Scope of Guided Journaling Teacher Support Groups

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The goal of Guided Journaling Teacher Support Groups (GJTSG) is to provide a service for teachers that helps reduce job-related stress and burnout, increases retention, and improves teaching effectiveness through the use of best practices.
The program is designed to help teachers:
  • identify triggers as well as early signs of stress
  • learn coping mechanism to effectively deal with stress
  • understand students displaying challenging behavior
  • identify the function and purpose of teachers’ as well as students’ behavior
  • understand how context and environment contribute to teachers’ as well as students’ behavior
  • develop new skills and tools that can help teachers and students modify their behavior, thus enabling teachers to teach and students to learn more effectively (see also O’Rourke-Lohrman, Knosier & Llewellyn, 1999; Horner & Carr, 1997;  Carr et al., 1994).
  • Cited References

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How to Run an Effective Teacher Support Group

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Monthly Meeting Structure
Research suggests that social support is highly effective in lowering stress and the feeling of burnout in teachers (i.e. Greenglas, Fiksenbaum & Burke, 1996; Halbesleben, 2006; Larrivee, 2012; Luskin & Pelletier, 2005; Simbula 2010; Seligman, 2011a).

Support from colleagues has also been linked to retention (i.e. Houkes, Janssen, de Jonje & Nijhuis, 2001; Ingersoll & Strong, 2011, Leung & Lee 2006; Whitaker, 2000). In addition, there are significant benefits to meeting and sharing journals face-to-face as part of a support group.

Based on the research mentioned above, we thus incorporated monthly meetings as part of our Guided Journaling for Teachers Support Group (GJTSG).
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Journaling Techniques and Strategies to Reduce Stress and Burnout, and Increase Teacher Effectiveness

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Recording Observations
Teachers are instructed to document the factual details related to meaningful events using the following guidelines:
The date, time, location, participants or anything else such as unusual weather or fire drill etc.A description of the behavior of the person or people involved in the event, for example, what was said, body language, facial expressions etc. (before, during and after the event).The context, for example, environment, circumstances, surroundings, motive, mindset, frame of reference, conditionsIf applicable: The directions or activities given by the teacher (before, during and after the event)If applicable: The response of the person or people involved.
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How to Implement a School-wide Teacher Support Program

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Administrative support
A Guided Journaling Teacher Support Group may be operated by a school, school districts or a consortia of districts. Schools can implement this program on their own,  in partnership with other schools, in association with a local teachers association, a college or university, or a state department of education.

A Guided Journaling Teacher Support Group makes minimal demands on the district and school resources. It is relatively low-cost and time effective.

Participation in support groups can be increased by providing release time for teachers and group leaders, that is support group meetings can be scheduled during regular work days with the help of substitutes and creative use of staff development days.
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