Healthy Work Place Habits For Teachers

Ideas and How To Establish Them:

Healthy habits at school can keep the illness and burnout at bay. As a teacher you know all too well how hard it is when you are not feeling well, or emotionally burned out. Not only because you feel off, but the realities of still getting the classroom ready if you’re absent while feeling this way. You know the importance of keeping yourself well, and doing that means to prioritize your own healthy habits before grinding through the work.

Do Your Healthy Habits Need a Re-Fresh?

I’m going to break down the 6 areas of self nurturing and ways at school to stay healthy in each. As a reminder, those 6 areas to nurture are: Physical, Social, Spiritual, Your Surroundings, Emotional, and Professional. Let’s take a look at some simple habits to keep doing, restart, or start new. 

HEALTHY HABITS FOR YOUR PHYSICAL SELF:

Ok, these habits are directly related to your physical health. When you are physically healthy, your ability to handle your emotional wellbeing is increased.

1. Get proper sleep. I know this isn’t necessarily an ‘at school’ habit, yet without this one…everything else is 100X harder! Stay off your phone 30 min before going to bed, put on some calm music or bedtime meditation, take some magnesium/melatonin/CBD gummies to help the sleep process.
2. Drink Water. Have a water bottle that excites you and drink consistently during the day. Train your body to take bathroom breaks at the same time each day. ALSO: The more caffeine and sugar you drink, the more water you need to drink to counterbalance the effects, so limit your caffeine intake.
3. Snacks From Home: The cravings happen and if you’re stressed or going through burnout, food is a distraction. Bring snacks of nuts, fruit, greek yogurt, etc. Keeping snacks higher in protein and fats vs carbs will sustain you longer and be better for your brain and focus.
4. Wash Your Hands. This is your best defense to keep germs away and your body free from illnesses.
5. Classroom Movement. You and your students need movement breaks. Build in some yoga or stretching. If you need something more intense, do a quick tabata together. You can find a tabata app for the timing. Check out my Teacher SEL card deck with this and other ways to incorporate healthy habits together with your students. 

HEALTHY HABITS FOR YOUR SOCIAL SELF:

Socializing is a great way to let go of stress and to connect. You and your students need this. As important as this is, it’s equally important to give yourself a break from social media/device usage and overload, especially during the intense times the world is currently experiencing.

1. Put Your Phone Away During Prep. Giving yourself time to single task during your prep and planning keeps your brain healthy and your mind focused. Start with 5-10 minutes of no phone. Set a timer. Increase your ability to go the entire prep time.
2. Eat Lunch with a Team Member or Another Teacher. Teachers that do a working lunch everyday are not allowing their brains to recalibrate. Also, being able to have adult conversations (NOT about students) is a way of decompressing and connecting to another adult. If the longue is too busy, invite your friend to eat in a room and focus on the eating.

HEALTHY HABITS FOR YOUR SPIRITUAL SELF:

Understanding that you are part of a connected world can help in staying present and letting unnecessary things go.

1. Do breathing exercises. It can be as simple as closing your eyes, breathing for 4 counts in, and 4 counts out. Visualizing nurturing thoughts entering with each inhale, and toxic thoughts and stress leaving as you exhale.
2. EFT. Emotional Freedom Technique, or tapping, can reset your nervous system when stress takes over. Here’s an intro video on how to start tapping.

HEALTHY HABITS FOR YOUR EMOTIONAL HEALTH:

It’s important to be able to keep things in perspective and make decisions when your emotions are not overcharged or in a heightened state. Adding extra stress and worry will create an environment in your body conducive for illness and disease.

1. Take Short Breaks. Include your students in a breathing exercise or quiet time. You can take an extra minute or so inbetween reading groups to take a deep breath and refocus before calling the next group. 
2. Affirmations. Know your worth by writing and saying affirmations that are meaningful to you. I like to have mine written on post-its and in private but frequently looked at places. I’ll have time each day where we write and say our affirmations as a class. Grab 22 FREE affirmations + journal page OR I AM Enough affirmations lesson + book companion in your affirmation work for you and your students.

HEALTHY HABITS FOR YOUR SURROUNDINGS:

Your surroundings matter…physical surroundings and the people you associate with. Make sure both are not cluttering your mind and energy.

1. Organize your desk or teaching table before you leave each day. Even if other places are less than ideal, starting your day with a clutter-free work arrea makes a HUGE difference.
2. Meaningful Decor. Having walls with every chart, decoration, etc is overwhelming for the brain and many students. Keep what’s on the walls and class space purposeful and calm.
3. Boundaries. Have a sign for the outside of your door telling other when you are available and hold to those.

HEALTHY HABITS FOR YOUR PROFESSIONAL SELF:

Remember, work is only 1 part of your life. When you only put effort into 1 area, that is when you can begin to feel unbalanced and under appreciated.

1. Create Planning Systems. If you have a system for your planning, you will save time and energy each day/week. For example: I use a morning meeting planning system that saves me 30-45 minutes each week. I plan similar activities each day of the week. Mondays sharing is always something about the weekend. If you want to know how I create mine along with some activity ideas and planning template grab it here: Responsive Classroom Morning Meeting Ideas
2. Decide Your Daily Ending Time. When I wanted to start leaving more often at my contracted time, I decided on 1 day of the week to start. I set an alarm on my phone that would go off with the alarm titled “Time for Jill”. It was really hard to say no to myself. I slowly built in more days. I didn’t leave at contracted time everyday, but the schedule I created was the one that worked for me and allowed me to leave school at school and still feel prepared.

Final Thoughts:

If you’re doing some of the habits above AWESOME! If there are some that you’d like to start (and I hope there are), I want you to think about adding 1 at a time. 

HOW TO CHOOSE WHICH NEW HABIT:

Begin with the habit that could possibile be stacked to one you’re already doing. For example, if you are already doing brain breaks with your students, make 1 of the breaks a little longer and do a movement. OR, if you are already bringing a healthy lunch to school, pack your snacks for the day at the same time.

Once you have the new habit established and it becomes second nature, add in another to support you and your students.

Check out The Self Nurtured Teacher website for more resources.