Ricardo Carter, an English as a new language teacher at JFK, recently began holding Happy Teacher Revolution meetings in his school. Carter meets twice a month with other JFK teachers to promote mental health and offer wellness strategies such as forming habits and setting boundaries.
“I joined HTR because I want to be proactive and not reactive to the constant conflicts that come up in education,” Carter said. “I feel supported in knowing that there is a community of educators that are passionate about self-care and acknowledging our humanity in this rollercoaster of a career. In this profession, we need to be reminded that our mental and physical health is just as important as doing our daily responsibilities. Happy Teacher Revolution reminds you that you are human and that we can’t run on autopilot. We need that time to decompress those events that occurred in school in order to be there for all the other people in our lives that need us.”