December 2020/January 2021 | Volume 78 | Number 4

Mental Health for Educators

There's Always More to the Story

Sarah McKibben

Part of a theme issue on "Mental Health for Educators."

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How Cognitive Distortions Undermine Well-Being

Chase Mielke

Chase Mielke, author of The Burnout Cure: Learning to Love Teaching Again, describes how we can reframe unhealthy thinking—identifying and fixing cognitive distortions like "mind reading" and "permanence" that lead us to assume the worst.

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Coping with Change and Uncertainty

Phyllis L. Fagell

How can educators regain a sense of control during these tumultuous times? Author and school counselor Phyllis Fagell identifies six ways to cope and be a reassuring source of strength for students when the only constant right now is change.

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Opening Up About Mental Illness

Sydney Chaffee

National Teacher of the Year Sydney Chaffee discusses her struggle with anxiety and how it opened her eyes to the stigma of teacher mental health.

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Breaking Through the "Burden of Strength"

Kel Hughes Jones

Many Black female educators feel pressure to be super-strong. They neglect self-care, often leading to serious health problems (what one psychologist has termed the StrongBlackWoman cycle). Hughes Jones shares her story of denying work-related stress and breaking down, and suggests ways leaders can create more supportive work environments for Black female educators.

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Teaching While Black: An Open Letter to School Leaders

Sharif El-Mekki

If leaders want to support and retain—not just hire—Black educators, they must understand what it means to be a Black educator now. El-Mekki, a veteran educator and founder of the Center for Black Educator Development, shares realities Black teachers face, from the fact that schools don't always feel safe to them to the responsibility they feel toward Black kids. He urges Black educators to seek help for past trauma so they'll stay in the fight.

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Being Accepted, Not Just Tolerated, Is Good for Mental Health

Peter DeWitt

To truly thrive, LGBTQ educators need to feel a sense of belonging. Education Week blogger Peter DeWitt shares how, as a gay teacher and principal, he struggled to be himself. But that changed with the help of a supportive network of colleagues.

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The Mental Balancing Act for School Leaders

Baruti K. Kafele

Consultant and speaker Baruti Kafele talks frankly about his challenges to be healthy mentally and physically when he was a school principal and gives advice for leaders who are struggling with the mental balancing act.

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When Netflix Isn't Enough: Fostering True Recovery for Educators

Allison Rodman, Alissa Farias and Shannon Szymczak

The authors argue that, amid the stresses of their jobs, educators are expected to continuously "recharge for survival" rather than being given opportunities for authentic recovery. To make teaching jobs more sustainable, they write, schools need to rethink the way they conceive of time, space, and connection, and attend to the social-emotional needs of educators as much they do for students.

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Morale-Boosting Educators

Naomi Thiers

Using the Teach to Lead process and drawing on their own study of how teachers can lift their social-emotional skills, three elementary teachers in Connecticut created a plan to work with fellow teachers to increase everyone's camaraderie and regularly problem solve together. When their school closed to in-place learning, they pivoted to find ways to nurture colleagues' morale and empowerment from a distance. Read about their success.

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Interrupting Doom Loops: Reflections on Mid-Year Teacher Exits

Henry Seton

How do we break cycles that send promising young educators out of the profession too early? Veteran teacher Henry Seton reflects on the school year that challenged his commitment to the classroom and the support and solutions that renewed his reasons to stay.

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Fueling Teachers' Passion and Purpose

Ian Parker Renga, Frederick Peck, Ke Wu and David Erickson

Educators need collaborative opportunities to renew their love of learning, not just to review data and rework lessons. Researcher Ian Parker Renga and coauthors examine the power of Math Teachers' Circles—a group of educators that get together to play math games and solve problems just for the joy of it.

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Caring for Colleagues in Crisis

Susan Johnson

Educators caring for family members with mental illness often hide hat they're going through, although support from fellow educators would make a huge difference. Johnson recounts her experience helping her son through a breakdown while still working within schools. She suggests how teachers might reach out to and support colleagues they sense are battling problems at home.

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Restoring Teachers' Efficacy

Bryan Goodwin and Susan Shebby

Bryan Goodwin and Susan Shebby discuss the importance of teacher efficacy and mental health. With the pandemic creating fast and chaotic change in how teachers do their jobs, it's important now more than ever for school leaders to restore teacher efficacy.

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Regaining "Compassion Satisfaction"

Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey

2020 was an incredibly hard year for educators, and more stress is to come, so they need to boost their resilience. See Fisher and Frey's suggestions for self-care to help any educator stay resilient.

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We're Not OK, and That's OK

Jill Harrison Berg and Henry Oppong

Educators cannot adequately support the mental health needs of their students when they are struggling with their own needs. Jill Harrison Berg and Henry Oppong outline three ways leaders can cultivate empathy and support teachers' mental well-being.

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Honoring Black Educators' Right to Heal and Thrive

Dena Simmons

School systems cannot solve for antiracism if they continue to be traumatic places for Black educators and if Black educators are only valued and asked to lead when antiracism is trendy, writes Dena Simmons.

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The Lowdown on Burnout

Elena Aguilar

Burnout is a very real risk for teachers, but it's also a condition a teacher can come back from—and that can be avoided. Aguilar explains how accepting and talking about emotions as a part of teaching can help keep burnout at bay.

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Whole Child Spotlight: Supporting Educator Mental Health

Sean Slade

Part of a theme issue on "Mental Health for Educators."

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Readers React

Part of a theme issue on "Mental Health for Educators."

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ASCD Community in Action

Part of a theme issue on "Mental Health for Educators."

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EL Takeaways

Part of a theme issue on "Mental Health for Educators."

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Index to Advertisers

Part of a theme issue on "Mental Health for Educators."

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Meena Srinivasan on Mindful School Leadership

Part of a theme issue on "Mental Health for Educators."

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The Link Between Teacher and Student Well-Being

Part of a theme issue on "Mental Health for Educators."

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Hardwiring Inner Strengths

Part of a theme issue on "Mental Health for Educators."

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Virtually Stressed Out

Part of a theme issue on "Mental Health for Educators."

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Mental Health Resources for Educators

Part of a theme issue on "Mental Health for Educators."

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Tell Us About

Part of a theme issue on "Mental Health for Educators."

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Copyright © 2012 by ASCD