Education Week - January 6, 2021 - 7

Compared with prior to the pandemic, how is morale for the
students, teachers, and administrators at your school?
Much higher
Somewhat higher
No change
Somewhat lower
Much lower

Teachers
2%
6
Administrators

36
44
12
1
4
10

Teachers

42
43
1
4
Students

13
47
35
2
5
19

37
36

Students
14
16

Administrators

40
23
8
14
16

Teachers

35
27
8
10

Students

13
28
33
16
14
16

33
25
13

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

Olson said, because teaching this year can feel isolating. Gathering in the teachers' lounge is off-limits,
due to social distancing requirements, and there are
fewer opportunities for teachers to see their colleagues in common areas, like the cafeteria or the
playground, since students are grouped together into
cohorts for contact tracing purposes.
Teachers around the country say they want their
bosses' support and flexibility. The EdWeek survey
found that 39 percent of teachers said their administrators made efforts to improve teacher morale,
and it helped. But nearly a third of teachers said
their administrators' efforts had no impact on their
morale.
" I don't need more screen time, I don't need a
workbook to help manage my stress-I think we need
our district administration to just leave us alone, "
said Josh Thompson, a high school English teacher
in Blacksburg, Va., who is teaching in a hybrid setting. " Don't give us more things to do, stop changing
things, just let me go. "
Thompson's school district, Montgomery County,
has designated every Wednesday as a teacher and
student workday, with no classes. Students get some
time away from a computer screen, and teachers can
work from home. Thompson said he usually spends
that day planning and catching up on grading.
" That has been the saving grace for every teacher
in the county, " he said. " If it were not for that, I
would seriously have been thinking: Is this sustainable for me? "
To help lighten the load for Minnesota teachers, Gov. Tim Walz issued an executive order this
fall that requires schools to give teachers an extra
half-hour of planning time every day for remote
or hybrid instruction. Teachers, he warned, are
" stretched too thin. "
And at Milton Hershey School, a private cost-free
boarding school for low-income students in Hershey,
Pa., teachers are encouraged to text an administrator
to cover their classes when they need a quick break
during the school day. They're in self-contained
classrooms with students all day as a safety precaution, and they might need a few minutes to regroup
or even participate in a school-offered counseling session, said Tara Valoczki, the principal of the elementary school.
Each classroom also has daily mindfulness breaks,
where school psychologists come in to teach a socialemotional lesson relevant for life in a pandemic, like
breathing exercises or coping strategies for fear and
anger. Teachers and students participate together-a
reminder, Valoczki said, that their well-being is " directly correlated. "
" When our teachers are happy and rested and
feeling good about themselves, their energy is in the
classroom, " she said. " You have to take care of yourself first. " Q

KEEPING STUDENTS AND TEACHERS MOTIVATED & ENGAGED | 7

Education Week - January 6, 2021

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