Teachers discuss teacher appreciation, teacher’s mental health

Sam Klein
Print/Podcast Editor

Teachers work an average of 53 hours a week working to educate students in an effective and entertaining way. While important, the field of education can take a toll on mental health.

Mental health is all about emotional well being, which can be a challenge to maintain when there’s constantly so much going on in a modern world.

Decompressing after a long day is vital to maintaining mental health. English teacher Sarah Gray shared that her way of winding down is to spend time outside and go on walks.

Psychology teacher Jon Petter has a similar method.

“The big thing is spending time with family, is a big one, just spending time with the kids and the wife. Family time. And for me running, I like to obviously go out and grab some miles on the road to destress and just kind of get away from technology,” Petter said.

It’s not just about decompressing though, but it’s also about compartmentalizing life and separating work and home. For example, Gray no longer brings work home. “I also don’t take work home anymore which has helped quite a bit [with improving mental health].”

Petter has a different way of helping his mental health, focusing on the part that he loves. “I think really making sure you separate the teaching aspect from all the administrative stuff and making sure that you remember to enjoy teaching and that the other stuff has to get done but isn’t as essential as the day to day where kids are having success,” Petter said.

Gray has other methods to protect her mental health such as looking at mental health from an angle of what is doable.

“I think that if you take the approach that you have to do all of the things, then it’s just not possible and you’re going to feel overwhelmed,” Gray said. “I think accepting that there is always going to be more to do until the end of the semester or the end of the year is just pretty important to coping mentally.”

In the end, it’s about perspective and the outlook taken on the job. “Teaching is obviously stressful. Trying to help everybody and help kids have success, that’s obviously a stress, but I’d say all the other stress of meeting deadlines and doing all the other sort of redtape stuff can get kind of stressful and take away from teaching to where you feel kind of exhausted from being a good teacher,” Petter said.

Burnout is a common thing in professions and can be found in teaching as well.

“I cannot tell you how many conversations I have with teachers who have taught for 15 plus years that are wondering whether or not they’re going to stay until retirement when five years ago that wouldn’t have ever been a question. It’s a big problem,” Gray said.

The COVID-19 pandemic could be a contributor to this burn out teachers experience.

“It definitely has had an effect and an impact. I think the possibilities that we’ve had to change some things in a really major way. We and I mean I think overwhelmingly education in America not just at Webster, missed a lot of opportunities and just kind of went back to things as normal when things aren’t normal,” Gray said. “I think students have academic struggles from the learning loss from the pandemic, and I also think that students and staff are still dealing with emotional and mental consequences of that time.”

Support can often contribute to the mental health of teachers. This support can come from coworkers, parents, students, administration and even as far as district level. There are weeks like teacher appreciation to show that support. There are several other teacher appreciation activities a year. Outside of that, it comes down to administration and the district to make teachers feel appreciated.

“I do feel supported in some ways within my department and the administration. District wide maybe that’s a little bit less consistent, although I know there have been strides and measures that Central Office has taken over the last few years, so I appreciate those efforts,” Gray said.

Petter as a coach has different experiences with the support he receives as well as from his beginning of AP Psychology at the high school.

“I would say I definitely feel supported. I think the administrators are great. Dr. [John] Simpson is awesome. They’ve always been super supportive of me creating AP Psych, me doing the things I do with the track and cross country teams, so I’d say that’s a big reason of why I came to Webster and why I stay here is because of the support we get from admin and parents are amazing, and the community is amazing,” Petter said.

Teacher Appreciation Week began unofficially in 1953 and became official in 1980. This year Teacher Appreciation week begins on Monday, May 6, and ends Friday, May 10.

Teacher appreciation at Webster is mostly headed by the Parents Club, but some stuff does come from other places like administration and families. Marketing teacher Kathyrn Laurentius explains this.

“Parents Club probably number one (for support)… things like meals, like meals around parent teacher conferences or snacks in the teachers lounge [comes from the parents club],” Laurentius said. “Students and families will get us some stuff and then administration periodically from our personal assistant principal we might get a thank you note or something like that.”

Teaching is about helping students learn, and Petter makes a statement about how to go about it successfully.

“You can’t fill somebody else’s cup if yours is empty. Really make sure you take care of yourself so you can be a good teacher because I know the days I come in where I’m stressed, I’m not a good teacher. I’m not focused; I mess things up. So you have to make sure to take care of yourself,” Petter said.