Surviving Teacher Burnout - by Amy L Eva (Paperback)

About the Book

Teachers have long faced extraordinary challenges in the classroom--and this is true now more than ever. As an entire generation of children struggle to meet academic and social emotional challenges caused by a year of online learning, teachers are also dealing with unprecedented levels of stress, trauma, burnout, and emotional exhaustion. This important and much-needed book offers evidence-based and easy-to-implement self-care strategies and activities for educators who wish to build resilience, boost emotional strength, and stay motivated in the face of daily stress and overwhelm.

Book Synopsis

A teacher's self-care guide for building resilience, boosting emotional strength, and finding hope in the face of daily stress and overwhelming challenges.

If you're an educator who works with children, you often face intense pressure in the classroom. This was true before the pandemic, but now you may be feeling it even more. You aren't alone. From having to adapt to remote learning on the spot, to balancing the impacts of the pandemic on your personal life, many teachers are experiencing record levels of stress, trauma, and burnout. In addition, as an entire generation of students struggle to meet the academic and social emotional learning (SEL) challenges caused by a extended remote learning, you may be dealing with kids who are anxious, traumatized, and likely a year or two behind developmentally as they return to the classroom. It's a lot to manage, and you may feel like you are at your breaking point.

Written by an educational director at the Greater Good Science Center, Surviving Teacher Burnout is a 52-week self-care guide for teachers that features simple, low-lift strategies for increasing resilience and fostering greater well-being, confidence, and hope. Grounded in research-based positive psychology, the book offers tons of practical activities and journal-style prompts to help you cultivate feelings of gratitude, optimism, mindfulness, forgiveness, empathic joy, self-compassion, purpose, and curiosity--so you can return to your classroom each day with renewed energy and inspiration.

You'll also find doable strategies to share with other educators to help infuse more positive energy in classrooms and schools, and create more supportive systems that promote a sense of meaning, belonging, and connectedness among teachers and students.

If you're like many educators, you may feel you lack the time and energy to engage in self-care practices. This guide offers bite-sized insights and activities that are simple, approachable, and usable, so you can thrive in the classroom, in your community, and in life!

Review Quotes

"Surviving Teacher Burnout is a hopeful, timely, and practical guide for teachers today who, in the face of unprecedented levels of job demands and stress, are seeking tools for self-care and for rekindling their passion for teaching. This easy-to-use, month-by-month guide is chock-full of wisdom and evidence-based practices that can support all who work in education not just to survive, but also to thrive."
--Robert W. Roeser, PhD, Bennett Pierce professor of caring and compassion at Pennsylvania State University--Robert W. Roeser, PhD

"Surviving Teacher Burnout is an invaluable resource for any educator! The structure around weekly self-care activities make this book especially practical, and an incredibly accessible way to cultivate one's adult social and emotional learning (SEL) competencies while fostering well-being."
--Meena Srinivasan, executive director of Transformative Educational Leadership (TEL); and author of SEL Every Day, Teach Breathe Learn, and Integrating SEL into Every Classroom Quick Reference Guide--Meena Srinivasan

"Surviving Teacher Burnout is timely, relevant, and necessary. In these unprecedented times as teachers face the most difficult challenges in our history, Eva offers hope and proven strategies for building resilience by developing emotional mastery and applying it to improving our classroom interactions in ways that reduce stress and inspire learning. Highly recommended!"
--Patricia A. Jennings, PhD, professor at the University of Virginia School of Education and Human Development; and author of several books, including Mindfulness for Teachers--Patricia A. Jennings, PhD

"Amy Eva shares nuggets of wisdom gleaned from research on mindfulness, positive psychology, emotional intelligence, and flourishing--and translates them into manageable and engaging action steps for educators. Surviving Teacher Burnout offers an easy-to-use road map for busy teachers that unfolds gracefully over fifty-two weeks of practice. This book offers the gift of a year filled with opportunities for greater compassion, empathy, and self-care, and one that is sorely needed in this moment."
--Patricia Broderick, PhD, assistant research professor at the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center at Penn State University, professor emerita at West Chester University, and author of Learning to BREATHE--Patricia Broderick, PhD

"In the midst of one of the hardest times to be an educator, Surviving Teacher Burnout becomes an essential tool for educational professionals looking to reconnect with their purpose, build their resilience, and reclaim their well-being. Full of research-based and practical exercises, this book will become a daily companion for many teachers."
--Lorea Martínez, PhD, award-winning founder and author of Teaching with the HEART in Mind, and faculty at Columbia University Teachers College--Lorea Martínez, PhD

"Now is a time like no other for a book aimed at helping teachers weather these unprecedented times, and Eva's Surviving Teacher Burnout is a must-read for teachers who wish to have access to the information on evidence-based strategies for not only reducing their stress, but cultivating their own inner strength and resilience. Through its week-by-week, twelve-month guide, this book is a treasure trove of practical strategies that will not only reduce stress, but inspire teachers to be their best possible selves."
--Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl, PhD, NoVo Foundation Endowed Chair in Social and Emotional Learning, professor in the department of psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and coeditor of Handbook of Mindfulness in Education--Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl, PhD

"What a timely gift to the profession of teaching! This book turns the big idea of 'self-care' into practical, research-based strategies that educators can use to hit the reset button on their happiness in their careers. The weekly focus makes it so easy to use for busy professionals to not just survive, but to thrive in their careers. Highly recommend for not just teachers, but anyone working in schools!"
--Rebecca Branstetter, PhD, school psychologist, and founder of The Thriving Students Collective--Rebecca Branstetter, PhD

About the Author

Amy L. Eva, PhD, is associate education director for the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley. As an educational psychologist and teacher educator with decades of experience in classrooms, she writes and speaks about teacher well-being and resilience. She is one of the key developers of Greater Good in Education, which features science-based practices for creating kinder, happier schools. She has also helped to develop free online resources for educators across California while facilitating statewide social-emotional learning communities of practice for educators in collaboration with educational leaders from Sacramento and Orange Counties.