In all the decade plus I have been teaching, never have I ever noticed more and more students battling with anxiety as I have in recent years. Young people are struggling with the demands of modern life: social media pressures and academic stress all play their role. A select few might get support from a counsellor, if they're lucky (I know every school I've worked in or visited, there is not enough support for children who need it) but what about the rest of them? So many young people are feeling intense emotions, and stress and they don't know how to manage them. So what can we do to help? 

First of all, yes, we are educators and that is our first and foremost responsibility. We're not counsellors and we have enough on our plates as is to take on that role, even if we wanted to! But we are role models and we are there to offer guidance and support as well as to educate.

After witnessing so many students break down in my classroom due to their overwhelming emotions, I have been on a mission to do whatever I can to help. To start with, I created a resource called Emotional Health and Anxiety that can be delivered in a life skills lesson, during morning meeting activities or even used in clubs. I've found having a structured approach to learning about emotional health is a powerful way to help students understand the significance of emotions and that they are actually really important - we just need to learn how to manage them!

Emotions are important
It's important for our students to understand that our emotions are powerful things that we need for many reasons: they help us express feelings, they help other people understand us, they help us maintain social bonds with others and they affect our thoughts and actions.

​Here are some fundamental things our students would benefit from learning that can be found in this resource if you would like further support:

• To identify different types of emotions
• What emotions are and why we have them
• Why people have different emotions to the same scenario
• How understanding emotions can help us
• Helpful vs unhelpful emotions
• What to do when an emotion is unhelpful
• What to do when emotions are overwhelming
• Physical and emotional effects of anxiety
• Worries and concerns that can cause anxiety
• How to help ease anxiety
• Short term and long term strategies for anxiety

Thinking about thoughts
This resource guides students to recognise that they can control their emotions by changing their thoughts. How often do any of us really pause to think about what we're thinking about? Well if we don't do it, how can we expect our students to? The process of thinking about our thoughts and controlling them, because we can do that, is a powerful tool to use to help manage emotions.

These 6 scenarios you can see above, help students to reflect on relatable scenarios that cause anxiety in young people. They can work independently or discuss with others what possible negative and unhelpful emotions that could arise, and offer alternative thought patterns that could create more positive emotions and actions.​

Discussing emotions
I've also found that openly discussing emotions is something that is still somewhat stigmatised. By using discussion cards such as the ones included in this pack, really help get the conversations going in a safe environment without revealing anything too personal if they are not comfortable doing so yet.

Anxiety
Once they've learned about emotions and had discussions around thoughts and actions that can affect them, students will get the opportunity to look at anxiety in detail. They will reflect on the physical and emotional effects of anxiety, what can cause these emotions, how to help ease the feelings and both short and long term strategies for dealing with anxiety.

How do you deal with anxiety in your students? Leave a comment below!

Chances are, if you're reading this you're starting to feel that you're not completely happy in your job as a teacher right now. Maybe you're trying to determine whether it's the school you're in or whether it's teaching in general. If that sounds like you, you're in the right place.

If you've listened to my podcast "Teach On, Teach Strong",  you'll know that I’ve talked a lot about my first teaching job. Go all the way back to episode 1 and you'll hear all the details about how challenging it was, what I had to put up with and how none of it was what I had expected or hoped for. Looking back, there were so many signs along the way that I was in a toxic environment but I let my fear get in the way of moving on. I was afraid of not getting a job anywhere else, I was afraid of having to start from scratch, I was afraid of change in general and I was afraid of leaving my students and how they would react. If you’ve listened to that episode, you’ll know how they ended up reacting and I was right; that was definitely the hardest thing about leaving that school.

But when I did finally move, I was in awe. I literally thought “this is exactly how I dreamed teaching would be!” Now it’s not perfect of course, and I still have tough days, but it’s definitely not a toxic environment for me and I can deal with the challenges that come my way with a different attitude.

I read a lot of stories and hear from a lot of people who are describing their working environments and sometimes I shake my head saying “why do you stay?” “It doesn’t have to be like this, not all schools are like that, just move!" but then I look back at how I was and I know why they stay - they stay for the same reasons I stayed. They think “this is just teaching” and ride it out for as long as they can before they decide they just "hate teaching" and they choose to quit instead. 

If you’re resonating with any of this and are starting to question teaching because you’re unhappy in your current school, make sure you keep reading as there are always other options for you!

If you'd rather listen to the audio of this post, use the player below or download episode 120 onto your podcast player:

Before we get into "toxic environments", I want to preface this by saying what is toxic for one person might not be toxic for another. In some schools that you might consider are toxic, many of the staff will be perfectly happy there and this is such an important thing to bear in mind. Knowing whether something is toxic for you however, relies heavily on you knowing yourself well. Throughout this post I'll give you a selection of questions to ask yourself to help you figure out if you find your teaching environment toxic or not and whether it might be time to move on. Be honest with yourself.

Let's start with general feelings about your place of work:

• Do you prefer spending most of the day with your students and would rather not socialise with your co-workers / colleagues while at work?
• Or are you someone who can get through any rough day with challenging students as long as you have your teacher besties by your side?
• Are you someone who dislikes the behaviour management aspect of teaching and would rather work with well-behaved students?
• Or do you thrive on the challenge of working with students who need more guidance and support and the enormous impact you're having in helping them change their lives?

Teachers are all different, and thank goodness! We need teachers of all kinds to support our students of all kinds! Look at Ron Clark and watch themovie made about him if you've not seen it already. He was winning teacher of the year awards, he was in a wonderful school that loved and admired him, his students were amazing, everything was fantastic - except he wanted a greater challenge. So he went and found the most challenging school he could find and he put himself in a position that anyone else would have thought he was crazy to do so voluntarily! But he had a bigger dream of wanting to make an enormous impact on young lives, and boy did he. He now has set up his own school in which he uses his special teaching styles and trains other teachers too. I mean, talk about making an impact! So the significance of this point is to recognise that not all schools are “bad” or “good”. What one teacher finds as a "nightmare", another would absolutely thrive in! Remember, we’re not talking about easy here, we’re talking about what is right for you. So please don't feel bad for answering a particular way to these questions. This is your life and your career, you get to choose.

Here are some more points to consider:

• How do you feel about going in to school every day?
• Does it fill you with dread?
• Do you spend as little time as possible there getting in as late as you can and leaving as early as you can?
• Or do you absolutely love being there? Is your home away from home?
• Do you willingly give up your free time to do the best job you can there?
• Do you love spending your free time browsing online to get ideas or making resources to make your classroom or lessons the best you can?
• How do you feel about the people in your school?
• Do you enjoy teaching your students? Even if it's tough, do you enjoy it?
• Do you see them learning and how does that make you feel?
• Or is it hell teaching them? Do they just not care? How does that make you feel? More determined to inspire them or ready to give up even bothering?
• Do you get a wave of dread and fear flow over you at the thought of your students walking into your classroom and knowing you are forced to be with them for the next hour?
  These are serious questions and it's ok to answer negatively to these. Be honest with yourself. This is your life and your career, no one else's.

I know no one ever really talks about this side and these feelings because we’re meant to love our kids and know that we make a difference etc. but it’s not always that easy is it? Not everyone is suited to teach troubled students living a life of crime, but fortunately, there are other people who love working with these kind of students and helping turn their lives around; thank goodness for them or our society would be screwed!? But it doesn’t have to be your dream and you don’t need to feel guilty for wanting what you want.

​Some more things to consider:

• How do you feel about your co-workers / colleagues?
• Are you in a school that's 'cliquey' and if you're not in the popular crowd that has cute nicknames for each other, do you basically feel like you don't exist?
• Or is a buzzing social life at school really important to you?
  We're all different and whatever you want is OK!

How about workload? That’s another big one for many of us teachers. I think it’s safe to say that our workload is generally going to be high: we have a job with immense responsibility, but:

• What is wellbeing like at your school?
• Do they care how you feel?
• Is there a lot of micromanaging and judging?
• Or it is more supportive? 
• How much autonomy do you have?
• Are you expected to hand in reams of lesson plans?
• Are you watched closely and scrutinised or are you left to it?
• Are you trusted as a professional to teach how you feel is best?
  ​I almost fainted when I moved to a culture where staff are completely trusted to teach how they want and they encourage learning from one another…! That was a shock coming from teachers who hid their resources from other staff or took pride being able to manage a difficult class but were never willing to reveal their strategies to help other struggling teachers.

I believe the right school for you does exist. It might take a while to find it and get employed there - I had to wait almost a decade! But until then, all the challenges you're going through are building so much strength and character within you. I know we all want things to be perfect right now and not a minute later, but life isn't like that. Our greatest strengths are born out of our greatest struggles, so keep pushing through while you're out there looking for something new! You're being moulded into a super teacher each and every day you show up and do what needs to be done, no matter how tough it is.

So how do you find your dream school? Shop around and really take time looking at the websites of other schools, even visiting some if you can. Speak to people in other schools and see what life is like for them. Maybe even do some subbing / supply work so you can get experience in a wide range of environments!  We can become almost institutionalised sometimes, so get out there and do some research and decide what it is you want.

When I finally started my job hunt, I was clear about what I wanted and what I didn’t want. I had read enough job ads to recognise certain cues about the school and job role... I also learnt to ask the right kind of questions to do with the things that were important to me. Job hunting is a fine art and we're all looking for something different, so you need to be clear about what you want first, and you can find the school of your dreams, it is out there!

I hope this has helped you determine whether your work environment is toxic or not and if it's time to move on. If you'd like more support with the next steps in your job hunting process, you can access a FREE 7 day email course where you will learn the secrets to a winning teaching application that very few people get right, and I know because I read a lot of them! You’ll also learn what interviewers are really thinking when they read your application (hint, sometimes it ain’t pretty) and you’ll also learn simple, actionable steps that will ensure you land that interview and knock the competition out of the school gates!
​You can enrol for this free course by adding your name and email below, I'll catch you in your inbox soon!

There might be times you're starting to feel a bit "antsy" and not quite as content or satisfied as you once where when you started teaching or started in a new role / school. Normally this is because there are signs you want to look out for that indicate you are ready for the next level. So if you're starting to feel that teaching is not quite doing it for you like it did in the beginning, and you're tempted to jump ship even, maybe it's signs that you're ready for the next steps in your career. ​

​If you want to hear the more conversational audio version of this post, you can listen to this podcast episode below: ​

1) You are starting to feel a bit "restless" in your current role. 
It could be that you've been at the same school for a long period of time. It could be that you've been in the same position for a long time, and perhaps you're not as challenged in the right way and are now feeling restless.
You’ve worked hard to craft your lessons and schemes of work / curriculum, you’ve tried out lots of techniques with teaching and learning and behaviour management; you're in the flow but now you've reached a point where things are kind of… easy. Not easy as in “barely working” easy, but more like not as challenged or excited as you once were. You’ve achieved what you initially set out to do and now maybe you’re looking around wondering what else? What's next? Where do I go from here? This can be a sure sign that you've outgrown your role or the school and it's time to challenge yourself at the next level.

2) You are finding some faults in how your manager runs things or you can see what you would do differently.
It's like when you're a kid and you reach a point in your life where look at your parents and you realise they don't know everything after all! Well, the same kind of thing can happen at work - you can look at how your manager runs things and question their approach, or you might think that you  would do things differently if you were in their shoes. Or perhaps you're putting ideas forward and they are getting knocked back by your seniors which is getting you frustrated and preventing you from progressing and improving. ​The key point to note with this sign, is that you may not realise it, but you're starting to imagine yourself in this role which is a big indication that you might be ready soon!

3) What you once loved about the job, doesn’t spark the same anymore.
It can be sad when you reach this point! You could start thinking that you've lost your mojo or that you just don't care anymore, and in a way it's kind of true, because you may have outgrown your role. Think back to when you first started the job you're in now: you probably felt quite excited, you had big plans about what you were going to do with your classroom and in your lessons, you were probably spending hours of your free time thinking about it too. At the time it felt like a pleasure, as it usually does in the beginning. But after a while, you can start to get a bit jaded. It's not nice to experience this because you still love your job, but you’re not feeling as excited about it as you once were - this is a sure sign that you have outgrown your role now. Think of it like this: you’re a plant whose roots have grown so much that you can’t grow anymore in the current pot you’re in. You've filled it out. You've maximised your skills as much as you can where you are. You need to be replanted in a bigger pot where you have more room to grow and new things to learn. ​It's a sign that you're ready to bloom to a new level!

4) Others are seeing your potential and might be making comments to you about the next position.
I know I am starting to do this for my mentee! I have been mentoring her for a few years right from when she was a trainee teacher and I can feel she’ll be ready for the next step soon and I’m encouraging her to take on certain things that will help her progress. I can sense she’s a bit afraid though and isn't willing to put herself out there yet, but I can see she’s definitely on her way. What is interesting, is people do the same for me sometimes! So look out for confirmation and comment from others around you who can often see your potential before you start to feel it within yourself.

5) You’re taking baby steps to get there already.
Maybe you’ve signed up for some Professional Development and training on how to succeed at the next level. Maybe you’re taking on more responsibilities beyond your current role because you want that challenge. It's showing that you’re kinda interested and you're dipping your toe in the water. Maybe you're also talking about it to people? Maybe you’re window shopping some current job ads and seeing what's out there? Or you're researching what some of the job descriptions might look like and what kind of things are expected of you?

These are all signs, whether you know it or not, that you're probably ready for the next step and some new growth. It could be within your current school or maybe it's time for a new school where you can spread your skills elsewhere to make a greater impact. But going for the next step can be scary. Even when you know in your heart of hearts you could do this job with your eyes closed and you are more than competent, it is not uncommon to get impostor syndrome.. I know i did! And when I expressed these fears to those close to me, they thought I was crazy! According to them they could see I was ready years ago! It’s funny, but as I said before - I believe others can often see our potential more than we can see it within ourselves or are ready to admit it.

I encourage you to go for that growth! Sometimes change can be scary but it is also incredibly exciting and a fantastic way to bring that spark back into your passion for teaching if you've noticed it start to dwindle... If you are interested in going for the next level in your teaching career, but are feeling some impostor syndrome or don't know where to start, you can join the free 7 day email course below.

This course will teach you the secrets to writing a winning teaching application that very few people actually get right! You'll learn what interviewers are really thinking when they read your application as well as some simple actionable steps that will ensure you land your interview, and knock the competition out of the school gates!
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