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• If you do not take time for yourself and your family, you 5. Write a phrase that you will say to yourself when you are
will not survive. Protect yourself from unreasonable de- stressed.
mands. (Mr. E)
6. Identify a person you trust who will serve as a collaborator
• Look for the gains, however small, that students make. and schedule a meeting time.
Know that you are making a difference even if it is not vis-
ible to you right now. (Mr. H) 7. Designate two times per day that you will read your work
e-mails.
• There is no need to continue working in a toxic environ-
ment. If you experience actual dread going to work, then 8. Target a time for leaving work each day.
find a new school. (Mr. P)
Select two items from the Catch Fire Action Plan above that
• Always strive to teach from a positive perspective. Look for you are going to implement this week and reward yourself
special traits in your students and don’t be afraid to point for following through. Eventually your new behaviors will
them out. (Ms. S) become habit and you will have more energy, avoid the burn,
and be joyful in your career.
• Don’t take work home every night, as you deserve rest.
(Mr. K)
NOTES
• Hold on to the big payoff moments, like after a student
graduates and tells you how much they loved your class. 1 Myah Ward, “The Teacher Shortage Problem is Bad, Really Bad.”
(Mr. G) Politico, August 15, 2022, accessed August 21, 2022 https://
www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-nightly/2022/08/15/
• Read Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “From a Letter to His the-teacher-shortage-problem-is-bad-really-bad-00052053.
Daughter” often. “Finish each day and be done with it. 2 Kathryn Dill, “Teachers are Quitting, and Companies are Hot to
5
You have done what you could… Tomorrow is a new day; Hire Them.” The Wall Street Journal, February 2, 2022, accessed
begin it well and serenely.” (Ms. B) August 8, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/teachers-are-
quitting-and-companies-are-hot-to-hire-them-11643634181.
3 Tim Walker, “Getting Serious about Teacher Burn-out.” NEA
Conclusion News, November 12, 2021, accessed August 6, 2022, https://
Now is the time for you to start your journey on the path www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/getting-
to a fulfilling long-term career in education. Our students serious-about-teacher-burnout.
need your collective experience and wisdom. Create your 4 Mayo Clinic staff writers, “Job Burnout: How to spot it and
Catch Fire Action Plan that will help ignite your passion and take action.” Mayo Clinic Health Information, June 5,
“avoid the burn.” 2021, accessed August 20, 2022, https://www.mayoclinic.
org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/burnout/art-
Catch Fire Action Plan 20046642.
5 “Finish Every Day and Be Done With it,” https://
1. State what you like about teaching on a Post-it Note and quoteinvestigator.com/2018/12/19/finish-day/, 1939, The
refer to it daily. Letters of Ralph Waldo Emerson in Six Volumes, Edited by Ralph L.
Rusk (Professor of English at Columbia University), Volume 4,
2. List a negative influence that you are going to avoid. Letter from: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Letter to: Ellen Emerson,
Letter date: April 8, 1854, Letter location: Concord, Start
3. Select one resource that will help your instruction and a Page 438, Quote Page 439, Columbia University Press, New
possible source for funding. York.

4. Draft a learning objective that you are going to focus on.

ChorTeach Volume 15 • Issue 2 9 Winter 2023