Last week I wrapped up a yearlong book study I’ve been helping to facilitate with three other teachers from my district. We’ve been working with a small group of educators across our district to continue our study of Elena Aguilar’s book, Onward. The book aims to help educators prevent and recover from burnout, implement strategies to help access and understand our emotions, practice caring for ourselves, and rekindle our passion for teaching. Each month, we’ve focused on one or two chapters, diving into such topics as building community, telling empowering stories, self-care, cultivating compassion, mindfulness, navigating change, finding and maintaining work/life balance, gratitude, and making time to play.

This project has been such a breath of fresh air. As a facilitator, what I appreciated the most was the opportunity to examine and reflect on my own habits along with the rest of the group. This was as much a cathartic and rejuvenating process for me as it was for everyone else who attended and participated. AND, it was a paid opportunity for all involved. Teachers can’t be expected to continue pouring their time and emotional energy into others without opportunities to recharge and take care of themselves as well.

During our final meeting of the year, I got to incorporate something that I love to do, and I led our group through a mini mixed media art workshop. Each participant picked a quote that resonated with them, whether it was something they developed a deeper understanding of over the course of this past year, something they want to embody in the upcoming school year, or something that spoke to them in some other way, and we created visual representations of those inspiring words to display in our classrooms. I was so impressed and appreciative of every participant’s willingness to play along, despite many of them expressing feelings of uncertainty and nervousness at the idea of a creative and artistic experience. Everybody cheered each other on, asked others for ideas for inspiration, and allowed themselves time to play and create for themselves. Just for the sake of playing and creating. I didn’t ask for permission to post photos of the canvases that these incredible educators created for themselves, so I’ll only post a photo of mine below. I’m so excited to continue to deepen this practice next school year. I can’t wait to see what comes with next year’s group!