77: Normalizing Teacher Self-Care (in a Pandemic) w/ Evan Whitehead
77: Normalizing Teacher Self-Care (in a Pandemic) w/ Evan Whitehead: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix
77: Normalizing Teacher Self-Care (in a Pandemic) w/ Evan Whitehead: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Chris McNutt:
Hello and welcome to Episode 77 of our podcast at Human Restoration Project. My name is Chris McNutt and I'm a high school digital media instructor from Ohio. Before we get started, I want to let you know at this podcast is brought to you by our parents reporters, three of whom are Steve Peterson, Tim Fawkes and Erin Gaudet. Thank you for your ongoing support. You can learn more about the Human Restoration Project on our website, HumanRestorationProject.org Or find us on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
Chris McNutt:
Today, we are joined by Evan Whitehead, a veteran educator who is the director of special services at a school in Illinois. Evan has served in a variety of roles from crisis and behavior interventionist to Latino parent outreach coordinator to Title One director. Further, Evan actively presents on reaching out to youth leadership and self care for everyone in education, and as a national consultant for the Aha! Process.
Chris McNutt:
The reason why I've invited you on and talk about teacher self care and right now, probably more than ever, self care is needed as we head into a very unique and potentially radically different school year for the better. Can you talk a little bit about what you talk about when it comes to self care and what educators could do to prepare for teaching during a pandemic?
Evan Whitehead:
Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it, Chris. I think in terms of self care, right, the earlier that we started, the better. Right? I'm a big proponent of prevention rather than intervention. It's kind of about like what are we what have we done prior to this moment to get ourselves anchored? And if we haven't done that, this is a great time to start. Now, we should also be mindful and conscious of trying not to do too much too soon. So just some basic things about self care. First and foremost, are we getting enough rest because of the way in which the end of last school year ended and then also the summer sleeping patterns have changed, right. For not only our students, but also for us as educators and for parents? Probably our children's sleeping patterns have changed. So making sure we get enough sleep and get enough rest important as well, and then also make sure that we're eating what we're putting into our body. When are we eating? Because all those things are important in terms of core principles for self care. The other part is kind of taking up time to make sure you're organized. There has been a very quick shift for a lot of districts and schools in terms of going for crisis learning, as I put it previously, that we were into.
Evan Whitehead:
Now, if we're going to remote or hybrid or whatever the model may be for all in person is making sure that we're organized and ready for the school day. The other thing I would say is making sure that that we begin to really have a time to do some reflection and then be able to pause during our day, give myself some grace to do that, because things are going to be going so fast. And I don't care if it's your first year or your twenty fifth year in education. This is brand new for everyone, giving ourselves permission and giving ourselves grace to feel as though, you know, it's OK. We don't know everything right now and we're going to take it day to day, week to week. And it's OK if if we don't have all the answers, because I think a lot of what's going on right now, there's a lot of angst that's going on just because we don't know. There's a lot of unknown. And sometimes the stories that are that we tell ourselves in our head are actually worse than the reality of what it could be and the mistakes that may happen. So I think just some of that is just being able to sit down, reflect and pause and just understand that we're all going through this new and hopefully will will begin and things will begin to settle. But just giving ourselves time to do that.
Chris McNutt:
And I think there's something to be said when it comes to reflection. I'm personally someone who tends to overplan - I am very bad about going home and like just taking a break. I can't turn off sometimes. Something that I realize very quickly going into this upcoming school year is that less is definitely going to be more. There's no reason to pick 20 different ed tech tools and try to integrate a different one every single day and think that students are going to be, quote unquote, engaged for forty five to ninety minutes every single day when that's not what happens during a typical school day, a lot of that time is spent doing other things. Could you talk a little bit about how teachers could maybe arrange their class or arrange planning for their class in a way that can keep them motivated?
Evan Whitehead:
Sure. I think the point that you said is true is, is that what we once knew, like in terms of the school day, doesn't necessarily fit now. It's almost like we're trying to cram everything into a remote or virtual setting, as we did in school. And that's not realistic. Right. So in terms of your planning, you know, make sure like first and foremost, if you're if you're going remote or your hybrid model, you should be putting time into each subject, area, class, virtual class, that there's a time for everyone to kind of come together and talk, check in with people, see how your students are doing, let your students know you're doing, give the students time to interact with each other, that that needs to be built and definitely building in the schedule. Time to check in with students.
Evan Whitehead:
But prior to that and making sure that there's some time that teachers take before they even begin their instruction, time for themselves. A nice transition to start today. And then during that schedule, making sure that there are breaks in between subject is subject areas to give the students. A little bit of brain break, but also for the teachers as well. Also making sure that there's a lunch built to just as if we were audited on site and then at the end making sure there's time to transition and kind of decompress from the day of being online and in a remote teaching situation before we transition into our personal life at home as well. Because oftentimes, you know, we kind of just speed through and forget that there are needs there need to time for us to switch that, so to speak, so that having those times is going to make tremendous, tremendous gain for what we do for ourselves in terms of our health care. And also, I think our students will appreciate it as well, because they also need to learn a new schedule, a new routine. So as we build it and it'll be definitely effective for students and teachers.
Chris McNutt:
Something that I want to talk about with you to take a critical lens at self care is this intersection of justice and kindness. So a lot of times we talk about SEL it gets framed as positivity, which it should you should be positive about the environment that you're in and express positivity at the exact same time. And that balancing act, I think some maybe you're pushing for positivity too far to the point where it becomes toxic. And we're no longer recognizing that the world is not necessarily perfect and we should have just readily, like, walk back into the school and say, like, oh, things were great and we should just treat us great because I'm practicing self care and air quotes. Do you want to talk a little bit about how toxic positivity can be counteracted while still practicing self care?
Evan Whitehead:
Yeah, you know what that idea of the toxic positivity is you spoke to is really because we're not self-aware or we choose not to be self-aware. Right. Life has its ups and downs. It ebbs and flows. And, you know, too much of anything is not a good thing. And really, you know, there's definitely like a continuum. Right. Although social, emotional well-being and social emotional learning does try to focus on things being positive. The reality is more it's about how do you navigate life's challenges, especially, you know, and the everyday so that you can strive. And that's and that's it. So I think some of that can be dangerous because the reality is we've come we've come back from we're still in global pandemic has hasn't changed, even though there's a lot of the language we use talks about a second wave coming or spikes in terms of cases. However, it hasn't changed. It's still here. COVID is still here and people are still suffering from it. And we're still seeing the manifestations of that.
Evan Whitehead:
Also, in terms of social justice issues, it hasn't gone away, even though some of the hashtags and social media have kind of disappeared in that trending as much as they were before. Those challenges still exist. And I think part of that is that's where the skill comes into play, right. Where where are we? Are we self reflecting? Where is our self awareness? Right? Understanding what our strengths are, what our what our challenges are, what we do well, what we need to work on. Also in terms of the social awareness. Right. That idea of just because we're back to school and that everything's going to be fine and putting the positivity of positivity is great. But also understanding the social context in terms of where we are right now is important. And I think that's that's often missed as well in this. The self care comes into play because, yes, we want to prioritize ourselves, but there has to be a balance with that, right? There has to be a balance in terms of where we're putting our energy, where we're putting our efforts and how we're doing what it looks like, because we just imagine or want to imagine that simply by me thinking positive things are going to go better.
Evan Whitehead:
That's not the reality. You have to be action behind it. The idea of of students wanting just because they they want to learn. We have educators have a responsibility to help facilitate that learning. This whole idea of social emotional learning is a journey for everyone and it's a journey for the adults just as much because we have to be able to model what we want for students. And students are going to come to us with challenges, right. They're going to come with the typical life challenges previously, but now they're probably magnified. So we have to be in the right state to understand that and not to think that so bad that they're beyond help or beyond the challenge they have are so strong. But really, how can we help them to understand where they are, what they what they need to be and how to build a life around that so they can be a lot more successful and be able to navigate that, because that's what it's about. It's about the resilience. And if we think that everything's going to be easy and it's going to happen overnight, that's not realistic. So we have to be able to be realistic and authentic about our work as well.
Chris McNutt:
In terms of self care and self management, that's really interesting that you bring up the word resiliency, because that to me is something that that we struggle to model with our students because it's hard to be resilient when you're constantly demanding better, especially surrounding issues of equality, where from an ethical perspective, it can seem like the world burning figuratively and literally, it's one of the toughest topics to bring up with co-workers with ministration and feel like you're going to be met with. I don't know what the right word is, but not every work environment is going to be receptive to talking about issues of equity, at least openly beyond the hashtags, beyond just putting a message on the website. How can then educators balance practicing self care when they're talking about these issues that are systemic and wide ranging and sometimes kind of disparaging? How can they just make that work for them?
Evan Whitehead:
The idea is this self care has to work for you. And what does that mean within your context as an organization? We have to get better as that as as a profession and recognizing the importance of it and making it a priority as leaders. You know, I include myself in that in that category. We have to give space for those that we serve and those that are working in our schools, our districts to do that. We can't keep expecting so much from everyone else and then say, oh, by the way, make sure you practice health care. Well, what do I have time to do that right?
Evan Whitehead:
Are you adding so much onto my plate and other the demands so that even if I want to talk about self care and put myself first, I really don't have time to do that. That's, I think where we have to we have to be able to understand that. And what does that look like? Equity today? It appears so different then what it once did, and there are so many components to it. So I think as we begin to kind of deconstruct what equity looks like, think about what it looks like within our own local environments. Right?
Evan Whitehead:
What does that look like in our classrooms and our schools? What does that look like in our communities? Because there's not a one size fits all it just acknowledging what that means and defining that and have a clear definition and a common understanding is important because there's this misconception that as soon as we talk about equity, we talk about race and talking about ethnicity. We forget about all the other areas, such as gender, such as socioeconomic status. We think about religion. We think about inclusion of students with disabilities. All these areas know English learners. And I think that we need to define that and really get a grasp on that, because, you know, sometimes the word equity is a trigger for something that creates a barrier. So we have to be mindful of that so that we can have those conversations. We don't put too much on on people. I think that coming back this school year, there's been so much that's happened over the summer.
Evan Whitehead:
What are we expecting of our educators? Are we expecting them to be equity experts now because of reading, reading some books and having some studies which which I'm all for awareness? I think that's the first step. However, now, does that necessarily mean that they're ready to facilitate conversations with that? Do they have the ability to in our intimate in a safe place to have that in a safe space, to have those conversations? Because that's part of the self care to. Do you want to put yourself in a situation where it's just too much for you can't handle it because now are you taking to. Right? Are ready to do that? Are we asking kind of the unknown to see the usual, but the more the typical people to do that work and are we expecting to do more time along with everything else that they have to do? That's that's to me, that's kind of where the self care comes in to write. Are those champions that are those people that are typically champions of equity, that the ones that are willing to do the work? Are those the ones that you always lean on, especially now? Are you leaning on them so much that they're not they don't feel that they can take care of themselves? That's kind of where I see where the self current equity kind of come into play.
Evan Whitehead:
That work is draining, right? To be an advocate and straining to be it to to be a champion of that work is draining. And that's where I believe issues such as compassion fatigue start to fit in because we often want to do so much. And then we all we start feeling the pain of often those that we're trying to serve. And sometimes just because we're willing to do that, we have in the past inheriting the role of having to do that within our organizations. And we forget about that. We have to make sure there's a balance to take care of ourselves as well. So I think that's something we need to be cognizant of. And as we speak to my leaders, makes you more cognizant of that as well and putting too much on those usual people so they don't get they don't start feeling burned out and feeling that they're tired and they can't take care of themselves.
Chris McNutt:
Exactly. Yeah. I mean, burnout culture in the teaching profession is already commonplace. And now I'm sure that it will only grow unless we take some measures to lessen it. I mean, you see teachers left and right, my own workplace and online who are highly concerned about the additional planning it takes to plan an online class or to plan especially a hybrid class. You're basically teaching like two or three classes at one time. It's additional preps. What ideas would you have for educators or maybe even administrators to basically systemically integrate self care for educators? We talk a lot about students giving them breaks and allowing them choice and the many, many, many different elements of progressive education, human-centered education. But what does that look like for teachers during the workday as administrators and leaders?
Evan Whitehead:
We have to build that in to the day now. What are we doing? How are we doing? Are we checking in with our staff members? Right? And it can't just be wait for that monthly staff meeting because now we're already separated and isolated. Physically waiting once a month is not enough. Things that that we've done in my school district during the beginning of the pandemic is that we had three times a week.
Evan Whitehead:
We would set aside time where we would provide social, emotional wellbeing for our educators prior to them starting their their instructional days. So, for example, the day would start at eight thirty. So like from five to eight twenty five, we'd have a social emotional wellbeing time where we come in and ask how they're doing. We'd ask, we talk about different topics and have some guest speakers come in just so they could get anchored in themselves and have an opportunity to prioritize that.
Evan Whitehead:
That's time that administrators can protect to make it happen. You didn't have to be and don't make it mandatory. The reality is what we saw my district was that people wanted to come because there was some consistency for them to anchor themselves and to get that into their day. So even though we didn't make it mandatory, there was no additional paperwork that they wanted to come in. They look forward to it. So I think it's as administrators, minister, need to think about that. Also, when you think about is listen. Right, we have to listen. We have to listen to those that we serve and what's going on and be cognizant and aware that we have to think about people as human beings.
Evan Whitehead:
Again, we all have lives. And I think the biggest challenge right now is that the multiple roles that we have as people are coming to a head right now and you're asking an educator and a teacher to be a teacher during the day with their 20 plus students, but then they all if their parents, they have their own children, that could be working to have a remote learning situation at home if they're a husband or wife. So now they have the role of the spouse and then some have our caregivers, elderly parents and families, family members. So we have to understand that everyone's going through something right now. And just because we see them for those hours, we can't forget that they have a life as well. So I think it's as as administrators, we need to be conscious of that and give people the grace and flexibility to work through this and give them that time and not try to put too much on them. Right. Kind of the invisible workers of educators is the fact that everyone sees us and says, oh, you have summers off, you have all the paid holidays. Right. And you have all this time, you work Monday through Friday, but they don't know when you're grading papers after after work, when you're grading papers on the weekend, when you're going to classes during the summer, like all these other pieces are involved.
Evan Whitehead:
And I think we need to remember that that is part of the person and part of the daily experience. So we need to not too much put too much on them as as administrators so they can have their weekends off. Right. So they can have time to spend with their families. Not too much on them, so that after after their day working, they're not doing so much in this extra planning so that they can't relax. That's that's part of it. They need to be able to do that. And we have control of that as what time we protect, how we protect it. And then also the time that we're able to get back.
Chris McNutt:
Yeah. And I can't help but think, as you describe each one of those things, flexibility, grace, scheduling, how that applies to students as well. Just kind of going down the line, not expecting I mean, students have people that they take care of. They have families that are struggling. I'm particularly concerned about unemployment and the economic ramifications of what that's going to do for our community. And just like really basic things that were already there but are now exacerbated during the crisis. And what that means for educators, something that's helped me as an educator since spring is setting firm boundaries, the ability to say like after four thirty to three thirty, like I'll get to you tomorrow and not feeling bad about that and giving setting up the class in a way where people don't feel pressure that day to get something done constantly all the time, where that would be stressful not to be able to get in contact with. Teacher, because otherwise you're in a perpetual state of like, well, the computers there and I could check it and maybe someone sent me a message and you're doing that once every half hour for ad nauseum. And it's draining. With that being said, Evan, thank you so much for joining us. Do you have anything else that you would want to add or plug or something that?
Evan Whitehead:
You know, I think that the conversation we've we've kind of talked about it, but, you know, that's my big push is my my three B's, balance, boundaries and breaks. And that's what I talk about a lot for educators, health care and well-being. And it's true. We talked about balance. What is balanced like. Why do we need balance the importance of balance? And I think that now it's more important than ever that we begin to to understand how critical time and energy is in how we use that. And we can't just give it away and we can. We need to invest in the things that have to be reciprocal, whether those whether those are people, because people can be draining, you know, also sometimes volunteer, but they can be draining. And also the projects that we take on as well by understanding and prioritizing what we need to do and what we what we want to do. The other part is, is the boundaries that you talked about is critical. As educators, we have we don't have a good track record of setting personal boundaries. We we we respect everyone else's, but we don't all personally adhere to our own. We say yes a lot and we don't say no. And it's important that we do that for ourself care and wellness, because if not, people aren't going to say, hey, Chris, why don't you slow down a little bit or don't take this on or hey, Evan, you know what? You don't have to you don't have to stay till five o'clock tonight and office. You can go ahead and leave at three thirty. Right. Those are things that we need to think about. What does that look like in terms of our personal health and our physical health? Right. It's OK for us to go ahead and say, you know what, I don't feel well today.
Evan Whitehead:
I don't have to push through and come into work, you know? So it looks like I'm doing my job right. There's a reason why we have sick days. We need to take them when we're truly sick and especially now. Right. Even though we need to be so mindful of that, because I can tell you the culture of education and educators, we're not good about taking our sick time and taking our medical concerns. We need to. That's why often there's so many like illnesses that run through school so quickly. Right. And we need to be mindful of that. So that's that's especially now there's talk about boundaries is truly important. The last one is is break. Right. Taking that break, taking the time to pause, taking the time to reflect, taking that opportunity to take advantage of that time that you could spend, reflecting time you could spend with your families and just unplug. Right. We're so we're so focused on laptop, cell phone, whatever device we have, and we're always plugged in. It's OK to unplug for for a couple of hours. Right. So I know everybody can't do it for a full day, but go ahead and do it. Tried for an hour. You know, it'll make a huge difference just so that, you know, you're not on the schedule. So that shows your body and your mind has a chance to just recuperate. So, you know, just in parting, just I always encourage people to think about my ribs, balanced boundaries and breaks. How can it help you? How can you apply it to your own personal life and just take care of yourself so you can be the best person so you can take care of others that you serve?
Chris McNutt:
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