Illuminate the Way: The School Leader's Guide to Addressing and Preventing Teacher Burnout

The causes of teacher burnout are often systemic and best addressed with coordinated group support. So what tools do principals and other school leaders need to make a difference?

In Illuminate the Way: The School Leader's Guide to Addressing and Preventing Teacher Burnout, veteran teacher and instructional coach Chase Mielke outlines the three dimensions of burnout-exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy-and provides the methods to help foster agency, relatedness, and competence in your staff.

School leaders have a responsibility to develop the skills, the strategies, and a school culture that emphasize resilience. Decades of psychological and organizational research have shown that we must eradicate the causes of helplessness, which leads to ineffectiveness, and instead promote the conditions of well-being and engagement. The best path to an effective educator is an affective educator who has

* A strong level of autonomy and an internal locus of control.

* High self-efficacy in diverse teaching contexts.

* Resiliency skills for tackling individual and group challenges.

* Awareness of when and how to regulate diverse emotions.

* Intrinsic motivation to grow oneself, one's students, and one's team.

* Positive relationships with students, their families, colleagues, and administration.

Teacher burnout ripples out to the entire school system, and if we want to create thriving schools, we need to support thriving teachers. Help improve your teachers' well-being and illuminate the way to a more resilient and engaged school.

Chase Mielke is a veteran teacher and instructional coach, a nationally recognized speaker, and the author of ASCD's The Burnout Cure: Learning to Love Teaching Again and Overcoming Educator Burnout (Quick Reference Guide). A Michigan Teacher of the Year nominee and expert on teacher well-being, Chase delivers highly engaging, research-based, and practical keynotes and professional development workshops to schools and organizations across the world. His work has been featured on CNN, Greater Good Magazine, and Edutopia. He hosts the Educator Happy Hour podcast and writes the "Burnout Rx" column for EL Magazine. Chase resides with his family in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where he daydreams about fresh Expo markers and tries to keep his wild toddler from eating dog food and rocks.