77: Normalizing Teacher Self-Care (in a Pandemic) w/ Evan Whitehead

Today we are joined by Evan Whitehead, a veteran educator who is the director of special services at a K-8 school in Illinois. Evan has served in a variety of roles, from crisis and behavior interventionist to Latino parent outreach coordinator to Title 1 director. Further, Evan actively presents on reaching at-risk youth, leadership, and self-care for everyone in education, and is a national consultant for the Aha! Process.

We discuss how educators can best prepare for self-care, especially now within remote and hybrid contexts. Further, we focus on conversation on two themes: 1) how can we build systems (e.g. breaks, SEL check-ins) to ensure teachers are supported by administration, and 2) how can we ensure that toxic positivity doesn’t ignore equity and social justice in the “name of” self-care?

Transcript available here.

GUESTS

Evan Whitehead, a leader in social-emotional learning, leadership, and self-care, and director of special services at a K-8 school.

RESOURCES

• How Self-Compassion Can Help Prevent Teacher Burnout
• Dena Simmons: Without Context, Social-Emotional Learning Can Backfire

FURTHER LISTENING

• The Innovator’s Mindset: Balance, Boundaries, and Breaks (YouTube)