Teachers are struggling, and they need help

Late days of work and meetings from 8:20am until 10:00pm along with the looming uncertainty of a raging virus filled the first months of Chantei Alves’s pandemic experience. Like others, she was stuck at home working remotely, but on her screen she interacted not with adults but children aged four to five years old, meaning she had to be there emotionally for her students to comfort them through the hard times. On top of teaching, Alves lived alone, isolating her from friends and family. She accepted more work to fill her time, which completely took over her life.

 

“The beginning of the pandemic, I was stressed, and I will say I’m very good at being high-functioning while being stressed,” Alves recounted. “However, I didn’t realize how much of a toll it was taking on me until I would say about two or three months into teaching.”

 

The new challenges of remote teaching created anxiety over the uncertainty of a never-ending pandemic. The workload doubled as schools and organizations piled on tasks knowing educators were stuck at home. For those living alone, like Alves, they ignored the negative effects 24/7 work had on their body and mental health.

 

“Everyone’s talking about how stressful a time it is for teachers who have families and children, you know, how are they managing both?” said Alves, “But it’s also a stressful time for those of us who have neither of that, because there’s no one coming to your door saying, ‘Mommy when are you making dinner?’ or ‘When are we going out for date night?’ I was just working around the clock, because no one was stopping me from working or there wasn’t a real reason.”

 

Covid-19 exposed the cracks within the education system as schools completely shifted to remote learning. The spotlight mainly focused on students and families. Parents had to reckon with staying at home and helping their children through a long day of school. Students faced difficulty adjusting to a fully online learning environment and home now being school as well. Technological issues were rampant as some students couldn’t access classes due to not owning a computer or having wifi at home.

 

On the other hand, teachers were omitted from much of the narrative, despite experiencing possibly the most challenges in education. Educators struggled in silence while they did what they could to assist their students within these new parameters and grapple with the new dystopian reality of a worldwide pandemic that has impacted each and every person.

 

Teachers are now leaving the profession. Across the country, teacher shortages are overwhelming school districts. One school district in California resorted to sending kids home with flyers to parents proclaiming that it’s now hiring. Some schools, including one in Michigan, returned to remote instruction at the beginning of the school year due to a lack of teachers. Across the board, almost every school district faces dwindling numbers of substitute teachers making it nearly impossible to find substitutes to fill in for teachers who are out sick with Covid-19.

 

The mental health of teachers has long been a topic of concern within education. A Gallup report from 2014 cited 46% of teachers experiencing daily high stress, tying with nurses for the highest rate among all occupational groups. Unfortunately, it hasn’t resulted in much change among school districts. With the pandemic, some problems were exacerbated and new challenges were presented. The health risks, both physically and mentally, of working in a global pandemic were too much for a percentage of educators.

 

Back in June of 2021, the RAND Corporation released a study called “Job-Related Stress Threatens the Teacher Supply” from their 2021 State of the US Teacher Survey. The results were concerning, reporting that 23% of teachers--nearly one in four teachers--as of January were likely to leave by the end of the 2020-2021 school year. Three in four teachers reported experiencing frequent stress. The highest ranked stressors were related to the pandemic, like changing modes of instruction and the physical health of themselves and loved ones.

 

 

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Elizabeth Steiner, one of the two researchers behind the RAND study, has narrowed down her research to focusing on K-12 education and policy. She analyzes the implementation of education programs and policies, while also evaluating the differences between the intent of some policies compared to their efficacy in practice. Most importantly, her work is supposed to inform leadership within education on what changes to make in policy that can positively impact education and educators. The results of their research was a warning of teacher shortages.

 

“If this group of people were to leave now, in a year, six months that could potentially pose problems for the schools they’re in and coupled with some other things that are going on in the states, like we have reports of people not signing for teaching preparation programs and sort of dropping out of the pipeline in higher numbers,” Steiner explained, “and so [we] try to raise this broader concern there could be immediate and long term consequences if something isn’t done to help teachers mitigate the challenges they’re experiencing, the stress they’re experiencing.”

 

Despite the data being publicized, school districts did little to help teachers out, and that’s why there’s been a sharp increase in teacher shortages since the last school year. As part of RAND’s mission to assist in policy change, Steiner made recommendations of what leadership can do to help educators in the study. Possibly the most notable recommendation was for school leaders to work with teachers and talk to them about what alterations should be implemented to alleviate stress and challenges.

 

“School conditions vary, right? Teachers at one school might be super stressed and teachers at another school in the same district might be less stressed and it would be worth each school leader trying to assess or investigate the level of stress their staff is experiencing and figure out why and what they can do to help, and so we tried to suggest that,” Steiner said.

 

Yet, leadership in education seems to have greatly distanced itself from educators, creating this unhealthy relationship as teachers are burdened with more responsibilities.

 

Access to mental health resources in Boston Public Schools for educators is limited and even difficult to find. Just by quickly searching on their database of departments, most resources specific to mental health assist only students. It takes a lot more digging to discover that resources are available with the services provided by the Employee Assistance Program for all City employees. This finding means that there aren’t services just for educators when tackling their mental health, and they must take it upon themselves to search for these resources without any guarantee of receiving help.

 

When I asked teachers whether these services were made apparent to them, they were not aware of such resources. If the district just pushed these resources to educators, teachers could feel much more supported by school leaders. In fact, this lack of care has disillusioned some educators.

 

“For the people who choose to leave, I completely get it. And if I knew what I wanted to do next, I probably would take that leave,” said Second Grade Inclusion teacher Andrea Nelson.

 

The 31-year-old worked in various positions within Boston Public Schools for over 6 years and in 2018 Nelson officially took on her first teaching position. Nelson was excited to take the lead in a classroom, but then the pandemic hit in the middle of her second year as a teacher.

 

The adjustment to using only technology was difficult at first. In second grade, the students are mainly using paper and pencil to complete their work with an emphasis on handwriting. Now they had to shift over to utilizing Google classroom for assignments and Nelson had to take time out of her instruction to walk her students through logging in on a computer.

 

The work was even physically taxing for her. Nelson’s body hurt as her bed turned into her new classroom in an effort to isolate herself from others living with her. Remote instruction blurred the line between workspace and home for teachers too.

 

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Nelson initially viewed teaching as a long lasting career for her, but the attitudes of the public and school leaders dampened her enthusiasm for education.

 

“Once it was September I think everybody was ready to blame teachers, and ‘Why aren’t you ready to come back to school?’ and ‘What am I supposed to do with my kid if you’re choosing not to be at work, like you’re affecting my livelihood,’” Nelson said. “We were very quick to flip the script.”

 

Until it’s time for Nelson to leave, she’s devoted to helping her students get through life and support them in their aspirations. A majority of educators continue teaching purely out of their love for working with children and the ability to shape young people’s minds. For teachers like Alves, they were destined to teach and can’t imagine doing anything else.

 

Education has always been at the center of Alves’s world. Her mom was her third and fourth grade teacher, her dad was her kindergarten and first grade Spanish and gym teacher, and her maternal grandmother ran a daycare while her other grandmother was her kindergarten teacher as well as her middle school principal. Even when she made it beyond middle school, she still volunteered at her local library in the summers of high school to assist children with their reading skills.

 

“It’s like literally in my blood to be a teacher,” Alves laughed after listing off her family teaching connections.

 

Alves teaches PreK inclusion at Young Achievers Science and Math Pilot School meaning she prepares children for the step up to kindergarten and beyond. Her work is really the foundation of getting children ready to learn in school as they focus on oral language and social skills. The inclusion aspect of her class means that she typically has about 5 students every year with individual education plans (IEP) due to disabilities they may have. Her goal is to make it so that these children don’t stand out in her classroom and feel inadequate of their abilities.

 

“What might be done for this student which in the IEP says is their accommodation, I try to integrate it into the classroom so that they’re not feeling singled out,” Alves explained, “like ‘I’m the only student that uses a pencil grip.’ If another student says, ‘I want a pencil grip,’ then sure, here's a pencil grip. It’s not going to harm you.”

 

Alves’s busy schedule proves just how long a day of teaching can be.

 

Her blaring alarm wakes her at 6:30 am. For 30 minutes, she remains in bed lost in thought, wondering if her students will be on good behavior or not. She finally gets up, brushes her teeth, and changes into school appropriate attire. She’s fortunate to live about 8 minutes away from her school (that is, on a good day), so she leaves her house around 8am. Before her students enter the classroom at 8:20am,  Alves must prepare herself for the potential chaos of the school day.

 

Once the students set foot in the classroom, the school day begins. The class morning meeting leads into basic math and read aloud centers. Then, there’s lunch, recess, specials (could be art, dance, or gym), nap, bathroom, snack, and finally either social studies, science, or literacy until it’s time for the kids to pack up and go home. Alves leaves school at 3:30pm, but her work isn’t over. Her weekday evenings are filled with meetings, and finishing up lesson plans or grades. If it’s a Wednesday, she gives herself an extra break by staying up a little later and watching the latest episodes of One Chicago. After taking her usual hour break before bed, her head hits her pillow at about 9:00pm before she wakes up the next day. Rinse and repeat.

 

Alves incorporated this routine to alter her work-life balance for mental health’s sake. The start of the pandemic unveiled the extremes of teaching to her. Her sleep schedule was drastically different from what she was used to as she fell asleep much later than usual. The burn-out of constant work also hit her hard as she had to adjust to her safe space at home now being her new work environment.

 

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Upon realizing her declining mental health, she made efforts to turn things around. She started implementing an hour break every night before bed, a time where she could play one of her favorite vinyls on her record player and clear her mind. She left committees that ignored her opinions and joined those that gave her a voice. She said no to taking on more work. She even began paying someone to prepare her meals for each day so she had one less thing to worry about.

 

There’s been more of a movement among educators to support one another and create a community that welcomes conversations surrounding mental health in education.

 

In Boston, the Boston Teachers’ Union has been advocating for the rights of teachers and specifically proposals that can have a great impact on the mental health of educators. There’s a number of recommendations in their contract proposal for the upcoming year that would benefit educators and students, from better air quality with new air ducts to spreading Social Emotional Learning in more schools.

 

“I want teachers to know that I’m a support for them and that we’re in this together and whatever they need in the contract we’re going to advocate for it,” said Lea Serena, Elementary Field Representative for BTU. “There’s a lot of supports we’re advocating for in our new contract proposal and we want educators to know we are there for them too.”

 

With the internet, teacher advocacy has spread all over the US and doesn’t need to be focused in just one location anymore. Social media connects teachers from various parts of the world where they can vent their frustrations or simply have a space to share laughs over relatable posts. A popular platform for educators called “Bored Teachers” has amassed over 2.5 million followers on Facebook. Online content is sharable and accessible for many, making it an effective tool for those who wish to create that can be consumed by those who most need it.

 

John Harper, an assistant principal in Maryland who produces the podcast “Teacher’s Aid” focused on teachers’ mental health, said that teachers “are being more vulnerable now.”

 

“They are saying ‘I need help. I’m stressed. I have anxiety. I’m tired. I’m depressed. This is more than I can take on.’" he said.

 

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Due to a lack of mental health resources provided by districts, teachers turn to spaces cultivated by educators for educators. These communities allow educators to bond with others going through similar experiences and feel less alone in dealing with the stress of teaching. Thanks to the internet, Harper’s work can reach teachers across the US and makes mental health resources and discussions more accessible. This easy access to other teachers’ stories has changed the way educators approach their own mental health.

 

“It’s basically mental health support for the serious problems teachers have because they are quite serious,” Harper said. “So much of our focus is on the student, and a lot of times the teacher is, I don’t think intentionally, either neglected or left out… Sometimes doing what’s best for kids means doing what’s best for the adult.”

 

These online communities can also be beneficial for localized areas. Alves created a group last school year called B.E.A.T., or Black Excellence and Teaching, for Black educators in Boston to have a safe space for them to come together and share their experiences with like minded people. They put together activities like trivia nights, problem solving nights, and even comedy nights. The goal was to connect Black educators who may be in majority white school environments with other Black educators.

 

“It was actually great during the pandemic, because it really helped me. I launched it in February of this year, and we had great feedback. A first year teacher at our end of the year school event in June was like, ‘You helped me make it through this year because I’m the only Black teacher in my school and so this was my community,’” Alves said.

 

Considering about 7% of teachers in the US identify as Black, it’s essential to form spaces like these for people of color to bond together, especially when the RAND survey from earlier this year noted that about half of Back educators were likely to leave teaching. Black teachers have actually had a higher turnover rate in education long before the pandemic hit, and it’s time to ask why and understand what schools can do to stop this group of teachers from leaving.

 

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“People of color do not get the level of respect that they deserve for the same accolades as someone of their white counterparts, so you have to work twice as hard to be twice as good,” said Nelson, another Black educator. “And sometimes you may be better and that’s ok, but you’re not given the opportunity to show your greatness and expertise because of the color of your skin.”

 

Lack of diversity in education can have a major impact on teaching and student learning. As the discussion surrounding critical race theory in schools continues, race will be implemented in curriculum more, therefore, people of color offering their experiences and knowledge will be essential for students understanding the nuance and complexity of race.

 

From Alves’s perspective, a continuous decline in teachers of color will directly affect students over time in the kind of support they receive from teachers. The quality of instruction will lower and that could have long-term consequences for the entirety of education if there’s no call for action from leadership.

 

“I’m nervous, but I’m hoping after this year districts and administrators see that something’s gotta change and they’re like ‘you know what, we can't have another mass exodus like we’ve been having,’” said Alves. “I’m just sad to know that there’s going to be some student or students suffering while this is happening.”