Friday March 24, 2023, Moultonborough School district paraeducators participated in a professional development day which included sessions on self-care. After a session on the importance of creating and how-to create a self-care plan led by Heather Nelson, MSD Director of Counseling Services, paraeducators participated in a choice of self-care activities such as yoga, painting with acrylics, meditation, eating healthy, and practicing gratitude. After lunch paraeducators participated in a more traditional, but valuable presentation on the ABCs of student behavior. Support staff appreciated the design and structure of the day: “This day provided meaningful learning but it also showed that the district cares and appreciates the support staff.”
Stressors and mental health issues have increased since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is important to take care of oneself in order to be equipped to deal with those stressors and challenges. Research has shown that self-care practices, when implemented consistently and with intention, can reduce or eliminate anxiety and depression, reduce stress, increase happiness, strengthen relationships, increase ability to recover from setbacks, improve ability adapt to change, improve overall physical health, improve self-confidence, and increase productivity. Intentionally putting effort into self-care also increases the effectiveness of educational professionals because it prevents burnout, increases staff retention, improves student outcomes, improves teacher-student and teacher-teacher relationships.
Providing the opportunity to staff to learn about and practice self-care demonstrates not only an appreciation of the staff, but also supports the overall health of the district. As one participant commented, “It was a nice reminder of how important it is to ‘refill the tank’ to remain a positive, effective educator in the long-term.”
Moultonborough School District would like to thank the following people for supporting our day:
- Felicia Steriti for the yoga and meditation sessions
- Judy Wing for the painting sessions
- Krista Bouchard from HealthTrust for the session on healthy eating
- Dan Sturgeon for making the town recreation department cornhole sets available during session breaks
