What a busy term! I've had 3 drafts sitting in this blog since July waiting for me to complete and post! I thought I'd better get at least one completed and out there by the end of the term. Recently, I was given this article to read as a part of some SCT training that I went to. I found this quite an insightful piece of writing and wanted to share with you with some key thoughts that I got from reading it. You can just go straight to the reading from here to read it yourself, or keep going to get my summary. ![]() Mindfulness, Wellbeing, Emotional Intelligence! They might feel like buzzwords right now, but equally teachers report feeling more stressed and under pressure than ever before. In this article, Elena Aguilar (from Bright Morning, an education, coaching and consulting firm) shares her experiences with hiring and training young teachers. In particular, the kinds of traits that made teacher resilient enough to tough out the first few years. Aguilar identifies (from her framework Mind The Gap) a hierarchy of abilities that people have. Skills and Knowledge and built on our Capacity and Will. These, in turn, are built on our Cultural Competence and Emotional Intelligence. She argues that all people are capable of learning and filling gaps in any of those areas. But, she also points out that we often look for someone to fill a teaching position based on their skills and knowledge, and sometimes capacity and will, but without any real idea about their emotional intelligence or resilience. So what can we do about it? The truth is, we are already here and doing the job. We all have varying degrees of all these abilities and we are working with people who have different abilities. Arguilar makes the point that we need to develop our own capacity to build emotional resilience in others. The article focusses on strategic leadership approaches to developing mindfulness and well-being in staff, but I think that the responsibility lies with all of us to develop a culture of emotional resilience. As teachers, each of us is expected to be a professional leader, in fact it's listed under Professional Relationships in the 6 standards. Actively contribute, and work collegially, in the pursuit of improving own and organisational practice, showing leadership, particularly in areas of responsibility. ![]() Currently, we have a school-wide focus on developing well-being in our students and our well-being team has identified that in order to role-model this to our students we need to develop it in our staff first. How can we expect our students to look after themselves, when we aren't looking after ourselves? But on the other hand, how can we say we are looking after ourselves if we aren't looking after others? Building a culture of emotional resilience and well-being will require everybody to be aware of our own and empathise with others emotions. Recharging is different from rest. Teaching is cognitively demanding and your brain needs a break from high states of mental arousal - something that doesn't necessarily happen through sleep. So, don't just rest these holidays! But recharge! Here are some suggestions and of course your can contribute your own recharge suggestions in the comments
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AboutThe role of the SCT is to support teaching staff to do their jobs to the best of their ability. With some education and a few sticks, we are able to create the means for teaching and learning. In this blog, I hope to provide you with a few sticks to help you on the way. Archives
May 2019
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