a variety of different things in different contexts. It’s in this sense of the word that some teachers are citing their introversion as a reason why today’s increasingly social learning environments are exhausting them—sometimes to the point of retirement.
Related Video. Teacher Well-being Bags. After an overwhelming response to the teacher well-being bags created this week on #PedagooFriday, I decided to blog about them here on Pedagoo.
Many people have asked me where I got the idea from, so I think that’s a good a place to start as any. The past few weeks have seen teachers blogging about their reflections on 2014 and hopes for 2015 using the #nurture1415 tag created by @ChocoTzar. Thanks to @sue_cowley who kindly collated them and you can find the full list of this year’s offerings here. These inspiring blogs are accompanied by @ICTEvangelist’s amazing posters. See here for those. In addition, a growing number of teachers have also been blogging about their #teacher5aday resolutions, an exciting initiative designed to promote well-being belonging to @MartynReah For an explanation by the man himself, see here. (Original image taken by @MissEtchells) My role within the school is to improve teaching and learning. Initial feedback from the bags has been fantastic. Abbie.
Ideas I liked from the Saltbox list. Saltbox - Improving staff well being for next to nothing.