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Mental health needs to be a priority for everyone

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Mental health needs to be a priority for everyone

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I think that in order for us teachers to properly be able to help our students with their issues and problems, we need to be able to have support with our own. If we have too much going on then we will be distracted and we will not be able to give our students the care and attention that they deserve. If we are telling our students that it is so important for them to take care of themselves and to make their mental health a priority, then we need to do the same for ourselves. Teachers can easily relate to one another so it's important to form strong relationships so that there is always support available. Aleisha Rodriguez

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Teaching is about more than academic instruction

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Teaching is about more than academic instruction

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As teachers, students come into our classrooms with various baggage and struggles each day. It is our job to know our students, to provide them with the support they need while in our classrooms, and do what we can to ensure their success. As teachers, this can also be draining for us. We need to ensure that we have supports in place for ourselves so that we do not burn out and/or succumb to the stressful aspects of the job. We teach our students to take care of their mental health, and we need to follow our own advice.    Carla Bartlett

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Teachers spend a significant amount of time in the classrooms with their students and during that time, they may encounter stressful situations or be made aware of the struggles that their students may be experiencing such as poverty or abuse. Counseling should be made available to all teachers and students and not only the ones large enough to support the costs. Social and emotional support is needed so that we can take care of our students, our colleagues, and ourselves.
Heather Hunt

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Support for Teachers to Support Students

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Support for Teachers to Support Students

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As said in the video we are constantly attending to anywhere from 25 to 125 students our emotional well begins to run dry. After a while we run out of steam. We absorb so much from our students, but without an outsource, we begin to become weighed down by the burden of these interactions. Despite protocol, it is simply not enough to provide someone to talk too. Many schools wish to provide support, but without finances these schools don't have specialized aids to help both students and teachers. There are gaps, and they are trying to be filled, but without a paradigm shift in discussion we will not address the root issue. The chain of support must include bonds every step of the way. Spaces to talk, a structuring of community, and acknowledging that everyone in a school, including teachers, should have the means to openly discuss and improve their emotional and mental wellbeing.
Cody Churchill

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The Importance of Relationships and Wellness in Schools

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The Importance of Relationships and Wellness in Schools

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In today's schools, teachers are expected to listen to and empathize with the man different stories and experiences that their students bring with them into the classroom. This is so important for the well-being of our students and their success in the classroom and beyond. Creating relationships this way is essential to student learning. However, the taking in of all of these stories and experiences can cause what this TED Talk calls "secondary trauma" or "compassion fatigue". After taking in all of these experiences and empathizing with them, teachers feel weighed down and exhausted. Schools need to have better supports in place for teachers' mental wellness. We spend a lot of time focusing on the mental health of our students, which is so important, but the mental health of teachers is often forgotten about. If teachers are expected to promote mental wellness and positive, supportive relationships in the classroom, they need to be taken care of in the same way.

-Nick Mandville

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Why we must consider relationships and wellness

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Why we must consider relationships and wellness

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Everything that students do in the school setting is hugely dependent on their wellness and the relationships they build. Students need to build trust and confidence to feel comfortable in their learning environments to put their all in. We also need to consider our own wellness as we cannot give our all to students if we do not ensure our own mental health. If we are taking on all of the struggles of students on top of what we already have on our plate, we need to ensure that we get the support that we need or a burnout will be inevitable.

-Wendy and Sarah P

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I think it is incredibly important to consider relationships and wellness as educators. As discussed in the video, students are coming into the classroom from all kinds of exterior situations. We need to from relationships with our students in order support them the best we can. Mental health is just as important as physical health and we need to be aware of that. Sometimes the only support students have are their educators, so we need to make sure they can depend on us, as well as their classmates. - Alexis

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One day soon we will all have a classroom to call our own, where we can put forth all that our education degree has taught us, moving through curriculum guides, lessons we are supposed to teach... but how effective are these lessons if we don't establish a classroom atmosphere where the teacher-student relationship hasn't been built. Does the math lesson matter anymore? No. But it can after our students acknowledge their purpose and belief for learning. Eventually, students and teachers will be able to find their positive light, illuminating the classroom atmosphere, together. This can obviously take time, but it is crucial that supports are in place for all teachers and students, ensuring that the school community is taken care of, and that mental health supports are in place for all. It is a lifelong journey, and we are in this together. - Susan

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Teaching goes beyond the realm of academics. As educators, we are also responsible for relationship building and connecting with our students and colleagues; and, this was indicated in the video. We must empathize with our students, and learn about each of their unique backgrounds because it is important to reach every single student who enters our classrooms. Ultimately, we must be pillars of support , success, and growth for our students! But, as educators, who is being there for us? Although teaching can be extremely rewarding, fun, and imaginative, it can also be immensely draining. Further supports are needed for educators to thrive in the field without experiencing extreme burnout. It may be important for us to support our students, but we must support ourselves as well. - Sophia Hewitt

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Relationships and Wellness in the Classroom

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Relationships and Wellness in the Classroom

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As pre-service and in-service teachers, it is important that we consider relationships and wellness of students because there are students who face trauma at home that we may not even know about. It is significant that teachers be a part of/seek out social emotional support staff to check in on students who are facing trauma because we want to provide a positive experience for them. Teachers are more than educators because they provide a safe and supportive environment for their students by building emotional and social relationships.
– Deidre Shears and Kirsten Gillam

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Why we must consider relationships and wellness!

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Why we must consider relationships and wellness!

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The TED Talk “How can we support the emotional well-being of teachers?” by Sydney Jensen showed a side of teaching that has not really been focused on directly as we have been preparing to enter the classroom. It really brings light on the fact that teachers need support to give support. Teachers in today's classroom have more empathy and want to be there for their students. When teachers get to know the student’s situation (as each one will have a different background), it sometimes goes home with them. When situations are out of teacher control than teaching becoming more than lesson plans and going to class it becomes personal and can have a big effect on the teacher’s mental health. It is important that teachers take care of their mental health to be the best teacher and supporters they can be for their students. Teachers need a supportive work environment and know who and what to do to best help themselves. Healthy relationships will make harder situations easier which helps both teachers and students. Healthy relationships are important in every situation. -Dominique Gibbons

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As pre-service teachers we must ensure our classrooms are safe and inclusive areas for our students. The learners in the classroom are diverse and come from all different backgrounds. We are often told to focus on the mental health of our students, but we must consider our own mental health and well being as well. It is important for teachers to take time to themselves and focus on their goals.
-Courtney McIntyre

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The opening of this video really resonated with me, as the activity that Sydney Jensen does with her class in creating a chain to show that everyone is connected, is at the basis of what I believe we want to do as educators. Ensuring that students feel comfortable in the classroom, provides comfort to not only the students, but the teacher. It is important to remember that teachers are heavily impacted by the environments that they teach in. Realistically, for most teachers, they see their students (no matter the age), as their children, and I think that that is especially true for primary/elementary teachers. I mean, students often accidentally call us "Mom" or "Dad" at least once! The lives outside of our schools, that our students live, heavily impact us as teachers, as we know that those elements are out of our hands, and therefore out of our control. Relationships are key to safe and inclusive classrooms, and they are just as important for the wellness of teachers. Many teachers provide support for their students, though those same teachers may not have the support in place to help them support their students. Doctors, Firefighters and Police have supports to help support them deal with the experiences from their jobs, and it is essential that teachers and the rest of school staff, have similar, affordable healthcare with access to therapy to help them deal with "secondary trauma"/"compassion fatigue" that comes along with the job. Counsellors who can reach out to staff who take on the responsibility of supporting students, is practically life-saving in many circumstances. It is hard to promote mental wellbeing in the classroom, and to support students who are experiencing trauma in a real and genuine way, when teachers are struggling.
-Laura Barr & Stephanie Snow (this was way longer than we expected.. sorry)

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The relationships we build with students have an enormous impact on their success and mental well-being. If they feel safe, welcome, and seen at school, then they are far more likely to see school and their peers with a positive attitude. It's also important to note that every student faces a different 'home' situation when they leave school, maybe they don't even have a home to go to. As a teacher, it's important to be a safe and caring person for students, because you may just be the only person of this kind for any particular student. This can be taxing on a teacher's well-being, as was mentioned in the video, so we must consider relationships beyond student-teacher relationships as well, such as teacher-teacher relationships. I think of the staff rooms where teachers talk about one another's teaching styles, or even personal lives, and I can't help but think of how horrible this is for each of the people involved. Staff relationships at school should consist of support, genuine concern for each other's well-being, and listening ears for when the relationships we have with students are just too much for us to carry on our own.

- Alyssa Lucas

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As educators we need to provide the support our students need. All students that come into the classroom live in different environments. Some of our students may be struggling with different components of their lives. When students come into our classroom, we need to make them feel safe and feel like they are welcomed. The idea of links is a great way to explain this. Everyone in the classroom is connected, it is important to build relationships between students and teachers and for students to build a relationship with one another. It is through the conversations we have that we learn about one another and that we are able to support each other. In the video she talks about the impact this has on a teacher's wellness. As educators we feel our students pain, for some this pain is taken home. Thus, I agree with what was mentioned throughout the video, it is important to have the help needed for not only our students but for educators as well. I believe all schools should have the help and support needed for the teachers, to help our students we need to make sure our wellness is also being considered and taken care of. The classroom is a place to connect and learn together, it is a place for us to learn from one another, to build relationships and to create a safe environment. To do this we must consider the wellness of each individual in the classroom.
- Robyn Redlin

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Teachers are responsible for the wellbeing of so many students on a daily basis. For many teachers, this responsibility carries over into after school when teachers are spending precious mental energy worrying about the students in their classroom. As teachers, we need to take care of ourselves so we can take care of our students – You can’t pour from an empty cup!

Teachers develop relationships with many people throughout the school. By teaching through relationships, teachers have knowledge about their students and are better able to teach them. Further, this entails a social environment in which students and teachers converse, share experiences, and participate in activities that, together, make for engaged learning. Teaching through relationships unveils the connections between thought, everyday life, and other seemingly unrelated ideas. The students are able to see themselves as co-learners with the teacher. The students will also feel more comfortable to talk to their teacher if there is something going on.

When schools invest in the well-being of students and teachers, not only do they foster better learners, they set them up for a more fulfilling life in the long term too. We teach our students to take care of themselves and check in on them daily, but it is important for teachers to follow the same advice and take care of themselves too!
Alyson King

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As educators, we must consider relationships and wellness to allow each other to feel connected and a sense of belonging. It is imperative that we form positive relationships with students to support their emotional and social well-being. In the video, the teacher discusses the idea of the links and the need to feel connected. If we cannot provide social and emotional support to our students, then it can become a challenge to provide academic support if we are not attending to their other needs first.

Karissa Horne

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As teachers we must consider the wellness of students and teachers. For both students and teachers, it essential that we avail of wellness resources provided to us by the department. It is important that we build a positive relationship with health and wellness not only for our students but for our teachers as well.
Katharine Nuotio