Support for coping with stress

In my one of teacher's reflection, having observed some teachers who were stressed in Term 2, she spoke on the topic of stress. Listening to her voice, I began do some readings on teacher stress – so as to try to understand, interpret and make workable sense on the possible reasons behind.

In her reflection, she highlighted the importance of taking care of each other. I share the same feeling on the need to be supportive of each other in managing of stress that arises from our teaching role. Having an environment where teachers take care of one another will enable the feeling of “we are all-in-the-same-boat”, and because of that teachers can and need to share concerns, problems and shared perspectives. More importantly, I have learnt from my recent attachment, such sharing must be received in a non-judgmental manner. By being non-judgmental, we can then do something about these concerns and problems.

From my observation, I see such colleague support present in my school and I value such support as it meets our needs. I believe that such support is present because we “feel safe” in school – due to respect and fair treatment among teachers. Stress can come in many forms. After the long hours in school ~6 to 7 hours daily, teachers are tired. Frequently, teachers feel as though that there is not enough time to do everything in school required of them. Other times, teachers are anxious or worry about aspects of the teaching or school experience. Stress may also come from concerns and fears. As the saying goes, “if you cannot prevent it, cope with it” and so the teachers are learning to cope with stress. But, I think that it is helpful to know that each of us are not alone in being tired or feeling anxious or worried about …. – that all teachers feel the same way at some point in time. What is important is that we develop effective ways to manage the limited time and for coping with stress. Likewise for stress, with the different causes of stress for different people and for the same person at different times, there is also no one way to cope with stress.

One of the ways my school has helped to reduce such stress is by reducing the administrative work of teachers, for example, keying in of student attendance, entering of leave application, printing of results. However, I believe that additional moral support and practical support from say the people development is one area that will directly help to improve the support teachers manage stress. Such support could focus on the area of teacher development in terms of positive aspects of teaching and learning and the long terms goals and aspiration. In this way, teachers are more likely to have more balanced view and be able to put things into perspective and therefore reducing stress.