Avoiding Teacher Burnout

A sure way method to avoid teacher burnout is hard work. Working hard can be energizing IF the work is helping to fulfill one's higher calling or commitment. When teachers are working together as a team and experiencing success they are willing to do whatever is required even if it means teaching Saturday morning classes and/or doing before or after school tutoring--even when there are no funds to pay them!

So what needs to be done?

• Teachers need to view their work as a calling.
• Teachers need to align themselves with a school that has a compelling vision/mission that matches their personal vision/mission.
• Teachers need to have opportunities to collaborate and to work as a team to achieve the vision/mission.
• Teachers and their students need to have successes they can celebrate because success breeds success.

Teachers who are able to meet these four criteria will be better able to confront those external factors that result in burnout because of the stress they cause.

Designing schools for Hispanic learners

John Morefield has said, “I have come to believe that a school designed to work for children of color will work for White children. The reverse, however is not true. Consequently, if we design schools to work for children of color, they will work for all children.”

The trick is to learn and understand what does work for children of color and for this blog, specifically what works for Hispanic students. We obviously know what isn’t working. Patricia Gándara says in her book, Over the Ivy Walls:

Our increased understanding of the factors that lead to failure has not appreciably diminished the rate of failure. Perhaps a better understanding of what leads to academic success will yield more fruitful outcomes…an important element missing from most research has been the insights which can be gained from an understanding of how students who don’t fail, in spite of adverse circumstances, manage to escape that fate (pp. xii, 9).

What we will explore and share on this blog is what we can learn from a variety of research sources as to what works for Hispanic learners.