Therapy Thursday

(From real-life experiences)

Dear School Administrator,

Please Stop Taking Away Our Planning Periods and Respect Our Time Away From Work

I know it has been some time since you have been in the classroom, writing lesson plans and grading papers outside of school hours, and carrying the workload that is required of a classroom teacher. Please reconnect with us as teachers and stop taking our planning time away—It isn’t “free time.” Whatever we are unable to complete in our 30-50 minute planning time, we load in our bags and take it home. I realized that you need someone to fill in for classes that do not have substitutes, attend special meetings, and other needs you prefer to delegate to others, but our planning times are sacred and are consistently being taken away. Do you remember when you were a classroom teacher and were unable to take a break when needed, and only had a 30-minute lunch. Fifteen of those minutes of your lunch period was spent walking our students to lunch, and then, picking them up to return safely to the classroom. This did not leave much time for a restroom break or, much less, time to eat lunch. And trying to go between classes isn’t possible because admins require all teachers to be in the hallway monitoring student during class transitions? Eating snacks in front of students is a “No-No” because you don’t know what foods they are getting at home, some aren’t getting any and only get food from the school cafeteria.

Today, as an administrator, if you need to decompress for a moment, you have a quiet office to which you can retreat, close the door, and breathe for a moment. Classroom teachers do not have these opportunities during our day with students. Our planning times should be ours to regenerate and decompress, to take a deep breath, get caught up on work, go to the bathroom, etc, as we have been on our feet and on stage the very moment we entered our classroom at 7:00 am-7:30 am. Our adrenaline is running and our body needs calm for a moment. It isn’t good for the body to run on adrenaline for long periods of time.

In addition, please only send your emails and texts during work hours, not after contract hours, on the weekends, and at 9pm at night. We need you to respect our boundaries and separation of personal life and work life. It is our family time, time set aside to work on catching up on my work at school, and time to relax when we can find — and this is being interrupted by the constant emails and texts. It is emotionally exhausting to receive notifications and texts when we are trying to decompress from the day/week and prepare for the upcoming day/week. Thank you for respecting us and our time.

Please Treat Teachers Like the Grown-Ups That We Are

I know your life is busy and you are dealing with many daily issues. We all have a thankless job, but while we work with children, we aren’t children ourselves. Please treat us like grown-ups and the professionals that we are. Allow us to take part in decisions that affect us and our students. Please stop making us play kid’s games at staff meetings. Send your email to those you need to address and not the entire staff. Also, don’t reprimand us as you would a student. If you have something you need to discuss, let’s have an adult conversation (and not during my planning time, please). Your job is challenging, we get that, but ours is challenging as well.

While Telling Us to Practice Self-Care, Stop Adding Tasks To Our Plate

I know you wish for your staff to be rested and not overburdened so they can do the best job they can. You regularly remind us to practice self-care. We want that, too! To give it our all every day, we need to go home and recover from a long, exhausting day of work with kids for 8+ hours straight. We want to be refreshed and ready for the next day with boundless energy. But when our plates are so full that we are taking work home from administration in addition to our regular responsibilities, it is hard to find time to practice self-care. The book you put in our box on Friday to read in five days before the next staff meeting, during what was supposed to be a 3-day weekend, makes it difficult to find time to practice self-care. Please, remember all that is demanded of us and all the hats we wear, not only at work but at home as well. Please be mindful of how much you are adding to our already overburdened plate, so we can come to work ready and with mental, physical, and emotional energy to provide the best education we can to our students.

We are Professionals, Listen To Us

We respect you as our leader, our helper, and someone to provide guidance. As teachers, we face countless challenges in and out of the classroom, and we need your support and help. Most of the decisions administration makes directly affects your staff and their students. We are professionals; we obtained our teaching degrees as well. Many of us have specialist degrees, additional certifications, and Master’s degrees. We are with the students day in and day out, and we know their educational needs more so than anyone. So we simply ask, when you are making decisions that directly affect us and our students, come to us as professionals for input and listen to what we have to contribute.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and for working to support your staff in positive ways.

As teachers, we are often overworked and pulled in too many directions. We often put others before ourselves and it is hard to learn to take care of ourselves. Addressing mental health is part of self-care for our minds, bodies, and souls. Remember, if your cup is empty, you can’t fill someone else’s cup. Here are 27 FREE COUNSELING OPTIONS FOR

TEACHERS https://www.weareteachers.com/free-counseling-for-teachers/

Facebook ° Pinterest ° Instagram ° Teachers Pay Teachers ° AmpedUp

#geographyandmathmadeeasy #teachertherapy #therapy #geography #middleschool #highschool

See less