Local teacher Jay Schroder wrote a book called “Teach from Your Best Self: A Teacher’s Guide to Thriving in the Classroom."

Addressing the crisis of burnout and stress among teachers, Medford educator Jay Schroder’s forthcoming book guides teachers to rekindle the joy of education while offering solutions to strain in the classroom.

Schroder’s text, titled “Teach from Your Best Self: A Teacher’s Guide to Thriving in the Classroom,” is set for release Aug. 1. The guidebook was based on feedback from recent workshops and professional development programs led by Schroder, along with experience gleaned from 24 years as an educator.

“Although teaching is an extremely difficult job, it’s also the best job,” Schroder said in an interview. “There’s nothing like helping young people learn and grow.”

The profession has become increasingly stressful, with 53% of teachers considering quitting more now than before COVID, according to a 2021 study from the CDC.

Workshops Schroder has held over the past year addressed problems from classroom conflict to lack of focus among students, looking at these issues from a sense of understanding and growth for the kids.

The teaching approach prioritizes teachers’ well-being as a method of not only getting the best out of themselves, but getting the best out of their students, said Schroder, who teaches English and language arts at Central Medford High School. Schroder also holds a master’s degree in education from Pacific University.

Kayla Bortolazzo, an English teacher in Jackson County who has attended Schroder’s workshops, discussed the ever-increasing roles educators are required to fill, in and out of the classroom.

“Jay taught me how to really just prioritize what’s important to me, and return on investment for the hats I wear,” Bortolazzo said. “My prime directive is to help young minds.”

Those hats that educators wear go way beyond teaching and mentoring youth, with teachers being trained to deal with blood spills, pest control, cyber security and more, Bortolazzo added.

Over time, the burnout and stress can frustrate teachers and cause them to leave the profession entirely if not properly managed.

It “has to do with the fact every year teachers are asked to do more, but not given more to do it with,” Bortolazzo said. “Teaching can be hard, but my classroom is my favorite place in the world, apart from family.”

A practice used in Schroder’s workshops was expressive writing, allowing the participants to convey past or current traumas and explore them to better understand themselves and their students.

“We did expressive writing, which invited you to look at something in your life that was traumatic and really write about it,” said social studies teacher Anne Stabile of Lincoln Savage Middle School in Grants Pass. “The biggest thing for me, that helped me, was looking at and really getting to the core of my own personal hurt spots. Those things that trigger you and bring you back to that 5-year-old self or 8-year-old self.”

By addressing their own traumas, the educators can use that knowledge to help their students grow from or cope with their own personal challenges.

The biggest thing that teaching from your best self tries to convey is you need to have relationships with students, a one-on-one relationship with every single student,” Stabile said. “You can’t be their cheerleader if you don’t know them.”

“The most important part is not successfully being able to solve the problem in the moment. The most important part is being able to stay your best self,” Schroder said of the key takeaways from the development programs. Taking his lessons to print, “Teach from Your Best Self” guides readers to navigate conflict, stress and burnout through understanding students’ situations and bringing empathy to the table.

Schroder’s approach handles classroom conflict with a flowing attitude of understanding, rather than resorting to punitive measures. Schroder learned and adopted this attitude from his time training in karate earlier in his life.

“What karate taught me to do was stay present, clear, centered and relaxed under someone else’s attack, and I started bringing that to teaching,” he said. “Learning to deal with pressure in the dojo is a similar kind of pressure in the classroom.”

All in all, the end goal is to have healthier educators becoming or regaining their best self, and healthier students in turn.

“Seeing students struggle and succeed, and then experience the pride of learning, my heart swells just thinking about it,” Schroder said. “Students are wonderful. Teachers are heroes. I just want to help them both realize the possibility of what education can be.”

To learn more about Schroder and the guidebook, see www.teachfromyourbestself.org.