Educators' Emotional Well-Being

Empowering Educators to Understand and Manage Their Stress

Housman Institute, a leader in research and training in emotional, cognitive, and social early learning, is pleased to introduce an important program to help all early childhood and elementary educators, specialists, and caregivers learn to understand and manage their stress.

The Problem

Now more than ever all educators are experiencing tremendous levels of stress. In fact, well before the global pandemic, two-thirds of teachers reported feeling stressed-out and found their work to be stressful 61% of the time, according to an AFT survey, and nearly a quarter of respondents said work was “always” stressful. Teachers are juggling and shifting and handling more than ever before, all while trying to maintain their own well-being. The impact that stress and anxiety have on educators takes a toll not only on their mental health and well-being but also on their ability to teach and our students’ ability to learn. If you are struggling with stress, anxiety, frustration, and an overload of emotions you simply cannot be your best or do your best. There is a lot of pressure squarely on the shoulders of educators. This five-course program will help teachers and school leaders to understand, manage, and attend to their emotional health. This program was designed to help educators develop the key emotional tools to carry with them not only for their personal and professional growth and satisfaction but also so they can best model for and guide the children in their care in their emotional development.

Why It Matters

We know that when educators are calm and focused they are more effective in their role to successfully guide and teach children. With more and more emphasis on the importance of emotional learning for children, we cannot ignore the stress and emotions that educators are experiencing. Teachers are key socializers for the children they care for and educate. If they are not attending to their own emotional well being, they are not able to appropriately model behavior for children to emulate. Children are emotional detectives, and when they perceive the important adults in their world as stressed or anxious they pick up on those emotions. When educators are overwhelmed by stress and anxiety, and they cannot successfully manage and regulate their own emotions, their performance can’t help but suffer.  They cannot be there for their classroom, and they cannot help their children with their own social and emotional learning and needs.

How We Can Help

Educators' Emotional Well-Being is a comprehensive asynchronous five-course program created specifically to address the emotional well-being of early childhood and elementary educators, caregivers, and specialists. Through the program, teachers will gain an understanding of their emotions and the skills they need to regulate and manage their stress and anxiety. The course is completely self-paced so teachers can complete it at their leisure.

The program is based on over 35 years of research and practice by Dr. Donna Housman, founder, and CEO of Housman Institute. Dr. Housman has educated thousands of children and trained hundreds of teachers in her flagship evidence-based and research-informed training program, begin to ECSEL, centering on emotional, cognitive, and social early learning from birth. Having worked with educators for so many years, Dr. Housman recognized that teachers’ own emotionality, mental health, and well-being is critical to not only their ability to help support and guide children in the building blocks of emotional intelligence but also to their own professional and personal growth and satisfaction. 

Our Educators' Emotional Well-Being Program

Course One: The Building Blocks of Emotional Intelligence Whether you’re a teacher or a school leader, gaining an understanding of the connection between our emotions and our behavior is critical. This mini-course teaches educators about how our emotions impact our thinking, work, and social interactions.

Course Two: Emotional Awareness, Understanding Your Own Emotionality- Being able to help children manage their own emotions starts with understanding ourselves and our own emotionality. In this mini-course, both teachers and school leaders will gain an understanding of their own emotionality, learn about the six levels of emotional awareness, and recognize the importance of understanding and knowing how to manage their own stress, anxiety, frustration, and emotions.

Course Three: Understanding the Impact of Stress- Before we can begin to manage stress and the feelings stress can cause, we need to be able to understand stress. This mini-course helps both school leaders and educators understand the three types of stress, the causes of stress, and the impact stress can have on not only our physical and mental health, but also our personal and professional relationships, and our everyday life and well-being.

Course Four: Take Care of You! Stress Management & Self-Care- Now more than ever, being able to manage stress and take care of ourselves in both our personal and professional lives is so important. This mini-course allows educators and school leaders the opportunity to learn strategies including physiological regulation, mindfulness practices, and reflective journaling to enhance their own emotionality and begin to manage their stress even in the heat of the moment.

Course Five: Reflective Practice -Being able to come together, identify stressors, and process your own emotionality with others in a reflective environment is an important step in building community and gaining the important understanding and skills you need to manage your emotions and those of others. This mini-course will help educators and school leaders to begin to understand the process of Reflective Practice, and how engaging in this reflective strategy can help them process and understand their own emotionality in their professional and personal lives.

*This course on Reflective Practice techniques is a great introduction for our focused course for school leaders available early 2022.

Ready to sign up? Our Educator Well-Being Course is Now 50% Off for a Limited Time! Complete the Form Below to Access the Discount.