The CTRW is co-hosting an event with the Language Institute on emotional wellbeing and teaching writing in which Julia Goetze and Mathilde Garnier will not only offer a talk on this topic but also activities for participants to engage in throughout the hour. Goetze & Garnier offered the following overview of their talk:
“Teaching is arguably one of the most cognitively and emotionally demanding professions, and teaching writing is no exception. Some days, our lesson plans just click, and we reach our pedagogical goals, which can feel exhilarating and empowering. Other days, despite careful planning, our activities somehow tank, and we must improvise, which can feel exhausting and discouraging. Either experience not only affects our sense of (teacher) self but also our emotional well-being, defined as subjective feelings of happiness or the experience of pleasure (Ryan & Deci, 2001). In this talk, we shed light on the underlying psychological processes that affect writing teachers’ emotional well-being in the workplace. We begin by outlining how beliefs about teaching writing are formed and highlight which factors most impact such belief formation. Next, we show how teachers’ belief systems shape evaluations of their lesson(s), before we connect such evaluations to emotional states using an appraisal theory lens (e.g., Frenzel et al., 2020; Lazarus, 2001). Following this brief theoretical explanation, we present a set of practice-oriented regulation and reflection strategies that teachers can employ to explore their beliefs about teaching writing in more depth and to alleviate negative and boost positive emotions relating to their lesson(s). We discuss how these strategies can aid writing instructors to experience a more emotionally balanced workplace, which may boost their emotional well-being in professional contexts over time.”