“ We routinely put the less experienced teachers with the neediest students. No other profession does this. “ Zaretta Hammond Author/Educator
“ We have no consistent strategies for helping educators to put on their own oxygen mask before helping others on every day, all day!. ” Victoria Romero’s Quote
And we scratch our heads, wring our hands and wonder how why we can’t retain and grow a strong teaching staff. Research about improving the well-being of staff is still in its infancy. The first major research about the socio-emotional needs of the adults who teach our PreK-12th grade youth was published by the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence in 2018.
Teachers were asked to describe the three most frequent emotions they felt at school each day. Educators in the public-school sample responded: frustrated, overwhelmed, and stressed. Teachers in NAIS (National Association of Independent Schools) said frustrated, joyful, and excited. Feeling frustrated each day was the commonality in both samples.
The research about how stress impacts long-term health outcomes is well documented. If teachers feel their working environment has some positives, like the NAIS staff, they are more likely able to find balance. But their public-school counterparts, according to this research, are in working environments that are hazardous to their long-term health. School for them is probably more of an ordeal than the ideal they believed in when they started teaching.
Even Mother Teresa understood compassion fatigue and burnout. Nuns who worked in her Missionaries of Charity had to take a mandatory yearlong leave after four to five years of mission work. When a once dedicated, committed teacher develops compassion fatigue or is already in stages of burnout, students and colleagues are adversely impacted. How can school systems become more proactive in supporting their daily need for socioemotional buffering?
When there is intentional focus on strategies that support fostering resiliency and growth mindset each day, individuals become a collective, collaborative team. The characteristics of High-poverty/high-performing schools can teach all of us, regardless of our school’s demographics, how to create school cultures that provide teachers with a sense of belonging, emotional safety and collective efficacy.
Meet Mr. Pankey, the theater arts teacher at A. Maceo Smith HS in Dallas. After viewing this video using Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars- Uptown Funk- what kind of environment do you suppose exists in this school: teacher-teacher; student-teacher; and student to student? What’s the evidence for your inference? PS: pardon the one curse word if you catch it.
In terms of Mr. Pankey’s socioemotional needs, how do you think he feels about going to work?
2019 Rankings of A. Maceo Smith New Tech School based on state assessments
#1,578 in national rankings
#155 in Texas High Schools
#46 in Dallas TX Metro Area High Schools
The AP® participation rate at A. Maceo Smith New Tech High School is 100%.
The total minority enrollment is 98%, and 92% of students are economically disadvantaged.
Took at Least One AP® Exam 100%
Passed at Least One AP® Exam 29%
Mathematics Proficiency 89%
Reading Proficiency 63%
Graduation rate 100%
Based on A. Maceo Smith’s data, were your inferences about the culture of this school and the effectiveness of the varying relationships on point?
- Maceo is a high-poverty, high-performing school. When you compare the characteristics of high-poverty, high-performing schools there are correlates with Benard’s Resiliency Behaviors.
- The belief that all students can succeed at high levels
- High expectations
- Collaborative decision making
- Teachers accept their role in student success or failure
- Strategic assignment of staff
- Regular teacher-parent communication
- Caring staff and faculty
- Dedication to diversity and equity
In this one video, Mr. Pankey demonstrates many of the key resilient behaviors as defined by Bonnie Benard.
| SOCIAL COMPETENCE | PROBLEM-SOLVING |
| ü Cultural flexibility
Empathy ü Caring ü Communication skills ü Sense of humor |
ü Planning
ü Help-seeking ü Critical & Creative thinking |
| AUTONOMY | SENSE OF PURPOSE |
| Sense of identify
ü Self-efficacy Self-awareness ü Task Mastery Adaptive distancing from negative messages & conditions |
ü Goal direction
Educational aspirations ü Optimism Faith or spiritual connection |
Back story of how the video came to be. Mr. Pankey noticed the students at the school talked about music videos. He suggested creating a video to the students he taught. His students worked in groups to create the dances. According to Mr. Pankey when he saw what they’d created, he wanted in! This video has had 10 million views and is translated into 60 languages. How do you suppose this impacted the socioemotional well-being of the entire student, faculty and family communities?
I would be willing to guess, based on their state scores and graduation rate, the faculty in A. Maceo Smith HS were open to:
- Exploring possibilities: new roles; collegial relationships; adopt new actions and
- Collaborating to plan a new course and acquire new skills.
- Maceo Smith staff most likely appreciates the satisfaction of how their new competencies are transforming the lives of their students, evidence of growth mindset.
Take the ProQol (Professional Quality of Life Measure) to establish a baseline and update your self-care plan if necessary. https://proqol.org/ProQol_Test.html
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