The Chalk Blog

There’s no doubt that the past few years have been challenging for everyone, and particularly difficult for educators. After being hailed as heroes during the initial stages of the pandemic, teachers faced a constantly-changing landscape of remote learning, hybrid, and in-person instruction, plagued with quarantines, staffing shortages, and controversy over school policies. On top of that, children returned to school with increased academic and social-emotional needs. It’s no wonder there’s been a significant increase in the number of teachers seeking to leave the classroom!

Reignite Your JOY for Teaching & Learning:

Originally Posted by Barb Istas, a former member of our Curriculum and Instruction team and current Learners Edge course evaluator on February 21, 2018, and revised by Susanne Leslie on February 25, 2022.

Let’s cut straight to the chase. This year has been hard. Not just navigating a new reading curriculum hard, adjusting to a new administrator hard, or even dealing with a few needy parents hard. This year, for many educators, has been utterly exhausting, out of control, a five-alarm level of burnout!

Burnout. It's something most teachers will face at some point in their careers. While this career is rewarding, it is also demanding. If we are going to find fulfillment in our careers as educators, we need to know how to identify and avoid teacher burnout. Below are warning signs that may indicate we are on the path to burnout.

The last year and a half found many of us re-evaluting our priorities. Faced with being stuck at home has driven many of us (myself included) to do something with our “extra time.” Enter the minimalism movement, with experts like The Minimalists, Marie Kondo, and Josh Becker offering up philosophies, tips, and even courses to help you shift your mindset towards “less is more.”