Well-Being

Strategies

VBCPS Resource for Teacher Well-Being

The Beach Employee Wellness (BEWell) program makes participation in healthy behaviors and activities easy and stress-free! Making healthy choices can help us feel better and live longer. BEWell can assist you with taking steps toward healthy living and reduce health risks! Empower yourself to maintain a healthy lifestyle by participating with BEWell each day! BEWell provides the programs, resources and tools you need. The 2021 BeWell Book is linked here.

Prioritize Self-Care

Self-care is a regular, intentional process of devoting oneself to protecting and sustaining mental health. It is backed by science and not just feel good, self-indulgent sentiments.

Self-Care Isn’t Selfish or Superficial Science shows that prevention is less costly than repair.
Importance of Self-Care As a Teacher The idea that there isn’t enough time to be a good teacher and take care of yourself is a myth. So remember to stop and take time to care for yourself so you can care for your students!
Feeding the Teacher's Brain: Nutrition Tips for Busy Educators Teaching is a cognitively complex profession. You have a high-energy job, so it's essential to prime your brain and body with the right fuel.
Back to School Stress: Establishing Good Habits With all your attention on teaching, it's important to make sure your personal life is set up to withstand the additional stress. Establishing a few good habits now will help you avoid slipping into a destructive cycle that will leave you burned out by spring.

The Necessity of Boundaries There are limits to teachers’ time and energy. Recognizing that is important to best meet the needs of both teachers and students
5 Strategies for Teacher Self-Care Educators don’t have to wait for anyone else to take action. Preventing burnout starts within, by normalizing teacher self-care.
Self-Care for Educators (Podcast 15 min) An eighth grade history and science teacher from Springfield, Illinois shares her tips for practicing self care as an educator and why it’s important to start early in your career.

Productivity

Getting Your To-Do List Under Control Building routines around recurring tasks can help new teachers save effort and focus on what really matters.
How to be More Productive and Eliminate Time Wasting Activities by Using the “Eisenhower Box” The Eisenhower Matrix can be a useful decision-making tool for increasing productivity and eliminating the behaviors that take up mental energy, waste time, and impede movement toward goals.
How to Tackle Organization When You’re Naturally Disorganized Podcast from Teachers Need Teachers - Episode 87

Time Management

Time Management Problems? Check Your Working Style Treating the symptoms of time management often intensifies the problem by masking the root causes, which are often related to mindset, vision, and goal alignment. The compounding results can lead great educators down a path to burnout.
Harvard Business Review (HBR) - Time Management Is About More Than Life Hacks Here, time management is defined as the decision-making process that structures, protects, and adjusts a person’s time to changing environmental conditions. Read about three skills that separate time management success from failure.

Image Citations:

Blue Blackboard on Old Wall Background. Stock Photo ID: 80611417. Shutterstock.com. Shutterstock, Inc. Accessed 02 June 2020.

Reding, Hanna. Bike with Basket at the Beach. Unsplash .com, 11 February 2020. Accessed 12 June, 2020

McDonald, James. Office Space. Unsplash .com, 129 February 2018. Accessed 12 June, 2020

Medrano, Ethan. Black and White Analog Wall Clock. Unsplash .com, 19 June 2019. Accessed 12 June, 2020