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Teach from Your Best Self: A Teacher’s Guide to Thriving in the Classroom
Teachers, this book is a guide for taking care of education’s most valuable you. Author Jay Schroder, founder of the popular Teach from Your Best Self Institute, demonstrates why the version of ourselves that we bring to teaching matters and describes how we can rejuvenate ourselves while maximizing student learning. Part I explains why the self that a teacher brings to the classroom is important. Part II explores skills that will help us sustain a best-self state in all manner of situations. Part III delves into those moments when we’re provoked beyond our limits and our "hurtspots" come sharply into view. It offers ways to avert a reactive state or recover from it. Lastly, Part IV provides simple approaches for building a more durable, best self for the long term—a best self with deepened capacity to respond rather than react in the pressurized conditions of teaching. With fresh ideas presented throughout, you’ll learn how to prioritize your own well-being so you can continue to make a difference for your students.
198 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 1, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 16, 2026
I think this book came at a time when I really needed to hear it. Even if I knew some or most of these concepts, it was laid out in an easy to read, helpful way. A good reset when struggling with teaching
August 1, 2023
Thank you, Jay, for a copy of your book as a part of the Teach from Your Best Self Institute.
I am currently in one of the 2023-2024 TFYBS Institutes, and truthfully I cannot recommend it enough. I was recently on a two week trip abroad that was fun, but also chaotic and jampacked -- and it would have been really easy to be stressed over so much of what happened. However, I kept thinking about the mindsets in TFYBS -- namely radical acceptance, decision fatigue, and finding your "yes" -- and nothing that happened really ended up getting to me the way I know it could have. I even ended up teaching one of the people I was with about these mindsets. So this is definitely a book that sticks with you lol.
But, anyhoo, what will follow will be an honest review of this book, in a very jumbled fashion:
I cannot overstate how refreshing it is to have a book, a program, that is centered on teachers. I have had many PDs and trainings that focused on what we lacked, how we can support students, what we can do to help our students who came to us with trauma and hurt and a history of hating school, what we can do to support our neurodivergent students. None of these programs ever operated from the premise that we, as teachers, carried our own traumas; that we might be neurodivergent too. So in this regard, Jay's work here is not only unique, it is revolutionary. It feels amazing to be seen and acknowledged (positive messages!) as a teacher who has hurtspots and trauma, instead of a teacher with a perfect life who could never relate to what their students are going through.
Similarly, unlike all these other PDs, do not go into this book expecting a series of lesson plans or strategies that you can take and instantly implement in your classroom. That is not what TFYBS is about, and this misunderstanding is what created a lot of the initial confusion I saw people encounter with this book and program. TFYBS is about giving you tools and ways of thinking that can help you reshape how you think and how you go about interacting with yourself, your job, your classroom, and the world. And, personally, I find this much more valuable than a series of teaching strategies to implement. Because when it really comes down to it, it is impossible to pre-plan strategies for every situation you will encounter in the classroom. But it is very possible to restructure how you think about yourself and the world so that you can approach all of those situation from Your Best Self, with all your past experiences and tools at your disposal, even in the heat of the moment.
With this in mind, I would say that you need to have an open mind to really get the most out of this book. Which, I know, can be hard, as the mindsets in this book may challenge your perspective of the world and your values. For example, one of the key ideas Jay proposes is having a mindset of Yes and approaching everything in life from a place of Yes. This can be hard for people, especially those who were raised in a way where they were forced to always say "yes" and learned to be empowered through saying "no" (for example, people who have been in abusive relationships). However, after the initial pushback against the idea dies down, I think that people will find that that the empowerment they find in "no" does actually come from a place of Yes -- that is, saying Yes to themselves, to their own self respect, which in turn allows them to say no, from a place of Yes. Many of the ideas in TFYBS are like this, but if you let yourself move past the resistance and come at them with an open mind, I believe you will find that they make sense.
I say this, however, knowing that I am completely bias in this regard, because basically every mindset proposed in this book is one that I already have and either follow or need to work on actively following. And in that regard, the book does feel a bit lacking, which leads me to my really only criticism of the book: it very heavily assumes the reader is a certain type of person, with a certain type of way of interacting with the world. In my case, the book assumes that I am a neurotypical person, with a neurotypical way of interacting with the world, which I am not. I am autistic and my neurodivergence fundamentally shapes how I interact with the world. Now, I will say that ALL of the mindsets introduced in this book can be implemented regardless of neuro-status, so that is not really my issue. My issue is how I could tell that research into how neurodivergent people interact with the world was not done, and I feel like that is a disservice to all neurodivergent teachers reading this book.
For example, there is a section on shifting from using vector-style attention (only being able to focus on one specific thing at a time, something I did not realize that neurotypicals could do, like seriously, it felt like a light bulb was literally going off as I realized this is why most of my students cannot multitask) to using a field-based attention, where you give equal attention to everything around you at a time (aka, how I live every day of my life). On one hand, my brain already being wired to use field-based attention makes this section easy -- like whoohoo! I don't need to put in any work because my brain is already doing that! However, on the other hand, I would argue being stuck in this kind of attention all the time is also what leads me, and other autistic and ADHD people, to be more prone to burnout via over stimulation -- we are focusing on everything in the room all at once, and suddenly it's so much, it's too much, and we're crashing over it. This is not an uncommon life experience, and I would have like to have seen this addressed or at least thought about, but I can tell that it was not. Which I cannot blame Jay for, as it is impossible to know the lived experiences of someone else's life (seriously?? vector-style attention is a THING?? I am still reeling over it.), but, again, that is where extra research comes into play.
All in all, if you are a teacher and you're looking for a book that will help you stay sane in an impossible job with the weight of the world on your shoulders, I think this is a good place to start. It is one of the few books I've seen that is about us, about taking care of us, because we truly are education's most valuable resource.
I am currently in one of the 2023-2024 TFYBS Institutes, and truthfully I cannot recommend it enough. I was recently on a two week trip abroad that was fun, but also chaotic and jampacked -- and it would have been really easy to be stressed over so much of what happened. However, I kept thinking about the mindsets in TFYBS -- namely radical acceptance, decision fatigue, and finding your "yes" -- and nothing that happened really ended up getting to me the way I know it could have. I even ended up teaching one of the people I was with about these mindsets. So this is definitely a book that sticks with you lol.
But, anyhoo, what will follow will be an honest review of this book, in a very jumbled fashion:
I cannot overstate how refreshing it is to have a book, a program, that is centered on teachers. I have had many PDs and trainings that focused on what we lacked, how we can support students, what we can do to help our students who came to us with trauma and hurt and a history of hating school, what we can do to support our neurodivergent students. None of these programs ever operated from the premise that we, as teachers, carried our own traumas; that we might be neurodivergent too. So in this regard, Jay's work here is not only unique, it is revolutionary. It feels amazing to be seen and acknowledged (positive messages!) as a teacher who has hurtspots and trauma, instead of a teacher with a perfect life who could never relate to what their students are going through.
Similarly, unlike all these other PDs, do not go into this book expecting a series of lesson plans or strategies that you can take and instantly implement in your classroom. That is not what TFYBS is about, and this misunderstanding is what created a lot of the initial confusion I saw people encounter with this book and program. TFYBS is about giving you tools and ways of thinking that can help you reshape how you think and how you go about interacting with yourself, your job, your classroom, and the world. And, personally, I find this much more valuable than a series of teaching strategies to implement. Because when it really comes down to it, it is impossible to pre-plan strategies for every situation you will encounter in the classroom. But it is very possible to restructure how you think about yourself and the world so that you can approach all of those situation from Your Best Self, with all your past experiences and tools at your disposal, even in the heat of the moment.
With this in mind, I would say that you need to have an open mind to really get the most out of this book. Which, I know, can be hard, as the mindsets in this book may challenge your perspective of the world and your values. For example, one of the key ideas Jay proposes is having a mindset of Yes and approaching everything in life from a place of Yes. This can be hard for people, especially those who were raised in a way where they were forced to always say "yes" and learned to be empowered through saying "no" (for example, people who have been in abusive relationships). However, after the initial pushback against the idea dies down, I think that people will find that that the empowerment they find in "no" does actually come from a place of Yes -- that is, saying Yes to themselves, to their own self respect, which in turn allows them to say no, from a place of Yes. Many of the ideas in TFYBS are like this, but if you let yourself move past the resistance and come at them with an open mind, I believe you will find that they make sense.
I say this, however, knowing that I am completely bias in this regard, because basically every mindset proposed in this book is one that I already have and either follow or need to work on actively following. And in that regard, the book does feel a bit lacking, which leads me to my really only criticism of the book: it very heavily assumes the reader is a certain type of person, with a certain type of way of interacting with the world. In my case, the book assumes that I am a neurotypical person, with a neurotypical way of interacting with the world, which I am not. I am autistic and my neurodivergence fundamentally shapes how I interact with the world. Now, I will say that ALL of the mindsets introduced in this book can be implemented regardless of neuro-status, so that is not really my issue. My issue is how I could tell that research into how neurodivergent people interact with the world was not done, and I feel like that is a disservice to all neurodivergent teachers reading this book.
For example, there is a section on shifting from using vector-style attention (only being able to focus on one specific thing at a time, something I did not realize that neurotypicals could do, like seriously, it felt like a light bulb was literally going off as I realized this is why most of my students cannot multitask) to using a field-based attention, where you give equal attention to everything around you at a time (aka, how I live every day of my life). On one hand, my brain already being wired to use field-based attention makes this section easy -- like whoohoo! I don't need to put in any work because my brain is already doing that! However, on the other hand, I would argue being stuck in this kind of attention all the time is also what leads me, and other autistic and ADHD people, to be more prone to burnout via over stimulation -- we are focusing on everything in the room all at once, and suddenly it's so much, it's too much, and we're crashing over it. This is not an uncommon life experience, and I would have like to have seen this addressed or at least thought about, but I can tell that it was not. Which I cannot blame Jay for, as it is impossible to know the lived experiences of someone else's life (seriously?? vector-style attention is a THING?? I am still reeling over it.), but, again, that is where extra research comes into play.
All in all, if you are a teacher and you're looking for a book that will help you stay sane in an impossible job with the weight of the world on your shoulders, I think this is a good place to start. It is one of the few books I've seen that is about us, about taking care of us, because we truly are education's most valuable resource.
May 17, 2025
I read this book as part of a PD, and when I started reading the book I was skeptical. The book, and the author, convinced me that it is possible to have a sustainable, balanced and positive teaching career. Ultimately, there is nothing new here, but everything is presented well and clearly. It is unapologetically teacher focused and has made me a better teacher. This book and the accompanying workshop is the only PD that felt like it took something off my plate rather than continuing to pile more onto it.
May 14, 2025
In addition to familiar (to me) information about how trauma affects the brain and learning, I appreciated the information about decision fatigue and radical acceptance. The author clearly has vast experience and is able to communicate complicated topics into a supportive and comprehensible way. This book gives teachers concepts to consider and practical applications to explore in the never-ending quest for "thriving in the classroom."
May 17, 2025
I read this book and took a year-long course with the author, Jay, in order to help me become a better teacher and a better version of myself. This is not a quick fix self-help book. Jay included personal experiences in this book to help me and other teachers connect these principles to our lives. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who is striving to become a better teacher.
February 11, 2025
Overall, the spark of a good idea, but expressed poorly with some outdated research and too many personal stories that will only resonate with a small fraction of readers. Ultimately, an impracticable approach to teacher well-being.
May 17, 2025
This book is amazing! I got lots of strategies in how to survive and be my best self in the classroom while learning from real life situations.
February 19, 2026
This book gives you practical tips to teach from a state where you are focusing on presenting yourself at a full battery, if you will. Showing up in the classroom at 100% and what helpful strategies will help you make that possible. The author, Jayme Schroder, does a great job outlining the various aspects that go into being the best teacher you can be. He discusses the importance of coming into the classroom at your best, different ways to take care of oneself, how to handle “hurt spots” and how to manage yourself in the long term to continue being your best self. There was a wealth of information presented and thought provoking questions at the end of each chapter. My favorite topics were learning about “hurt spots” and coming from a place of yes.
December 9, 2023
Calling all teachers....looking for the tools to be in your best self in the classroom, this is a MUST have book. Teach from your Best Self (TFYBS) is this amazing resource and support system for educators. Before participating in the Teaching from Your Best Self Institute (in person-highly recommend), I was disillusioned after 20 years in the teaching profession, and was contemplating seeking opportunities outside my classroom. TFYBS was a game changer for me. This book has so many tools I now have at my disposal to navigate the overwhelming challenges, such as the cool pause, radical acceptance, the box of should, aligning my inner village, my prime directive, and ROI. My outlook is hopeful and energized again! I am excited to have this book available to share and inspire fellow teachers.
May 17, 2025
Teach from your best self is amazing as a tool for new teachers, and veteran teachers, as it allows you to think through without reacting. it allows you to really be present.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews