Response to Journal Post: Burnout

Burnout in the education field is always a highly discussed topic. It is always important to be mindful; however, being present in your mindfulness is critical. Meditation is a wonderful avenue to reduce stress and it also helps to benefit the students as Roeser, et al. mention in their article about a mindfulness training study. There is a great breakdown for how a continued and consistent system increases self-compassion to reduce anxiety, stress, and burnout. Therein, the downstream when the teacher has developed advantageous coping and resilience methods the classroom management and supportive environment exist. This is a symbiotic relationship for reduction in stress and building teacher-student relationships. This alternately creates a classroom where student motivation and academic success is strengthened.

One thing that initially struck me from the article was the idea that "teachers themselves report that workload, lack of collaborative time with colleagues, lack of support from administrators, and the management of difficult student behavior in the classroom are among the most stressful aspects of their jobs." This goes along with being pulled in so many directions and being needed as your article proposed. There are so many things that go on in any teacher/teacher librarians day. Creating a time and space to create practices that are positive in nature and help to relax the body and mind are critical.

They mindfulness training program studied in the article used four methods of mindfulness. All work on creating an internal peace with the situation at hand and ability to in the moment recenter and refocus energy. The one I love best was "loving-kindness meditation, uses focused attention in the service of cultivating positive emotion toward oneself and others," followed by "focused-attention meditation to develop concentration, in which attention is focused on a single object like the breath or external sound." The other two focus on the somatic and emotional experiences.

A large take away from the results was that this mindfulness and reduction of burnout needs to be conducted at home as well. A minimum of 15 minutes per day at home lead to the teachers in the study feeling more motivated, less stressed, and had higher self-compassion.

Just as a side note- our office (I work for a City government agency right now) has a yoga session every M,W,F during the lunch hour and the participation rate is very high. People who attend seem less stressed on those days in the later afternoon. Maybe you could do a yoga course in the library during lunch hours or before/after school.

Blaire, T. (2017, June 24). The Wonder of Words [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://ischoolblogs.sjsu.edu/students/thewonderofwords/2017/06/24/avoiding-burnout/#comment-28

DelGuidice, M. (2011). Avoiding school librarian burnout: Simple steps to ensure your personal best. LMC 29(4), 22-23.

Roeser, R. W., Schonert-Reichl, K. A., Jha, A., Cullen, M., Wallace, L., Wilensky, R., & ... Harrison, J. (2013). Mindfulness training and reductions in teacher stress and burnout: Results from two randomized, waitlist-control field trials. Journal Of Educational Psychology, 105(3), 787-804. doi:10.1037/a0032093

Ruhlmann, E. (2017, June). Mindful librarianship: Awarenss of each moment helps librarians say serene under stress. American Libraries Magazine 48(6), 44-47.