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💆🏼‍♀️Self-Care Series: Teacher Mindset: More Than Just a Buzzword😔 · ✨️Aligned and Thriving: For Teachers🌿

• 0:05
  Hey, guys, and welcome back to another episode of Aligned and
• 0:09
  Thriving. Now, today's episode's really
• 0:12
  gonna hit a nerve, but in the best kind of way because if
• 0:16
  you're anything like me, you're already nodding your head just
• 0:20
  from hearing the title, reading the title of the podcast series
• 0:24
  episode, whatever it is today. And you're thinking, yes, Mel, I
• 0:28
  know, and I am living it. So maybe now, just maybe, I'm
• 0:35
  speaking this out loud today. We might finally get the message
• 0:39
  to people who really need to hear it.
• 0:43
  The ones in leadership, the ones writing policy documents and the
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  ones holding the purse strings. Or maybe even the one in the
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  mirror who just needs permission to stop, to breathe, to put down
• 0:58
  the bag of bricks we've been carrying.
• 1:01
  So let's take a deep breath and remember you're not alone.
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  And let's get on with this. We're going to start here.
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  I'm going to hit you with some real numbers.
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  So more than 9 out of 10 teachers in Australia have
• 1:15
  reported a decline or a significant decline in their own
• 1:20
  well being and morale over the past 18 months. 9 out of 10, Let
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  that sink in. Think of your team, think about
• 1:31
  your staff room, and you're sitting there and you're
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  counting all those people. 9 out of 10, that's nearly every
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  single one of us. And it's not just teachers, it's
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  our school leaders, it's our support staff, it is everyone in
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  our school ecosystem. We are all feeling it.
• 1:51
  But wait, I've got more. A 2024 national survey by Beyond
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  Blue found that 77% of educators are identifying student mental
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  health as the number one health issue impacting their
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  classrooms. Not just occasionally, either,
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  this is consistently. So not only are we trying to
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  manage our own mental health under pressure, but we're also
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  absorbing and trying to support the emotional needs of our
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  students. And sometimes it's just like
• 2:24
  trying to keep everyone else afloat while we're barely
• 2:27
  treading water ourselves. And this isn't just about a bit
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  of stress. This is not just about having a
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  tough term. It is a crisis.
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  We need to call it what it is. So what's causing this?
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  And spoiler alert, it's not you according to Beyond Blue and the
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  AEU. It's not just one thing.
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  It is like an entire perfect storm.
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  Let me start with this one. It is honestly lingering impact
• 3:01
  of the pandemic. Let's be real, we are not
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  teaching the same kids that we taught pre 2020 and we are not
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  the same teachers. That collective trauma, and I'm
• 3:17
  naming it because it is what it is.
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  It is a trauma experience. That disruption.
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  It left a mark. And I don't know about you, but
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  I have absolutely noticed the shift in these kids, their
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  regulation, their resilience, their sense of safety.
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  It it's just all different that that time at home.
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  I don't know whether it just, it seems like it changed them and
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  now we have had to completely shift how we teach, support,
• 3:50
  manage and try and relate to these children.
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  Honestly, it is going to take years to get back to where we
• 4:00
  were and that's that's if we even do.
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  If we could even get back to that pre 2020 teaching life.
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  I don't know whether we could ever get back there at this
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  point. Then there's the workforce
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  shortages, you know, the vibe. There's people leaving in
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  droves. There's relief staff nowhere to
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  be found. Even though you have a list, as
• 4:22
  long as you're on and you've made, and I'm talking from
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  experience here, you have made 11 to 20 phone calls in the
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  morning and you cannot get one relief teacher.
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  So everything that you had planned goes out the window
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  because you've got to take that class because they need some
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  consistency. They need someone who's going to
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  show up. You're what's left.
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  So you are literally working overtime and burning yourself
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  out because you have no other option.
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  OK, there's vacancies open all term pretty much at nearly every
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  school. And who's covering that?
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  We've lost so many teachers, but then at the same time we get
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  these new ones and they've already got jobs, so you can't
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  find them either. It is a crisis.
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  OK, then you get those unmanageable workloads, you get
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  more admin, you've got to do more data analysis, you've got
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  more meetings, you've certainly got more behaviour issues.
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  Then you've got more documentation, just even more
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  pressure coming from above. But still, we're getting the
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  same pay, dare I say it, and the same 24 hours in a day.
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  It it doesn't physically add up. I know that I've been in roles
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  before where I've actually been the equivalent to like 2.5
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  people. It, it doesn't work.
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  But when you have no other option, you do what you have to
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  do because you do it for the love and the joy of your job and
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  to support the children that you have in your school and you're
• 5:54
  supporting your team. It's what we do.
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  But then you get the constant critical incidents, you get
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  natural disasters, you get community trauma.
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  Like we are the first responders in a system that doesn't see us
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  that way. And honestly, it's it's hard
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  work because we have to be there.
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  We were there all through COVID. We were working behind the
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  scenes. We were doing all the online
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  work like that is us. We were there and we still are.
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  Then look, we've got the expectation levels like you
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  probably feel this one in your bones like I do.
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  Over the years, our job description has expanded quietly
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  but relentlessly. Like it just seems every year
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  you've added an extra couple of things to your job description.
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  I remember when I graduated uni and there was a description
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  about a teacher being that they not only a teacher, they're a
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  counsellor, they're a nurse, they're a, a psychologist,
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  they're a relationships advisor, like a whole list of things.
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  But that's what you are encompassed in one job.
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  So why not get the benefits of like the whole career when you
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  could just be a teacher and do all of these things?
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  Because honestly, that's what you are.
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  And now you're pretty much a parent too.
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  Just to add to your list of descriptions.
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  Because we are teaching them things that ideally they should
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  have learned at home, but we have to pick up the pieces and
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  put this whole child back together and support however we
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  can. So we are expected to teach the
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  curriculum to support mental health, to actually identify
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  trauma and then try and support. We have to foster that cultural
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  safety, we have to handle behaviour plans, we have to run
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  well being programmes, we have to do daily data collection.
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  We have to be technology experts.
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  Now, like that's a new thing. I teaching in high school, I
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  actually learned a lot because there were some very well
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  educated, tech savvy humans in that space.
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  I am not. I've had many phone calls to my
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  IT trained brother to figure some things out and try and
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  outsmart certain students. But it's hard work to try and
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  keep up with that because technology is always changing.
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  The technology that we have now, I didn't have when I first
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  started teaching. I didn't have when I was like a
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  kid. I I've literally grown up in
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  that generation that has gone through the whole process from
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  like a cassette. Oh, great.
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  Yeah, a cassette tape and running to record the Top 40 on
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  the radio so I could have it in my car through to now.
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  My music is on my phone at the touch of a finger.
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  And I can have like, whatever I want for a subscription.
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  Like it's a whole process to where we are now in technology.
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  So how are we expected to keep up with this?
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  It's hard work. And then you've got to
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  communicate with parents like instantly and stay calm and be
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  cheerful and somehow still energy energised and like not
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  look like I've had two hours sleep.
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  It's horrible when you get to work and you put makeup on and
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  they oh, you look so tired or oh, you look sick.
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  Thanks. I've actually really tried to
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  make an effort today, but no worries.
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  Thanks for the compliment or whatever it was.
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  I don't know, but it's unsustainable and we know this,
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  but our system, I don't think it actually ever caught up nor I
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  don't think it's going to, but it's just we, I don't know, it's
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  an endless cycle and there's just certain people that aren't
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  getting it. You only sort of get this if you
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  are in this, if you know what I mean, if you know, you know, if
• 9:32
  that's TikTok coming out of me there, then look, we've got the
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  real, the real kicker. There's over like 500 different
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  well being programmes being floated around to schools right
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  now because they're seeing a need and going, Yep, teachers
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  need support to deal with this well being crisis of children
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  and maybe even themselves. But some of them are valuable.
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  But others, let's be honest, like what are we paying for?
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  We're paying for another curriculum to try and teach on
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  top of what we're already doing. And some of them are just a bit
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  of fluff. There's only a really small
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  portion of these programmes that have been thoroughly reviewed or
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  to be shown to actually have lasting impact.
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  And too often these programmes are being just dropped on
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  already exhausted teachers with a cheery oh, can you just run
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  this next term? No training, no extra time, no
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  space to process our own well being.
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  Literally, it's just disguised like it's work disguised as
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  support. That's what it is.
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  As Doctor Catherine Dix from ASA puts it, the biggest challenge
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  is the additional burden that this puts on our teachers.
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  This whole idea that we're being asked to fix student well being
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  whilst our own well being is falling apart, it's, it's very
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  backwards and it's unfair and it is not working.
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  Like we keep adding to our teachers workloads instead of
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  taking away or making things easier and we're not rewarding
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  our teachers for doing what they do like they should be rewarded.
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  So what's what's left? Like what's giving us hope?
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  Let me just pause my little my little rant for a second and
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  talk about what is working because I am all about the
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  positives and gratitude and all those wonderful things.
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  So let me give you some. So there's one brilliant example
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  and it's the Culturally Nourishing Schools Project and
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  this is Ron at Oak Flats High School in New South Wales.
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  This wasn't a token workshop or a glossy poster campaign.
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  This was five years of deep, relational, grounded
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  professional learning with First Nation elders, families and
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  local community leaders where staff actually got to go out and
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  spend time on country. They built trust, they re
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  examined their curriculum and they listened.
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  And the results from all of that and that deep research was that
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  the student engagement lifted, the attendance improved,
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  teachers gained confidence, and the school culture actually
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  shifted in real, measurable ways.
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  And that is what meaningful well being looks like.
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  Not the shallow ticker box exercises, but the connection,
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  the culture and the care that is then embedded into the everyday,
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  not added on top. It's embedded, it is hard and
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  it's slow, but it works and it respects everyone involved.
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  So why, like, why don't we do more of that?
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  It's because it takes time and effort and we are all for the
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  quick fixes. But let's not like we're
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  looking. There's an analogy where it
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  talks about like being a vitamin or being a painkiller.
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  Like to me, we're just getting provided a bunch of painkillers
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  and we're not actually getting the vitamins that put more back
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  into your system and actually build your immunity up.
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  We're just getting given the painkillers to numb it down and
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  just to get on with the job sort of thing.
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  I hope that analogy makes sense. It did in my head, but I'm not
• 13:08
  sure if it did out loud. Some of these things I come out
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  with, I just go, oh, I don't know, please give me feedback.
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  Like I'm more than happy to hear your feedback and DM me on
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  Instagram. More than happy.
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  So what now what now? Where to here's what I want to
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  land. Here's like where I want to land
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  this. We are not broken.
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  So Please remember that we are not broken.
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  We are not fragile. Please don't think that we're
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  fragile. Dainty little things.
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  But we're being asked to do the impossible and we've been doing
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  it for too long without any real support.
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  We do not need another motivational quote put on the
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  staff room wall. What we need is trained mental
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  health professionals in every school.
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  Did you hear that? That's what we need because they
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  are professionals in that field. We need more funding for full
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  time well being coordinators, for students, for staff,
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  whatever it might be. We need that.
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  We need smaller class sizes and manageable workloads.
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  We need trust that teachers have professional judgement and that
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  people can trust our professional judgement.
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  And we need access to high quality, culturally safe PD that
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  builds on connection. And most of all, we need space,
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  like real protected space for our own well being to exist.
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  So if you needed a sign today to rest, to say no, to ask for help
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  or to stop trying to hold it all together with a smile, then this
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  is it. Your well being is not a luxury.
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  It is not a soft add on. It is the foundation of
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  everything else. You are allowed to be tired.
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  You are allowed to feel like sometimes it's too much and you
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  are absolutely not alone. But if you are also feeling that
• 15:19
  little bit fired up now, good use that share this episode,
• 15:24
  send it to your principal, use it in PD start a conversation
• 15:29
  because we can't wait for change anymore.
• 15:32
  We are the change. I just, I just really want you
• 15:38
  to get that message with all the stuff that's going on right now
• 15:41
  in our whole, well, it's our whole world, I'd say our nation,
• 15:44
  but it is the whole world with teaching and education.
• 15:47
  Like we are the change. And if we don't start speaking,
• 15:53
  who is going to? And it's not going to be the
• 15:55
  people that are actually living and breathing the frontline.
• 15:59
  It will be someone else who may not have been in this position.
• 16:02
  So thank you for hanging out with me today.
• 16:05
  Remember that you do an amazing job, truly.
• 16:09
  I mean that because I see you and I am with you.
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  So until next time, I hope you have a wonderful day, night,
• 16:19
  whatever it is, wherever you're up to in your day.
• 16:22
  And I really hope that this message gets to whoever needs to
• 16:26
  hear it. Please make sure you share, make
• 16:30
  sure you follow me, you do what you need to do to tell everyone
• 16:35
  to listen to this episode or listen to the podcast because
• 16:38
  there might be something that just really hits home for them
• 16:40
  today. It may have hit home today for
• 16:42
  you. It may be whatever you needed to
• 16:45
  hear today. So keep being aligned, keep
• 16:49
  thriving, and I'll talk to you again soon.
• 16:52
  Bye, guys.