By Kayla LeLeux-LaBarge, Psy.D.

“Teachers have three loves: love of learning, love of learners, and the love of bringing the first two loves together.”  –Scott Hayden

The classroom has been changing over the course of 2020. And as a result, a generation of children who were already experiencing increasing mental health issues are struggling more than ever to cope with rapid changes brought on by the pandemic and rising expectations.

Children Mental Health and SEL

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a compounded negative impact on children’s social and emotional well-being. First, it has stripped children of their social routines with friends and classmates. Second, it has created major stressors in the home ranging from job loss/job insecurity, overwork/burnout, economic pressures, and mental, social and emotional wellness struggles for caregivers and parents. Finally, the global grief over the loss of life and the loss of the way life used to be is felt by children and often not understood by children but manifested in social and emotional behaviors that can serve as mental health indicators.

One key indicator that teachers can be qued into is a decrease in academic performance and attendance of their students. Other indicators that may point to social, emotional and mental health concerns, such as anxiety and depression, in children are:

• Changes in mood and personality (i.e. irritability, acting out, expression of a range of worries and fears, struggling to focus, fidgeting, and withdrawing from social activities)
• Changes in eating and sleeping (i.e. decreased appetite, stomachaches and headaches, expression of a difficulty falling asleep and/or having nightmares, fatigue, and restlessness)

We do not understand the full scope of impact of COVID-19 yet. But we do know that countless studies have shown that building and fortifying social-emotional skills in children can serve as a strong protective factor and can have lifelong positive consequences.

SEL and Educator Wellbeing

But what about the educators responsible for making sure that daily SEL continues to happen for this generation of young people? How can we expect them to show up and teach healthy social, emotional, and coping skills when we know they are feeling burnt out like never before?

Educators are feeling pressure to perform and to maintain the sense of normalcy and routine that school once provided for children. They are wearing more hats than ever before, technology experts being one of them, given the swift change to the virtual classroom in many areas. Virtual learning brings about challenges in observing and managing individual students in the classroom. It requires teachers to turn up their observation and listening skills and tune into the potential mental health indicators so that they address them when they arise. Teachers can be the bridge to a child getting the parental and/or professional support they need during this time.

All of this is having an impact on educators’ (and everyones’) brains. The brain is good at handling short-term stress but long-term stress erodes mental functioning, and long-term stress surrounds us on all sides right now. Our economy, the health of friends, family, coworkers, and the world at large are uncertain and at risk. Ambiguity, change, and long-term stress is a kryptonite trifecta for the brain making everything harder, which can feel like wading through quicksand at times.

Focus On Educator Wellbeing

We know that children are experiencing heightened mental health risk factors, and so are the teachers who are trying to make sure they have all the social-emotional skills they need to make it through and succeed. Throughout this school year, it will be important to focus on educator mental health and wellbeing so our teachers can continue showing up and shaping the next generation of young people. Below are some suggestions that can help educators establish a strong wellness routine.

Attend to your own personal health and wellbeing. This is a priority so you can continue to meet any challenges and hurdles that may come your way. Take a few minutes at the beginning of each day to check in on how you’re feeling. Also, find a relaxing or enjoyable activity to do for a few minutes to get yourself in a good frame of mind to begin the day (e.g. going for a brisk walk, eating a good breakfast, doing something creative, or meditating).

Reflect, non-judgmentally. At the end of the day reflect on how the day went, non-judgmentally. Focus on things that went poorly for as long as it takes to learn a lesson from those things, and then allow yourself to let them go. A creative way to do this is to take a piece of scrap paper, write down what went wrong in one corner of the paper, and then write the lesson from it on the other. Then rip the piece of paper, separating the two pieces of information, and throw the piece with what went wrong away, letting go of it. Keep the lesson as a reminder of what you have learned.

Release some feel-good neurochemicals. Take time to be grateful and reflect on positive aspects of the day, because it increases the “feel good” chemicals in your brain that motivate you to show up and be the best educator you can be! Keep a daily gratitude journal, if you enjoy writing, that helps you keep track of the things you are most grateful for.