Create a Professional Well-Being Greenhouse

The book “The Resilient Practitioner” by Thomas Skovholt and Michelle Trotter-Mathison shares that people in the helping professions should “Not to wait for your organization to serve your needs. We urge you to actively create your own greenhouse.” A professional greenhouse is an environment where nurturing key factors help create an ideal personal and professional growth space.

As educators, we can practice four key actions to support our well-being and professional growth. A professional greenhouse is an environment that encourages practitioner growth, promotes self-care, seeks social support and mentorship from peers, and creates an atmosphere of respect, playfulness, and joy.

Create an environment that supports practitioner growth.

Learning more about our practice helps us grow as professionals. Reading books, attending workshops and conferences, and engaging in reflective practice all help us grow our knowledge and skill in the classroom. An important action step to enhance practitioner growth is to dedicate a small percentage of our income to professional development. As we learn more about our field and ourselves, we become more engaged in the classroom. Developing our knowledge and classroom practice creates energy and vitality in us that is contagious and inspires the work of our learning community.

Promote self-care.

Balancing our care for others with caring for ourselves is an essential practice for educators. Time away from helping others refreshes our souls and allows us to work through the emotions and challenges of our work. An important well-being practice is to balance the hours we care for others with the hours we care for ourselves. Most of us do not have enough time in the day to create a proper balance, but we can work toward finding activities or leisure pursuits away from the classroom to replenish ourselves. If you struggle to find time for well-being, make an appointment on your calendar each day to engage in an activity that replenishes your soul.

Seek social support from peers and mentors.

Talking with colleagues helps us reduce the stress generated by caring for others and invites us to process and learn from our experiences in the classroom. Sharing with peers helps us connect through everyday experiences and tells us we are not alone. Talking with others helps us be vulnerable, open to taking risks, and solve challenges in our work. The support of a peer or mentor helps us grow as we work through the stages of practitioner development. An essential practice in this area is regularly scheduling professional sharing meetings with colleagues. Depending on your preference, the sessions can be at or away from work. My colleagues and I schedule one weekly meeting to discuss anything and express our feelings about our experiences. Our discussion provides emotional and professional support to our current challenges in the classroom.

Create an environment of respect, playfulness, and joy.

As an educator, it is crucial to have a work environment that supports respectful interaction. Classroom work can be stressful and influence our communication with other educators. Remember to take your time in the classroom and be intentional in your actions. When circumstances become too stressful, take a moment to think through the challenge before interacting with others. Play is the main ingredient of our professional environment. Take advantage of the opportunity and join the children in play. An essential practice in this area is to take time each day to partner with the children in a project, game, or investigation. The time we spend in play refreshes us and helps us connect with our learning community.

Developing the four key actions as we create our well-being greenhouse will help us avoid burnout as helping professionals. Our work in the classroom depends on our ability to be present and positive. Developing our practices in professional well-being supports our desire to help others. As we help others, we help ourselves be better humans and contributors to the greater good. The brightness and hope in the world start with one stream of light from our contribution to the learning community. Our light shines brightest when we care for ourselves as we care for others.