Episode 19: Martyring Teachers

Is a school’s focus on SEL and wellness of students coming at the expense of its teachers? In this episode, Sarah Milianta-Laffin, discusses why so many teachers feel unsupported on the job. As both a Teacher and an Instructional Coach, Sarah provides her unique perspective on ways schools can better care for and retain teachers. One thing to avoid is what Sarah calls “toxic positivity” where teachers are expected to put on a smile and simply allow themselves to be overworked, overwhelmed, and undervalued. 

Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn: Sarah Milianta-Laffin's Profile

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Announcer:

You're listening to the Voices In Education Podcast powered by Securly, where we hear from new voices and explore new ideas about how we can reimagine education to support whole student success. Education is at an inflection point. As we grapple with complex challenges like funding and enrollment, as well as diversity, equity, and safety, we also have an opportunity, an opportunity to reimagine education. Now more than ever, we know the importance that students’ overall wellbeing plays in their success. They need to feel supported and safe and connected to be able to engage in their learning and achieve their full potential. Join your host, Casey Agena, a former teacher turned instructional coach and technologist, as he interviews inspirational educators, school leaders, wellness professionals, and more to amplify their voices. You'll learn about the innovative work they're doing to support student safety, engagement, and overall wellness. And who knows, you may even spark a new idea of your own. Ready to reimagine education? Let's go.

Casey: 

I'm your Casey Casey Agena and in today's episode we're talking with Sarah Millianta-Laffin. She's going to provide a perspective on social emotional learning and mental health as a teacher and a mentor to her middle school students. Welcome Sarah and glad to have you here.

Sarah:

Hello, hi Casey. It's so good to be here today. Thanks for the invite.

Casey:

We had a chance to talk pre-show and so many things that you're involved in and so many things making an impact with your community and your school. And it's kind of just interesting about the story of what you've done before, and how you've gotten here. And then, a look back at that past 24 months that has been challenging for everybody. And as we're kind of finishing this school year, we're feeling those pressures, students, teachers, families. So tell us a little bit about yourself, your work and definitely your kids.

Sarah:

Absolutely. Well, so one thing right now I'm a middle school teacher at Ilima Intermediate in Ewa Beach and middle schoolers are great.

One thing that's really helped me though is I started in elementary education. I was a third grade teacher in Houston, Texas. And in Houston, Texas in 2006 that was the year after Hurricane Katrina. And so, there were a lot of students in Houston experiencing houselessness and trauma effects of that situation. So we really had a lot of trauma informed education prep as teachers at that time in Houston. And I'm really realizing that I'm using those tools right now with my students who have experienced the pandemic and the way we all have in the last two years and with my middle schoolers especially. So kind of my background in elementary ed and the work that I've done previously has kind of really come in handy as we've moved through these places.

But so right now at my school I teach STEM lab, it's an elective class, pretty awesome. We do coding, robotics and computer science.

Casey:

Awesome.

Sarah:

It's my first gig where I am the elective teacher, which is different than a traditional science teacher or coach. And so, I do think post pandemic, our elective offerings to our students are critical because we need to have these things to get the kids in the door to class right now, especially as we know our attendance rates have been down, and really get kids excited about learning. I see my job as an elective teacher is to get the kids passionate about being in school, building their sense of belonging, and sense of place by making classroom exciting and also making sure that I'm supporting what they're doing in their math classes and their language arts classes at the same time.

Casey:

Do you see... 'Cause you have a really unique experience, Sarah, I mean just working with students kind of coming out of a traumatic experience in Houston. And then now here in Hawaii, another traumatic experience of the pandemic coming out of that. What are the similarities and differences from your perspective?

Sarah:

Well I think, like adults do, students show their stress and anxiety in many different ways. And what teachers need to be is trained to be able to see in which way the stress is exhibiting. Is that stress related to in class? Is it related to not understanding the concepts and so the grades are struggling? Or is it I'm not getting enough sleep? Or I'm nervous about the conditions of the world? Also, I think we have, to be honest, a lot of our students have lost caregivers. We know that we've lost a lot of people to COVID, or their families have been dramatically impacted. And we can't just pretend that didn't happen, as educators. We have to see that for what it is and build our student toolboxes so that they can kind of handle these things as well. And we know kids are incredibly resilient, but it's our job as the adults to make sure they have the tools to be able to be that.

Casey:

And I think coming and working with students in Hawaii is really kind of unique on other states and nationally, say the melting pot, there's a lot of different ethnicities and cultures really kind of coming to play in the students you work with, the families that are there. How much of that is, I would say, a test to what the want is, in terms of their academic growth and their social-emotional growth challenge with what are the needs at home? Are in concert with each other or do they clash at times?

Sarah:

Sure. I mean it is, it's a beautiful melting pot. And I think teaching in Houston, my previous district had 97 languages spoken. And it was a really a beautiful place where a lot of communities had come together. So that prepped me for what I have found at teaching in Hawaii. But I think it's also true to see what families are dealing with right now is very different. The same way during virtual learning, we had some students who had every setup they needed, they had their mic and their computer, and their game chair and they were with it. And then, you had some students who really didn't have stable wifi, or were joining our classes on Google Meets, like Zoom through handheld devices, or with unstable wifi. So everyone's learning experience for the last two years was different. And, as teachers, we have to be able to differentiate for that.

But we know the number one piece for us is making sure that family involvement is there. And getting virtual family involvement has been a little tough. But our district has done some cool stuff with family literacy nights on Zoom, a book mobile has been involved. Hawaii Library System has been really incredible in the way they've come to teachers and said, "How can we support your learning?" So we actually have the book mobile coming to our campus next week, so the kids have engaged virtually and now that program's gonna come in person so they can actually get the physical tangible books.

I know I've done some reading pieces because we know literacy it's huge in all subject, all content areas. And even as the elective teacher, people will be like, "Well, you're not the reading teacher." I was like, "Well, we're all the reading teacher." If we know our kids have skills that are missing, we've got to go ahead and build them. And so, relying on digital apps like Sora, which allows a library of books to be either the e-reader books or also can do the audio books as well. And that they believe, I know traditionalists are like, "Oh, they have to read the book." But if audiobooks work for students, I mean I use Audible, I don't have time to sit down and read a book, but I listen to Audible on my commute, I think we have to tell kids it's okay to use multiple modalities of learning.

Casey:

Right.

What's the state of the teachers at your school? I mean, we see the challenges in terms of teacher retention, or burnout happening. Is that something even in your school that... It's something that's prevalent, it's kind of a tone that's kind of taking place and people talking about it and how you feeling? What's kind of the state of that with the adults in the building?

Sarah:

Sure. I mean I'm 16 years in, so I'm like mid-career. But it's interesting, the NEA surveyed about 3600 members in January and 55% of teachers responded that they're gonna be likely to leave education sooner because of the pandemic. And I think we can't ignore the statistics that teachers are also feeling the stress because we are humans. And I think that's gonna be something we really have to talk about because let's be real, my 16 years in public education, I'm having to do some unlearning. And that can be tough. And the bottom line is we can't put our students first in public education if we put teachers last. And I think it's just really critical that the same supports that we give for student mental health, and growth and development, we also have to support teacher mental health right now more than ever.

Casey:

And I think that's a great point because if the teachers aren't well are the students well? And what can be done overtly to make sure that teachers are well so that students are well? And that's a leadership piece too as we're talking.

Sarah:

And I straddle multiple worlds, I've been a coach, I've been an instructional leaderships and district leaderships team and now I'm back in the classroom. So, it's different angles. I'm a big believer that teachers can lead from the classroom. And also am careful. I do a lot of work with mentoring new teachers because I'm the teacher I am today because when I was a first year and all over the place, someone mentored me. So, I do believe the responsibility in this profession is to pay it forward and mentor the next generation. But when I say that, I was also kind of socialized to be a teacher martyr. I believed that I needed to get there before sunrise and leave late in the evening. And I thought that giving it all to my students I thought was the way to be the best teacher and that I cared the most. And it was really kind of a toxic way to learn about being a teacher.

So I'm really careful as we mentor new teachers, especially in the pandemic. I've got this great second year choir teacher who's just phenomenal and does a lot with culturally responsive music and really neat things, but she'd only ever taught on the computer. She hadn't had students in person yet. So, the idea of saying how do we keep these people in education because it's a whole new world? I do think we have to be careful with toxic positivity in schools. I think toxic positivity has been a big problem. So, it could look like an administrator saying, "Take time for self-care," but then giving a bunch of extra meetings and responsibilities. Or hanging up the teachers strong banner in the hallway and then not paying enough for soap in the bathroom. Telling people to stay positive, and it's not that positivity isn't important. But in some ways the pandemic, we say fake it 'til you make it. Or just go with it. And people don't necessarily have the reserves for that, for what we've experienced.

And there are a few things I think we can do to really help with the toxic positivity. We have to stop wearing our stress like a badge of honor and start getting real with teacher to teacher. That showing up early and staying late now, I mean, I say this but I also don't practice what I preach. I am a teacher who has learned to keep my work at school. But that does mean I'm there 'til about five every night when the school closes.

I think as teachers we have to stop carrying those teacher bags and teacher carts everywhere we go. We bring all this work home. And it doesn't have to be that way. We've got to rewrite the story of the teacher martyr who works 24/7 to really understand we're professional educators and we have the right to our mental health as well. And we're not gonna keep teachers in this profession if we make the job impossible. So, at the end of the day, teaching is a job... And it's hard. I mean, I haven't unlearned all of this yet, but it's okay to see it as a job.

Casey:

And dovetailing that to the students themselves in your school, if we just call it the mental state of the students and thinking about it, not just in a vacuum of now. But over time, what have you seen just even just this school year from just the beginning of... Because there was this, I think optimism heightened or not, but about this school year that we're currently in, which is coming to a close pretty soon. What's the state of the school in terms of the students' mental state and how they feel about school?

Sarah:

I think, again, it's differentiation on steroids where everybody needs something different from us as teachers and everybody is having a different experience. I think, we have to be conscious. One thing I've definitely noticed in terms of online schooling, some of my students who were super introverted we're very loud on Google Classroom, or on Google Meets where they're engaging in the chat and maybe they're not talking out loud, but they were very involved in class. And I do see it's not a huge percentage, but some kids miss that where they were comfortable in that space in communicating more. And now being in person, there is some social anxiety.

As teachers, we always have to be careful when the class is stressing us out. But I almost turned to my class last week and be like, "Are we acting like third graders?" And of course I didn't say it but I thought it and then I was like, "Whoa, I need to stop," because I have seventh graders who haven't been in person for two years. So developmentally and socially I am dealing with elementary school students and I need to adjust my brain accordingly to understand at the social development level of interacting with their peers, they are maybe not at the same level.

Casey:

And has the peer-to-peer relationships between students, what did that kind of look like, at your school, from that remote, hybrid kind of model and then now face-to-face? And do you see any differences pre-pandemic versus now in terms of the interaction of the students in the school?

Sarah:

I definitely see a little bit of struggle to socialize in terms of making friends. I think that that's something we're gonna have to be careful to model.

One thing I'm proud of our school for doing is really investing in using our advisory period for social-emotional learning. So the curriculum that we use at school is Choose Love. We in the past have used Second Step, but really making that advisory period of time to give the kid the sense of belonging and work on those social skills in a smaller class. I have 17 in my advisory period, we meet for a half hour in the afternoon and then in the morning for attendance. And that's really the space where I want to build classroom community and interrogate how they're feeling, what they're feeling and helping them process their emotions. And that's been really eyeopening to me in my other core content classes to see how does this microcosm of these 17 kids, how are they doing? How are they feeling? Extrapolating that for my wider school community to see what's going on. And there's anxiety.

I think one thing I've definitely noticed is because they were communicating on screens, there's lack of understanding when things are sarcastic, or a joke. Kind of like we tell adults when you type in all caps that's yelling. Those messages that were a little lost or misconstrued, there's a lot more little student fights, or spats that start from a text message, or a post on Instagram because they weren't sure how the other was gonna take it because of not being able to also address those issues in person, just having it on the screen.

That and I also think as teachers and school systems, we're gonna have to be honest about cell phone addiction. I think we're seeing that right now with my students. Now, of course, I don't let students use phones in the classroom. Sometimes if we're doing a project they can do music or something else. But some of the things I think we're seeing when those kids were virtual, their phone was right next to them full time and they were engaging with it while they were in our classrooms and typing all the time. So then, teachers in taking that phone away there's some anxiety because that phone has become their comfort object and their go-to and also their connection. We think about these virtual tools that we had, have been how they've connected to the world. So saying now you're back in person at school and you do not get access to your virtual pacifier, kids are kind of acting out. I've seen that definitely when students have had their phones taken by administrators. There's a lot of stress around that.

We also know that phones are affecting students' sleep and it's a tough part for parents. I have parents ask me all the time, "Miss Millie, are they old enough for a cell phone? Or how do you handle cell phones?" And that's tough because it is different for every family. But the families that wait to get phones then get the peer pressure of like, "Ah, everybody else has a phone and I don't have one." And I think we're gonna have to get conscious on how we craft policies around device usage, especially as we're understanding that they are causing mental health effects on our students.

Casey:

As we look towards the end of the school year here in Hawaii where you're teaching at Ilima over in Ewa Beach, how do you want the school year to end? What are some things that you want to make sure that the students leave one, being able to look back at the school year, but I guess also being able to look ahead towards the next school year too, that engagement is really high? What would you say to that?

Sarah:

Another program that we do that I appreciate is our school loops. So we only have seventh and eighth grade at intermediate, so my advisory that I have this year, I'm going to loop with them from seventh grade to eighth grade. So they're gonna stay in my room which again, increases that sense of community and belonging that you have your one school home location that you can come back to. And because I have those relationships built with students already, we're not going into the new school year having to rebuild. We're gonna have to reintroduce talk about your summer, but we can fast track that to see how they're doing. Plus, because I knew those kids in this year, I'm gonna be able to better serve them next year.

And also as a team, our team of teachers meet weekly and talk about how our students are doing. The counselors and administrators join those meetings so if there's a student we're watching or concerned about, we're able to kind of build strategies as a learning community for how to help them.

But I think, for me, the goal is to make this school environment as welcoming for student and staff and really fostering that feeling of connectedness or belonging. We use the Hoff framework in Hawaii, which kind of is the basis of our SEL work. And the kids have to feel like that school is theirs and that they belong to that building and that they're wanted in that space before we can get all those math facts and those sight words and whatever into their brains, they need to feel like they, they're wanted there. And I do think the advisory work, we've done helped with that.

I'd also say looking into next year, just because I mean we have a lot of data, holistic and otherwise, on how the school year went. And I really hope that schools like mine are gonna take the summer to digest that work. And in July, before we come back, really make a plan. We need to have a multidisciplinary group, or team that's data driven and inclusive of school-wide, or individual strategies and reflect on how the year went to make a plan for how we're gonna roll out into our next school year to make it better for everyone.

Casey:

It's kind of interesting how these models or these systems that we set up, like looping, advisory programs, procuring particular curriculum around SEL it at times it sits at this kind of aspirational piece. This is what we're gonna... But then at times like these where really meaningful, I think for the students, I think those are kind of the fruits of the labor. We're doing this. Why are we doing this? And not really sure. And then, when we know that when we're moving from one school year to the next, so we have these advisory like, "Oh, it's actually gonna be helpful." I think that's something that is always a challenge to me as an educator and former teacher of that, why. Like why are we doing this again? 'Cause we don't really know.

Sarah:

But I think we also have to address if there are systems that are not serving us, or systems that we used pre-pandemic very well that don't apply now. We need administrators that are brave enough to take things off teachers' plates. Or if we have something that is doing very well, like that advisory period, if it's not broke, don't fix it. So leave it alone. Don't change that dynamic. And if it's something we're being successful about. But also, in that reflective period, we have to reflect on all stakeholders. I'm a big believer in student voice, and so I'll ask the students how lessons went. I survey my students a lot on Google Forms to be like, "Okay, how did that unit go? Good, bad, otherwise?" And I take that student reflection into my teaching practice.

And we need to take that beyond content to really see how they're feeling at their school. Do they feel like they have a sense of belonging? We use a system in Hawaii called, it's Panorama now for behavior data and just how students are feeling. So the students take a survey ever so often it synthesizes these reports, sends a report home to parents. But it's nice because it also has a toolbox for teachers on that piece. So if I see, okay, my advisory sense of belonging is at 50% and that's low numbers for me. I'm somebody who's used to having much higher numbers. But then, I can get into that program and see these are what other teachers around the country are using if they have numbers like yours to try to boost it.

And that's what I did in the fall. It's hard because the cultural capital you build as an educator doesn't transfer. It's like, well, my other classes always love me. Well this is a new class, new year, new experience. They don't know me. So, in that way, seeing if they weren't feeling accepted, they weren't feeling belonging, what am I changing in my practice to go ahead and make sure that they are, because that's number one. We have to have that classroom community and the kid has to feel valued to be ready to learn.

Casey:

We had a chance to talk, have a really awesome conversation with Sarah, Miss Millie, Millianta. And having a peak into her work as a middle school teacher teaching electives. And you talked a lot to our listeners here about a couple of different things that I want to highlight. This idea of toxic positivity that, I mean, it's showing its ugly head in many schools. And that's something that I think we should be aware of. And what we do in terms of looking ahead or that towards the next school year is something that I think is gonna be important, definitely for a leadership standpoint. I love the piece about the looping, and advisory, and the relationships that you're developing in the classroom. And leaving that thought of there is great data out there to help drive what we should do, what we're missing and what we can do to make improvements to close those gaps, particularly from a relational SEL standpoint.

Sarah, I want to thank you for lending your voice to Voices in Education for all of our listeners. And it was really great hearing your perspective from all the way out in Hawaii.

Sarah:

Thanks so much for your time today. And thank you for lifting teacher voice on this platform. I really enjoyed listening.

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