Educator Bandwidth: How to Reclaim Your Energy, Passion, and Time

by Jane A.G. Kise, Ann Holm

It's time to make your mental bandwidth work for you. Being an educator is more stressful than ever, and teachers and administrators must constantly shift gears to stay on top of the newest initiatives and students' ever-changing needs. Educator How to Reclaim Your Energy, Passion, and Time provides the tools and strategies to reduce stress, avoid burnout, and regain the time that gets lost to interruptions, temptations, competing demands, and task-switching.

The first step is to understand how much stress is weighing on your own mental bandwidth. Professional development experts Jane A. G. Kise and Ann Holm have developed the Brain Energy and Bandwidth Survey to help you self-assess the six key factors that contribute to

* Balance between priorities
* Filtering through possibilities
* Mental habits that improve focus
* Physical habits that fuel the brain
* Connection with others
* Workload and time management

Kise and Holm combine the latest neuroscience research with their own extensive experience working with educators to bring the most effective strategies and habits that help you manage your mental bandwidth and prioritize drains on mental energy. When you can establish good habits, focus on what’s possible within your locus of control, and balance priorities, you can improve your educator bandwidth and feel more engaged, centered, and effective in your work.

Genres: Education

297 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 15, 2022

About the author

Jane Kise is a writer, education consultant, and corporate trainer. She has written over 25 books, including Educator Bandwidth, Doable Differentiation, Differentiated Coaching, and Intentional Leadership. She is a past president of the Association for Psychological Type International, an organization dedicated to constructive use of differences.

Reviews

[Gary Anderson]

Teachers are struggling right now. After their heroics during the pandemic, educators are dealing with increasing pressures, demands, and vitriol. This is not a sustainable situation.

In Educator Bandwidth: How to Reclaim Your Energy, Passion, and Time (ASCD, 2022), professional development experts Jane A. G. Kise and Ann C. Holm provide paths to improving the mental health of educators and regenerating morale in schools. Although Educator Bandwidth contains solid wellness advice for anyone, it is specifically tailored to the needs of educators, including acute awareness of issues that arise from parents, meetings, “free time,” work-life balance, and discipline.

Kise and Holm are always pragmatic problem solvers, so they place responsibility for reclaiming educator bandwidth on both individual teachers and school leaders through the use of blameless discernment. They reject either-or thinking in favor of solutions that best serve the goals of the individual and the organization. If it doesn’t work for both, then it’s no good. Rooted in brain science, research, and their extensive professional development experience, Kise and Holm offer practical ways for educators and organizations to improve bandwidth by concentrating on these six areas:

--Balance between priorities
--Filtering through possibilities
--Mental habits that improve focus
--Physical habits that fuel the brain
--Connection with others
--Workload and time management

One of my biggest takeaways from Educator Bandwidth involves technology. As the availability of easy-to-use, convenient personal devices came into being, no one seemed to think much about the efficacy of using it, so the technology filled that vacuum and took over much of modern life. Kise and Holm suggest various ways of making technology work for us instead of being seduced by it at all hours of the day and night. (This can also be adapted for students. The biggest complaint I hear from high school teachers involves inappropriate use of cell phones by students.)

If educator bandwidth isn’t a concern or priority right now in every American school, it should be. Educator Bandwidth is an excellent professional development tool for investing in and improving each school and district’s most valuable resource–the wellness of its people.

Preview materials from Educator Bandwidth: How to Reclaim Your Energy, Passion, and Time are available here.

This review is also posted on my What's Not Wrong? blog in slightly different form.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this more slowly than I normally read. I wanted to absorb the wisdom and try to better my own perception of how my bandwidth impacts my life both inside and out of my school.

It makes a lot of sense. There is nothing terribly earth shattering here; just lots of sensible ideas and logical suggestions. The ideas are easy enough to implement, and I think that if you are self aware enough to choose a book like this, you are definitely capable of making positive changes - no matter how simple they sound.

Overall, I’d call this one a winner.

[Jessica Rintoul]

Really helpful and actionable advice

[Blythe Dallet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book this summer for a grad credit workshop. I’m so glad I did! I got so much more out of it than I could have anticipated. The authors clearly understand the challenges teachers face and how depleting of energy stores being an educator is. They share simple and easy to employ strategies that will 100% make educators lives better. I have already started regular use of a timer and/or alarm on my phone to help reserve some bandwidth and carve out time for important tasks/events. If you’re an educator, this book is for you. It will fill a craving you didn’t even know you had.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as part of a book study group over the summer, which helped me slow down and really process what I was reading. It helped me see some areas where I can make some changes to how I am using my time.

[Jordan Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many helpful tips to increase bandwidth, and avoid burnout. Great leadership topics. Really good informative book.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I definitely have taken to heart the idea of being mindful of and trying to increase mental bandwidth. Only suggestion is I feel book could be shortened

[Caitlin Gloege · Rating 3 out of 5]

Valuable. Gives basic, but enlightening ideas and concepts to implement immediately. Quick and fairly engaging read.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspiring book on reclaiming passion for work- surveys guide in areas of opportunities to gain better focus and efficiency.