Don't Just Survive, Thrive: A Teacher's Guide to Fostering Resilience, Preventing Burnout, and Nurturing Your Love for Teaching

by SaraJane Herrboldt, Kay Waterson

Stay inspired and motivated with this ultimate teacher self-care action plan designed to help educators avoid workplace stress and burnout.

Any educator will tell you it's no surprise that 50% of teachers leave education within their first five years. Being a teacher is deeply rewarding and inspiring, but keeping that big picture in mind is hard after long days, difficult students, and limited resources. On top of it all, teachers have the added burden of managing an entirely new digital learning environment. But burning out doesn't have to be your only option. Don't Just Survive, Thrive offers hardworking teachers a sustainable blueprint for becoming unshakeable at school with the power of self-care.

Through mindfulness, connection, and creative art, you can work toward building a trauma-informed, self-aware strategy that fosters resilience and results in more engaged and effective teaching. Just five minutes a day or more of implementing the practical ideas in this book can result in powerful change. These strategies

- Ten ways to practice mindfulness during recess duty
- Guided journaling to celebrate what’s working in your classroom
- Daily routines to keep you in the present moment
- Quick practices for self-regulation during a conflict situation
- Sentence stems to encourage internal dialogue and positive self-talk

Whether you're a special education teacher, paraprofessional, speech pathologist, counselor, or any type of educator, this book offers a guide to becoming not only a social-emotional role model for students but a better, healthier teacher.

224 pages, Paperback

First published July 25, 2023

Reviews

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I really appreciated about this book was the manageablely sized chapters, the first hand accounts of a diverse array of educational professionals, the opportunities to reflect and the consistent tone of acknowledgement. Specifically, acknowledgement that education is hard work, that teachers juggle many responsibilities and that too often the care and consideration of educators as humans is overlooked. Additionally, I really appreciated the guided prompts and journaling sections. Each offered the space and encouragement to care for our selves and reflect on the recently presented material.

I'm eager to share this book with educator friends, but know that it holds value for so many other professionals as well. If you know you're doing important work, but think you might be missing an important piece of self care and self awareness, this book just might hold a lesson or two for you as well.

[Emily Conz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is monumental in so many ways - as an educator living through COVID restrictions and the stresses that come along with it, this book was simply a breath of fresh air. Once I got it in my hands, I simply could not stop reading - I had to read every word of SaraJane Herrboldt's that I possibly could. This book has a way of meeting the reader exactly where they are at without any expectations and without any judgements - it simply lets you digest the truth of the words being spoken while offering support and space to take in the reality of how hard the work of teaching really is. There are spaces for you to personally reflect on things that may not have been considered before, but are incredibly helpful to reflect upon.

The best part is this book includes practical practices on how to check in with yourself throughout even your day-to-day to ensure that you are avoiding burn-out at all costs. SaraJane Herrboldt seems to realize the importance of the work of teaching, but also the importance of those carrying out the work being able to find space, time, and energy to care for themselves as well. The practices she offers are practical and meaningful - unlike many of the practices/blanket statements that you may be offered during professional development meetings run by those who don't get it or by those who only say "take good care of yourselves." SaraJane Herrboldt gets it, and she offers practices in how to take good care of yourself - even some that are only a few moments long but oh so helpful. These are the practices that educators need and can benefit from during our hectic days. And if SaraJane Herrboldt getting it isn't enough, she offers personal accounts from teachers that are currently in the trenches of teaching right now. There is so much comfort and peace found in their words. There is so much comfort in knowing there are others dedicated to the same goal of making this world a better place one student at a time.

This book and these words need to be shouted from every mountaintop. Those in urban settings need to hear them. Those in rural settings need to hear them. And those everywhere in between need to hear these words. If you work with children in any capacity, this book is for you.

As someone who is newer to the profession and unsure of what the future holds given the reality of today, this book has given me hope for the future - something I will cling to for awhile. Simply cannot recommend this book enough.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

SaraJane has the experience and education to back up this much needed book. The information is accessible, actionable and realistic. Highly recommend for anyone in a teaching/helping field.

[Dawn (dawndevoursbooks) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the real life teacher examples throughout the book. Much needed advice for teaching during this time.

[Jeff Verkaik · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a roadmap for teachers trying to perform their job, handle the stresses, nurture their students, be highly effective and stay healthy all at the same time. If you are a teacher, you know that doing all that is a really tall order, and reading this book it was obvious that the author understands that too.

I use the word roadmap on purpose. Often "teacher self-care" is talked about as this process with very clear and too simple steps (Starbucks, chocolate, and Netflix are examples) but this book lays it out in real and much more meaningful ways. She does end the book with many simple steps you can take to stay healthy, but she spends most of the book talking about the inner work you need to do to be a healthy teacher. I found this so very helpful. I plan to use this book as a resource when I feel burnout setting in as a roadmap back to health.

The book starts by explaining why teaching can be so stressful and if you are a teacher you will feel known as you read those sections. I also really appreciated the many different perspectives she added in the book by using first-person educator's stories all throughout the book. As a teacher that has struggled with burn-out, I am so grateful to have found and read this book.

[Lavon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not an educator, but, the information given in this book can be used in everyone's lives. I think we all feel the stress of our jobs to a certain level on a daily basis. I really appreciated the 'interactive' flow of the book with the addition of educators comments and the examples and application of what I had just read.

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of wonderful suggestions and reminders of how to truly survive as an educator, especially during the last two years!

[Jessica Olson · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I am not an educator in the traditional sense of the word, I found this book to be filled with practical and applicable information to use in my daily life. Burn out is a risk for anyone, no matter what profession they are in. This book stresses the importance of self care and provides many options as to what that self care look like and easy ways to implement it into your daily routine. I particular enjoyed the loving kindness meditations and will keep this book nearby so I can refer to them when I’m feeling the need to slow down.

[Amy Girard · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read to reset a teacher’s mindset!