Learn to shine bright- the importance of self care for teachers. | Kelly Hopkinson | TEDxNorwichED

How do you feel? How do you feel genuinely honest? Ask a teacher that question and the answer could be absolutely terrifying. As humans we have become quite shocking and take

care

of ourselves, but as

teachers

we have reached a completely different level of negligence, a third. of

teachers

left the profession within the first five years of qualifying, on top of that, one in eighty-three last year were taken on long-term sick leave due to the pressures of work stress, anxiety, i.e. 3750 human beings, you may know one of them, friends, colleagues, family, us. We have reached an epidemic of stress in our schools and it is a reality we must face, but what if we could get people to take small steps to start putting the same emphasis on staff well-being as we do on the mental health of students? children?

We teach what that would be like, what that would feel like, so everyone has a story of how they've struggled and I'm no different and why I was struggling, so a couple of years ago I randomly ran into my old high school PE teacher. primary school in a museum with my two daughters and while they were toasting some bread he asked me how I was doing and what it was like to be a teacher and at that moment I decided to be completely honest with both him and my

self

and told him how much I was struggling because the Life had become too much and he no longer knew if he wanted to be a teacher.

He didn't know if he could continue being a teacher. Then I listened to him and absorbed how difficult it had been for him. role not only when I met him all those years ago, but in the years that followed and, in fact, throughout his entire

care

er and I was not alone, I realized that other people felt the same as I did because the reality was that 30 years later since those days with him in PE, I was the one who was broken, I was the one struggling to cope let alone get up and teach outstanding lessons every day and two weeks after that seemingly random meeting with that old school teacher of mine, they fired me.

I work sick and in danger of becoming one of those 3750 teachers who remain suspended and I made a decision and my choice was to survive, so I have always loved yoga. I loved yoga so much that I signed up for a yoga teacher training course with the best teachers at the most amazing, beautiful, wonderful studio, but I wasn't going to do it. I was going to cancel my place because life had become too overwhelming, but the universe I already know sounds a bit like yoga, so I knew it was. on the right track aligning things a bit for me.

It made it a little easier for me to say yes to that cause and yes to my

self

and I have never been more grateful for the timing of this yoga teacher training. Starting because he taught me everything I needed to know to start putting the pieces of myself back together. If nothing changes in our scores and no emphasis is placed on staff well-being, then the extraordinary human beings who teach the most have the mind. The difficult task of teaching the next generation of extraordinary human beings will lose its luster and its drive, its determination, its passion will disappear.

You are so important, you are so significant. Yes, a change in the way the education system views staff wellbeing would be wonderful. Life-changing teacher savings, but what can we do as individuals to start moving mountains collectively? It's so simple, take care of yourself, that's all, if we can commit to taking care of ourselves, if we can start to change our perspective on this thing called work. -life balance support each other along the way then change can happen we have stopped listening to ourselves we are starting to disconnect and separate ourselves from our lives how often have you looked forward to your day off your week your school term just to get to the evening ? the weekend next semester just to breathe, that's how we are disconnecting and separating from our lives, but you can change and improve your life, you can increase your happiness levels, your connections with the world around you and the people you they are in the.

I know you can because knowing this is true is what saved me from being broken, saved me from leaving a job I really loved, saved me from being separated from my own children, my family, my friends, so I said it was simple, but how can I do it? even start taking care of ourselves grab a notebook start a journal tell yourself you are enough and do it every day drink enough water exercise practice mindfulness which is just meditation which is just sitting still in silence for a few minutes try yoga get curious about your relationship with your phone and social media practice random acts of kindness ask for support and start connecting with who you really are why bother why bother doing all these things because you are exquisite and there is no one else like you and if Doubt your

importance

if you don't believe you are important in this grand scheme of things, stop, stop right there at that moment in that thought and remember this, your light is the most important thing in your life that needs protection, so guard it, shield . feed it and defend it with your life because then you can be the light in someone else's life.