Action Plan for Finding Passion for Your Purpose

What are my plans for becoming more passionate about my job?

Recommendations Presently Doing Strive to Do

Find what I love and seek a job doing it. Use Lightstone’s (2021) ten indicators to determine if I truly love what I am doing: 1. Do I enter a state of flow where time flies by and I lose myself? 2. Do I feel fulfilled because I am doing something that is of value? 3. Do I get up in the morning with excitement about my day? 4. Do I work side by side with coworkers and superiors with whom I can accomplish great things? 5. Do I complain? 6. Do I mind when I must struggle? 7. Does talking about what I do energize me? 8. Is my work more than just work, or is it a means to an end?

9. Am I always interested in learning more about my job? 10. Do I feel tired at the end of a challenging day? Set healthy boundaries for my work time. Renew myself with downtime. Make downtime and vacations an integral part of my schedule. Communicate my passion for my content to students as I teach.

Encourage students to explore their passions.

Goals and Notes:

Source for ten indicators: Lightstone, N. (2021, February 11). 10 signs you are enjoying your work. Accessed at www.lifehack.org /articles/work/10-signs-you-are-enjoying-your-work.html on July 20, 2021.

© 2022 by Solution Tree Press. All rights reserved.

Healthy Teachers, Happy Classrooms

Twelve Brain-Based Principles to Avoid Burnout, Increase Optimism, and Support Physical Well-Being

Teacher burnout is a significant issue that negatively affects both teachers and students. How do educators resist this state so they can stay healthy and optimistic and create the best learning environments possible? In Healthy Teachers, Happy Classrooms: Twelve Brain-Based Principles to Avoid Burnout, Increase Optimism, and Support Physical Well-Being, author Marcia L. Tate explores twelve research-backed principles to maintain wellness and avoid burnout in the education profession. These principles—including playing games, listening to music, and investing in close personal relationships—can enhance every aspect of well-being.

K–12 educators will: • Understand why burnout is a major problem in education • Learn practical strategies to counter burnout • Integrate wellness principles into everyday life to improve their health and longevity • Translate their wellness to the classroom, creating the conditions for happy, ready-to-learn students • Find a reproducible action-planning tool for each principle

“Marcia L. Tate is one of my heroes. One of the best presenters I’ve ever seen, Marcia shares wise, powerful, helpful strategies and tools. In this book, especially relevant in these challenging times, she turns her attention to healthy principles for better lives. Anyone interested in living a healthier life—and isn’t that all of us?— will get a lot out of reading this book.”

—Jim Knight

Author; Senior Partner, Instructional Coaching Group; Research Associate, University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning

“Once again, Marcia L. Tate knocks it out of the park with her keen insights about the brain and self-care. She provides many practical strategies for teachers to reduce their feelings of burnout and reignite their passion for the profession. This book will change your life.”

—Kathy Perez

Author and Education Consultant; Professor Emerita, Kalmanovitz School of Education, Saint Mary’s College of California

“This book is a must-read for educators looking to reduce stress and maximize their impact on student learning. Marcia L. Tate’s longevity principles have helped me manage my stress and show up ready to address the needs of all our students.”

—Katlin A. Despain

Sixth-Grade Teacher, Hot Springs County School District 1, Thermopolis, Wyoming

Visit go.SolutionTree.com/teacherefficacy to download the free reproducibles in this book.