ไม่สามารถเล่นวิดีโอนี้
ขออภัยในความไม่สะดวก
Let’s Talk Teacher Mental Health!
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 31 ต.ค. 2021
- For over 200 comedy sketches and teacher videos, hit subscribe and check out all the 100% original videos on this channel. Listen weekly to my podcast, Crying in My Car: A Podcast for Teachers and find merch and tour dates at devincomedy.com
"Teachers don't need to practice more self-care if parents practiced more child care" 🙌🙌🙌 preeeeaaaach!
Hello how are you doing hope you're safe👍😁👍
There is a student who reported to one of my Education Support colleagues that he hadn't slept properly for three nights. He was exhausted.
A phone call to mum was made. Mum said she didn't care. Son's sleep issues were not her problem.
This is not unusual. It is, however, extremely distressing. How can kids learn if they're tired and parents don't care?
I hate the "self care" stuff because essentially they're saying that it's our own fault if we're burnt out cause we didn't take care of ourselves rather than just acknowledging that this is a hard job and we're overwhelmed.
I totally agree. Even worse, the issue of teachers being burned out is a nationwide phenomena... and you're telling me it's because I personally need to do more for myself? Uh-uh. If all of my students fail a test, I don't tell each of them to study harder. I look at my lesson plans and reevaluate my teaching style. (Well I used to. I no longer teach.)
Well said!
I'm SUPER stressed out and overwhelmed this year. The kids are VERY needy and constantly need my attention. It's a lot in the classroom to teach them. I am counting down the days to all the breaks coming up. I wish it wasn't this way. I have never felt like I'm drowning so much.
@@PSL_Lover2024 The neediness only seems to grow rather than shrink by the year. Having taught groups of students multiple years in a row before, I have found that even though they may grow one year/grade level at a time, their newfound independence does not necessarily follow.
@@munimathbypeterfelton6251 especially post-pandemic. So many kids lost social development or were used to a parent/older sibling hold their hand through all of their online work! It’s a rude awakening for some of them to realize that in person, classroom learning =\= tutoring.
Another major contributing factor to teacher's mental health is the fact that we are expected to just stand still and take every bit of crap that comes our way with the biggest smile on our face as if it's all just one big practical joke at our expense. And whilst teaching the academic subject matter that we love and are well-trained (and re-trained) in, we are expected to act like a cheerleader with boundless energy 24/7 so as to "keep the kids engaged". Whenever negative occurrences arise in- and outside of the classroom (often on a daily basis without warning no matter how well you think you may be prepared for them to appear out of nowhere), teachers are expected to be like Barney the dinosaur and just laugh it off while assuring the students and parents that nothing in the world around them nor their own behavior and poor work/disciplinary/moral ethics are bad. It's dangerous to a person's mental health to be in denial of what's going on around them and within their own nuclear core. So until the other three major parties in education start to wake- and grow up simultaneously, teachers' mental health will only worsen until the end of time as we know it.
TRUTH!
Well said
SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK.
Every day that I think of taking a day off I end up realizing it's just too much work and it is easier to just go in. I'm exhausted and we aren't even to the halfway point.
Take a second and do what I did look at how many days you have saved up at this point really look at it. I say this because after 4 years I had over a month worth of days saved up. I'm about to have a nervous breakdown and I've got a month worth of time that I could get paid. game on.
Cry me a river.
@@brianchandler1966 you do realize the video and the comments are about the intense feelings teachers have towards doing anything for ourselves right?
@@beteljuice6629 I'm right there with you. I'm only at 5 years and I already have 33 days saved. That means in the last 5 years I've only used 17 days.
Blessings. You have convinced me to go out and buy my children's teachers gifts. 💛
Our District likes to remind us how important self care is then send an email about other things they are adding to our work load!!
"All districts like..." There. Fixed it for you.
Mine likes to send us self care emails, on Sunday....... with our changed Monday agenda that we would only know about if we checked our emails off the clock, I refuse out of spite.
Mental health flyers printed off in the staff bathrooms. 🤦♀️
👍👍👍 YES!! I want them to just stop saying self-care. Because it’s hypocritical when the next email tells us 500 more things we have to do this year
Devin, you've convinced me to NOT become a teacher, not even a substitute.
I loved substituting. But I had the same kids from 6th-12th grades, I knew them better than their actual teachers.
Then I got certified, which is what I've always wanted to do. Every few months, I'm not so sure any more.
You have dodged a bullet, my friend. Find another way to achieve your goal. Public education is NOT a good place.
Awesome. I'm a teacher and I would say...RUN FAR FAR AWAY!
You made the right choice. Teaching isn't good for you.
@@arvayahrozier4402 Teaching in public schools isn't good for anyone. But if you can find a way to teach outside the public school setting, it can be great! Helping young persons to grow and learn is very rewarding.
I'm so sick of my district talking about self care when what they mean is "we'll give you a cookie if you shut up." And it won't even be a good cookie.
That's why my "self-help" is going to martial arts classes and getting punched in the face... not sure which will wear out my body first
Tell them where to put the cookie
So true!
"Teachers wouldn't need to practice more self care, if parents would practice more child care" Truer words have ne'er been spoken!
I agree with this message 100%. He speaks the truth.....
So true that student achievement is getting harder to come by. Ten years ago, heck, even three years ago, most students blossomed in my class. Now they come to me with what I call “learned helplessness.” They have no thinking skills and no ambition to learn. It’s depressing.
I'm curious. What do you think changed?
@@tamarleahh.2150 Honestly, I feel most parents now allow screens to raise their children. Family dinners and discussions are few and far between. Kids want the instant gratification provided by videos and video games.
Learning is no longer constructive in US schools. It’s the memorization of facts and figures, so students treat it that way. No time to talk about what you learned and it’s implications. We just had a lecture about Kinetic energy. Actually what we learned was that KE is equal to 0.5*mv^2. We took no time to discuss the implications of that equation or where it came from. If I hadn’t mentioned that the equation might imply that Kinetic energy is relative just like speed, we wouldn’t have learned that. And even my comment was quickly thrown into the list of unanswered interesting questions. It would be impossible for our class to come to the realization that the relative property of kinetic energy partly explains the blueshift redshift effect that we heard of back in middle school. We learned that KE = 0.5mv^2, and it stops there. So if you want to know why we don’t care and why we seem mindless, it’s because our education system makes us that way.
@@tburns3611 Common mistonception that I see ALL OVER the place. Actually, what you just described is traditionally the way education has been done. This method was used even in the “before times” when education was successful. So, this can’t have been what changed, because it’s always been a large part memorization. In fact, a lot of what parents are frustrated about nowadays is education trying to move AWAY from that. Instead of just teaching kids 5x6=30, teachers teach them WHY 5x6=30 and how to visualize it and how to use it with “real life” problems. Which leads to parents hating the “common core” (because all of this implication and backstory seems superfluous to them) and test questions that are ridiculously complicated because they are trying to measure root understanding rather than memorization. So actually, one thing that has changed is that kids are being asked to actively think more, not less. And the parents and kids seem to HATE it.
@@tamarleahh.2150 Personally, I feel that education is no longer treated as a privilege that a few students excel at, but it is now a product that is “bought” by the parents. And if they don’t feel they got what they paid for, it is treated as a breach of contract.
It used to be that teachers were paid to teach students the best they could, but it was acknowledged that the success of the education depended on the student. It was acknowledged that not every student would master or enjoy every subject. Students/parents could either accept that Boyd struggles with English Lit, or they could do EXTRA to help Boyd catch up. The teacher was respected for their experience in teaching methods, experience with a wide variety of students, and (let’s be frank) willingness to put up with a class full of them at a time and try to teach them something.
Contrast that with now, where “education” is a right and a commodity. If Boyd doesn’t enjoy/master English Lit, it’s because the teacher isn’t doing their job. Teachers are only just barely meeting the standard set for them if EVERY student masters EVERY subject they teach. Think about that. A profession where 100% is considered simply “doing your job,” and anything else is considered by society as a whole to be slacking. Parents now refuse to do anything extra to help students who are behind (or even students who are ahead) because it’s “not their job” to provide the commodity of education. They paid for the education, the teacher is supposed to hit their kid over the head with the magic learning stick and make it happen.
This leads to an environment where there is NO natural consequence to kids not learning. If they don’t engage their brain, it’s not their fault, it’s the teacher’s. No summer school, no homework, no lack of privileges, in many places not even repeating a grade. So many kids simply don’t care because they don’t have to.
Add that to the fact that they have a million things DESIGNED to actively capture their attention in their pocket, and it’s no wonder that they don’t feel the need to turn their brains on.
School bus driver, here. I used to not take a day off because I was paranoid about who would drive my bus. Would they let the kids run wild? How many stops would they miss? Would they be on their phone while driving my bus? Now I can't even if I wanted to because I'm covering 3 routes. We have no sub drivers. What we do have is a new director who wont raise the pay enough to draw new drivers and is now talking about trying to nickel and dime the hours of those of us still driving. Y'all still have it worse, but we're a close second.
wow- my brother is bus driver and yeah- you guys have it rough too
I was going to make a Simpsons themed joke comparing you to Otto but it feels insensitive after reading this heartfelt comment.
I'm a high school teacher and we so appreciate you guys!! Thanks for all you do!!
I used to be the bus driver AND the math teacher!
Yes, I said "the" and not "a"... for both...
@@casadelosperrosstudio200 cool beans but what’s the diameter of a bus compared to its radius? Busses are spherical and I use Pi for this, right?
Yes, yes, YES!!!! I’m a teacher in NYC and I agree that parents must start doing childcare!!! They have been the biggest obstruction to their own children’s education. Every year it gets worse. Parents’ rights are out of control. They do less and less. On two separate occasions I had two different parents ask me, “Why ain’t you raising my child?” in an accusatory tone. This sums up this enormous problem.
I’ve not had a day off for seventeen years and this year depression and anxiety reached levels as high as Mount Everest. Bullying admin leaders have turned me into a nervous wreck. I decided to quit and now I’m realising I’ve given my life to teaching which was wasted time. I still feel guilty for not working every day but I’ve got to put my life first.
Not wasted to those whose were enlightened by your teaching, glad you’ve got some more time though now.
Teaching completely ruined my mental health. I was never on my own care list...now I am retired and trying to deal with the fallout...good for you for realizing and getting out sooner!!
Thank you for the good you did your students during those years, and good for you quitting and taking care of your own mental health now. I am certain that you were a blessing to some kids who needed your influence. 💛 I am also certain that this decision has made you a blessing to yourself. 💛
@@KRinT04 I sat in the park in the autumn sunshine yesterday and realised that I’d missed out on the world around me whilst I was worrying about school admin and bullying leaders. Thank you for your lovely comment, it’s a good start to my day. x
This is my 5th year teaching and my first two were at a school were the admin picked favorites and mistreated others. About 15% of the staff were tenured and everyone else was treated like they were disposable. Why is this so common with todays admins? Just wondering your thoughts.
Our TBTs right now are all about teacher’s emotional and mental health. So we get out of school early to sit in a meeting and do… something (today our department head brought cookies, cause that was on the list of approve activities) then watch a Ted-talk about emotional and mental health. But we aren’t allowed to use that time to plan or grade or anything. You know what makes me calmer and more relaxed? Being given enough time DURING my contracted hours to get everything done and not being required to do bullsh*t things instead that helps no one.
Enjoyed my cookies though…
I was required (required) to take a mental health survey (anonymously) a week or so ago. It was mostly the multiple choice kind ("How often do you feel...never, sometimes, occasionally, frequently, always..."), but there was also a write-in box on "How can we best help you?" or some such. Well, I delivered a pretty thorough rant, but it began with "Leave me alone. Let me teach." Simply THAT would solve so many issues.
While the school across the street is getting Election Day off, we're getting a PD (half spent 1/2 hour away from our school, so our "lunch" will be spent commuting). I'm bringing in leftover Halloween candy for coworkers. I don't eat candy, but it'll help them (I hope)
Yuuup
My hours are from 7:50a-4p. During that time, I teach 20 actual hours spread over 6 *different* classes. On top of that, I have 4 hours of meetings and two extracurricular activities (one is required) PLUS required office hours and an hour of duty. I'm also leading one of the courses I teach, so there's additional administrative and managing load there. This isn't mentioning the fact that I'm a husband, father, and doctoral candidate.
How the *hell* am I supposed to keep up with this during my contracted hours? (The secret is I don't! I'm constantly making shit up!)
Hearing this just makes me want to cry, and yell, and bring out all the pent-up emotions from nearly a quarter of a century in the classroom. It is 100% spot-0n! Taking time for yourself, whether a mental-health day, or taking back some of my evenings or weekends, just led to parents and administration telling me I wasn't doing enough, wasn't fast enough, wasn't good enough. When I was a young teacher, I ignored all the warnings about burn-out. It wouldn't happen to me. I loved teaching and kids too much. Now I'm dealing with the guilt of putting other people's children before my own for their entire childhoods. If it weren't for summers and helping me out after school in the classroom, they'd have hardly seen me. Self care? My job came first, then my family, then my home. There was never anything left for me. I am so blessed that Covid basically forced me out of the classroom, and blessed that we can finally make do on mostly my husband's income. Now I am teaching only a few students, virtually. Students who love learning and are excited to come to class every day, with parent's who 100% support me. I have found the joy in teaching again.
‘Burn Out’ happens even to the most versatile and dedicated people. I’m a retired nurse and actually found a really good therapist, who helped me return to a better mental health attitude. When I first became an RN in the early 1970s, I had that learning called ‘Sink or Swim’....... yes, I learned to swim yet it does take a toll on personal health and well-being. When our children went to school, they knew what was expected and that we would listen to to their teachers.
I work in mental health, and the trend I notice is that the people who get burnt out are usually those who are really invested in their jobs. They start off enthusiastically, don’t establish boundaries, do things far beyond what was originally expected of them, only to find out that instead of gaining recognition for that, that extra work is now seen as a normal part of the job… and then they get sick, and the system doesn’t offer any support.
There are also those who get burnt out because the working conditions are terrible… but my point is that sometimes loving your job can be a risk factor, specially if you are a perfectionist
It is stressful to take a day off! But I never judge other teachers when they take off. We all need a day!
I quit at the end of last year after 16 years. I was really unsure if it was the right choice, but the more weeks/months that go by, with updates from friends still in the grinder, the more I'm happy and satisfied with my choice to bail. It's just a relentless profession, with relentless demands from people who haven't seen the inside of a classroom in years.
My school always schedules professional development seminars on self-care during lunch, our only free period.
How typical!
Nah, its during the morning preptime by us since we need to be on lunch duty watching the kids.
It is so backwards for teachers. 1 Day off ends up being 2 days of work! It's less work to just show up. So sad.
This is what I would always tell my husband last year when I was stressed and he told me to take a day off. I was like no you don't understand....
I very much agree!
Yes. An inbox filling up is very different from three sets of teenagers filing into your classroom every day.
I was going to take a "mental health day" but decided it would be less work to go in and didn't call out. Then I woke up and had to call out (still not sure what knocked me on my butt). It was a good thing I set things to be out beforehand, but even then I had to tune in via email because so much went awfully awry
@@nerowolfe736 Only 3 sets? Not 5 or 6 sets? About 200 give or take.
PREACH. I'm only in my second year of teaching and I've been questioning why I entered this career since Day 1. 😭 Parents need to raise their kids to be good students so the teachers can actually teach them.
Not too late to change your career. I doubt you'll regret it. Good luck!
@Ancient Grizz Sometimes changing schools can help with perspective! I've come to better realise what kinds of school environments are conducive to my success and confidence as a teacher in the last year due to moving around. Teaching is still a passion of mine; I just have to find the zone where I'm the most successful. :>
"repair the plane"
Before leaving I went to "flush" a filter for fish poop (my school has an aquaponics system) and wound up with gallons of fish waste water spraying on the floor and me. If I had been given authorization to get the system secured (actually secured, not stuck together like a 2-year-old with LEGOs) this wouldn't have happened. Now my room is going to go from kinda smelly where I don't notice it (the system had been slowly leaking prior to this) to walk in the "fish room" and get nauseous
I feel like teaching is the only profession where we need to spend 8+ hours to prepare having 7 off. Assigning an article to read? Better proofread it and make up questions to answer. Billy Nye video? Gotta preview it and come up with a mini quiz. Small writing assignment? You'll be spending the next week deciphering handwriting of as many pages as War and Peace
Truth!!!
I'm back at a district level position and was comparing leave time with my office mate. She asked how I could have so much leave in the "bank" and I told her it's because when I was school-based and working with children it was too much trouble ususally to plan for time off. Especially as a SpEd teacher the last few years... we often didn't get subs anyway. I'm still adjusting to the fact that I don't have to spend an extra 3 or 4 hours prepping for a day off in my new position.
If you don’t mind me asking, what field did you move into? I’m considering switching too.
I was listening to your podcast about how much time and effort you put into each video. I wanted to say “thank you”👍🏻✅
Hello how are you doing hope you're safe👍🙏🙏👍
YES to all of this!! I tried explaining to my brothers and rest of the family WHY it is so hard to take a day off or go on any vacation not during a school break and this explains it perfectly. Sorry I can't go to that family reunion...I am a teacher. And teaching is like no other job...so please just try to understand the struggles and respect the hard working teachers in your life!
*Gets down from soapbox*
Plus getting constantly screwed over by the system that hired them isn’t the greatest thing for anyone’s mental health. Multiply that by ten, maybe add the feeling of constant impending doom and that’s the feeling I imagine teachers have the majority of the year
You'll love this. A friend's son-in-law is a principal and we started talking about the teacher shortage. He informs me that he doesn't think his district is going to have a problem because they are SO good to their teachers. He bragged that on their last PD day, they gave teachers an ENTIRE 30 MINUTES to do whatever they wanted! It was almost cute how proud he was. 😂
You posted this video at the right time. As a teacher myself, anytime I take off it's like you said. Mayhem for other teachers. I come back and teachers are very upset I took a day. I actually took today off last minute bc Halloween was way too much for me. Saw a lot of family and did a LOT of things. Woke up not feeling ready at ALL to teach. It's not business as usual when we are still in a pandemic. We need to go easy on each other. In teaching I don't think that will ever happen.
As the teacher with the gray frizzy hair and no makeup on, I feel attacked. 🤣🤣🤣 Everything you said is 100% accurate.
I am a 2nd grade teacher. No lie, I was having a conversation with a coworker just this morning about how much work and stress it would be to take a day off, even though it is in my contract to have 5 days a year off. I don’t think it’s worth it necessarily to take a day off because of every reason Devin said here. That really stinks!
And I think it an interesting point about self care. I agree with what Devin said here. When anyone tells me to practice it, I get this feeling of frustrating vulnerability because it just feels like more pressure to find a quick fix for a job that is inevitably stressful. Nevertheless, I do try to practice self care, but it doesn’t change these causes of stress from my job. Of course, this is when my school even decides to address teacher mental health in the first place…
Yes! Administration preaching self-care can come from a good place, but it also throws the responsibility & effectiveness of self-care entirely on the employee while requiring nothing of the employer.
And as a music teacher-it’s so much more work to plan for a sub than it is to go in! And the number of subs I’ve gotten that think Music is just “play time”…I got so mad.
Quit teaching a year ago to get into an entry-level job. Best decision EVER. Barely any “holidays” off, but my stress level is now a tiny percentage of what it was.
Another thing not addressed in the video is how other teachers/admin look down on anyone who takes off for any reason other than death. Near the end of my teaching, I was taking a day off every two months because I was mentally broken (I mean, to the point of nearly scaring my students because I couldn’t stop crying while trying to smile and greet them for the morning). I was well within my district-allotted sick days for the year, and yet I was called out by the district for taking too many days off. I switched districts hoping it would be better, and my principal literally earned every school I interviewed with that I would take an “inordinate amount” of sick days. I stuck with it for two more years, tolerating endless abuse before calling it quits. All from admin and parents who claimed to value me, my mental health, and what I do.
Sadly, this was the case at my school district as well. "Stay home if you are sick!" posters in the staff restroom, lounge and workroom but heaven help you if you actually do so. You just can not win. You are always watching your back.
Yep, the gaslighting is one of the worst parts. You have a contracted time with this huge unspoken obligation to work several unpaid hours per week because they give you a shit ton of work and no time to do it (sped teacher perspective). Today I will be writing a whole IEP because I haven’t been able to get to it the past few weeks.
My dad had just passed away, I had a 104 fever, got a week "off" for bereavement but still had to plan the lessons for all the classes at all the schools I taught at each week plus prep for the district art/tech fair for all those schools. Thank goodness my then dst. supervisor, his assistant, and one of the librarians at one of the schools I worked at stepped in to help me out. I was so sick I was in bed up to the day of my father's memorial service and was back in bed the next day. One of the schools did not even acknowledge that my father had passed.
Self care 😆🤣😆
Perfect solution to all the problems you discussed: 2 teachers for each class + there's many added benefits like getting your legally available breaks every 2 hours and having someone to work with on lesson plans and what not. Effective teaching should be a healthy team effort rather than a stressful and tiring prison with no time to yourself.
Last time I had to take a day off I had a panic attack because my students called me and said they didn't have a sub in the room (and Admin wouldn't answer me)... I was taking a day off because I woke up from a panic attack 😐
Teaching as Inception. I felt that.
My father was a public school teacher for 33 years, teaching middle school and high school during that time. Free time is an oxymoron in regards to teachers, lesson plans, grading, chaperoning, and all the other little tasks the administrators foist off onto the teachers. He had good students and he had bad students but what made him decide on early retirement wasn't the students it was the administrators and government meddling and requirements. He had to do so much government mandated paperwork on each student he was left no time to work on lesson plans or grading, then he was told the government would make his lesson plans for him. He decided enough was enough, retired early and went to work part time as an "adjunct" professor at the local community college.
I had two 3rd grade teachers. Yes, you read that correctly. Two. Mr. Gage taught Monday and Tuesday, Mrs. Marcy taught Thursday and Friday. They alternated on Wednesdays. If one of them was sick the other covered for them. Most relaxed teachers I ever had.
Dropping truth bombs here! I can't count how many times I have thought the kids don't get discipline at home. I can usually hear it from their mouthiness. Since I work in a Primary school, I include a kindness lesson every day. Only takes 10 minutes, but parents need to do their job at home.
Pilots and other flight attendants are paid by flight time (85 hours a month for pilots). I assume they bill for a higher hourly wage to average out the rest of the time spent planning, boarding, and traveling between flights. But, your point is still valid. I haven't seen any fundraisers to buy new seatbelts or for plane repairs.
I rarely took off as it was more work. I worked 12 hour days and still had additional work. Elementary teachers had 45 minute breaks and most of them were filled with meetings. I was told by a parent that all I was was a babysitter and therefore I should be paid like a babysitter. When I asked the parent how much they paid their babysitter I said I’ll take it. When I multiplied it by the number of hours I worked including weekends I would have made a lot more. Not to mention the parents thought I had paid holidays. They had no idea that we didn’t get paid for Thanksgiving break, Christmas break, etc. I retired after 32 years and the 10 years I’ve been retired I lost part of my social security as I had taught in a state, Texas , that didn’t allow you to collect full social security and your TRS retirement pay. I loved teaching don’t get me wrong. I am so glad that I didn’t teach the last 10 years as things have just gotten worse.
I was being treated for pneumonia for a week. I came in to introduce myself to the subs and to go over the typed plans. They were inconsistent about following through, if they followed my plans at all. Students and parents emailed me daily, complaining about the subs and their own issues. When I returned, I had weeks to compensate for and piles of work to score. It was incredibly stressful. I was sick for over a month, but I only took that one week off that my doctor mandated. It was easier to just be there, dizzy, coughing, sweating, exhausted.
Had a similar conversation regarding student “achievement “ today. 🤦♀️. You, as always, are spot on!
Hello how are you doing🙏🙏🙏
110% accurate!!!
I finally practiced mental health care by quitting teaching. I just could no longer take the stress, gaslighting, and politics. I now am in a different career that I love and I teach privately one on one on the side. I miss the kids but my mental health is so much better now.
Preach! Oh, and I have my own set of Allen wrenches to repair the chairs in the classroom.
LOL, here's a trick fellow teachers--when you take your day off for, say, that burst appendix, show up to school anyway. It works! Even though I'm not supposed to be there, I greet the sub, hand them the lesson plan, and give them a quick walk through of the lesson and class milieu. The sub get really happy, the first period sees how committed/insane you are, and sometimes they'll even walk you out to the waiting ambulance. And I rest easy knowing I did everything under god's green earth to make it work. Well worth the effort.
I taught for a decade in a high poverty elementary school. Everything about it was stressful. I realized I just wasn't happy, so I left the classroom and opened a business teaching kids to make video games in a shopping center near my house. I work as hard as I ever did, but I never feel stressed any more, because the kids want to be there and the parents value me and treat me with respect. It's difficult to see beyond the walls of your classroom, but there's a world out there that values people who know how to teach well.
Hello how are you doing hope you're safe😁🙏🙏🙏
I did 6 years in a Title I middle school that was so bad two-thirds of the neighborhood parents sent their kids elsewhere. Thankfully, I was excessed and ended up in a much better school. My current collogues are stressed and I am acting like I'm on vacation every day.
As a teacher of high school math teacher, so true. I hardly ever take a day because of this reason. It is easier to go to work.
My favorite was when I was IN THE HOSPITAL after a possible heart attack (that turned out to be a panic attack brought on by school) and I was getting calls from other teachers and paraprofessionals AND THE PRINCIPAL to try and direct the christmas concert that I begged them to push off until the week after Christmas... yeah.... so relaxing.
Student here: We had a sub not show up. For an 80 minute class period. We closed the door, someone took attendance, and then we just hung out for 80 minutes. Our teacher got back, heard, and was like "Yeah, you're the only one of my classes I would trust to do that."
That’s happened to me. I called in my absence the night before. The next morning (according to my admin) no one showed up for my first block class. Somehow I’m the one that got in trouble for that. She told me if I know I am going to be out I need to request the day well in advance. Except it was not exactly a “planned” absence. Something came up in my life….that still exists outside the four walls of my classroom. Mind you, this was after telling me a few weeks before this that I needed to be sure to call in any absence before 6am on the day of the absence. So I was literally following protocol. It’s not my fault poor student behavior & COVID have created a substitute shortage. We get blamed for everything 🙄 You and your classmates acted like rockstars though. Someone finally realized no one was watching my class because a teacher walking down the hallway heard them going WILD. They’re 14. 😑 This is why mental health days aren’t always effective. We still end up worrying our students will act like assholes to the sub in our absence.
So so true. As a math teacher, I especially can’t take a mental health day. I am constantly being beaten over the head about test scores, and if I’m not there, no math will get done. It is just easier to go in than take a day off.
THIS!!!! I even felt guilt when I was 9ut having emergency surgery. I had my laptop and assigned work for my Anatomy class online... emailed students... and everything from the hospital... and was 4 months before covid hit! I didn't get paid for it either because there was a sub.... No one else taught anatomy so they couldn't plan for me. As a matter of fact I ran out of leave and didn't get paid at all for the last 2 weeks of it.
I worked on school lessons, graded, and wrote college recommendations while in the hospital for a cardiac procedure... I feel you. *hug* Oh I was 35 years old...
Both school districts I've taught in had sick leave sharing programs for just that kind of situation, to help pay for subs.
I had some amazing teachers growing up. My fifth grade teacher invented a game called silent speed ball. It was a wad of paper with layers and layers of masking tape wrapped around it. Everyone would stand in a circle around the outside of the room and throw the ball to each other. No talking was allowed. You had to make eye contact with someone before throwing to them. Had another teacher do a game called Pig Out. He would rolls pair of dice and call out the numbers. The students would add up the numbers. The goal was to get as high a number as possible and then stand before he said “pig out.” Rolling any double was considered a “Pig Out” and it could happen at any time. Once he said it everyone still sitting had to start back at zero. The person with the highest total won. There were often ties. I remember winning once when I stood up after only one roll of the dice. The class laughed but the next roll was a pig out. So I had the last laugh. This same teacher would have us hold our breath to the count of I think 15 when we got too noisy. The theory was that it increased carbon dioxide in the blood which in turn would calm the body down. I doubt that would be acceptable nowadays but it was effective.
Your preaching to the choir! So glad I left teaching before it took me out!!
As a teacher, there are times (like the end of the year) when you can literally feel the cortisol (stress hormone) build-up in your body.
A little tiny bit of stress makes you feel like you are about to lose it because your body is saturated with cortisol.
This is a fantastic video I stumbled upon. I work in healthcare and we often get told about using resiliency as a way to fight burnout, even with mandatory online modules and lectures focusing on this, despite the reason for most provider's burnout being related to the system that we work in. Having watched a few of your videos I've been seeing a fair amount of overlap between the systems issues in healthcare and in teaching. Like you for a lot of us it comes down to how much we are (or aren't) supported by the systems around us. Your videos are amazing, I can only imagine how advocated for other teachers feel when listening to your experiences
All the statements you said in the end.... you ain't never lied😭😭😉😉
Hello how are you doing hope you're safe over there🙏🙏
All of this is true. It’s absolutely more work to take a day off than to just come in (though I don’t hate other teachers for being out). I’m never calm on an of day until the school day is over. My colleagues frequently leave their phone numbers for subs and allow students to email them during said off days. And I have only had ONE sub who’s ever followed the sub plan (out of FOUR so far). And I’m always behind if I only work to contract time…and that’s before the extracurriculars that we’re pressured to run. We’re also looked down upon by colleagues & admin if we only work during contract time. It’s not just necessary professionally, but also culturally.
My mental health is in absolute SHAMBLES. I hate myself so much because I’ve signed on for too much & I’m doing a shit job at all of it. I enjoy working with the kids, but I am already so burned out…I’m definitely looking for other career options (that won’t leave me feeling behind after working 55 hours per week).
Great video! 100 Percent True!
Preach-you nailed it all exactly.
I once had a sub come in, discard my plans, AND rearrange all the desks. With the principal's blessing!
Total TRUTH!
This is the reason I never had a sick day for five years. To make sub plans while running a fever, go through all the admin hoops and hope I can get the day off is harder than just toughing it out the next day.
Get this…this year, we have professional development days pertaining to self care and leadership. 16 hours (spread out over 2 days) of listening to an “expert” and doing worksheets on leadership skills. We could’ve been spending time collaborating with our colleagues and developing our curriculum, but no….we are “learning” about self-care. 🙄
I can't be sure, but I THINK that you and I are in the same district.
@@nerowolfe736 I hear that a lot of school districts are doing something very similar. We spent our PD day (about 8 hours) sitting on hard plastic benches with no backs to them. Our backs were killing us by the end of the day.
A good substitute is worth their weight in gold!
All of this! I once had to take off the last 6 weeks of school for surgery from a broken hip (that happened at school). I was teaching Spanish at the time. They got me a sub who was qualified to teach Spanish but she refused to do lesson plans or grade papers. So once a week while in rehab someone would drop off papers for me to grade and pick up any I had finished. I had to bring my school laptop to rehab too so I could email my lesson plans and worksheets to the sub! Sheesh! Good thing Zoom wasn’t a thing or they would’ve had me teach from my room! 🙄
Hello how are you doing hope you're safe👍🙏🙏🙏
pilots don't actually get paid for the cockpit time, just time after pushing back from the gate up until they arrive at the gate.
We being given a “Wellness Day” this Friday… we were told it’s being considered an optional workday when we work from home. 🤔 Working from home doesn’t make for “well-being,” and yes, I’m one of those teachers that has felt guilty for taking a sick day because I was on the verge of an emotional meltdown. Yeah!
At one of the previous schools I worked at we had a PD about selfcare.
It was during our lunch break.
Actually...pilots do get paid only by flight time. Pilots and attendants only get paid once the boarding door closes, and stop getting paid once it opens. So, pre flight, walk arounds, walking to the gate where the flight is, all UNPAID.
Such bs! And now you guys have to deal with everyone being crazy all of the time. Thank you
@@susanwright7682 It is. I'm not flight crew. Just a mechanic. We too are underpaid, but at least we get paid the entire time we are at work.
From the Land Down Under - YES. Yes. Yes. And... yes!!!
Preach it!!!!! I no longer take my release days because it is WAY too much work. 4 plus hours to plan 6 hours, then 4 more hours the next day to grade everything I left, or picking up the pieces and solving the issues left behind. And that was if a good sub showed up! This year is worse than ever since it's a total crapshoot if a sub will show... Teaching is so much harder these days!
YES, YES, and YES - oh and a thousand YESes starting at 3:50
0:57, sounds like retail. When I wanted a day off, I had to work extra shifts.
Most of what Devin brings up is true, if a bit rhapsodized. There is NO relief until summer, and even then, the school system encroaches on your time off with “optional” workshops that they tell you if you fail to be there, you’ll be double-timing it in August.
And this is why our beloved science teacher is heaving after Christmas and retiring for good. I'm so sorry Mrs. Dykas
I'm on my first day of a week long sick leave. I should have taken sick leave way earlier, I've been struggling since August.
I just didn't have the time... I eventually passed out at work, got forced to take the sick leave, went straight back to work after getting the sick leave to prepare lesson plans and make instructional videos for both students and teachers.
Then today I had to wake up early, and I got several phone calls and a couple of emails about the day and had to instruct people even though I have instructions in several other places.
I've been on sick leave for one day and I'm so exhausted I'm considering just going back in to work tomorrow.
The anxiety about classrooms being a mess is why there was only 1 classroom I didn't do extra cleaning, including cleaning the keyboard, mouse, and projector remote and any used styluses from the smart board. The one I didn't? The one where the only note about a dangerous kid was "just call the office and ask for X and they'll take him", but instead had to give up part of my lunch to get him in the office for his lunch to keep him from attacking classmates only to have him thrown back at me because the office believed his lies like they were district admin. After he tried to throw a desk at me that afternoon, I decided the mess created was brought on by the teacher failing to just say "this one is a critical behavior problem, here's how you can address his behaviors within his plan and what to do if he goes completely off the rails", but that would've scared off most other pool subs, but instead she just burned me for the entire school.
I agree that you should have gotten a warning. This is why i stopped putting specifics like that in my plans... a few years ago one of the other teachers had specific discipline stuff listed in her plans, named names and explained how to handle them. The sub read that, out loud, to the whole class. It was a disaster.
I usually have sub plans done at the beginning of the year. In Los Angeles, it is not our responsibility to make sure the sub shows. We just have to call subfinder and report our absence. We have much stronger union protections that way. I never felt guilty about taking a day off. But yes, one time I did take a sick day and a student tagged on the sides of my new AP US History books. Three weeks later, he dropped out. That kind of stuff was super stressful. In terms of self -care, give me a 500 dollar gift card to the spa. Yes i was the teacher who spent a ton of time at school because I loved it but after my school was reconstituted under No Child Left Behind, I put myself first.
Hahaha. Love your sarcasm! I just took a day yesterday (the adults at school are too much) and I can relate haha! The selfcare BS yes. If parents would do their job we would be able to do our job... Teach!
2nd grade teacher here, taking a sick day with a head cold today. I’m making oatmeal and checking emails
Hello how are you doing hope you're safe over there🙏🙏🙏
I apologized to my coworkers last week that I didn’t burn the building down when I left a glue gun plugged in. Another colleague left her warmer plugged in too. We are trying to help!
At my school, the building is split between the preschool (where I work) and the high school, where they teach children who have autism.
As you can imagine, the stress is high for everyone.
We get 1 room on the high school side for staff to use to de-stress. It has a massage chair and some in-door fountain/waterfall thing. But, because I work in preschool, I'm not allowed to leave my class unattended. I've never used it and neither has any of my coworkers. And because the high school teachers work with teens with autism, they aren't allowed to leave their rooms, either. You know who *do* get to use the special room? The management team!
Did I mention that my preschool is open all-year-round? So, I don't get the luxury of summer, fall, winter, or spring breaks. Unless it's a major holiday like Christmas, we use the other ones for PD days. We get 3 days a year for "mental health", but with the low staff numbers, we don't really get the luxury to use them, unless you want to stress out your other co-workers.
2021, I took 0 days off, unless it was a sick day. As soon as we hired a new staff this year, I used up my 2 weeks of accrued vacation. I haven't been out since January.
I especially appreciate the comment about parents needing to practice more child care. #preachit
This is too true. I literally was emailing and texting subs/admin from the emergency room with an allergic reaction after 12 hours there already 😂
This is my life. I love teaching but the only way I will take a day off is if I have a bullet wound, need an amputation, or severe blood loss.
Lol. Too real. And too funny.
Hello how are you doing hope you're safe👍🙏🙏
I teach and I just want to THANK YOU for your continued support and honesty!!!!!!!!!!😫😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
It’s like you were reading my mind! Thank you for your videos…they bring me joy!!
It’s 9:30pm here and I’m still working. This is my 5th year of teaching. So many vet teachers told me it’d get better after my first year. I’m still waiting for that to come true 😅 but, seriously, I’m thinking I need to change careers. I’m just not as passionate about anything else besides teaching. I feel lost.
First suggestion: stop grading so much. Idk what grade you teach, but what I've done for a while is tell the students that when they submit something, I will randomly choose what portion of it I will grade. For example, they submitted a 12 page project. They didn't know which 3 pages I was going to grade. I still glance at everything else, to see if there are any glaring issues, but I don't analyze everything. Saves me SO MUCH TIME, and I always hear them say to each other, "No, it has to be right, what if this is the one she grades????!!!!" They work just as hard, if not harder, and I get the same data as when I would grade all 12 pages. Just a thought to try to help.
Good idea!!
@@zaram131 second suggestion: you have your whole career to get your lessons, worksheets, assessments, etc perfect. This year, they need to be good enough to do a good job. Next year, you will make adjustments to make it a little better to do a better job, and each year you, your ability, your teaching, and your work will get better. That's why we say teaching is a career, a practice..... Because you aren't supposed to be perfect your first couple years. And, when you start to feel like you are going to have meltdown, talk to yourself the way you would talk to a student. Walk yourself through the situation the same way you would a student.
second suggestion: you have your whole career to get your lessons, worksheets, assessments, etc perfect. This year, they need to be good enough to do a good job. Next year, you will make adjustments to make it a little better to do a better job, and each year you, your ability, your teaching, and your work will get better. That's why we say teaching is a career, a practice..... Because you aren't supposed to be perfect your first couple years. And, when you start to feel like you are going to have meltdown, talk to yourself the way you would talk to a student. Walk yourself through the situation the same way you would a student
You are hysterical! I love your channel!
I want ALL my fellow teachers to take mental health days, yea I will cover you, and you will cover me when I need it.
Your best one yet, Mr. Siebold.
Never had a plan with a sub. They say do the lesson you’ve been working on. Read, do homework but be quiet.
My husband is a teacher. He loves what he does, but yeah. Him taking time off is not really time off. He spends half the day emailing, texting, and in general stuck with his nose in his phone. I've worked at a daycare as an assistant teacher, which isn't exactly the same, but similar. There was a point where we were so low-staffed we had to call in random strangers from a babysitting service to come in and cover people's shifts. And I always got someone incompetent as a sub for my lunch break. It was twice as much work to leave as it would have been to just stay in the classroom, so that's what I did several times. Cause if something went wrong, it was inevitably my fault, whether or not I was even in the room. A job like that isn't worth it, in my opinion. I think corrupt central office do-nothings and admin simply take advantage of the passion and naivete of new teachers. And they always seem to try to run older, more opinionated teachers out. Interesting.
AMEN AMEN AND AGAIN I SAID AMEN!!!!!
And then if you teach music or art to 7 classes and 200+ kids a day and no sub shows up… You now have alienated every teacher in the school or, if they do get paid for taking their own class during their “prep”, you get to come back and sign a bunch of forms in order for them to get paid. The office attitude is like, “you should have been here doing your job! Since you weren’t, sign all of these forms indicating you were taking the day off and making life difficult for everyone else!”
As an art teacher I really hate taking a day. You take a day and literally they use watercolor paper as trash. It's horrible. And then like you said I'm alienating an admin bc they couldn't find coverage. I feel guilty causing inconvenience due to my mental health and getting overwhelmed. I deffo can't say this as the reason why I needed the day. Wish I could.
Yup! I teach Spanish, but because it's middle school it's elective.
I taught music for 40 years. Somewhere along the line I figured it out. Teach like Scarlett O’Hara: tomorrow is another day. It gives you grace for today and hope for tomorrow.
@@PSL_Lover2024 Yes! Supplies trashed, room trashed, supplies stolen,
lesson plans not followed, and on and on. One year I was covering four elementary schools per week (many music band/orch. teachers did that per day!) in a big rural school district. Most of my years teaching art I was at two schools per week and/or per day with alternating days - back and forth and back and forth. If I got sick it was a logistical nightmare as I had most of the art supplies with me (yes, guess who bought most of the art supplies). Getting a sub was usually a no-go which, as everyone who teaches knows, is so frustrating as you cater to all the kids and have to cover one million bases, duties, where supplies are and then the lessons for each grade (seven or more, PreK-6) in your sub plans. So glad I finally retired and made it to the finish line. (I suffer from chronic illnesses that developed when I started teaching decades earlier.) But barely. I read these comments and get PTSD effects all over again. I do not miss one bit of it at all.
Spot on!!! I love your videos, I’ve got 1 year until retirement & yes, I’m counting down the days!
I don’t work in education but have a job where vacation time is not actually vacation time. I once tried to arrange coverage as I was going camping iff grid for two weeks where there were no people let alone cell towers. They bought me a satellite phone and called me a few times per day on it
I had an admin tell me that I was "unprofessional" for having healthy boundaries in my job. I have ADHD and I navigate my schedule based on my executive function. I get so overstimulated by 3:00 that I can't stay until 4:00 because I am not productive anymore. My solution? Coming in at 7:00 am. It worked for me and I wasn't as stressed as my colleagues... Which pissed a lot of people off. So I went back to subbing.
I'm a Para in special education, but they pull me to sub ALL the time because I have a science degree. One time I went to sub G block (the end of the day block, literally last block of the day). I walked in and found out it was a Spanish class and there I was looking for the sub folder or some work. Nothing. So I call the office and the admin brings it down. The teacher (who I know) tells me the next day that I was the ONLY one who called to get the sub folder so blocks A through F didn't do any of the work she left and kids were emailing her and she kept emailing people and no one answered. Today I was a sub too, but for science. I had one of the other paras make copies of the modified sheets and extras of the Gen Ed ones and I must have paced the rows 100x making sure every single kiddo had a copy. I was like "yall better get it done for your teacher tomorrow!" 😤
To add another quote by “John Hammond”:
“If there’s one person here who could appreciate what I’m trying to do…”
Thanks, Devin! I appreciate your insight and especially your humor!