The Well Teacher | humanworks press | Blog

  • Holiday Tips for Teacher Wellness

    It is important to recognize that not everyone is equipped to or has the stamina to dive head-first into the holiday season. So, whether you’re a festive fanatic or not, here are some tips to help any teacher navigate this holiday season, so they can return to the classroom feeling a little more recharged and a ready to tackle the rest of the school year come January.
  • This Is Hard. COVID Fatigue, Teaching, and What You Can Do About It.

    It’s not just you, the topic of COVID fatigue seems to be everywhere right now (Ries, J. February 5, 2021). And, rightfully so. We are closing in on a year of living through a global pandemic. The adrenaline-pumping newness of it all has well and truly worn off and we are now fully entrenched in the monotony of lockdowns, restrictions, lack of social contact with friends and family, face masks and hand sanitizer, and, for many, additional responsibilities to their workload with COVID safety protocols and cleaning procedures. It’s all downright exhausting.
  • 5 Trends in Teacher Wellness to Watch Out for in 2021

    In “normal” years, there are somewhat predictable wellness patterns with the teachers we work with; the challenges that teachers experience and when they tend to experience them have a general flow. In 2020 though, the word “unpredictable” just doesn’t seem to do it justice. Teacher wellness was challenged in unexpected and difficult ways. And, with today marking the first day back in the classroom for many, we think it’s a good time to look back at some of those unique struggles that emerged for teachers throughout 2020 and that we should keep in mind as we move forward into 2021.
  • Teachers & Obesity: New Clinical Practice Guidelines

    As the school year approached in August, teachers, and those of us who support teacher wellness, were firmly focused on COVID-19 and the upcoming school year. And, rightly so. No one knew what was to come, and it seemed as though things were changing by the hour. However, buried in the non-stop health information that was coming at us before the start of the new school year was the fact that the Canadian obesity guidelines had been updated for the first time since 2007. While we don’t know exactly how many Canadian teachers are affected by obesity, we do know that approximately 26.4% (8.3 million) of Canadians over the age of 18 are classified as “obese” (Twells, Janssen, & Luk, 2018). And, if this proportion translates directly to the Canadian teacher population, we could estimate that roughly 202,849 teachers across Canada are struggling with obesity – a not insignificant number. 
  • On this World Teachers' Day...

    What I wish people would remember about teaching in the time of COVID, is that teachers have been asked to do what most others have been vehemently told to avoid. Teachers have ultimately been asked to go into public settings with groups of people who are outside their own bubbles, sometimes will little guidance or resources on how best to implement new and evolving government guidelines and health regulations. While most of us were still figuring out how best to work from home, teachers were considering how to return to school and keep themselves and their students safe during a global health crisis.
  • Teacher Work-Life Balance: 5 Helpful Tips for a Smoother Daily Transition from the Classroom to Home Life

    Teaching is such a mentally and physically demanding profession that transitioning from the classroom to home life can feel downright impossible. We have heard many teachers struggle with feeling like they are present at home in body only. No matter the job or the workload, the inability to coalesce both body and mind into the present can leave anyone with an unhealthy sense of imbalance.
  • New Year, New You. But, is it Really?

    Welcome to the new decade. Here we are. The New Year is supposed to feel cleansing, exciting, and brimming with possibilities. But, as we tuck the sparklers and the confetti away for next year, it turns out this New Year may not actually feel very new at all. Especially when, for most of us, the holiday season feels hectic and exhausting, and we come back to work still fighting the same cold we had three weeks ago.  So, as a teacher, how do you get yourself through the rest of the school year without burning out?

  • WTD2019: Sharing Messages of Support and Gratitude for our Teachers

    We ask all of our friends and followers to take a moment today to either post in the comments below or post on their own feeds or stories, messages about a teacher that has had a positive impact in their lives. Or, if you are a teacher yourself, share an important moment in your life as a teacher that made all the challenges feel just a little bit less like challenges. Share moments that have “filled your cup” so-to-speak. Please be sure to tag us @thewellteacherCA or use the hashtag #thewellteacher and we will collect all the stories we can and feature them in the featured stories section on our Instagram account. We hope that whenever someone needs to refill their cup, they can come to this space and hear messages of support, encouragement, gratitude, and love. 
  • World Teachers’ Day 2019: A Message from humanworks Founder & President Jack MacNeill

    The profession of K-12 teaching is unlike any other. Teachers are counted on to be community anchoring points and weathervanes of civic morality. They are expected to exude and emulate the best of our current cultural norms and be reliable examples of civility and good manners. They are expected to hold themselves to a moral standard that is beyond the community norm and remain shining examples for the next generation of our community’s youth to follow and exceed. Teachers live their lives with discretion and discernment, always aware of the public’s expectations and the moral obligation the profession requires.
  • Now Is The Time

    It has zoomed by even faster than summer; the first month of school is almost over. Hopefully by now you are settling into your routine, you have a sense of your assignment, and you have learned a student’s name or two. You are undoubtedly singularly focused on your class, and how to maximize their success for the upcoming school year. You are probably still feeling relatively fresh, hopeful, and on top of the demands associated with your job. Which means that right now, is the perfect time to think about you.
  • What's So Hard About Teaching Anyway?

    Lately, I have found myself thinking more and more about this question. I have been trying to figure out the most succinct way of explaining to someone, who doesn’t understand the complexities of teaching, why the job is so demanding. I could start with the facts, of course.
  • Mental Health, Let's Talk About It

    There are very few professions where there is more vulnerability in openly sharing mental health-related challenges than in education. The stigma around educator mental health is generally driven by the presumption of how it would be interpreted by others.