120: Burnout ut with Kitty Boitnott

Kitty Boitnott, Ph.D., NBCT is a former educator turned Career Transition and Job Search Coach. She is an expert on teacher burnout, teacher stress, and general stress management techniques for those who are experiencing the pain and heartache of teacher burnout—a specific form of burnout that differs to some degree from the job burnout of other professionals. Kitty provides one-on-one and group coaching specifically for teachers who are ready to break free of the stifling confines of today’s classroom. With her assistance, her clients explore their career alternatives, learn effective job search strategies, and ultimately change their career path for a new, more satisfying direction.

One of Kitty’s strengths is that she understands teachers and their burnout first-hand. From 2008-2012, after a 33-year career as a teacher and elementary school library media specialist, Kitty served as President of the Virginia Education Association, Virginia’s largest teacher association, serving over 55,000 members across the Commonwealth. During the time she served in that role, she traveled all over the state and she talked with hundreds of teachers about the teaching conditions they were facing. Since leaving the VEA and starting her coaching enterprise, she has talked with dozens of individuals who are seeking to make a change in their career because of their own burnout, boredom, or disillusionment.

As an expert on teacher burnout, Kitty also offers workshops for teacher groups and school divisions on stress management techniques that teachers can use in an effort to ward off symptoms of burnout.

Quotables

• A burnt out teacher isn’t having any fun and neither are their students.
• There is a shortage of people who WANT to teach.
• If teachers can manage their stress they can delay the sense of burnout and perhaps stay in the profession.
• It takes a toll on the students to have a new teacher every year.
• We do a disservice to students when we don’t allow them to share their gifts.
• Get in touch with your true gift- work you were born to do!
• Don’t cry over water over the dam!
• If I were to give up any one of my degrees, I would give up everything but my National Boards
• When you continue to raise the bar and make it impossible for people to be successful, it ensures burnout will occur....teachers have been set up to fail

Kitty’s Stamp of Approval

• National Association of Education [NEA]
• Diane Ravitch
• Mary Hatwood Futrell
• Nancy Flanagan of Education Week
• Mary Tedrow

Connect with Kitty

• Email: [email protected]
• Phone: (804) 404-5475
• Teachers in Transition: http://teachersintransition.com
• Teachers in Distress (Blog): http://teachersindistress.wordpress.com
• LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/kittyboitnott
• Facebook: http://facebook.com/boitnottcoachingllc
• Twitter: http://Twitter.com/kittyboitnott

Connect with Gretchen

• Email: [email protected]
• Blog: Always A Lesson
• Facebook: Always A Lesson
• Twitter: @gschultek
• Instagram: Always.A.Lesson
• Linkedin: Gretchen Schultek Bridgers
• Google+: Gretchen Schultek Bridgers
• Book: Elementary EDUC 101: What They Didn’t Teach You in College

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