Mattie Washburn teachers take a day to learn self-care techniques

Jennifer Grady has one job title at Mattie Washburn Elementary School. This year, though, she can find herself doing up to four jobs within a couple of days.

At drop-off time, Grady often goes to walk students to their classrooms - something their parents can no longer do under COVID protocols. Even two months into the school year, some of the youngest students cry each morning unless accompanied by a staff member.

In her regular duties as a reading intervention teacher, Grady meets with about 60 students individually and in small groups - that is, unless there's a classroom needing a teacher. In that case, she might get pulled in as a substitute, since regular subs are hard to come by this year.

And if Grady gets a break midday, she'll often jump into yard duty, supervising students on the playground during recess.

"You don't get to go to the bathroom," Grady said. "When you do have a break, there's a kid that needs you. There are built-in breaks by law, but that kid is more important. And I'm by no means the only person doing this."

When Principal Susan Yakich was planning a Friday of professional development for 23 of her campus teachers and support staff, she said she wanted to reaffirm the importance of school staff members' needs. She created a program focused on wellness and self-care, with a theme to "rejuvenate, reconnect and reimagine."

The result - a day of mindfulness activities including art therapy, chair yoga and a drum circle as a grand finale - was an opportunity not just for teachers to momentarily reset from the strain of another extraordinary school year, but also to learn practices to serve them and their students in the classroom for the rest of the year.

"I think this is a good first step in the right direction," Yakich said.

Schools across the Windsor Unified School District had set aside Friday for a professional development day. Leadership on each campus got to choose their focus. When Yakich was beginning to plan, she surveyed her teachers, asking them to highlight the areas where they most needed support.

She estimated over 90% of the responses emphasized a need for increased work/life balance.

COVID protocols, a shortage of workers ranging from bus drivers to substitute teachers and restrictions on parent volunteers are all contributing to staff members' stress, Yakich said. Any qualified staff member, like Grady, might be called upon to fill gaps in the classroom. And with fewer parent volunteers to make copies and help keep students focused, teachers are juggling more tasks and dealing with more disruptive behaviors with less support in the classroom.

"Their plates are very, very full," Yakich said.

Before the start of the school year, the Sonoma County Office of Education also hosted a staff training with a similar wellness focus. Mariya Cree, a social emotional learning counselor at Mattie Washburn, said she's seen an increased focus on her area of expertise during this school year.

Teachers are trying to support students after a year of being out of the classroom during a traumatic time, she said. Students are displaying mental and behavioral needs at new levels. And events such as red flag warnings of fire danger, with high winds or occasional recurrences of smoke, can trigger intense anxiety from recent disasters.

"We need to take care of ourselves to be able to take care of the students," Cree said. "Compassion fatigue, it's a real thing, whether you're a nurse, a counselor, a teacher."

The activities Friday inspired some of the participants to imagine how they can continue practicing those techniques to feed their verve for serving students through the remainder of the school year.

For Grady, the morning mindfulness walk reminded her of the importance of paying attention to her breathing to regulate her emotions. It's a technique she plans to use as an aid for her students, too.

"When you come in from recess, you get tattles: 'He did this,' and 'I was first,'" she said. "So you can say, 'Alright, first we're going to practice our breathing and then if you need to talk about that again, we can do that.'"

Ultimately, Yakich said, the steps teachers take to ensure they're able in turn to support their students mentally and emotionally will help bolster learning, as well.

"If we're not in a strong mental place, to receive learning and information, then that learning is not going to take place," she said.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been updated to clarify which school staff were invited to participate in the professional development day at Mattie Washburn Elementary.