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Mount Holyoke College is launching a free program for western Massachusetts educators designed to address a crisis growing in classrooms throughout the country — teacher burnout.

In working with schools and school districts around the region as well as the country, the college has heard time and again from teachers and administrators that they are struggling with a shortage of teachers and mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted teachers. That struggle has only been exacerbated as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The amount of stress that teachers are currently feeling as they navigate a multitude of changes speaks to the urgency with which we need to attend to the social and emotional well-being of educators, their students and their communities,” said Jemelleh Coes, director of teacher leadership for the Professional and Graduate Education (PaGE) division at Mount Holyoke College.

To meet that need, the college created and later this month will launch Teaching for Our Moment, a program to support teacher wellness and student social-emotional learning — which is the process of developing self-awareness, self-control and interpersonal skills — while addressing challenges in education that are leading to teachers fleeing the profession.

While the pandemic has been reported to have a direct impact on the mental health of students, Coes said that there has been less awareness about the effects it has had on teachers.

“It’s important that we ensure that educators are prepared to be well enough for students,” she said.

The program is funded as a part of a $249,900 congressionally funded community projects grant awarded to Mount Holyoke and secured by U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Springfield.

The programming will kick off with a free daylong conference on Saturday, Oct. 29 aimed at helping pre-K through 12th grade educators identify strategies and best practices for responding to the social, emotional and mental health needs of both teachers and students. The conference will be held at the Mount Holyoke College campus from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is open to educators in western Massachusetts. It will be followed by six months of programming through a professional learning and mentorship program.

“The teacher shortage isn’t happening because people don’t want to teach,” said Tiffany Espinosa, executive director of the PaGE division. “Our programming is designed to help inspire, empower and support educators. We want to be a part of helping to retain these passionate, talented professionals in the field of education.”

Sessions will be facilitated on topics including social-emotional learning for science, technology, engineering and math learning; the landscape of social-emotional learning in Massachusetts and the nation; and teacher wellness.

The conference will also provide special support to teachers and students from LGBTQ and Black, Indigenous and people of color, or BIPOC, communities through affinity groups, which are groupings of people who share a common identity characteristic.

Keynote speakers will be Jed Dearybury, an expert on incorporating arts, creativity and play into the classroom, and Afrika Afeni Mills, a leading thinker on creating student-centered, anti-bias, anti-racist and culturally responsive learning environments.

Coes reiterated that all of the programming will create an atmosphere of celebrating teachers.

“I don’t think teachers are praised and celebrated enough. The world around us has told us teachers are disposable in many ways. That’s reflected in the way we pay teachers and the way the profession is scrutinized, leaving a message that they have to do it for the outcome, not the income, which I believe is the wrong message,” Coes said. “We need to value them as professionals and knowledgeable humans and the reason our society thrives.”

In a statement, Neal said, “Mount Holyoke College is one of those gems that is doing innovative work to address and solve the issues occurring across our nation that plague students and teachers alike. When we support healthy teachers, we support healthy students. Mount Holyoke is leading the way.”

The six-month professional learning and mentorship program will feature workshops to assist teachers in coping with the challenges of the current teaching environment.

The professional learning circles will run from Nov. 30 to June and include 90-minute interactive workshops with mentorship sessions that will provide participants with an opportunity to build a portfolio of resources and develop an implementation plan to integrate what they are learning into professional practice.

“Teachers are constantly engaging in professional development. There are plenty of places people can learn, but there are not a lot of places people can be in community and connect,” Espinosa said. “This help shows them they’re not alone, that there’s not only a light at the end of the tunnel, but tools that will actually help start that blaze.”

To register for the conference or the professional learning circles, visit gradadmission.mtholyoke.edu/register/TeachingforOurMoment.

Link to article HERE.