Being a Teacher is About Empathy… Wouldn’t You Say?
The days of teaching stopping at the end of the lesson are long gone. Students are experiencing increased anxiety and mental health issues in their lives. Teachers are having to provide a more wrap-around holistic support to their students. Student health & wellness management is just as important as educating. This often encompasses the roles of a counselor and a confidant. Being both comforting supportive and offering practical guidance for the students as they navigate their way through extreme difficulties and troubles in their lives.
Being a teacher is about empathy. It’s developing an in-depth understanding of the students’ needs and personal circumstances. This enables them to respond compassionately, without losing the focus on their education.
Teachers know the characters they are dealing with. Often, the trickeiest are those that have the biggest issues, insecurities, or difficulties in their home lives. Understanding this is what gives teacher’s strength and energy. They can deal with the situation time and time again and work with individuals, where it seems no one else has tried or succeeded.
Health and wellness is a huge concern among school-age students. According to the Teen Mental Health Charity, a staggering 1 in 5 young people suffer from a mental illness, that’s 20 percent of our school-age population. With statistics like this, it is no wonder that teachers are stepping in to provide support and guidance to students where they can.
How to Support Student Health & Wellness Management
But what is the best way to help? Here are some tips and ideas of ways you can help your students with their health and wellbeing.
Give them what they need: I’m sure you’ve all heard of the golden rule. Treat others as you’d like to be treated. Well, in this instance, we suggest the platinum rule. This is about treating others the way they want (or need) to be treated. This helps re-focus communication. This way, the student gets what they need from you, not what you think they need.
Watch for the signs: Often you can see that a student is struggling or not happy through non-verbal cues. You can see it in the weight on their shoulders, or the worry on their face. So, give them the opportunity to open up. Try to ask open-ended questions that give them the opportunity to share something. Avoiding yes/no reply questions gives more room for them to open up.
Remove your own reaction: If the student opens up, responding with empathy means understanding their reaction and thoughts on a matter. Then, stepping into their shoes, and putting aside your own thoughts and feelings on the situation.
Don’t become Mr. Fix-It: As teachers we are often compelled to immediately try and fix situations for our students, to jump into pragmatic problem-solving mode. In some situations this is helpful but remember that sometimes the students just want to talk, they want someone to validate their feelings, to acknowledge the difficulties they are having.
Health and wellness have been a focus of media attention throughout this year. From physical health in terms of COVID-19 to mental wellbeing, there has been a lot to cope with this year for everyone. No one has escaped the stresses of the pandemic. Whether that is through isolation or being cooped up in a house with all of your family. Or the social and economic pressure upon families. It’s tough being away from your normal routine, friends, and comforts. Everyone has struggled.
How to Support YOUR OWN Health & Wellness Management
Teachers too have been overwhelmed and worked tremendously hard to turn classrooms around under mounting pressure and workloads, while they too are trying to keep their homes and families supported and together.
It is just as important for teachers to maintain their own health and wellbeing as it is for them to encourage this within their students.
Often life events are outside our control. One of the ways we can gain control and support ourselves and our mental health is to remember the five ways to wellbeing. These have been found in research to improve mental wellbeing in children and adults according to mentalhealth.org.
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- Connecting with other people. Good relationships are important for mental wellbeing. For many, this is family, close friends and for others, this could be teachers, counselors, or perhaps even friends through forums and discussion groups. But being connected to others is important in making us feel like we are a part of society.
- Be Active. This is not just good for your health and fitness but being active causes chemical changes in your brain that bring on a positive mood. What more reason could you need than that!
- Learn New Skills. Learning new skills gives you a sense of purpose and boosts your self-confidence, so building that purpose into your life and celebrating student success so that it is built into theirs is a good win all around.
- Giving to others. Acts of giving and kindness can help improve your mental wellbeing and create positive feelings and a sense of reward. They also give you a chance to connect with other people and understand different perspectives.
- Mindfulness: This is about getting to understand your own thoughts and your own feelings. Mindfulness can help you enjoy life and can positively change the way you approach things in life.
Teachers do play a crucial role in supporting students in and out of the classroom. With so much on their plate, it’s also important that teachers remember to look after themselves too.
Stay healthy and stay safe. Modeling a healthy balanced life is the first step in helping your students navigate difficult times. Practice what you preach comes to mind!
