TEWX 500   Achieving a Work-Life Balance in Teaching 3 credits

As with most jobs, teaching responsibilities can infiltrate your entire life if you let it. After-school activities, grading, and lesson planning can creep into your off hours and blur the lines between work and the rest of your life. Work–life balance means feeling engaged, effective, and satisfied in each aspect of life. In this course, you will develop a set of practical, customizable strategies to help you work smarter, not harder. Time management, organizational skills, and emotional groundedness are key skills that you will master to help you feel calm, in control, and able to focus on your students. You will learn to increase your productivity at work and feel more satisfied with your life both inside and outside the classroom. A balanced teacher is a teacher who can connect with, inspire, and help his or her students achieve personal and academic success. At the end of this course, you will have the skills you need to be present and effective both at school and beyond. This course is offered through Advancement Course.

TEWX 501   From Burnout to Productivity: Creating a Path for Teacher Wellness 3 credits

I’ve always been the type of teacher who’s tired at the end of the school year because I’ve given my all—every day—for the past nine months.” How many teachers can relate to this sentiment? Teacher burnout is an increasingly common phenomenon. Long hours, stressful environments, and intense expenditures of energy, brainpower, and compassion can all contribute to decreased health and wellness, especially over the course of multiple years. In this course, you will learn strategies for creating a healthy work–life balance, advocating for a more sustainable lifestyle, and improving your outlook and inspiration both inside and outside the classroom. Through a series of self-inventories and assessments, you will identify your sources of burnout and techniques for preventing and reversing it. In addition, you will learn how to bring these strategies to your students and colleagues to create an atmosphere of calm and productivity in your school. With the techniques you learn in this course, you will be better prepared to manage the stressors inherent to life as an educator to create a path to sustainable wellness. This course is offered through Advancement Courses.

TEWX 502   Self-Care Strategies for Teachers 3 credits

Teaching is among the most stressful careers you can pursue because it requires you to manage others’ feelings and behaviors on a daily basis. From safety concerns to troubled students, you often face high-stress situations that can leave you feeling beat up and uninspired. Self-care is an essential practice for all teachers, but how do you know if your strategies are actually building you up so you can enjoy a long, healthy career in education? This course teaches you targeted strategies for self-care and wellness, starting with a comprehensive inventory of your whole self—personally, and as a teacher, parent, partner, friend, and community member. You will learn techniques for how to stop absorbing stressors, manage challenging situations, build long-term self-care strategies for all areas of your life, and track your progress through a series of somatic and emotional self-evaluations. This course gives you the opportunity to invest in yourself so you can build a more grounded, inspired, and sustainable career in education. This course is offered through Advancement Courses.

TEWX 503   Stress Reduction for Better Teaching 3 credits

Being a teacher is often a stressful experience. Whether it is lesson planning, grading, communicating with parents, handling classroom management, helping troubled children, or dealing with colleagues, there are always competing needs for teachers’ time and energy. Even the most practiced teacher can become overwhelmed. In this course, you will learn how acute and chronic stress can impact not only your teaching, but also your body and your health. You’ll develop a personal stress profile and stress management portfolio, which includes how to identify what triggers your stress, how to build up tolerance, and how to respond in a healthy way. In addition, you’ll create exercises for helping both yourself and your students manage stress more effectively and build resilience in the face of specific challenges. With the skills you learn in this course, you will be able to fully enjoy the greatest job on earth and be healthier for yourself and completely present for your students. This course is offered through Advancement Courses.

TEWX 504   Becoming a Calm, Happy Teacher 3 credits

Teachers have a multifaceted role that includes wearing many hats; being present in the lives of students, families, and colleagues; and taking care of others before themselves. Educators’ demanding career and giving spirit can lead to stress, burnout, dissatisfaction, frustration, and sadness if intentional practices are not implemented. As a way to support personal well-being and happiness, you’ll explore the power of positive psychology as tool to find a more balanced, calm approach to teaching that will give you more energy and vitality at work and at home. The techniques will help you create more life balance, so that you can cultivate more well-being for yourself and your classroom. The strategies will not only help you be more engaged, present, and fulfilled as a teacher, but you’ll also apply your learning to your classroom and your students. This course is offered through Advancement Courses.