Avoiding Burnout: How Exemplary Teachers Find Fuel and Cultivate Success

Given the challenges facing educators today, it is vitally important to understand the workings of teacher excellence. Which teachers exceed state standards for performance and continue to exhibit passion and resilience in the classroom? Beyond subject knowledge and teaching techniques, what do exemplary educators know and do that could be adapted for use by others? Exploring these questions serves as the basis for Avoiding Burnout: How Exemplary Teachers Find Fuel and Cultivate Success. The featured educators—among the most distinguished American teachers—provide insight into their successful strategies with students, parents/caregivers, colleagues, and administration. Their honest and thoughtful voices provide compelling evidence of how they navigate today’s complex issues in education. Concise connections to relevant research underscore the value of their perspectives. This highly engaging and easy to use book is designed to spur thinking and conversation about what supports and inhibits educator success at all levels. In small meaningful bites, readers will learn what exemplary educators do, why they do it, and how it helps. In this time of high teacher attrition, we need to share ideas about how to succeed in the teaching profession.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Introduction Part One - How Teachers See Their Work Chapter 1 - Teacher power Chapter 2 - The gift of providing a fresh start Chapter 3 - Meaning and purpose Part Two - The Central Role of Relationships Chapter 4 - Knowing students well Chapter 5 - Cultivating positive relationships with students Chapter 6 - Negotiating difficult relationships with students Chapter 7 - Investing in a positive environment Chapter 8 - Connecting with parents/caregivers Chapter 9 - Relationship with colleagues Chapter 10 - The Administration of Schools Part Three - Personal Practices and Skills Chapter 11 - Curiosity Chapter 12 - Reflection Chapter 13 - Preparation and Self-care Chapter 14 - What makes great teachers great? Appendix A - The Tale of the Stonecutters Appendix B - Knowing My Students Appendix C - Staff Directory of Support Appendix D - Standpoint Exploration Appendix E - Exploring Hope Appendix F - Free Resources and Additional Materials References Index About the author

About the Author :
Betsy Nordell EdD, is a former classroom teacher and current teacher educator with more than 30 years of teaching experience in a variety of educational settings. Since 1993, she has been teaching and coaching educators with Open Circle, a Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW) Project at Wellesley College.

Review :
“If you are a teacher or want to support teachers, then read this book. Nordell approaches the work from the perspective of great teachers and what they know, think, believe, and do. Equally applicable to individual teachers seeking self-care tips, school and district leaders, and policy makers, the lessons captured by Nordell’s research provide fresh insights and sorely needed direction to a field buffeted by misapplied theories from other sectors.” “Nordell’s book is refreshingly honest and sincere. She honors and validates the complex, burnout-inducing issues teachers face, meeting them head-on with sound authoritative research and candid input from educators who present a valuable teacher voice. Her passion to support educator mental health resonates from her reflective questions throughout. This book is a powerful tool for teachers, administrators and educational policy makers at all stages of their careers.” “Extensive literature has been brought to life here through the interplay with the teacher’s voice. Betsy Nordell clearly cares deeply about the ever-growing problem of teacher burnout, and offers readers a range of perspectives that can help navigate a positive and life-enhancing way forward.” Betsy Nordell decodes the alchemy of great teaching. She translates her research on great teachers into a substantive action guide that provides an orienting framework and practical strategies that will serve as a treasured resource for new and veteran teachers, administrators, and teacher educators. Nordell provides an approach to develop a practice of ongoing renewal that will reconnect teachers to themselves, their students, their colleagues, and the noble ideals of the profession. More than ever, we need a deeply compassionate and thoughtful conversation about teacher burnout. Avoiding Burnout provides a rich and empathetic portrait of the emotional lives of educators, drawing on educators’ voices to cast an inspiring and timely vision for fueling the careers of educators with the power of hope, relationships, meaning, and self-compassion. A must-read for educators and educational leaders searching for inspiration and renewal!