Breaking Stress: How Teacher Leaders Make a Difference

Dayo Adia attended Baltimore City Public Schools until third grade when she transferred to Baltimore County. She recalled the shock of the transition from being considered a solid student to making an E in the fourth grade. Math seemed to be Adia’s downfall, but the grit to never give up comes from her background.

“My mother was my backbone and taught me to understand math, as well as two teachers who drove me” Adia said.

By high school, Adia was tutoring others in math and later earned a degree in math education.

Adia stated that as she got older she became aware of the struggles of urban students. They are marginalized and often not given a holistic view of life. As a high school educator, her goal is to teach her students math concepts as well as how to become an adult. “Kids come home from college and we see each other in the store and they say, ‘hey everything you told me about being an adult was right’, “Adia said. She enjoys those comments as it confirms she is making a lasting impression on her students.

Joining the union and becoming a building representative for Adia was about being a problem solver and a change agent.

“The union here is different,” Adia stated. “We work on teacher leadership and getting support for National Board certification.”

Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA) is known for advocating for social justice and change in the public school structure to provide high quality teaching to every student. As the testing and data collection craze, coupled with the lack of teacher autonomy, has hit our public schools, many teachers have become disillusioned with teaching.

“This year felt like teachers walked in the door feeling overwhelmed and stressed,” Adia stated.

She wanted some way for teachers to find the love for their jobs and minimize the stress. When she shared her ideas with fellow MCEA building representatives at her school, they agreed that the whole school needed support. They sat down and planned an entire week of gratitude and stress relief for teachers of Watkins Mill High School during the American Education Week in November of 2016.

Resource Teachers sent notes of thanks to their teachers. The assistant principals and the principal taught classes. The parents of the Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) served breakfast on Friday. Teachers also wrote each other notes of support.

“The goal was to spread encouragement,” Adia said. “Many teachers were surprised that administration was willing to do this, but administration was completely on board. Teachers felt acknowledged and appreciated.”

One ESOL educator shared that the assistant principal who taught her ESOL class for 20 minutes was shocked at how large it was and what the needs were. Switching roles seemed to help bring a new perspective of the school and the students’ needs.

Next year Adia says the MCEA building representatives will plan more ahead of time.

“We want to do a college door contest to show where teachers went to school and help showcase different colleges and key facts about them. There is also an idea to include students writing notes of appreciation to their teachers and finding other ways to have students participate in this important week,” Adia stated. 

“Change is getting ready to happen. That is our reality, and if we as a union do not tackle it as a team, then we are going to burn out as individual teachers. Working together will help us and our students make it through the school year.”