The Importance of Educator Well-being

With the amount of effort you put into ensuring the children in your care are healthy and happy, it can be easy to forget about your own emotional and mental health. This can be particularly true during difficult times of increased stress (as is likely the case currently with the COVID-19 pandemic).

However, these stressful periods are when our well-being matters most and as such, it is important to remember to take care of yourself during these times. Practicing self-care is not only important for you, but is also beneficial to the people around you, including the children in your care, your co-workers, and the people in your personal life.

Happy and healthy educators = happy and healthy children

The emotional well-being of educators is important for a bevy of reasons. Research consistently shows that positive well-being is tied closely to satisfaction in the profession and educator engagement, whereas poor well-being is related to feeling burnt out. Additionally, educator well-being is related to children's social-emotional skill development in the classroom as well as the quality of the teacher-student relationships formed, both of which carry important implications for children's development. Essentially, it is very tough to support children's well-being and form meaningful relationships if you do not take care of your own health and wellness. Taking the time to support your mental and emotional health will make it easier to teach effectively and you will likely find your role as an educator even more rewarding.

Supporting your own well-being

There are a number of things you can do to support your own emotional and mental well-being. Here are some ideas for things you can initiate yourself:

• Mental and physical health are often linked. As such, eating healthy, exercising, and getting enough sleep all have been shown to relate to individual well-being.
• Find time to decompress after the workday. This can be as simple as taking a walk to clear your head or speaking with a friend or partner about the day.
• Try to find a period where you can allow yourself not to think about your work responsibilities. This can be challenging, but whether it's meditating or practicing mindfulness, reading a book, or engaging with your family, this will help you recharge and approach the next day with energy.
• Connect with your co-workers. This will likely benefit both you and them, as these relationships have consistently been shown to impact well-being.
• If you feel you are struggling, reach out to your director or another co-worker. Sometimes the simple act of just letting someone know that you need assistance or are having a challenging day can make you feel better.
• Remember why you became an educator. Was it because you are passionate about child development? Want to make a difference in people's lives? Help others? The role of an educator is extremely important. Reminding yourself why you went into this field can be useful for helping you remain engaged and feel valued.

How directors can support educators' well-being

Directors play an important role in educators' well-being and can provide support in a variety of ways. Educator well-being is connected closely to the climate of the program. If the climate is perceived as a punitive environment where educators are not valued or supported, educators' emotional and mental health is likely to be negatively impacted. Taking the time to connect with educators and finding opportunities to check-in, team build, and promote connections between educators is likely to go a long way. Often, a director simply letting an educator know that they are valued and appreciated can pay dividends in building a supportive environment and a positive program climate. These little steps of making yourself available and communicating with educators have been shown to increase educators' satisfaction and engagement and reduce burnout and turnover. Again, prioritizing educators' well-being and establishing a healthy climate will benefit everyone involved.

As an educator, you are tasked with such an important job of doing what you can to promote positive well-being in the lives of children. This role is often accompanied by stress, even in the best of situations. If you make your own well-being a priority, particularly when you are stressed, it will be easier to support those around you. Finally, remember that besides being an educator, you are also a person whose mental and physical health matters, so take the time to take care of yourself!

For more information on educator well-being please check out the following Better Kid Care online modules:

• "Coaching and Mentoring: Supporting Staff"
• "Go Healthy! It all Begins With You"
• "Resilient Caregivers: 'Bouncing Back' From Stress"