I'm So Tired!
An Educator's Guide to Self-Care
3 credit hour Iowa license renewal course (What's this?)
Course Dates: November 16th to December 30th
(Registration is open!)
(Registration is open!)
"Thank you for putting this class together. It forced me to develop plans that will help me be a better person and employee." ~Jennifer, Webster, IA
"I found a gratitude and appreciation that I didn't have before." ~Brad, Central City IA
"I found a gratitude and appreciation that I didn't have before." ~Brad, Central City IA
Educators are ravaged by the demands of education. Answering to parents, students, private citizens, administration, politicians and each other is very stressful. On top of that, many of us are caught in a sandwich between our parents and our kids. We are trying to meet everyone’s needs. The statistics regarding the flight of educators out of education is staggering.
Burnout is a combination of high stress and high hopes that converge in an almost impossible toxic stew of exhaustion, profound inertness and an inability to cope. Burnout can happen quickly or slowly over a number of years.
According to a Learning Policy Institute (LPI) report, overall teacher attrition rates in the US is one of the highest in the developed world and new teachers are especially prone to burnout leaving the profession at rates between 19 percent and 30 percent over their first five years of teaching.
Teaching is stressful. We watch our students struggle with poverty, abuse, learning problems and a myriad number of other difficulties. It takes its toll on our quality of life and our performance. We need to take time for ourselves and to learn how to be healthy emotionally and physically; we need an action-plan.
I’m So Tired! An Educator’s Guide to Self-Care, provides realistic paths to better choices and healthier living. This class explains the issues, identifies the problems and helps to remediate and treat those issues that keep educators sick and stressed out. Needs are explored at all levels and we examine how to address our individual needs in positive ways. Action plans for health will be developed and utilized. Strategies will be identified and developed during this class. Students will be expected to participate by establishing goals and working on those goals in ways that are specific to their own individual needs.
This course is presented in a modified, self-paced format. Participants are expected to access the course and post regularly (at least once a week) and make reasonable progress, but there are no due dates attached to individual assignments. Instead there are 2 absolute due dates (mid-term and the last day of class) to provide flexibility and to better accommodate participants' busy schedules.
Burnout is a combination of high stress and high hopes that converge in an almost impossible toxic stew of exhaustion, profound inertness and an inability to cope. Burnout can happen quickly or slowly over a number of years.
According to a Learning Policy Institute (LPI) report, overall teacher attrition rates in the US is one of the highest in the developed world and new teachers are especially prone to burnout leaving the profession at rates between 19 percent and 30 percent over their first five years of teaching.
Teaching is stressful. We watch our students struggle with poverty, abuse, learning problems and a myriad number of other difficulties. It takes its toll on our quality of life and our performance. We need to take time for ourselves and to learn how to be healthy emotionally and physically; we need an action-plan.
I’m So Tired! An Educator’s Guide to Self-Care, provides realistic paths to better choices and healthier living. This class explains the issues, identifies the problems and helps to remediate and treat those issues that keep educators sick and stressed out. Needs are explored at all levels and we examine how to address our individual needs in positive ways. Action plans for health will be developed and utilized. Strategies will be identified and developed during this class. Students will be expected to participate by establishing goals and working on those goals in ways that are specific to their own individual needs.
This course is presented in a modified, self-paced format. Participants are expected to access the course and post regularly (at least once a week) and make reasonable progress, but there are no due dates attached to individual assignments. Instead there are 2 absolute due dates (mid-term and the last day of class) to provide flexibility and to better accommodate participants' busy schedules.
Organization
This is a 3 credit hour Iowa license renewal course. Course goals will be met through instructor designed activities, supplemental readings, videos, reflections, assignments, opportunities for application and instructor feedback. This course is presented in a modified, self-paced format. Participants are expected to access the course and post regularly (at least once a week) and make reasonable progress, but there are no due dates attached to individual assignments. Instead there are 2 absolute due dates (mid-term and the last day of class) to provide flexibility and to better accommodate participants' busy schedules.
Course Objectives
By the end of the course, participants will...
1. Understand educators’ self-care needs and challenges
2. Understand how self-care affects personal and professional productivity and performance
3. Understand self-care as it relates to the following needs: physiological, safety, belonging, esteem, self-actualization and transcendence.
4. Know how to establish action-plans related to the following needs: physiological, safety, belonging, esteem, self-actualization and transcendence.
How Does This Course Support The Iowa Core?
The information and strategies presented in this course improves students’ opportunities for school and, ultimately, life success. This is a lofty goal that can only be achieved when the instructor is healthy. This class will focus on how to achieve and maintain health in the instructor as related to the needs cited above.
Iowa districts and schools provide a wide range of programs through a multi-tiered system of supports to help all students achieve the Iowa Early Learning Standards, the Iowa Core, and Essential Elements. Common elements of these programs include: effective, evidence-based instructional programs and interventions; differentiated instruction and intervention strategies;
individualized supports, accommodations, and alterable variables to ensure access to instruction and assessment procedures and materials; evaluation of student performance and program effectiveness; and collaboration among educators, relevant agencies, and families.
In order for the educator to achieve the above satisfactorily, he needs to be in good condition. This class promotes the good health that he needs to be in to function optimally.
This falls in line with the Iowa Core that states school preparation should produce the following:
1. Students who are college and career ready in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language.
2. Students who are proficient in English, language arts, history, social studies, science, and technical subjects in all grade levels.
3. Students who are proficient in 21st century skills such as critical thinking/problem solving, curiosity, collaboration and leadership.
Course Topics that Support Instructional Practices and Strategies:
*Understanding self-care and its effects on personal and professional health and performance.
*Maslow’s Hierarchy for the 21st Century and you
*Diet, sleep & exercise: Are you taking care of you basic needs?
*Safety and Belonging
*Self-esteem, self-actualization and self-transcendence.
*Making plans for change
Grading
This is a 3 credit hour Iowa license renewal only course. Grading is Pass/Fail. Students are required to participate in and complete all assignments and/or activities. Participants must earn scores of 80% or better to receive Pass score and receive credit.
Required Text:
Take Time for You: Self-Care Action Plans for Educators (2018)
By Tina H. Boogren
https://amzn.to/3TT5PS0
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Solution Tree Press; Bloomington, IN.
ISBN-10: 1945349719
ISBN-13: 978-1945349713