1 The Why: Why Well-Being Matters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Social-Emotional Learning and Well-Being

About the Author

Gail Markin is a counselor and teacher who has worked to support health and well-being in her local school district in Langley, British Columbia (BC), and across the province. Gail began her career as a social worker, family counselor, and parent educator. After becoming a teacher, Gail worked as a school counselor in many schools before moving to her district support role. As an educational consultant promoting staff well-being, Gail is particularly proud of a project she did in conjunction with BC Children’s Hospital, where she worked with rural and remote school districts to support health and well-being.

Gail is the chair of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) BC and a member of the steering committee of the BC School Centred Mental Health Coalition. Gail participates in two amazing communities of practice that help shape her work: the K–12 Staff Wellbeing Network and the Compassionate Systems Leadership Network. It is through these supportive and connected networks that Gail developed her passion for spreading her message about the importance of well-being, which she does through writing, teaching, and speaking. Gail has written articles for the BC School Superintendents Association, the BC School Counsellors Association, the BC Principals’ and Vice-Principals’ Association, and the EdCan Network. Gail also coauthored a book chapter for new school administrators with Fei Wang, associate professor at the Faculty of Education, the University of British Columbia.

Speaking and presenting energize Gail. As a big podcast fan, Gail enjoyed being a podcast guest as well as a co-host of the Where You Are podcast (https:// whereyouarepodcast.com). Gail is particularly proud of her 2019 TEDx Talk on the power of belonging.

Gail has two bachelor’s degrees and two master’s degrees in psychology and education. She is working on a doctorate in leadership and policy at the University of British Columbia.

To learn more about Gail’s work, visit GailMarkin.ca or follow @MarkinGail on Twitter.

To book Gail Markin for professional development, contact pd@SolutionTree.com.

Foreword

By Dr. Sabre Cherkowski

Asaying I have noticed playing out in my life and my work as an educator and researcher is The teacher will show up when learning is needed. Gail Markin’s book, Beyond Self-Care: Leading a Systemic Approach to Well-Being for Educators, shows up as a teacher for the needed learning in our school systems, providing K–12 school leaders with a research-informed approach to building well-being for themselves, others, and the systems within which they work. Educators are at a time of high stress, burnout, and disease as they navigate work and life environments often characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. As Gail reminds us in the opening chapter, well-being matters not only for the students, who are in the care of teachers, leaders, and all school staff, but also for those adults in the building, who deserve to be well at work. This book offers encouragement for leaders as they tackle the hard and important work of building structures for well-being in their schools and systems.

I first met Gail several years ago through my research on flourishing in schools. She is now as she was then—committed to sharing with others what she is learning about her passion and purpose of growing well-being for all in schools. Throughout this book, Gail calls on readers to notice well-being across the education system, highlighting the interconnectedness of well-being at the levels of self, others, and system. Leaders learn first about the importance of practicing self-care at work from recent research and writing in the fields of positive psychology, business, health, and social-emotional learning (SEL). As I have found in my research on flourishing in schools, as leaders are supported to learn about their own and others’ well-being at work, they often shift toward crafting work conditions that nurture and sustain well-being (Cherkowski, Kutsyuruba, & Walker, 2020). Through her book, Gail builds a strong case for the importance of