Teaching is not easy and teaching with our heart, brain and soul is even less easy. The protect it focus group’s goal is to help teachers finding a healthy work-life balance so they they can keep caring for their students and not burn out.

What is the focus of the group for each the Protect-it editions?

• The New Year Edition (January, February and March)
  • We will address the issues related one of the toughest time of the year. Winter, the tireness of the school year… All of this makes it really important to stick together and feel stronger.
• The Spring Edition (April, May and June)
  • The spring time is a special time for teachers: the end of the year, the exams, the report cards… It can also be the time to think of one’s next year projects: are you planning to change the course you are teaching? Changing team, school or career event? We will address your dreams and challenges of the season 🙂
• The Summer Solstice Edition (June, July and August)
  • Summer can be a time of assessment and rest. It’s a good time to pause and nurture your personal hobbies so that you start the school year with strong and healthy habits.
• The Fall Edition (September, October and November).
  • Fall is the beginning of the school year. It’s a perfect time to set expectations on term of communication style with your colleagues, your family and you friends. Yes, you feel rested and full of energy since you have been able to rest for two beautiful months but the risk is to spread yourself thin and be “dead” by December… We will work on ways you can set balanced expectation and sustain them especially.

About the workshop

A blog entry about the program

I wasn’t always convinced that to be a good teacher, you have to bring something to the school. The school, as an institution, is a system of education that enables hundreds of individuals to learn together. In the best-case scenario, teachers can live out their vocation and feel recognized for all they do. In the worst case, teachers are just cogs in an infernal machine, gradually losing their connection with themselves.

After a few years, they may even come to believe that they don’t have much left in them. To believe that they are nothing more than educational technocrats, hyper-specialized employees with nothing left to do but teach or join the administration.

I say that I have NOT always been convinced that teachers should contribute something to the school, because like many teachers, I have been shackled by my passion for education, blocked by my need for control and human relations. But this led me to burnout, and I finally realized that if I lost myself, I could no longer contribute anything to my students, my colleagues or my loved ones.

That’s why I became a coach and developed the “Protect it” program, and more specifically the focus group for teachers.

This 3 or 4-month program consists of weekly online meetings during which we share our dreams, projects and doubts in a caring and constructive atmosphere. No, it’s not the teacher’s room. No, it’s not the kitchen at home where your partner listens to you harp on the same complaints over and over again. No, it’s not a Facebook group where you vent about the French education system.

Protect it! is a series of sessions facilitated by a life coach (me :-)) where you can try out concrete strategies to help you see things more clearly. The meetings offer a space for cooperation, where each of the four or five participants can share their project and feel supported and listened to by caring peers.

Here are just a few of the projects some of our participants have already been working on:

• Taking daily walks during the school day
• Taking care of your diet throughout the week
• Being more present with your family
• Writing a book or article
• Starting a business

Other initiatives by enCourage

enCourage is thriving for offering quality programs allowing clients to live a more simple and peaceful life. Check out if there anything other you might be interested in.