What's JOY Got to Do With It?

As we bid farewell to another incredible school year, it is important to reflect on the achievements, growth, and resilience demonstrated this year also. Each accomplishment, big or small, deserves to be acknowledged and celebrated. As we celebrate these accomplishments, we also recognize the significance of nurturing our well-being and embracing self-care. The demands of academic life, extracurricular commitments, and personal responsibilities can be overwhelming. It is crucial that we take time to recharge, rejuvenate, and prioritize our mental, emotional, and physical health.

Whether embarking on a well-deserved summer break or carrying the work forward through the summer with well-deserved Friday’s off, we should all carry the spirit of celebration and self-care with us. May this time of rest, relaxation, and rejuvenation be a reminder of the importance of nourishing our minds, bodies, and souls. Let us return to school in the coming year refreshed, renewed, and ready to embrace new challenges and accomplishments.

Wishing all a safe, joyful, and rejuvenating summer!

The education profession is widely recognized for its inherent rewards, but it also demands a lot from those who pursue it. Educators bear the responsibility of nurturing students' academic progress while simultaneously providing a safe and supportive environment for their overall well-being. As the summer season approaches, it becomes essential for teachers to prioritize self-care. Self-care should not be mistaken for self-indulgence or selfishness; rather, it refers to the practice of looking after oneself. By engaging in self-care, teachers ensure their mental and physical well-being are nurtured, enabling them to be effective in their roles as siblings, children, parents, and educators. As noted in the article from the Resilient Educator, this intentional self-care fosters resilience, improves stress management, and contributes to a longer and healthier life. To this end, there are several avenues through which teachers can embrace self-care. Here are three options worth exploring.

Reflection gives you the space to identify emotions and to consider different perspectives. The work of an educator can be both rewarding and challenging at the same time. Author Dr. Charmain Jackman defines self-reflection as “necessary to fostering emotional wellness as it allows us to avoid unhealthy patterns and live a fulfilling and authentic life” and feels that it is essential that we connect to our emotions by naming them and expressing them. It is common to experience a range of emotions as an academic year comes to a close. As you reflect, you might think back on times that were hard, but you are also likely to draw to mind moments of joy or the small wins that you experienced throughout this past year. Bringing these positive moments to memory can help you to push through these difficult times of the past or those to come. For more information on identifying emotions, check out the VDOE Emotional Wellness Special Edition and the VDOE Office of Student Services Emotion Wheel Guide.

Consider these prompts as you reflect on the school year:

• What metaphor would you use to describe the past school year?

• What was a challenge this year?

• What wins or moment of accomplishment did you have this year, big and/or small? What resources helped to achieve these wins?

• Think about one person that helped you out this school year. Consider sending them a thank you email or text expressing your gratitude.

• How do you want to feel at the end of the summer?

From PBS Teacher’s Lounge : The 3 R’s for Teacher Self-Care: Reflect. Release. Recharge.

Sometimes the end of a school year reflection might bring feelings of unfinished business or goals not quite achieved. It can be hard to recharge if you are holding on to these feelings, blocking your ability to really unwind, relax, and release.

These prompts might help you release some of these feelings.

• If you find yourself experiencing any feelings that might block your ability to unwind and relax, create a release list by writing down all the words or phrases that capture those feelings. Alternatively, you can draw images that capture your emotions or record them on an audio or video device.

• Find a way to leave these regrets behind so that you do not take them into your summer break. You can listen to a favorite song, participate in a guided meditation, or crush your list into a ball and physically “release” it into the trash can.

• Notice how it feels to release regrets. People often share a sense of relief and a lightness as if they have let go of a weight they were carrying.

From PBS Teacher’s Lounge : The 3 R’s for Teacher Self-Care: Reflect. Release. Recharge.

Check out the guided meditations in Virgin Pulse under RethinkCare. There are multiple tracks including:

• Calm Anxiety

• Focus and Be Calm

• Mindfulness Basic Training

• Self-Awareness

It can be found under Benefits-> Search “RethinkCare”.

While your summer might be full of opportunities to do fun things, take vacations, and spend more time with family and friends, these don’t always equate to recharging. It is important to be intentional about recharging. In the book Atomic Habits, author James Clear frames recharging as a shift in mindsets in three specific ways: prioritizing yourself; approaching self-care in small, bite-sized activities; and creating visual cues for change.

Here are three tips to help you recharge on a daily basis and during the “big” breaks:

PrioritizeYou: Educators are notorious for centering our work around students' needs, forgetting that we perform best, and that our students benefit, when we are emotionally well. Teachers and school leaders, you deserve to feel rested and you deserve to have peace of mind. Prioritize you by considering:

• What do you want more of in your life?

• What is an activity that brings you joy or makes you laugh out loud?

• Finish this statement: I deserve____________ or I am worthy of___________

Bite-sized self-care: Often when thinking of self-care, people assume that they have to engage in the activity for hours in order to obtain some meaningful benefit or results. However, Atomic Habits notes that engaging in activities for small periods of time helps to build a consistent practice or habit and helps promote long-standing change.

Here are a few tips to changing habits:

• Choose just one habit that you want to change .

• How have you practiced this habit in the past? What helped you to stay consistent with this habit?

• What would it look like to engage in this activity every day for 5 minutes?

• Who would you do it with and where would you do it?

• When would you practice this habit?

Create Visual Cues: Visual cues serve as great reminders to help you reach your daily goals. As James Clear suggests in Atomic Habits, having visual cues around us increases our likelihood of engaging in a particular activity. The more we engage in the activity, the more satisfied we feel.

For example, if you want to stretch for 5 minutes every morning: set an alarm, set out your yoga mat next to your bed, pick out your work out clothes the night before, and choose the video and cue it up on your device ahead of time.

• Think about the habit you want to change and identify and implement 5 visual cues that you can use to support the habit.

• For your summer recharge list, you can write down 10 activities (or create a collage with images of the activities) that you want to do. Put this list or collage in a place where you will see it every day. For example, your fridge, bathroom mirror, or the screensaver on your phone or computer.

From Atomic Habits by James Clear.

Remember, self-care is not selfish. You are worth it.

Make the most of your summer and play #VBSummerBingo to share the joy, relaxation, and adventures you are having! Make sure that each time you tweet, you use the hashtag #VBSummerBingo and include the picture that represents the square and a picture of your BINGO card. Follow #VBHasJoy on Twitter...the new BINGO card will begin on Monday, June 19th.

How to Play:

• Print the BINGO card or save a copy to your phone to help you keep track.

• Mark and tweet your card as you go.

• When you get a BINGO, tweet a picture of your card and don’t forget to add #VBSummerBingo

• Get as many BINGOs as you can.

• Have fun and enjoy the summer!

For more information, contact the Office of Professional Growth and Innovation of Virginia Beach City Public Schools at pgi@vbschools.com or 757.263.6972.