Making Teacher Appreciation a Daily Practice

As Teacher Appreciation Week 2019 comes to an end, it’s important to remember that teacher appreciation is not just for one week a year!  The service of teachers should be celebrated year-round. In addition, it shouldn’t just be students, families and administrators showing appreciation.  Teachers themselves should play an active role in self-celebration. In fact, one of the most important ways that teachers can keep up the motivation to perform their jobs is by developing a practice to appreciate themselves.

Educators Dr. Kimberley Giles and Dr. Tammy Jenkins – who are both mothers, wives, school principals, instructors, and authors – know this fact well. The pair met 25 years ago in a Kean University parking lot while studying to become school administrators and have spoken nearly every day since. Their professional careers followed parallel paths, landing them both in roles as school leaders in high-performing districts and co-adjunct instructors with Rutgers Alternate Route--a New Jersey Educator Preparation Program which helps career changers and non-education majors reinvent themselves as teachers. While juggling their many roles and observing the balancing struggles of their colleagues and new teachers, Dr. Giles and Dr. Jenkins partnered in writing the book Notes To Me: Inspirational & Motivational Reminders for Women, a 30-day support guide to encourage all people – not just women – along the journey of self-care and growth. The book provides daily inspirational quotes and reminders for readers to reflect on self-care practices that we tend to forget in our daily lives.

This message is sorely needed in a service profession like education, where teachers and school leaders often prioritize the needs of others and consider self-care selfish. One of the most important takeaways the authors convey is that self-care is not at all selfish and is, in fact, necessary. They liken self-care to putting on your oxygen mask first on an airplane, emphasizing that you can’t help anyone else if you can’t breathe yourself.

In workshops with teachers and school leaders a recurring question surfaces - How? The trouble that the pair finds is not that people do not want to take the time for self-care, but they are unsure how to make the time to do that. Read on for six tips from Dr. Jenkins and Dr. Giles about how teachers can develop concrete, intentional strategies to incorporate self-care and self-appreciation as a daily practice.

1. Schedule time for yourself and make it non-negotiable.

Just as people make appointments to see a doctor about their physical health, everyone must schedule time to make appointments with themselves for mental health. This time should be seen as non-negotiable and be treated with the same seriousness you would for a doctor’s appointment. Make time wherever you can, whether it’s listening to motivational tapes or speaking to a positive friend in the car on the drive to school, or just a few “Me-minutes” during the school day in which you can take a walk around the school or do some stretching and breathing – anything that brings you a few minutes of calm to recharge your batteries.

2. Dedicate one day of the weekend for yourself.

Anyone who works, has a family, or has a family and works knows that weekends are not necessarily the bastions of peace that they can be envisioned to be. Dr. Giles and Dr. Jenkins commit to dedicating one day of the weekend to themselves, in which they don’t plan anything for the day, unless there is an emergency. Don’t be afraid to be protective of that time and honor it.

3. Say no to requests that don’t align with your purpose.

Dr. Giles’ catchphrase has been known to be “My pleasure,” happily supporting those around her. At a certain point, though, she has found that it’s just not feasible to serve all requests that come her way and it’s critical for one’s self-care to be able to say “no” to requests without feeling rude. Saying no to certain requests will make sure that you don’t deplete your energy for all the tasks you need to do and will set an expectation for others that your time is valuable.

4. Celebrate small wins.

Small wins, like getting through to a particular student even on a single day, or having a successful class field trip, are worth celebrating and can keep you motivated. They also build up to big wins, which provide even greater reasons to celebrate!

5. Take an assessment of your self-care.

Dr. Jenkins and Dr. Giles offer an assessment tool that they recommend for people when they begin their self-care journey. It considers several domains such as physical and spiritual health with indicators that participants check off. If there are few checkmarks in a particular domain, it means that you need to spend more time on that domain. From that assessment, the tool can help you make a self-care plan with concrete steps to take.

6. Take lessons from Teacher Appreciation Week.

Dr. Jenkins and Dr. Giles offered several perks at their schools for Teacher Appreciation Week, such as free massages, off-campus field trips, a staff luncheon and breakfast, the gift of comfort through Jeans Week, and even a “walk of fame” with teachers’ names on Hollywood stars. Don’t forget that these moments of recognition can take place all year round! Work with your school’s administration to schedule more special days so that teachers can feel nourished and pass that nourishment on to students.

With the incredibly important job that teachers have, it is important that teachers are frequently celebrated and appreciated. By developing concrete strategies to support their own self-care, Dr. Giles and Dr. Jenkins believe that this can revolutionize a teacher’s life and benefit their students, families, and others. While you’re being kind to yourself, treat yourself to these tips for avoiding teacher burnout and follow us on Twitter for the latest in teaching tips and news.