#blog: Unpacking Teachers’ Invisible Backpacks
by Taylor Ann Gonzalez
Special thanks to Next Generation Learning Challenges for allowing us to cross-post this blog post :-)
For teachers to thrive, they need to know that their basic needs—food, water, restrooms, sleep—will be met on a daily basis. It's not as easy to achieve as it should be.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is a known theory of motivation. Maslow's theory states that our actions are motivated by specific physiological and psychological needs that progress from essential to complex. The base level of this pyramid is our physiological needs which are equated with human survival—food, water, shelter. According to Maslow, we must meet our physiological needs first.
As educators, we are aware of the invisible backpacks our students carry. However, what about our own invisible backpacks?
If I asked you right now, do you have your basic needs—food, water, shelter (warmth/rest)—would you say that your needs are met? I’d bet you would most likely say “yes.” Yes, you know where you call home. Yes, you know you have food in the kitchen. Yes, you live where you can run your tap water and drink it immediately. This allows your nervous system to evolve from survival to thriving, from physiological to self-actualization.
In the grand scheme of things, this makes sense. Right? Our nervous system should know it can exhale and calm down because our own needs are being met. However, I’d push back on Maslow and let him know that I think he’s missing a critical component.
You can know you have access to all the basic needs and still have an activated sympathetic nervous system (fight, flight, freeze, fawn, flop, fatigue, flood)—overwhelmed, struggling, burning the midnight oil so that even a “small” thing throws us into a tizzy.
Why? Because—and here’s my push to Maslow—you need to know not just in the grand scheme of life, but on a daily basis:
When you’re eating ALL your meals
When you’re able to use the restroom
When you’re able to and how long you get to sleep
When you can access potable and drinkable water
As classroom educators, we don’t always know when this will happen. Roll with me, and let me know how many of these may resonate:
Lunch is spent shepherding your class in/out of the cafeteria.
Lunch is spent making last-minute copies and revising lesson plans.
Lunch is spent running to the bathroom AND eating something very quickly.
Lunch is spent with remediation work or acceleration work.
You are holding in your bladder because your next “break” isn’t for another two hours and the thought of calling down to the office, yet again, makes your skin crawl.
You didn’t sleep too much last night because a student is having trouble at home and you’re not sure what more you can do.
You stayed late after school to help with extracurriculars so by the time you get home, you’re exhausted and starving.
You brought grading home with you and are on the couch eating leftovers while trying to maintain focus.
You’re coaching an athletic team, or maybe a debate team, after school; you haven’t had lunch, and you are unsure when you’ll get dinner.
You skipped breakfast because you weren’t that hungry anyway, and it’ll be a few hours until you make it to lunch.
I mean, I can keep going here, but I think you get my drift.
This is exhausting. This is depleting. This is not sustainable.
How can we meet the needs of students on a daily basis, if our needs as educators are in limbo or not being met at all?
Already we’re experiencing elevated physiology, with the added layer of not having the carved container for nourishment, sleep, and connection → it’s no wonder that even with our physiological needs met in the grand scheme of things, we are struggling as we move toward Maslow’s idea of self-actualization.
This isn’t linear, it’s foundational and evolving. We have to know WHEN food, water, and shelter are happening on a DAILY basis not just in the grand scheme of life.
When we have the set containers:
It allows us to turn on our parasympathetic nervous system—rest and digest.
It allows us to turn on our groundedness.
It allows us to turn on our focus to the task we’re engaging in.
Test it out tomorrow and see what it’s like when you begin to empty your invisible backpack.
Carve your container for breakfast. Eat before you leave the house.
Take your lunch. Throw headphones on, and read. Focus on what you’re eating.
Leave at your contracted time. Leave school work in the building.
Have a nourishing and enjoyable dinner.
Make a list of all your have-tos and must-dos.
Drink water throughout the day (at least three cups).
Use the restroom—call the office if you need coverage. Allow your body to be a body.
Students can feel our energy. They will absorb not only what we teach them but also what we show them through our presence. Show up nourished and fulfilled. Show up regulated and overflowing. Show them that it’s possible so that they can see it represented for themselves too.
About the Author
Taylor Ann Gonzalez (she/hers)
CEO & Founder, Body Alchemy Project
Taylor Ann Gonzalez is a human BEing, runner, trauma-sensitive yoga teacher, and lifelong educator. She believes that the body remembers AND can unlock the healing within us.
#blog: How Schools Can Respond to the Student Mental Health Crisis
by Stephanie McGary
Special thanks to Next Generation Learning Challenges for allowing us to cross-post this blog post :-)
Schools can take these proactive steps now to serve as psychological safe places for both students and educators throughout the year.
In this back-to-school season, our doors are reopening to welcome students who are carrying invisible backpacks full of trauma and stress responses. With all of the traumatic events happening in our world today, the most vulnerable of us—our young people—are experiencing the effects of this reality each and every day.
In President Biden’s last State of The Union Address, he made it clear that youth mental health is a priority for the Biden-Harris Administration stating “we owe them greater access to mental health care at their schools,” but what does that look, sound, and feel like?
Schools are seen as the primary source of providing wrap-around services to students whether they are equipped to do so or not. Attempts have been made to support the mental health of students—including incorporating social-emotional learning, revamping discipline practices, and hiring more clinical staff—but it still feels like it isn’t enough.
While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to helping students who are struggling with their mental health, there are proactive steps schools can take to serve as psychological safe places for both students and educators.
Moving from Self-Regulation to Co-Regulation
For example, many schools and districts believed that social and emotional learning (SEL) would be the answer to behavioral problems by teaching students how to self-regulate, how to become more self-aware, socially-conscious, and make better decisions. But social emotional learning can give false hope, specifically around behavior. Brain development can not be rushed. You can spend all day teaching students how to self-regulate, but—because of where they are developmentally or due to the effects of trauma and stress on the brain—they may have limited access to the part of the brain (the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, or DLPFC) responsible for self-regulation. Instead, we should teach young people skills of self-regulation while simultaneously teaching adults the art of co-regulation.
Providing quality professional development and support to educators when a student is unable to access their taught skill of self-regulation can be a game changer.
Addressing Emotional Health and Academics Together
School districts must also think strategically about behavioral support. The student who struggled last year may still be struggling this school year, and we should not wait for their behavior to reveal this need to us again. Now is the time for schools to develop methods to intersect emotional health with academic health.
There are times when academic and behavioral conversations are held separately but research shows us that students who have three or more traumatic experiences have six times the rate of behavioral problems, five times the rate of attendance problems, and three times the rate of academic failure. This means the conversations need to happen together, especially for students who are having challenges in all or one of these three areas. Small shifts can be made to traditional Admission, Review, and Dismissal (ARD) meetings and Behavioral Intervention Plan (BIP) meetings.
Momentous Institute, a community mental health nonprofit where I used to work, collaborated with educational and mental health professionals to create the Strategic Intervention Model (SIM) which can be downloaded for free. The SIM manual can be used on its own to amplify already existing protocols in your school environment.
Partnering with Community Mental Health Services
Schools can not support the mental health of all students alone, nor should they have to do so. Schools can identify community mental health agencies, mentoring programs, and after-school programs that they can partner with throughout the school year to be proactive in addressing school-wide mental health concerns. There is no need to wait until a crisis happens to create a community plan of support.
Schools are a part of communities, and in order for us to tackle the youth mental health crisis, we have to plan ahead and work together. Both our students and educators need us and deserve better.
About the Author
Stephanie McGary
Licensed Professional Counselor-Supervisor and Registered Play Therapist
Stephanie McGary is a licensed professional counselor-supervisor and registered play therapist who finds joy in advocating and training around the mental, social, and emotional wellness of children, youth, and educators. A Public Voices Fellow with The OpEd Project, Stephanie is currently the director of clinical programming at Communities in Schools of Dallas Region and the owner of Tots N' Teachers Counseling and Consultation where she focuses on the mental health and wellness of children and educators.