Don't forget your wellbeing

Self-care support for trainee teachers

Prioritising your own health and wellbeing is essential for completing your teacher training, as it helps you perform at your best both as a student and as a teacher. We collated some material to encourage, equip and inspire you to look after yourself from training into teaching practice.

6 ways to stay positive during your training course

Keep a diary
There’ll be a lot to remember, so you’ll need to keep organised. The first thing you should do is put in the dates/times of your university sessions, placements, and assignment deadlines. Every time you get a task, write it in there so you know what you’ve got on – knowing what you have to do will help you to start getting on with it.
Plan
Don’t leave things to the last minute. There will always be lots to do, don’t let it stack up, you’ll just get stressed out. If two assignments are due at roughly the same time, get one done early.
Keep yourself informed
Check your university’s webpages and your emails at least once a week – lots of vital stuff will be posted on these or sent to your inbox.
Reflect
This is perhaps the biggest tip of all. Good teachers think about what worked and what didn’t and then act on the changes needed. Bad teachers don’t. Most students will just do this automatically, but will end up focusing on negatives – remember to think about the positives as well.
Try and ignore the course grapevine
Most of the time it’s wrong. Normally, people have only got part or none of the truth and what’s left over then causes a lot of concern. Get the facts from your tutors.
Don’t forget to save time for relaxing
Everybody needs to unwind and get refreshed – you’re no good to anyone if you don’t. This will be true when you’re teaching, and it’s just as true in the course. Sort out times for going out and enjoying yourselves with friends and family. Appoint some social secretaries in your group.

*These ideas are an extract from Succeeding on your Primary PGCE

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Managing relationships and your feelings

It is very easy to fall into the trap of taking care of others and neglecting ourselves. Your fundamental values in relation to teaching are very likely to include caring for your students, being aware of their well-being and ensuring that you support their development.

Because you are interacting with different people all day long, a key part of teaching is learning how to manage relationships. To do this you do need to acknowledge how you are feeling and work out what strategies help you in situations you find difficult. Keeping a reflective log is useful here as it will help you to establish patterns. Remember to log how you felt about particular interactions, what behaviour those feelings prompted and then how you felt about your own behaviour. There are some strategies you can implement to help you cope in more difficult situations:

Breathing: This does sound obvious but calming your breathing really does help calm your mood. Try the simple 7-11 technique: breathe in through the nose to the count of seven and breathe out of the mouth to the count of 11. It takes some practice but when you have the technique you will notice an impact.
Pausing: Don’t always respond to things immediately. If something has provoked an unhelpful emotion, for example an email or a comment from someone, then leave it for a while and go back to it when you feel calmer.
Talking to someone: Your mentor will be helpful if they are around but you will find that other people are often willing to listen and may be able to offer helpful advice. Be mindful of other people’s space though – it isn’t recommended that you lunge at the first person you meet! Select carefully and ask if the other person has time for a quick chat. People are generally very understanding about the difficulties you will be facing – after all, they will have been through them themselves

Continue reading this extract from The Trainee Teacher's Handbook.