Children have spent time in schools at least 5-6 hours each day. The person must provide knowledge and deal with many students is the “teacher”. Meanwhile, society’s expectation is that teachers will act as the father or mother without flaws. Many teachers carry both social expectations and accumulate stress from work without knowing it.
“I am a psychologist, providing counseling and therapy to people of various professions, but it is surprising that teachers have never come. I asked myself whether the teachers had no stress or problems. Teachers are professionals with the expectations of society because their duties are to provide care and counseling children. So, they may be familiar with problems and act without knowing that they have accumulated stress. ” Mr. Sompop Jamchan as a Counseling Psychologist, the system development project to help and support educational personnel and students in educational institutions under the Office of Special Education Administration OBEC, and a speaker who perform activities to develop the potential of teachers in the area of support for specific students on the topic of “finding internal values and strengthening teacher morale”, revealed one reason for starting the project.
Mr. Sompop described the idea of implementing the system development project to help and support educational personnel and students in educational institutions that teachers are stressed like other professions. When the teachers are stressed, they will also affect the children. Therefore, the “mental health” of teachers is a big issue that should be taken care of, apart from the development of academic ability or teaching skills. However, this matter was overlooked. When teachers are exposed to various problems and become accustomed, they do not know that they have accumulated stress which all affects the mental health of themselves, colleagues and students.
“Before starting the system development project to help and support educational personnel, there was an opportunity to go to the area with the Equitable Education Fund (EEF). Therefore, that teachers should be encouraged to increase psychological dimension aside from academic. Because in the past we might ask what the teachers had a problem, the answer might not be clear what the problems were. When we bring the psychological process to do activities in the schools without focusing on teachers to answer problems, we will make the teachers open-minded, feel safe to speak and be ready to share their past work experience. This will make us aware of the real problems from the teachings of teachers as well as the expectations that teachers want. Especially the teachers in Sueksa Songkhro schools and Ratchaprachanukroh schools work directly with the poor and underprivileged children, which is the target group that the Equitable Education Fund (EEF) must take care of them. In this project by choosing to do pilot activities in 5 Sueksa Songkhro schools and Ratchaprachanukroh schools in Satun, Chiang Rai, Lop Buri, Tak and Buri Ram provinces covering all regions, we expect to see the pattern of problems in each region so as to whether they are similar or different, “said Mr. Sompop.
Mr. Sompop further said that once the survey and understanding of real teachers’ problems, the project would design a process that would help teachers in terms of both training and creating an online platform in the form of a website to collect knowledge and advice.
Teachers can learn more, both groups of teachers who have been trained and teachers who have not attended the training can also use those tools. While the project is still running until the end of 2020, we will provide psychologists or experts to consult through the platform as a teacher assistant. In addition, the problems and needs of the teachers will be compiled as proposals to the Equitable Education Fund (EEF) in order to offer assistance or link to help in various matters.
“Initially, through the psychological process, most teachers are concerned about job security, which occurs with a large number of temporary teacher groups. When there are problems that need to be solved, this group of teachers will have less space to help others. Meanwhile, teachers in Sueksa Songkhro schools and Ratchaprachanukroh schools have to work hard and spend most of their time caring for students. There is a question of the fairness of career growth. This is normal when working hard, unlike other school teachers, but the results are not the same. For example, less progress can result in unfair feelings, but what we find is the positive power of teachers. This is the result of what teachers have seen children succeed: many teachers say that they never think that what they do will affect their children’s lives today. I expect that this project will create a group of teachers in these schools to give positive energy to each other and let teachers know that there are teachers to do the same thing and they are ready to support each other. Because in the past teachers tended to work in a different way, there was no discussion of individual problems or needs. When opening the mind, it helps to understand more each other and the tension will be reduced, “said Mr. Sompop.
Ms. Panadda Chantawong, a principal of Rajaprachanukroh 51 school, Buriram province, said “that thank you for providing valuable experience to our teachers. When humans are social animals, talking and opening-up will enable us to live together in peace. Our school is a school with a heavy workload that needs to look after 10 underprivileged children such as children forced to sell labor, street children, children in the sex industry or child prostitutes, abandoned / orphans, abused children, poor (especially poor) children, minority children, children with substance-related problems, children affected by AIDS or serious contagious diseases that society dislikes, children in juvenile observation centers. All are children in difficult conditions and their lives are inferior to normal children, so they need special help.
In order to have better lives, good development and age-appropriate, including achieving the highest potential, teachers are open their mind to each other, forgive each other, and everything won’t be a problem. When the teacher participated in this training, I hoped that the teachers would continue to expand for our students with a low cost of life. When the director is the thumb, the teacher is each finger, which is assembled into a hand that will support and bring the knowledge to our children who have positive thoughts in order to grow happily in society.”
Teacher Tai, Mr. Withun Songngam, a specialist teacher in Ratchaprachanukroh 51 school, Buriram province said “because I am a teacher who risk leaving the education system at all stages of my life since studying in grade 4 and grade 9 with misunderstandings in life before.” I was saved because the teacher gave me an opportunity based on love, knowing what I did wrong, and knowing what I really liked. Therefore, with a passion for music, a teacher who taught music gave me the opportunity to continue to study and pay tuition fees until the end of grade 11. After that, I took the exam to study music at the teacher’s college until graduating from the higher education diploma and I was able to pass the examination to be a teacher until now.
“I have been a teacher that Rajaprachanukroh 51 school since 1984. With the lack of opportunity and poverty before, I was a rowdy kid. When playing with friends, parents of good children also did not allow them to play with me. I made repeated mistakes, addicted to drugs and inhaled thinner. After graduating junior high school, I didn’t have any money to study, so I had to leave school. However, I was fortunate to have the opportunity from a music teacher who helped all the children in the entire orchestra and paid the tuition fees. “Teacher is a teacher in my heart” When I have to become a teacher, I understand that children have to repeatedly say, make mistakes. I was like seeing myself for the past 36 years in Rajaprachanukroh school. And over 10 years of following orders, never talking, never seeing face-to-face, anyone’s work is that person’s job. When we opened our hearts, we just realized that we are the same team. When being one, teamwork can occur together. “
The activities of the system development to help and support educational personnel and students in educational institutions are a very good activity. Because some stories are in the head of each individual teacher, we have never voted out at all. When psychologists come to organize activities, we then share ideas and share problems with just a simple question. When decoding from the question: what impresses you?, what the most regret about?, what is the happiest thing?, we therefore found the minds of teachers in which the activities were organized with ingenious mechanisms. We are able to apply and apply examples that children must study according to the Buddha’s principle, first, the truth of suffering or “Dukkha” in Pali, second, the truth of the origin of suffering or “Samudaya” in Pali, third, the truth of the cessation of suffering or “Nirodha” in Pali, and forth, the truth of the path to cessation of suffering or “Magga” in Pali, and the problems of different people. The environmental factors are like 4 lotus flowers, which are normal people, but 4 other unusual people who have various behaviors, including homeless, and being assaulted, which is not the same as general people and our students are below those 4 lotuses. The teachers must be patient, but the teachers are a normal person. So, we must be trained, patient, consciousness when we encounter children who often do wrong. We must be patient and forgive for the opportunity. Children have not been trained at all, are abandoned, separated parents, and society that there are still more drugs. Therefore, the analysis of learners is very important. Some children are tough, smoker, have pressure and hate teachers. For these reasons, using psychology to talk to children to solve problems, we should not use punishments in order to return good people to society and do not let children get out of the education system.
The teacher Tuan, Surachana Phromphamorn, Rajprachanukroh 51 school, Buriram province, said that
“when I knew that I would have to participate in the project. My first feeling was bored, but when I started to participate in activities, I was stunned because what I’ve trained is making charts or plans. Joining these 2 days is a process that I like, exactly what I want, and is a dissolving behavior. Working for 13 years, I have just come to know each other in 2 days. This is a new dimension of training. I like the open-minded technique that it will apply to children. Thank you to the speakers who have opened a new world for all teachers.”
Like Teacher Wi, Wichitra Suphathanon, Rajaprachanukroh 51 school, Buriram province, said that “when attending the training, we have sympathy for each other. Having a conversation is even more like brothers and sisters. In various feelings when we open our hearts and relax, the problems that arise are that we do not talk at all. I have been a teacher here for 25 years. We have administrators who listen openly and don’t put on emotions because we are already in a lot of student problems. In fact, our school is not only a student with defects, but the teacher itself is also defective. From now on, all teachers can overcome because of encouragement from all teachers.”
Teacher Tai, Sergeant Major First Class, a woman Wanthana Banlang, Sueksa Songkhro school, Mae Chan Chiang Rai revealed the feeling after attending the activity that the project to develop the potential of teachers in providing care to specific groups of students in psychology is activities that help dissolve the teacher behavior in the school very well and suitable for the current school situation, which I feel that the teachers in the school lack love for each other. One reason is due to the problem of unequal progress and growth in work. Everyone feels that they all work hard, but they receive different rewards, which causes no morale for work. When participating in activities that have a process for all participants to open their hearts to talk and share the problems that each person is experiencing, changing the way we view and think about some colleagues becomes understanding, compassionate and ready to help. That is because in the past we have never opened our hearts to talk, but we look and judge them by ourselves, which this activity will improve the working atmosphere, create mutual trust, and help each other work to make teachers more positive. I therefore want to have more activities like this and also want the teachers in the schools that are not participating in the activities to participate as well.
“I would use the forms of activities that psychologists did to apply to students in the classroom so that students were open to talking and apologizing because the children also had problems with classmates as well. In addition, children would learn to listen and help others, “said Teacher Tai.
Teacher Jatupon Bunma, Sueksa Songkhro school, Mae Chan, Chiang Rai province said “it was glad to participate in this activity because I have been given a way of living, problem solving and building a good self-immunity. All are in line with the sufficiency economy philosophy of King Rama IX, allowing us to see the value in ourselves. We are confident that when there are problems or obstacles we can always overcome. In addition, the activity model allows us to share their own problems and their solutions. It allows us to know other people’s problems and how we can help people with their problems.”
“The activity model can be used to teach students and will help to encourage students well. In addition, the teachers who participated in the training were able to extend the results to the groups of teachers who have not participated in the activities further. For me, I never felt discouraged when working as a teacher because I was proud of my career. Participating in the activities gave me encouragement for work and made my work happier ”said Teacher Jatupon.
When the teacher has no stress but is full of “positive energy”, the heart is healthy. Students will definitely receive good things from teachers.
