Changing the Lens on Educator Wellness
It’s true to say that the self-care scene can sometimes seem like an overwhelming checklist. Bubble baths, morning meditations, massages, and walks – it’s like we need a personal assistant just to keep up! But let’s be honest – real wellbeing isn’t about stacking up more tasks; it’s about finding that sweet spot between doing and just being. So, instead of piling on extra to-dos, let’s look at teacher wellbeing through a lens of what we can let go and give ourselves permission for.
Wellbeing is not about perfection; it’s about us giving ourselves the grace to embrace the imperfections and find the balance that feels right. So, go ahead, skip the guilt trip, and give yourself the green light to prioritise the things that truly add that sparkle to your life as an educator.
We’ve created a poster bundle to help you be more intentional and balanced about your self-care this year!
Discover “Your Self-Care Checklist“
This poster is a gentle reminder of the things we sometimes need to let go of in order to foster a balanced day. Designed for teachers and leaders, “Your Self-Care Checklist” is the perfect addition to your staff room, your teacher lounge or any other place where you can see it every day. Use it as a tool to reboot when you can feel yourself becoming overwhelmed.
- Let your colleagues know that you support the need for them to take care. Hand deliver this poster to your team members – why not give them a coffee while you’re at it!?
- Use this poster to help develop your ‘ways of working’ essential agreement or create your own poster based on the context of your school.
- Share and create a similar poster with your students and parent community to model the importance of self-care, prioritisation, and balance.
- Intentionally plan something you can ‘let go of’ each week to help you create balance – write it into your planner! Share it with a colleague, your students and your parent community! Why not make every term’s week five, a no homework week to promote wellbeing throughout the whole school community?
Sustain your energy levels with “Recharge Rituals“
This re-charging poster suggests daily practices to assist educators in sustaining energy levels throughout the teaching day. It’s a great addition to all workspaces and positively promotes specific areas for rest and recovery. Use it to actively advocate for self-care as a daily intentional practice.
- Share your recharging choices with a colleague and complete them together. Keep each other accountable!
- Use each strategy as a weekly focus in either staff meetings, memos, assemblies or community newsletters and use the ‘re-charge vocabulary’ to create a culture and community of understanding and empathy.
- Create a movement! Why not organise a RECHARGE day! Create re-charging activities that promote and encourage sharing of strategies such as those outlined on the poster. Why not create a fresh fruit stall, a mindfulness painting station and a nap zone?
- Create a similar poster with your students. Give them voice and choice in the techniques they might like to include in their daily timetable.
Remind yourself and your team about being strong, yet balanced
These posters highlight the positive attributes of effective teachers and leaders by acknowledging their selfless actions towards others, while emphasising the equal importance of prioritising personal self-care to achieve a harmonious balance.
- Unpack each of the posters as a team, highlighting what each of the attributes look like within the context of your own school. Invite colleagues to annotate, comment and share thoughts.
- Create a strong teacher notice board and ask staff to nominate someone for a self-caring attribute they recognise in a colleague.
- Present an “I am strong” award to a staff member each week that has been seen to promote/provide balance to a student/colleague.
- Create additional posters for strong students, strong school communities and specific subject areas in collaboration with other stakeholders. Remember, these are not rules posters!
In a nutshell, taking care of yourself as an educator is a big deal. We might not be able to change the crazy demands, but we can change how we handle them. It’s like giving ourselves a secret weapon to tackle the chaos with a bit more sanity. Recognising that the workload isn’t doing any disappearing acts is the first step in realising that we need to sneak in some self-care ninja moves. It’s not just about surviving the craziness; it’s about thriving in the middle of it. So, let’s make self-care our not-so-secret weapon in this wild journey of education.
