Heading 1NDMTSS Conference
Description
Teachers have always needed to know and practice protective strategies in their social emotional first aid kits to manage the daily stressors of working on the front lines of a human-service oriented profession. That need has never been greater given the massive increase in uncertainty and unpredictability in the teaching profession and in one's personal life due to COVID.
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In short, teaching is emotional labor-- the effort required to manage and metabolize strong emotions like anger, shame, guilt, anxiety, and overwhelm, as well as generate and stoke positive emotions like joy, hope, and compassion.
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Stress significantly diminishes a teacher's capacity to regulate their negative emotions and cultivate positive emotions. Ironically, teachers who leave the profession often cite their inability to cope with their own emotional reactions to loss of control, unpredictability, and lack of purpose in their teaching as the primary reason for burnout.
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There are many, many strategies and practices rooted in cognitive and affective neuroscience and social and behavioral sciences that teachers can learn, practice, and integrate into their personal and professional lives as teachers to metabolize stress, manage negative energy, protect themselves from the burnout cycle, and find joy in teaching the whole year through!
Learning Objectives
In this session, teachers will:
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Explore the core elements of the teacher burnout cycle and learn how to protect one's self from the 2 paths to burning out,
One of the most insidious "consequences of caring" is burnout.
Those who care the most are the most at-risk for burning out...
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Description
Educators are elite, heart-centered professionals who put their heart, mind, and spirit on the line every single day. They are also the group of professionals most impacted by stress, burnout, and emotional fatigue.
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When the inherent stressors of human-service oriented profession like teaching start to build up and a teacher does not believe they have the skills to handle the stress, the stress becomes toxic.
Toxic stress has a physical, emotional, and relational impact on teachers.
Burnout teachers are more likely to suffer from headaches, restless sleep, weight gain, heart-disease, and illness. Emotionally, burnout out teachers either display signs of depression or anxiety. Socially, teachers who suffer from the impact of burnout display manifestations that impact their teaching-- like hopelessness, lack of creativity or inspiration, and depersonalization of their students.
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The key to shifting the onset of burnout in our teachers is engaging them in professional learning experiences that bolster their BELIEF and their CAPACITY to adapt to the challenges of teaching in functional and healthy ways.
When teachers are able to metabolize a stressful moment as a CHALLENGE vs a THREAT, toxic stress does not have a foot-hold to metastasize.
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Current research on teacher well-being confirms that teachers can learn how to use stressors as the catalyst to cultivate their mental, emotional, and relational resilience! So many options and avenues to transfigure stress into one's greatest moments as an educator!
Learning Objectives
In this highly experiential learning session, teachers will:
MIND
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Discover and explore the 2 paths to teacher burnout and how the burnout cycle operates and perpetuates itself.
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Learn about the top 10 teacher triggers for toxic stress.
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Explore the 3 stages teacher burnout and the 3 ways burnout manifests in the classroom setting.
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Learn about the core elements of the "Teacher Renewal Cycle" and how to engage it during stressful moments.
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Engage deeply relaxing and detoxifying guided body scan meditation.
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Engage simply mindful movements for the body that trigger the body's parasympathetic (calming) response.
BODY
PRACTICE
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Practice exploring their own personal stress triggers, investigating the thought and emotion patter behind them.
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Practice engaging the the 4 step Teacher Infinite Well-Being ModelTM with a predictable stress trigger to learn how to metabolize a "threat" into a "challenge."
Interested in this session?
Contact Jen to discuss how to customize this professional learning experience to meet your unique staff well-being needs and fit your professional development schedule:
jen.presentwellbeing@gmail.com
