Help Teachers RELEASE!
Donation protected
Hi! My name is Lori and I am a second-grade teacher in a low socioeconomic bilingual community. During a weekly check-in with my 2nd grade team, I realized WE NEED SOME RELEASE! We shared words and feelings such as being overwhelmed, treading water, in a fog, pressure, behind, tired, we want a cry room. This was so disheartening because we all work so very hard and our commitment to our students is limitless. We all experience stress at work, no matter the job. But for teachers, the work seems to be getting harder and the stress even harder to shake.
Teachers feel frazzled for several reasons, including high-stakes testing and the fact that many students themselves are coming to school more stressed than ever. "Between 30 and 40 percent of teachers leave the profession in their first five years," says Mark Greenberg, a professor of human development and psychology at Penn State. That turnover, he says, “costs schools — and taxpayers — billions of dollars a year, while research suggests teacher burnout hurts student achievement, too.” In addition to the normal teacher attrition rates schools are facing, COVID-19 has made matters exceedingly worse. “Roughly half of public school teachers who voluntarily stopped teaching after March 2020 and before their scheduled retirement, left because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a separate Rand Corporation (the survey).” https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-19-pandemic-teachers-leaving/.
I’m asking for your help through donations to create our meeting area (aka the teachers’/staff room, or faculty lounge). This teachers’ room is one of the most important rooms for educators, functioning as a place of professional development and a break from students and the classroom. It’s the place where staff goes to eat, have coffee, spend recess, consult with colleagues, share insights and observations, plan lessons, conduct group discussions, brainstorm and share curriculum ideas. The place where new teachers ask seasoned teachers for advice and support. It’s also the place we go to for voicing our opinions on our current obstacles, to relax, de-stress, blow off steam, lend support, share a laugh or have a cry away from the children.
Numerous studies have confirmed the pivotal role that physical environment and architecture play (including classroom layout, ergonomic furniture, air quality, color, lighting and more) with different modes of teaching and learning in the classroom contributing to the success of students. The classroom is a contained community where students socialize as well as learn. So too, the environment of the teachers’ room sets the tone for each educational setting. The right configuration and comfort of furniture and surroundings in the teacher’s lounge will create an environment which supports the needs of faculty and administration, lending an air of professionalism and establishing a more supportive colleague-friendly faculty lounge.
I hope to create a much more comfortable and appealing environment that’s necessary for those times when we’re away from the demands of dozens of children and the ever-rising stresses of the job. A small oasis of calm or sanctuary-type space to induce the type of supportive environment that’s direly needed. I will help my school create this space with better furniture, a TV, better lighting, candles, pillows, bean bags, a shelving unit for book exchanges, repaint it and introduce some aromatherapy, just to name a few ideas. The ideas are still coming in, but after our last meeting, I feel there’s something (no matter how trivial it may seem) that I must do to help.
It is every teacher’s mission to perform with excellence for the children. My hope is that teachers will be better able to cope with classroom and job challenges, by helping to improve their mindfulness and manage stressors more effectively, to be better able to teach to the best of their abilities.
ANY DONATION IS GREATLY APPRECIATED!
Teachers feel frazzled for several reasons, including high-stakes testing and the fact that many students themselves are coming to school more stressed than ever. "Between 30 and 40 percent of teachers leave the profession in their first five years," says Mark Greenberg, a professor of human development and psychology at Penn State. That turnover, he says, “costs schools — and taxpayers — billions of dollars a year, while research suggests teacher burnout hurts student achievement, too.” In addition to the normal teacher attrition rates schools are facing, COVID-19 has made matters exceedingly worse. “Roughly half of public school teachers who voluntarily stopped teaching after March 2020 and before their scheduled retirement, left because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a separate Rand Corporation (the survey).” https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-19-pandemic-teachers-leaving/.
I’m asking for your help through donations to create our meeting area (aka the teachers’/staff room, or faculty lounge). This teachers’ room is one of the most important rooms for educators, functioning as a place of professional development and a break from students and the classroom. It’s the place where staff goes to eat, have coffee, spend recess, consult with colleagues, share insights and observations, plan lessons, conduct group discussions, brainstorm and share curriculum ideas. The place where new teachers ask seasoned teachers for advice and support. It’s also the place we go to for voicing our opinions on our current obstacles, to relax, de-stress, blow off steam, lend support, share a laugh or have a cry away from the children.
Numerous studies have confirmed the pivotal role that physical environment and architecture play (including classroom layout, ergonomic furniture, air quality, color, lighting and more) with different modes of teaching and learning in the classroom contributing to the success of students. The classroom is a contained community where students socialize as well as learn. So too, the environment of the teachers’ room sets the tone for each educational setting. The right configuration and comfort of furniture and surroundings in the teacher’s lounge will create an environment which supports the needs of faculty and administration, lending an air of professionalism and establishing a more supportive colleague-friendly faculty lounge.
I hope to create a much more comfortable and appealing environment that’s necessary for those times when we’re away from the demands of dozens of children and the ever-rising stresses of the job. A small oasis of calm or sanctuary-type space to induce the type of supportive environment that’s direly needed. I will help my school create this space with better furniture, a TV, better lighting, candles, pillows, bean bags, a shelving unit for book exchanges, repaint it and introduce some aromatherapy, just to name a few ideas. The ideas are still coming in, but after our last meeting, I feel there’s something (no matter how trivial it may seem) that I must do to help.
It is every teacher’s mission to perform with excellence for the children. My hope is that teachers will be better able to cope with classroom and job challenges, by helping to improve their mindfulness and manage stressors more effectively, to be better able to teach to the best of their abilities.
ANY DONATION IS GREATLY APPRECIATED!
Organizer
Lori Spina
Organizer
Bernalillo, NM