How to Improve Morale in Public Education in Four Easy Steps

I saw a popular tweet from Dr. Brad Johnson. It read, "Leaders, please make morale a top priority this fall. Teacher/staff morale is [the] lowest it [has] ever been." 

Educators from P-12, community colleges and four-year institutions of higher learning will all tell you the same thing. Morale has hit an all-time low!

Here's what education leaders at all levels need to do now to improve morale come fall.

1. Get out of the way. Lead from behind. Start by surveying your staff either formally or informally.

2. Listen to what the educators on the ground say. Don't dismiss what the educators who are THE professionals working most closely with students have to say. They are the practitioners, and they should be your thought partners. Educators should be empowered to make shared decisions about their working conditions. After all, their working conditions are the learning conditions for their students.

3. Implement their ideas. Nothing boosts morale more than being seen, valued and heard. NOTHING!

4. Monitor and adjust. Check in with your staff regularly. This isn't a one and done exercise. Each semester brings different challenges, and the needs of your staff will change accordingly. 

Does this sound oversimplified? 

Maybe it is. 

But for far too long some education leaders have ignored the practitioners in the field. They've undervalued their expertise and in some cases simply ignored their point of view, their voices and their collective wisdom.

That's why being in a union is so fantastic! Your collective strength lies within your union. 

If leaders take these four steps to heart and if you work together to develop, cultivate and nurture a strong labor/management partnership, you can bargain shared decision making contract provisions that can help boost and sustain morale for years to come.

Educators everywhere agree. Now is the time to improve educator morale! 

So, gather up your union siblings and management partners and roll up your sleeves. Together you can build a working environment and a learning environment you and your students deserve.

Freedom and Independence on the 4th

I don't feel like setting off fireworks, eating hot dogs or attending parades.

I'm feeling a burning rage. 

I feel like eating oppression for breakfast and spitting it out in someone's face. 

I'd rather attend a rally or march for reproductive justice and abortion rights than a parade.

The majority of citizens in this country (women) lost their right to control their own bodies a week ago. We all know this.

What are you doing as an individual, or collectively with groups you belong to in your community and at the state and federal level, to let lawmakers and others in power know that we are not okay with this?

I've spent the better part of this week, each night, attending virtual meetings from an assortment of women's rights groups calling on us to take action.

I have felt seen and valued by like-minded people who are as infuriated as I am, and I know many of you are, because I've heard from you directly. I've heard questions like...

What are we going to do? 

What is ______(fill in the blank) doing about this? 

I haven't always had the answers to these questions, so if I'm being honest, there have been moments this week when I have felt completely and utterly despondent. However, I have never felt alone.

The sisterhood circle we have built as NYSUT Women has kept me afloat this past week. Texts, calls, emails and social media posts have demonstrated to me that we will continue to show up, fight and agitate those who are either too frightened or too indifferent to help us maintain or expand access to reproductive health care. 

It's the little things that keep us going sometimes. This week I created my own form of silent resistance. Each day I wore a different t-shirt that a woman from the NYSUT Women's Committee has given me culminating in our committee t-shirt I wore today. Each shirt read:

Nevertheless she persisted - Monday

Girls Just Want To Have FUNdamental Rights - Tuesday

Men their rights and nothing more; women their rights and nothing less - Wednesday

Underestimate me. That should be fun. - Thursday

I figured if you weren't going to talk to me about it, at least when you looked at me I was going to make you think about it. ;)

But seriously and most importantly, we convened a meeting of the NYSUT Women Committee Co-Chairs. We took this week to listen and watch, learn and plan. We will be pulling together some NYSUT women to help us share resources and actions via social media, and we will be holding our annual committee meeting this fall focused solely on women's health.

If you are not a member of the NYSUT Women's Committee, you can start your own chapter by going to www.nysut.org/women. Let me know the name of your chapter and those who co-chair it. We will add you to our email list. In May, following the NYSUT RA, you can submit your name to your NYSUT Board of Director for inclusion in the statewide committee as well. 

In the meantime, if you are a NYSUT member, follow us on Facebook at NYSUT Women. All our welcome! 

Take action today by ensuring that those who are not registered to vote, get registered. 

Follow groups that care about women, our rights and our bodies on social media and donate to them if you are able. 

Show up. 

Share information. 

Attend a training to become a virtual activist or organizer on this issue in your community. 

Run for public office. 

Vote out those who will not stand up for women, who do nothing or who are actively working to take more of our rights away. 

Agitate on this issue in every space and place you occupy. 

There have been moments this past week when I thought there was simply nothing more we can do. As usual, I was wrong! 

There is lots we can do. 

We are women. 

We still have our freedom of speech, and we are going to use our collective power to be seen and heard. 

This holiday I am vowing to use my energies to ensure that the freedom and independence of women everywhere is regained and strengthened for generations to come. 

I, like many pro-choice women, are wearing green on the 4th in support of reproductive freedom and independence. 

What will your act of resistance be? 

How will you demonstrate to those around you and in power that we will never relent until women have complete freedom and independence over our own bodies?