Written By: Caitlin Mehra

Beyond face masks: Lasting self-care via personal inquiry

The self-care movement has made its way into the education space, driving important and necessary conversations in places where “self” was previously considered a dirty word. There is now even a major annual educational conference, the Teacher Self Care Conference, dedicated solely to this topic. I believe this is the most important “trend” to hit the ed space, and I feel hopeful that it is not a trend at all, but the beginning of a revolution in the way educators (and other helpers) think, feel and act. 

While I believe that deep and sustainable self-care is important for absolutely everyone, I know that it is crucial for teachers (including teaching aides, caregivers, social workers and program staff) because this work asks for a near total devotion to others. Moreover, the professions that ask for this level of attention, attunement and care towards others often do not provide the supportive safety net of compensation, benefits and resources that help teachers and practitioners keep themselves well. 

As I was writing this series, a powerful article by Rachael Moshman called “Teachers Can’t Self-care Themselves Out of a Toxic Work Environment” started appearing all over my social media feeds. This article, found here, addresses the systemic changes that are sorely needed for teaching to become a sustainable practice, and how the self-care movement can be seen as having shifted the burden of wellness onto teachers, often adding guilt to an already full plate of difficult emotions and experiences.

I agree with Rachael. Whether we work in schools or other places of service, we cannot self-care our way out of situations that are oppressive, abusive, racist, inappropriate or toxic.

However, I’ve learned that we can self-care ourselves in to being the strongest, most trustworthy advocates for ourselves. 

True self-care, the habitual practice of taking excellent care of ourselves physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, spiritually and financially, changes the way we move within the systems we seek to change. It builds clarity and agency. When we engage in this type of holistic self-care, we begin to trust ourselves to make decisions and take actions that promote sustainable wellness. 

Ten years ago, as a new teacher, I was already proficient in many of the self-care strategies discussed today. I didn’t stay at work late. I went home and got in bed early.  I made and kept social commitments and I read for pleasure. I always said yes to a massage. I played with my students at recess and delighted in them. 

These choices weren’t trivial. They showed me I could put myself first and still serve others, an idea I strengthened until it became a core belief. 

This was a good start, but these early tools were not enough to keep me well. Five years ago, I embarked on a much murkier journey of learning how to take care of myself, which included and continues to include tools like therapy, 12-step groups and different forms of meditation. I needed to do this for a multitude of reasons and symptoms that were showing up both inside and outside of work, including intense experiences with both anxiety and anger, a formidable emotional duo. 

When I engaged in this kind of work, I saw where I was neglecting and harming myself, operating outside of my value system and stepping right over my own boundaries. I learned how to feel the signals of internal misalignment and take small steps to repair and rebuild my trust with myself. To me, there is nothing more self-caring than this. 

The process is  imperfect and ongoing, but I’m seeing the changes permeate every area of my life. 

Here’s what I’ve learned:

There is no self-care without self awareness.

Self-care is not a fad, or a movement from outside of yourself to take on.

Self-care is the internal, extremely personal journey of knowing who you are and what you need in order to make decisions that promote your overall wellness. 

It requires inquiry. It requires that we tell the truth. 

Here’s one way to get started:

• Tell the truth to yourself about your experience 

Find a private, quiet time to check-in with yourself. Ask  yourself how you’re doing. Answer yourself with as much honesty as possible. Here’s a simple exercise that doesn’t take a lot of time:

Write down (or say aloud) the three main emotions you are experiencing at the close of the day or week. 

Hands down, the most transformational part of my wellness journey has been developing emotional literacy. This means precisely identifying and naming my emotions.

I have learned that my emotions are messengers sent to me, from me, about how I’m doing. Emotions can be suppressed, but not evicted. They remain in the body and psyche, waiting to be utilized as the important sources of information they are. Below is a tool that changed my life, an emotions wheel. 

Image via www.thejuntoinstitute.com

As you reflect on your emotions, try to use words from the two outer circles as much as possible. Feeling helpless and feeling worried are different expressions of fear. The greatest clarity about what to do will come from being as precise as possible. 

• Do not judge what you have written. 

This process requires absolute self-compassion. This is for you, to get to know yourself better and find patterns that will help you care for yourself deeply and sustainably. Please know and believe that none of these emotions are wrong or bad.. Emotions are neutral, it is our interpretation of them or the behaviors associated with them that we judge as positive or negative. Uncomfortable emotions like anger, fear and sadness are not character defects, they are tools hardwired in us to help us survive. 

• Look for patterns

When you look at your responses over a week, or multiple weeks, what patterns do you see? Are your emotions spread out across the wheel or concentrated to a certain family of emotions? Were there any surprises? Did your responses change as you built comfort and familiarity with the wheel?

Proceed with curiosity. On the other side of this simple exercise is the profound opportunity to meet yourself where you are, so that you may lead yourself to the new strategies, tools and resources that will help you develop sustainable self-care in every area of your life. 

Stay tuned for my next post about how to identify your needs by interpreting the emotions you’re experiencing. Share in the comments. Reach out to us at info@litlifepd.com with questions. 

Written By: Caitlin Mehra

Written By: Vincent Ventura

Quick Quiz:

What was the last reading lesson that you planned, taught and assessed?  Perfect! Now that wasn’t too difficult, was it?  

Here’s the next question: what was the last writing lesson that you planned, taught and assessed?  Again, probably not too difficult.  

Here’s the final question: what was the last speaking and listening lesson that you planned, taught and assessed?  Need a few more seconds to think? Are you scratching your brain thinking of that lesson? Did that speaking and listening lesson take a little bit longer to drudge up from your memory? 

If this is the case, don’t worry!  In today’s educational climate, we have been inundated with reading and writing scores.  We are constantly measured, based on our students’ abilities to read passages, answer questions and write with eloquence.  At the same time, as educators, we all know that oral language (listening and speaking) is the FOUNDATION of literacy (ASCD).   In this series of blog posts, I invite us to explore the role of oral language in our literacy instruction.

What is Oral Language?

Simply put, oral language is the set of skills and knowledge that go into listening and speaking.

Why is Oral Language important?

Children who have strong oral language skills often have strong reading and writing skills.  In contrast, children with oral language problems are at higher risk of reading and writing difficulties.

(Scarborough, 2001)

Besides the obvious correlation of oral language with reading and writing, we know that it’s very difficult to read and write in a specific language, if we’ve never heard the language, nor uttered a single word.  Oral language is the gateway to communicating with others.   

Receptive language precedes productive language.

(MONDO)

We know that when we talk to babies, they may not be able to verbally respond to us, but we are aware that babies are understanding our dialogue.  Our students receive a plethora of language. As educators, we are the sources of the language. There is no denying that we provide a lot of language to our students.  The question is: how do we start to provide opportunities for students to produce language?

The 3 C’s of Oral Language

In order to help students to develop Oral Language, we must include the 3 C’s of Oral Language; community, consistency and communication.

Community:

In order for students to feel safe and secure to express themselves, we must build a community where students can take risks.  Consider: how have you built a classroom that is safe and nurturing? A colleague once reminded me that “learning is a trust fall.”  Students are taking risks on a daily basis, particularly when expressing an idea. In that case, what scaffolds can we lay in our classrooms to ensure risk taking?  As educators, we have a tendency to jump ahead to the academic skills that we need to teach students. Let’s remember that we are teaching humans first. Humans who long for a sense of community and acceptance.   For more information on how to build a safe and nurturing classroom, consider taking a look at Ernest Morrell and Pam Allyn’s book Every Child a Super Reader: 7 Strengths to Open a World of Possibility. 

Consistency:

Students drive on consistency.  We recognize the fact that the more consistent a skill is practiced,  the stronger the opportunity a student will acquire the skill. This practice weighs heavily with speaking and listening skills.   Below is a list of activities that you probably may have already sewn into your daily practice:

 1. Share stories

2. Read aloud

3. Have fun with props and play

4. Use rich vocabulary

5. Sing

6. Recite nursery rhymes/poems

What listening and speaking strategies have you already incorporated in your classroom?  What would you like to try out?

Communication:

The last “C” for oral language is really teacher-driven.  In our busy world, we are constantly reciting a list of “to do’s” in our minds.  More times than often, when we give directions to students, we recite a long list of directions to students.  An important part of oral language is communication. Consider how often do you provide your students with think time?  Do we ask questions to students, and generally choose the first few hands to participate? If this is the case, then what are we teaching about thinking?  We are unconsciously sending the message that thinking is about speed, rather than quality of thought. Speaking and listening requires thinking. Therefore, an important component that we must consider is “think time.”  A simple change to your instruction may be as easy is providing all students with think time before they even raise their hands to share an idea.  

Final Thoughts. . . 

Before we continue the series on Oral Language, I invite you to reflect on the 3 C’s of Oral Language.  Which “C” is your strength? Which “C” is your stretch? All of us want our students to become successful readers and writers, but we must understand the important role of Oral Language!

Stay tuned for the next blog post on Oral Language: How to Encourage ALL Students to be Effective Speakers

Written By: Vincent Ventura

Written by: LitLife Literacy Specialist Dr. Stephanie Strote 

In my first post about The Curious Lives of Teachers  found here (link), I discussed the importance of bringing your own curiosities into the classroom to deepen learning and provided questions to prompt self-discovery and build excitement for this endeavor. 

While education research has, for the most part, accepted the importance of students’ questions and interests in ensuring successful learning outcomes, we should also consider how important it is for teachers to embody and model curiosity for their students.

One way to do that is to bring in your reading: 

What texts engage and nurture your sense of curiosity? Make these an ever-present part of the educational landscape in your classroom so that students can see all the ways in which readers ask and answer the questions that drive them. This includes the books and other resources about teaching you turn to when presented with a new situation, from inclusive classroom management practices to current practices in guided reading or culturally responsive literacy practices. Perhaps this might be a purposeful portion of a bulletin board that includes articles on teaching you’re looking at this month, your book club selections, or the restaurant and movie reviews that sparked your curiosity and took you someplace new.

I once worked with a science teacher who was an avid birder and general enthusiast of engaging with nature in artistic ways. She embodied an effortless integration of the humanities and sciences but also had her reading life on display in the classroom. Beyond teaching resources on the substance of her work in teaching science to children, she integrated books on improving sketching techniques, field guides, poetry, and her own artwork into the classroom. Students could see in front of them what kinds of things she was currently curious about and how she was going about engaging her curiosity through reading. 

What else are you learning about? How are you learning it? If you are learning to be a yoga instructor, or to bake a cake, or to finally land that pull-up, you can print some of the articles you’re reading or the books you’ve taken out of the library to get you there. Alternatively, bringing in your reading might be as simple as pointing out how the reading material on your desk or your special shelf in the classroom library rotates and changes according to the questions you are currently asking. Keep it simple, but keep it present. 

We’d love to hear more about how you share your reading self with students.  Share in the comments how you do this with your students. As always, please reach out to us at info@litlifepd.com to learn more. 

Written by: LitLife Literacy Specialist Dr. Stephanie Strote 

Dr. Stephanie Strote is a literacy consultant at LitLife. She is interested in all things literacy and the social-emotional lives of teachers and students.