Over the past year and a half, the topic of social-emotional learning for students has emerged as a conversation front-runner. This is a much-needed discussion and essential to the overall health and well-being of our youth population. However, we must not overlook the psychological health of our teachers! I recently heard a great analogy – putting on your own oxygen mask before helping others on the airplane is like focusing on your own mental health so you can support mental health in others. It is critical to promote and enhance teachers’ social-emotional-mental health so that they have the capacity to foster a safe, supportive, inclusive, effective, healthy learning environment for students. As such, I applaud these materials put out by the Southern Education Foundation:
Teacher Stress and Burnout: The High Cost of Low Social and Emotional Development (July 2021)
- Policy brief: https://www.southerneducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/SEF-Teacher-Stress-Brief-ps7-072121-FINweb.pdf
- Webinar: https://www.southerneducation.org/in-the-news/webinar-teacher-sel
“Teachers are the most important school-based factor in student success, impacting every aspect of students’ achievement and overall development.”
