WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE TEACHING?
Teaching may be the toughest job you'll ever love. This perhaps explain why the teacher turnover rate is at an all-time high nationally and why 1 in 6 Colorado teachers leaves the profession in the first five years. So if you're feeling burned out as a teacher, you're not alone.
Despite the challenges, CSUWP teachers still love teaching deep down. So for the past three years, a community of educators in the CSUWP Institute for Sustainable Teaching has been researching how to stay in the profession. Together, we've developed a theory called "sustainable teaching."
Despite the challenges, CSUWP teachers still love teaching deep down. So for the past three years, a community of educators in the CSUWP Institute for Sustainable Teaching has been researching how to stay in the profession. Together, we've developed a theory called "sustainable teaching."
Sustainable teaching is the process of fostering self-compassion and renewal in educators who support the growth and development of students in turn.
Sustainable teaching puts educators first
with the goal of creating a collaborative community that values
an integrated approach to education and enables all participants to thrive.
Sustainable teaching puts educators first
with the goal of creating a collaborative community that values
an integrated approach to education and enables all participants to thrive.
Components of sustainable teaching include:
- Cultivating self-compassion and a gracious mindset toward others
- Acknowledging and embracing our own vulnerability
- Recognizing limits and stressors, then setting boundaries so that we don’t exhaust our resources
- Developing a repertoire of mindfulness practices and actually using them to build personal resilience and professional longevity
- Reserving space for self-care, play, and laughter
- Creating and actively participating in a support system for personal and professional growth
- Identifying allies who will advocate on our behalf and help us locate and leverage resources to enable our professional longevity
- Modeling for all stakeholders, including our students, how to live and work sustainably
Want some resources to sustain your own practice? You can find some resources for sustainable teaching here. Want to know what sustainable teaching looks like in action? Check out the CSUWP blog.