Riding the Wave. Jeremy S. Adams

absorb new demands while maintaining who they are as individual teachers will stay positive and continue to flourish through turbulent times.

      How do they achieve this duality? By realizing that they still have considerable power over their own classrooms. As researcher Mark Feng Teng (2017) observes, “There is an interconnection between teachers’ professional identities and their sense of agency” (p. 119). In more practical terms, what does this look like? Teachers can maintain a sense of control by:

      

Implementing changes at their own pace

      

Approaching change as an opportunity to add new color to their teaching canvas instead of as a demand to burn what they have already painted

      

Holding on to unique personality traits or quirks

      

Preserving assignments and activities that they especially enjoy or value

      Funny teachers should retain their sense of humor. Teachers who tell stories should absolutely keep telling stories. Teachers who like a strict schedule should continue scheduling.

      Sound reforms will allow for the natural diversity that exists among teachers who stand in front of the classroom day after day, week after week, and sometimes decade after decade. After all, there is a vast difference between a dictate to “change what you do in the classroom” and a dictate to “change who you are in the classroom.” Teaching is an activity rooted in a common humanity and delivered with teachers’ force of personality, and shedding that personality is fraught with drawbacks, such as feeling like a fraud or phony in front of one’s students. Your personal teaching style is a reservoir of joy in the teaching profession. So if this style serves you and your students well, you should continue to drink from this reservoir and remain loyal to this style while confronting change. Your prosperity in the classroom and your experience of teaching’s greatest rewards depend on your sense of agency and individuality amid constant change.

       Strategy 2: Remember the Basics and Avoid Compassion Fatigue

      Self-care might sound instinctual, but that is not necessarily so—not when teachers are expected to absorb every new policy and institute every change at a rapid pace, sometimes without understanding the why or how of the process. After a while, this cycle takes its toll.

      Working in the classroom for long periods of time can impair a teacher’s ability to know the difference between what is essential to self-care and what is optional. Essential self-care encompasses behaviors that allow a teacher to maintain a healthy, positive disposition in the classroom and to remain optimistic about the profession itself. When teachers get some distance from their everyday tasks, they can see what is sometimes difficult to discern in the middle of a school year, surrounded by students and immersed in an overwhelming number of daily responsibilities. However, teachers have basic self-care opportunities that will promote a productive state of mind for the classroom. For example, teachers should take advantage of their no-tell days—official time off in which they do not have to provide the reason for their absence—or try to take short trips on weekends to decompress. Those who are spiritual should nurture that aspect of themselves. And teachers should feel free to enjoy activities for their own sake, rather than operating as though everything must have a broader goal.

      RIDE the WAVE

      STRATEGY 1

      List four to five classroom routines or aspects of your personality that you would never change, no matter the reform being instituted. Below each, explain why it is so important to you and your sense of who you are.

      1.

      2.

      3.

      4.

      5.

      Visit go.SolutionTree.com/teacherefficacy for a free reproducible version of this feature box.

      If a teacher has a defective perspective on self-care or doesn’t take advantage of these recharging activities, then he or she may experience compassion fatigue. This means his or her capacity to relate to and empathize with students has ebbed, despite the best of intentions. The National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN, 2008) rightly argues that the “best way to deal with compassion fatigue is early recognition” (p. 17) and offers self-care tips for educators that ensure they cover the basics. While NCTSN’s (2008) list centers on teachers who instruct traumatized students, in reality, these suggestions are applicable to all teachers. They are broad but pragmatic enough to put into action.

      

Be aware of the signs: Compassion fatigue is characterized by irritability, a lack of motivation to teach or plan lessons, decreased levels of concentration, and an inability to empathize with students or with traumatic events. Teachers teetering on the verge of such a state often complain that they simply don’t feel like themselves or that they don’t know how much more they have to give.

      

Don’t go it alone: Isolation is the enemy. Use the school’s and administration’s resources to find the support you need in whatever form is appropriate. Teachers who find themselves in stressful situations with students need to know they are not alone. In real terms, this might mean seeking advice from a mentor teacher, a former master teacher, or any experienced educator whose advice you especially value.

      

Recognize compassion fatigue as an occupational hazard: It is not a sign of weakness for teachers to sometimes feel numb to the circumstances of their students. It is merely an outgrowth of the limits one has in processing, understanding, and empathizing with all students’ circumstances. Compassion is not a finite resource for teachers. And while it can certainly be fleeting at times, especially in periods of great stress and strain, there is no reason why it cannot be recovered.

      

Talk to a professional: If you show signs of significant stress or compassion fatigue for more than two or three weeks, then seeking the counsel of professionals is well advised. School districts are increasingly helpful in recommending professional help—as are insurance providers. Or you may wish to visit Psychology Today (www.psychologytoday.com/intl), where you can search for therapists by insurance provider, location, gender, specialization, and so forth (Psychology Today, n.d.).

      

Attend to individualized self-care: As NCTSN (2008) notes in its tips to educators:

      Guard against your work becoming the only activity that defines who you are.… Take care of yourself by eating well and exercising, engaging in fun activities, taking a break during the workday, finding time to self-reflect, allowing yourself to cry, and finding things to laugh about. (p. 17)

      You are not a bad teacher if you insist on using your lunch break as an actual lunch break. You are not a failing educator if you want some time during recess or between passing periods to yourself. You are not selfish if you take the occasional no-tell day to sleep in, do laundry, or have fun.

      Confronting constant change takes a toll that often goes unrecognized until teachers are already burned out and demoralized, so actively adopting these habits