Inquiry Project

We decided to break down Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing into three categories that we thought were most relevant to teachers currently. Considering that there are so many more unwritten responsibilities teachers have to take on due to covid, teachers are having a harder time dealing with their own mental health. It's a teacher's responsibility to adapt their teaching style accordingly, and with covid as a main issue that's affecting students, teachers are forced to go above and beyond to only meet the basic needs of their students. There are so many last minutes changes and so much more to prepare that it's reasonable for teachers to forget about putting taking a breather and putting themselves first. Even outside of covid, teachers have unwritten responsibilities that parents might put teachers on for their children. 

Considering that teachers can go through so much, we thought about whether the resources teachers have access to are actually helpful and if so, to what degree. It's interesting to learn about what the communities and schools have to offer for teachers and what are some programs that directly help teachers with their emotional wellbeing within the classroom. The last aspect we really wanted to focus on was how teachers might regulate their own emotional wellbeing and self awareness. It's true that when we are teaching, it's not about us and it's about the children, but that statement is too broad to stand by itself. Teachers need to have the right mindset and be in a good mindset to deliver a good lesson. This all boils down to the teacher's mental health and emotional being. From there, we also thought about extending a little bit to how teachers might help with student's emotional well being within the classroom that can also in turn help the teacher.