Hi, you, out there. How are things? If you are not from my part of the world, you won't necessarily know that we have had the worst weather this week: almost no sunshine except for yesterday (in fact, apparently this has been the winter with the least amount of sunshine so far in my part of the world. This week we had rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets and 90km winds that ripped a branch off the only tree in front of my house. Today (Friday) we are expecting a big snowstorm with 20 cm of snow. Ah, January in Canada. So much fun!
This is a mini book review. Nothing formal.
The book in question is called The Resilient Practitioner: Burnout Prevention and Self-Care Strategies for Counselors, Therapists, Teachers and Health Professionals" Author: Thomas Skovholt (2001)
Now, unfortunately, the title of the book is slightly misleading as the book does not speak very much about resiliency per se, so anyone looking for new findings on resiliency in helpers should look elsewhere. But it offers a nice teacher-centered perspective on CF and ways to mitigate the impact of the work.
Skovholt takes a career counsellor approach to looking at the challenges of the work and uses some of the key concepts of the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory to articulate some of his ideas. He looks at CF on a developmental perspective (the novice practitioner, hazards of practice for the experienced practitioner, etc.)
I liked the fact that he has created a resource that speaks to teachers and other helpers who work in the field of education as so much material out there (not that there is very much but still) is focused on health care and trauma workers. His chapters on sustaining the personal self and burnout prevention are also good.
Movies on CF: I also came across a wonderful independent film called Chalk. Maybe some of you have heard of it already, it was produced with the help of the Supersize Me guy Morgan Spurlock. It is a mockumentary featuring three new teachers in a Texas high school. There are some very funny and some very wry, touching moments. It has won all sorts of awards apparently. www.chalkthemovie.com
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