Course curriculum

  • 1

    Let's Get Started

  • 2

    Purpose

    • The Importance of Purpose

    • What Is Your "Why"?

    • Align Your Practice with Your Purpose

    • An Idea to Try: Collect Mementos

    • Get on the Right Committees

    • Remember to Keep the Big Picture in Mind

    • Reflecting on Purpose
  • 3

    Competence

    • The Importance of Teacher Competence

    • We Can't Do It All. Here's How I know.

    • Take Some Things Off of Your Plate

    • Accept Compliments

    • How to Say "No"

    • A Strategy for Boosting Competence: Collegial Coaching

    • Perfect is the Enemy of Good

    • Reflecting on Competence

    • Strengths and Next Steps Inventory
  • 4

    A Few More Important Ideas

    • Online Teachers: Collecting Feedback

    • School Leaders: There's Strength in Vulnerability

    • School Leaders: The Power of Collective Efficacy

    • Final Thought: Feed the Right Wolf

    • Before You Go, Help Me Improve this Course

Meet Mike Anderson

Teacher, Author, Consultant, Dad

Mike Anderson had been teaching for several years when he and his wife started their family. Suddenly, things got overwhelming--fast. Determined to maintain his passion for teaching while also being a good parent, Mike embarked on a quest to find better work-life balance. This self-designed research project resulted in the book, The Well-Balanced Teacher: How to Work Smarter and Stay Sane Inside the Classroom and Out. Now, as an education consultant, Mike supports teachers on topics such as differentiated learning, social-emotional learning, and, of course, teacher health and balance. Mike received a National Milken Educator Award as a classroom teacher, and in 2020, he received the Outstanding Educational Leader Award from NHASCD for his work as a consultant. When not consulting, Mike can be found hanging with his family, tending his perennial gardens, and searching for new running routes around his home in Durham, NH.
Buy Course

Included in This Course

You’ll explore key ideas, learn practical strategies, and gain helpful resources to help you better understand and manage work-life balance.

  • Renew your sense of purpose--remember why teaching is so important to you

  • Gain some practical strategies for how to reconnect with your sense of mission and purpose

  • Better understand why your sense of competence is so important for your energy as an educator

  • Learn strategies to boost your sense of competence in your work

  • Gain access to a wide array of supportive resources to help you continue to think about this important topic

  • When you finish the course, you can print a certificate showing 3 hours of professional learning.

  • You will have access to this course for a year, so you can go back in over and over again.

Testimonials

  • Mike Anderson helps so much recapture the reason teachers became teachers. He ends with a great exercise on positivity that helps secure competency while absorbing the positive aspects of the job!

    Jennifer Shoemaker, Mountain Brook, AL

  • Mike highlights purpose and competence like all of his other courses: with practicality and instantaneous application!

    Michael Castano, Timberlane, NH

  • After taking this course, I really felt invigorated. It reminded me of why I teach, and snapped me out of the monotony of the day to day.

    Bryanna Favor