Educator Burnout is Real
Today, I turn 35.
A few years back, I set a personal goal for myself that I wanted to be in a position of leadership and/or influence within the sphere of public education improvement advocacy work by the time I was 35.
I knew that my dream of “fixing” the public education system so it would be more focused on what children and families actually need rather exclusively quantitative measurements was a dream that would lead me to a dead end time after time.
I was beginning to learn that much of the public education system in the United States is designed to focus on quantitative versus qualitative outputs and outcomes, which makes it very difficult for mental health and wellbeing to become focus areas.
Feelings can’t easily be quantified universally.
Trauma doesn’t easily have a metric that all students, staff, and families can be measured against to determine what threshold of pain warrants an intervention.
Socioemotional learning has begun to emerge alongside other revolutionary ideas such as school social workers, school-based mental health centers, and clinical consultation within special education departments for students receiving supports through the IEP and 504 accommodations processes.
This work has intrigued me and it’s been the work I’ve dedicated my career to - alongside recovering from my own burnout and creating tools to support others' burnout recovery, intervention, and prevention.
This fall, I’ll be pivoting to a new role that is yet to be determined.
Alongside this pivot, I’ll be launching online Educator Support Networks to offer 1-1 and group support for burnout, professional development in areas commonly requested from school staff and students surrounding mental health, and creating autism-affirming content, resources, interventions, and tools for TODAY’s public education landscape.
Things are not the same as they were in 2018 and we need to adapt the way our students have.
Students show us what they need, it’s time we listen.
If you’re an education professional looking to join a network of other professionals seeking support and cutting edge interventions for your work with a focus on post-pandemic realities in schools, join my email list and I’ll send you more information when it’s ready.
There WILL be free opportunities to connect and the email list will get first-access.
I hope you’ll join me in celebrating my birthday by committing to yourself to take steps to prevent, intervene, and stave off the burnout that often feels nearly inevitable in public education in 2023.