Greenfield HSA Service Learning Project

Albert M. Greenfield Elementary School is a kindergarten to eighth-grade public school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Greenfield Home and School Association (HSA) is a parent organization whose efforts to support the school include sending weekly informational newsletters and by fundraising for school improvements. The HSA recently has become concerned that Greenfield teachers may be struggling with burnout originating from increasing demands placed upon them by pandemic-related stresses. The HSA asked for help in identifying and evaluating positive psychology interventions that could be used at Greenfield to reduce teacher burnout and increase teacher well-being. Three students from the Master of Positive Psychology (MAPP) program at the University of Pennsylvania addressed the concerns of the HSA by developing well-being interventions that might be adopted by the HSA as part of their programming over the next year. The interventions proposed by the MAPP students included administering a teacher burnout and well-being survey, adopting a mission statement that incorporated a well-being purpose for the organization, developing micro-interventions that could be easily and quickly used by teachers, improving the teachers’ lounge for greater well-being, and hosting a positive psychology retreat for teachers. Each of these interventions, described in detail in this report, was intended to use the principles of positive psychology to alleviate and prevent burnout in teachers and help build and enhance the resilience of the school community post-pandemic.