WE PREVENT & HEAL TEACHER BURNOUT BY SPARKING PASSION & REIGNITING PURPOSE

Today's teachers are often overwhelmed and unsure how to make the same student achievement gains they saw before the pandemic. According to a 2022 Gallup poll, 44% of K-12 teachers in the United States "always" or "very often" feel burned out at work, the highest rate of any industry nationwide. For teachers specifically that figure jumps to 52%, and for female-identifying teachers it's 55%. Many teachers struggle mightily to achieve work-life balance and maintain a sustainable approach to work they love and feel called to do, and this disconnect between the professional purpose they set out to fulfill and their actual working conditions leads many teachers to leave the profession. According to a 2023 Chalkbeat study, teacher turnover is now at its highest rate in at least five years, and a 2022 Rand study found that the national teacher turnover rate is now 10%, an increase of four percentage points from before the pandemic. The teacher turnover rate is even higher in districts that serve urban, high-poverty, or predominantly BIPOC communities.  As veteran educators we've both experienced burnout multiple times, and we've had to make changes to our personal and professional lives to ensure we had the energy to show up every day for our students and school communities. 

In writing our book, Educating with Passion and Purpose: Keep the Fire Going without Burning Out, we realized that the key to avoiding burnout and recovering from it over the course of our careers has been having a strong sense of why we are educators in the first place. We came to understand that when you are able to stand in your purpose, you can use that purpose as a litmus test for decision-making to ensure you are actually living and working in alignment with your purpose. We've found that burnout generally stems from a misalignment around purpose, and educators can prevent and heal burnout by rekindling, reconnecting, and recommitting to their purpose. Over our four combined decades as educators, including as teachers, coaches, and leaders, we've seen time and again that the schools and districts with the most success in retaining teachers are those communities that support teachers in investing in their own sense of purpose. When teachers develop specific tools that allow them to build independent reflective routines about what they do and why they do it, they remain engaged in the vital work of teaching and learning. The result is that teachers are empowered to take charge of their own well-being rather than relying on one-off PD workshops that serve as bandaids at best.

We help schools and districts address and prevent burnout by empowering educators and leaders to reconnect to their passion for teaching and learning in community. Through reflective writing, collaborative storytelling, and decision-making protocols, the educators we work with identify burnout triggers, recommit to their purpose as educators, and learn strategies to align their reality to that purpose. They learn to safeguard their social and emotional energy, seek support by connecting with their network, and cultivate a renewed sense of inspiration. Our work prioritizes independence, autonomy, and self-efficacy so that teachers, leaders, teams, and schools can do reflective, purpose-driven, longterm work on their own. Our professional learning offerings are grounded in our book, Educating with Passion and Purpose: Keep the Fire Going without Burning Out, so participants can return over and over to useful stories, prompts, and activities on their own and collaboratively. As a result, educators can spiral back to the content that's most appropriate for them as they grow, confront new challenges, and set future goals.

Because our focus is on building educators' capacity to do reflective, purpose-driven, longterm work on their own, we do not espouse particular content or pedagogical strategies. Our professional learning experiences engage participants in reflective writing, collaborative storytelling, and decision-making protocols, so there is no "chalk and talk," "sit and get," or prepackaged facilitation materials. Over the past twenty years, we have watched many schools and districts invest in one-off PD workshops that left teachers and school leaders unsatisfied and wanting more or that seemed disconnected to meaningful goals and initiatives. We believe in leveraging the wisdom that teachers and leaders bring to their own learning communities each and every day; if you feel like you need to keep coming back to us for more and more outside expertise on how to heal the adults in your own learning community, then we have not done our job in building capacity at the school or district level.

Our standard professional learning experience is a highly interactive, 90-minute, hands-on, minds-on workshop grounded in adult learning principles. We start by inviting participants to ground their learning in their lived experiences of teaching and learning with passion and purpose as well as amidst burnout. We introduce a research-based definition of burnout to ensure that we're working from a shared understanding so that we can guide participants into deep, personal reflection around their own individual burnout triggers and risk factors. Through modeling, reflective writing, and collaborative storytelling to build connection and community, participants uncover and reconnect to their why: their dynamic sense of purpose as an educator. Finally, participants practice aligning an element of their work (curriculum, pedagogy, or another concern of their choice) to their why, learning to nourish and safeguard their purpose when all of the things that lead to burnout start to separate them from it in the real world. This experience can be facilitated in person and virtually. All of our school and district engagements begin with a prep call and include follow-up support to ensure that the learning experience is customized, human-centered, and learner-driven. We provide resources that can be reproduced in both print and digital forms for ongoing use at the school and district level as well as by individuals.

In our book, Educating with Passion and Purpose: Keep the Fire Going without Burning Out, we emphasize the importance of prioritizing people, not positions, in the hiring process. The same holds true for professional learning: investing in people is the smartest decision a leader can make. When you invest in the well-being of your team you reap benefits far exceeding your initial costs. Here's what we've heard from some of the educators who have engaged with us as readers and learners:

• “This book is truly an inspiration to anyone fortunate enough to read it. The insightful advice, relatable experiences shared, and the encouragement and resources offered to overcome obstacles, make it applicable and useful for all educators - at any level in their careers. Through tears, smiles, and head nods in agreement, there is no doubt that this book will help unlock your ‘why’ and motivate you to grow as an educator.” –Shelby Sprung, special education teacher
• “Reading Meredith and Rebekah's stories reminded me not only of what I loved about learning in the classroom everyday with students, but also that this daily work is something I believe to be sacrosanct and the leader's duty to support and protect. When you are a district leader, it's easy to get caught up in the daily political and operational work that doesn't feel quite so sacred. This book could not have come at a better time.” –Carolyn Yaffe, Executive Director, Valley Charter Schools
• “In the midst of a national teacher shortage, Matson and Shoaf provide a critical contribution to the discussion about how we retain, sustain, and reinvigorate educators — by reconnecting with their purpose! Educators from the district office to the classroom should take note of these practical ideas for transforming experience and avoiding burnout.” –Jeffrey Garrett, Sr. VP of Leadership Development, The Partnership for Los Angeles Schools

We recommend starting the school year by grounding your entire adult learning community in passion and purpose before classes even begin.

Schools and districts that engage with us are setting their teams up for months of successful professional learning based on our book, Educating with Passion and Purpose: Keep the Fire Going without Burning Out, and grounded in the initial workshop. Our approach emphasizes sustainability and independence with follow-up support that's included with the workshop, not at additional cost. Because the book and its accompanying resources are available in print as well as in digital forms, your team can continue to facilitate this work for ongoing professional learning over the remainder of the school year and beyond.