Category Archives: COVID19

7 Ways to Protect Your Health

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Protect Your Health

Educators, protect your health because no one is worried about your health. The Delta variant of COVID 19 is raging across the country and world. School districts are intent on returning students to class by all means necessary. Anti-vaxxers and anti-mask persons are creating havoc at school board meetings. Some even harass and physically abuse teachers and administrators who try to enforce policies. So you see, no one can protect your health better than you. You have permission to take care of yourself!

COVID-19 Hits Hard

Let’s review how we got to this point of contention. COVID hit our country hard in early 2020. Suddenly our hospitals and emergency rooms filled up with very ill patients. Medical personnel was overwhelmed with the number of people overfilling hospital beds. Businesses, schools, and government offices closed down. Mask and health mandates became requirements for us all. Scientists rushed to create a vaccine to help stop the carnage of COVID. In the United States, over 600,000 people died within 12-18 months.

For a few months, we thought that we might have a reprieve after people began to vaccinate. The number of Covid cases decreased as more received the shots. Hospitalizations also reduced, and people began to let down their guard. Cities and schools began to open again. Suddenly we felt like we could live again, hug people we love, take off masks, hold family gatherings, or go out to restaurants. We were throwing caution to the wind too fast created another dilemma for us to navigate.

Decisions, Stress, and Frustration

As decisions come, the teachers and school administrators are not a part of the process. What else we have to navigate is how to keep ourselves safe and healthy. School boards and politicians make policies and mandates without knowing the full effect and impact their decisions have on the teachers and administrators in the trenches every day. Afterward, the impact hits hard, and we are left to pick up the pieces. Unfortunately, picking up the pieces adds extra stress and frustration to one’s personal and professional life.

Eating nutritious and balanced meals can improve your overall health.
Photo by Sam Maqadam on UnSplash

We know how stress and frustration affect the teacher burnout statistics. Pile on the effects of a pandemic, and now more teachers and school leaders than ever want to leave the profession. The anxiety level of fearing of getting infected with COVID is a reality for many. Educators worry about the possibility of sick colleagues and students, unclean classroom surfaces, masks slipping off of students’ faces, and wondering what happens to you if you become ill.

So that the worry is not overwhelming, it’s time for you to protect your health. What can you do to keep yourself healthy and safe? Here are several ways to protect your health.

Proper Nutrition and Hydration

Good health begins with eating nutritiously. Your body needs healthy foods and plenty of water. Frequently, teachers and school administrators do not take the time to eat proper meals or to stay hydrated during the school day. On the other hand, stressed-out educators may emotionally binge on the junk or processed food as a way to self-medicate. Or some of you drink coffee or sugary drinks all day instead of water. Your body needs foods rich in nutrients, vitamins, proteins, etc. Check the CDC website for suggestions on preparing and eating nutritious meals.

Exercise and Stay Active

Your body needs exercise and movement! Being sedentary is not suitable for any human being. Our bodies are to be active. So, let’s get moving! Do not say that there’s no time to exercise, because you can make the time. During preparation periods, find a few minutes to stretch, leg lifts, yoga moves, jumping jacks, etc. Roll your shoulders and neck, deep breathe and work the kinks out. Walk around the playground or football field. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Even in the classroom with your students, you can have stretch breaks between transition times. You will feel better and get your body more accustomed to constant movement.

Get Adequate Rest

Maintaining Healthcare

Are you the person who never goes to the doctor or takes your medicine? Do you go to work sick and spread your germs to others? Why are you saving your sick days? Do you have a chronic condition like diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, or asthma? COVID-19 took a toll on persons with underlying health issues. Many infected people with previous health issues either died or continue to have serious side effects. Protect your health by taking the necessary prescribed medications or schedule regular appointments with your primary care doctors. By the way, if you feel sick, stay home or see the doctor!

Take Stress and Anxiety Seriously

All of the chronic illnesses mentioned earlier are exasperated by stress and worry. Stress kills, and anxiety causes disease. Brushing off one or both are not good for anyone. Protect your health by recognizing the damage stress and anxiety causes to one’s body. Develop positive coping skills to combat the effects and damage of stress and anxiety. Try to stay positive and not focus on negative things. Seek professional counseling if everything is overwhelming and it feels like the walls are closing in on you. Also, find positive activities, including exercise, a hobby, journaling, reading, or meditating. A healthy mind helps to keep your body healthy, too.

Stay Connected With Family and Friends

During times of hardship, illness, or worry, some people disconnect from everything and everyone. Please do not isolate yourself from friends and family members. Protect your health by reaching out to people who care about your well-being. You may feel like you want to curl up in a ball and be left alone. However, you desire to be around people because we are social beings. We need to talk about how we feel and what’s going on. You want advice when there doesn’t seem to be an easy answer. Stay connected by reaching out to friends and family.

Keep Your Workspace Clean and Healthy

One of the biggest things teachers can do to protect your health is to keep your workspace healthy and clean. The classroom should not be a petri dish. Create health and safety routines with your students. First, you need a few items to have a clean workspace and classroom. It would be best to have anti-bacterial wipes and gel, Lysol spray, masks, rubber gloves, paper towels, tissue for runny noses, and a few more items. Hopefully, the school can provide the supplies to have available for daily use.

Establish a schedule in the classroom for cleaning moments. Delegate specific responsibilities to students (helpers for the day). They can help to wipe off desks; door handles, etc. Students do enjoy having duties and jobs in the classroom. Build out an hourly schedule, or between transitions, so the cleaning becomes a daily routine. Also, turn it all into a teachable moment about how a clean classroom environment reduces the spread of germs and illness.

Students Need a Well Teacher

Educators, your health is a significant priority. Of course, students need a healthy teacher, but your family and friends need you to be whole, too. Put yourself and your health first! Even when we get beyond this COVID pandemic, the seven ways to protect your health remain essential to fighting disease and illnesses.

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Educators is it Time for a Career Change?

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Career Change

The school year is almost finished. Normally, the summer is a time for educators to refresh and reflect. As you know, the education profession is not easy peasy and 202o and 2021 have been no less than traumatic. The pandemic, virtual learning, hybrid classes, or balancing both virtual and in-person learning are all enough to send some teachers over the edge. All of these issues lead to a serious question. Educators, is it time for a career change?

Teacher stress and burnout continue to be prevalent across the United States and worldwide. Loud whispers of teachers and principals leaving the professions fill many ears of district administrators. School districts wonder how to keep teachers and principals from walking away from the profession. Educators are becoming more vocal about their well-being and why they’re willing to leave the field. Many are ready for a career change. Here are a few reasons for their departure.

Low Pay and Lack of Benefits

Low pay and lack of benefits are reasons for a career change. Many teachers work two and sometimes three jobs to make ends meet. Plus, this year the COVID19 pandemic dumped more responsibilities on teachers. We already know that many states do not adequately fund public education. Also, some states do not sufficiently support teachers’ pension funds. For many teachers, a raise is hard to come by. Even a cost of living raise is on teachers’ wishlist. Like doctors and attorneys, teachers must have a degree and state license to practice their craft. Plus, think about how much of their money teachers spend on supplies and resources. Some educators begin to think about other possible job opportunities.

Lack of Respect

Another reason for a career change is teachers and school administrators do not feel respected. Many blame teachers for societal ills that they have no control over. Society relegates educators to many things other than educating students. During the beginning of the pandemic, educators were considered heroes. Parents realized how valuable we are when they had to teach their own children. Parents realized it is a big and difficult job. Then, the tide turned as the pandemic continued for many months. Suddenly, politics made educators into villains. Even before the pandemic, teachers played various roles as nurses, social workers, jack of all trades, disciplinarians, Miss Manners, and sometimes de-facto parents. They are all of these things while teaching kids how to read and do math.

Unachievable Expectations

Expectations and too many responsibilities are unachievable. Both cause stress and burnout. Consequently, educators are trying to leave the field and change careers. Politicians and others who’ve never taught set benchmarks and don’t provide the funding and resources to succeed. It’s all about the data and the numbers. It’s rarely about the children and their real needs. It is about standardized tests and school ratings. It’s time to look at more variables such as the social-emotional needs, socio-economics of a community, family structures, class sizes, etc.

Safety Issues

Safety played a big role during the pandemic. Normally, teachers worry about safety issues; however, COVID 19 took the worry to another level. Now, educators worry about the traumatic experiences of students that occurred during school closures. Homelife for many students is not stable on a regular basis. Add a pandemic and school closures to disrupt students’ lives more. Whether it’s a rural or urban school district, teachers and administrators always think safety first. Universities and colleges train educators to teach. A school building must be a safe zone or haven for the students and staff. All teachers only want to teach and not have anxiety about clean and healthy buildings. When they feel as if they can no longer teach, it’s time for a career change.

Helpful Tips

Undoubtedly, many will see something that resonates in this post. You cannot take it anymore and are ready for a career change! Before you decide to leave the profession, begin to prepare for new realities! The corporate world is vastly different than the education world. Here are a few helpful tips.

A career change is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. Photo by Hans-Peter Gauster on Upsplash.com

Look at your finances. Do you have money saved for a rainy day? If you don’t have a job lined up, how long can you survive on your savings?

Is your family supportive of your decision to change careers? If you’re single, then you only have one person to answer. However, if you have a spouse and children, you must consider how a career change affects your family.

Prepare for a Job Search

Prepare for a job search by thinking about your marketable skills. Educators, don’t underestimate yourselves. Your skillset is very high! Think about what you want to do and write a new resume. Network and communicate with anyone who may be able to support your search for a new job.

Be open to other things like pursuing a new degree or trade. For example, one teacher went to a truck-driving school. She learned to drive a truck, passed the test, and received her license. Now, she is on the road for a major trucking company. A science teacher enrolled in a nursing program. In 18 months, she received a nursing degree and now works in a hospital. Think outside the box and ponder the possibility of relocating.

While losing great teachers is not a good thing, sometimes a career change is good. Your sanity, physical and mental health are top priorities. You have various skills, experiences, and knowledge to share with the world. You can use your degree to become a professional consultant or become a corporate trainer. Becoming an entrepreneur is a great option, too. The possibilities are endless. Do you stay or go? It is all about you, so take the time to figure out what is best for you.

This is an update to a previous post from May 2018.

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Additional Resources

Time Magazine

http://time.com/money/longform/teacher-pay/

Teachers Are Not Saviors of Our Nation During COVID19

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Teachers Are Not Saviors

COVID19 continues to change and affect our lives in many ways. The virus is prominent in almost every facet of our lives, including the public and private educational systems. Currently, the national debate about the virus is whether or not to reopen schools in August or September 2020. Educators are caught in a quagmire because they must choose between returning to school buildings or defiance. Politicians continue to huff and puff, “Children need to be in school!” Once again, the ask of teachers, administrators, and school staff is come to the rescue and clean up a mess created by others. This time the chaos is deadly! Teachers are human, not immortal. Most of all, teachers are not saviors of the nation.

We see that COVID19 has no boundaries and does not discriminate. Science and data show that infection rates cross a variety of ages, ethnic groups, and gender. Yes, the mortality rate is higher for people over 50 and in black and brown communities with underlying conditions. However, the virus is like a thief in the night, and it’s stealing lives before our eyes. Some of the persons include educators in public and private schools. Let’s take a look at statistics for teachers in the United States.

Teacher Data

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in 2015-16, there were 3,827,000 public school teachers and 465,000 private school teachers. Almost 30% of public school teachers are over 50 years old. Teachers 40-49 years old represent 27.4%, 30-39 years old equals 28.5%, and under 30 is 15%. Seventy-six percent of teachers are female, and 23.4% are male. The data is for teachers and does not include additional school staff like aides, social workers, nurses, custodians, lunchroom workers, office staff, bus drivers, and security. Schools consist of many people working with students daily.

Keeping students and school staff is paramount to reopening school during a pandemic.

Educators Face Societal Ills

Educators face many societal ills each day: homelessness, violence, substance abuse, child abuse, drug abuse, hunger, trauma, physical and emotional trauma. Then there is a list of risk factors that affect teaching and learning: community issues, unemployment, drugs, violence, generational poverty, cultural differences, lack of funding and resources, and even politics. Teachers put on their armor all the time. We save many children and, occasionally, parents. Now, along comes COVID19, and it is unlike anything we experienced. The expectation is to show up and do what we do best. Not this time, because teachers are not the saviors of the nation.

All educators will gladly say that we do not walk on water. Too many times, teachers pick up the torch to fix the damage caused by others. Whether it is a rural or urban school setting, educators must teach and be social workers, nurses, psychologists, and pseudo-parents to some students. School staff members try to be empathetic to all, but at times it is impossible. Each child’s situation is different. Teachers try to understand a student’s living situation to serve their needs better. Most times, the school is the hub of a community, and educators want to make it a safe zone.

COVID Changes Educational Systems

COVID19 changes the way we will educate and what a typical school day looks like now. Many teachers feel left out of the planning process to reopen schools. Principals and teachers alike feel demeaned or disrespected by the Secretary of Education, Betsy Devos. During a CNN interview, despite the CDC Considerations to reopen schools, Devos brushes off coronavirus risks and wants to open schools regardless of risk. Some of Devos’s comments seem to blame teachers for online or remote learning being ineffective. Then Betsy Devos and the President threatened to take away federal funding if school districts do not reopen. Educators felt a slap in the face to their health and safety.

Kaiser Family Foundation Study

A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that one out of four teachers is at risk of serious illness if infected by a coronavirus. An article from CNN reports, “Teachers and instructors, about 24% of the total, suffer from health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease or obesity, or older than 65. It makes them more vulnerable.” Educators are human, not immortal. Teachers are not saviors of our nation.

The article continues to say, “The share of teachers at high risk based on criteria identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the same as for workers overall, Kaiser said. Schools face the challenge of high traffic and tight quarters, which could make social distancing difficult.”

Education, An Essential Institution

Schools are places of importance in our country. Education is an essential social institution; consequently, it plays a crucial role in our society. Training and education help shape the citizenry’s opinions, beliefs, thinking, and skills. Many believe education is the most critical thing in the world. Teachers, administrators, and school staff members don’t disagree with the significance of reopening schools. With rising coronavirus cases, educators do not want their opinions overlooked by politicians and persons making decisions.

A Heavy Burden On Teachers

Educators always have the best interests of the students in mind. They recognize that parents need to get back to work, and children need socialization and daily routines. Many politicians want to resurrect the economy more than anything else. They pontificate the economy cannot improve unless schools reopen. Furthermore, they spout off statistics and infection rates of children. Yet, those rates of infection are increasing. At what cost should teachers risk their own lives? All school staff members want to return to work, but they have their health and families to keep safe. Do not put the heavy burden of the coronavirus on the backs of educators! Educators, stand up and be heard. Your lives depend on using your voices.

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TTT4U

Keep Calm and Educate