1: Understanding teacher resilience

a) What does the word resilience mean to you?

Pick an image/quote, draw/diagram something in pencil or colour, write something . . .

‘A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty’ (Winston Churchill)

‘Fairly Ordinary Magic’ (Dr Sam Goldstein)

‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going’ (Billy Ocean)

Al Strangeways 2016: Doing it Resiliently: Building resilient teaching practices: https://www.brite.edu.au/

“the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress — such as family and relationship problems, serious health problems or workplace and financial stressors.” (American Psychological Association, 2014)

A rich question: What would it take for you to have a good day in school? Draw or diagram or cartoon ‘the good day in school . . .’

How does this picture of the ‘good day’ link to your concept of resilience?

b) Your experience in schools

Resilience is a term that’s used a lot in schools with kids. How’s it used and why? What experiences of resilience have you had as a teacher? (with yourself or kids?) Why might resilience be important for you to develop (as a teacher)?

c) Some misconceptions

It’s an individual quality people either do or don’t possess within themselves It’s only needed by people who live and work in extremely adverse situations It’s fixed and does not change over time or in different contexts It’s the sole responsibility of individuals

Can you think of a time or experience that connects to one of the four aspects of resilience in your experience?

d) Characteristics of a resilient teacher

Using analogue drawing, think about yourself when you’re at your most resilient: what does this look like, feel like, sound like? (Y chart for preparation or as visual scaffold). You might choose a particular incident or moment that you remember, or a more general picture, representative of several moments.

Using narrative, tell the story of a moment when either you have been resilient or when you’ve seen another teacher be resilient. Try to describe the details to give a rich and vivid picture of this event.

Have a look at the BRiTE model (left). Do you think you might be better at being resilient in some of the dimensions and not so good in others? Express (through drawing, story etc) your resilience skills in one or more of these areas (pick skills you’re good at and/or needing development!)

Al Strangeways 2016: Doing it Resiliently: Building resilient teaching practices: https://www.brite.edu.au/

e) Characteristics of a resilient teacher in context

How does the environment in which you live and work help you be resilient as a teacher? Might you add some extra elements to the contextual ring?

Pick a contextual element that is working well as a resilience resource for you and express in words or images how this helps you respond well to difficult times

f) Bouncing back and bouncing forward?

“teacher resilience is not primarily associated with the capacity to ‘bounce back’ or recover from highly traumatic experiences and events but, rather, the capacity to maintain equilibrium and a sense of commitment and agency in the everyday worlds in which teachers teach” (Gu and Day, 2011, p. 5).

How does this quote link to what you’ve explored so far about what resilience is and what your experiences of resilience have been?

Where next? How might you develop one of the ideas here in relation to your own resilience/teaching goals?

Resources:1: MindMatters: developing resilience in schools: https://youtu.be/gWAtdDYdURI

Four major models that can be used to develop resilience:

Social Emotional Learning: self-regulation communication, relationships Cognitive Behavioural: links between thoughts, feelings, actions Positive Psychology: range of strategies to promote positive emotions Mindfulness: meditation to reduce effects of stressors

2: Teachers talk about building children’s resilience: https://youtu.be/ote4O3XTZUU Which ideas are valuable for you as a teacher?1: be positive2: do team activities3: have a go4: mistakes are ok5: life isn’t fair6: model it

3: Billy Ocean: When the going gets tough . . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIxUKbV0UEM

Al Strangeways 2016: Doing it Resiliently: Building resilient teaching practices: https://www.brite.edu.au/