The FuelEd Blog

After a year of teaching and living through a pandemic, educator mental health is at risk and yet, we desperately need to avoid further school disruptions. Teacher burnout and turnover — already cause for concern long before pandemic life — have increased, with an additional 11 percent of teachers saying they may leave the classroom even though they weren't planning to do so before. As it is, 40-50% of teachers leave the classroom within their first five years, and 40% of teachers in the three-county area have five or fewer years of experience, which has major implications on student achievement.

Trauma-informed teaching creates safe, supportive classrooms that counter the effects of childhood adversity and toxic stress, helping students thrive emotionally and academically. By fostering empathy, predictable routines, and inclusive practices, educators promote resilience and secure connections, benefiting all students while rewiring stress responses. Training programs like the Whole Educator Collective empower teachers with tools to build self-awareness, improve communication, and model healthy coping strategies for a stronger, more connected classroom.

FuelEd was founded to bridge the gap in new teacher preparation.

FuelEd trainer, HyoYoung Minna Kim, shares powerful insights on the inextricable link between self-care and community care.

FuelEd trainer, HyoYoung Minna Kim, shares important reflections on the centrality of educator well-being in healing fractured systems.

FuelEd partner, Sheila Whittle, shares vulnerable reflections on burnout and hope.

Without mutually stimulating interactions, people and neurons wither and die.

It's critical to take the time to name and celebrate the ways that you are being held, and are holding others, and to honor the tears you’ve shed together.

Education doesn’t need a hero, it needs you.

Instead of preparing students to succeed in a world that values compliance, schools have the potential to equip students to build a happier, healthier, more whole world.

FuelEd Counselor, Nancy Southern reflects on her role as a therapist and the importance of a secure attachment relationship in overcoming the stresses and pressure of being an educator.

In order to see each other, in all our complexity, we must first work to see ourselves more clearly.

Revisit a simple, foundational technique for practicing empathic listening with those in our personal and professional lives.

FuelEd founder, Megan Marcus, shares more of FuelEd’s history and where she sees the organization going in the future.

By adopting co-regulation tactics and secure attachment behaviors, educators can both acknowledge the chronic stress many children are prone to and be a source of healing so students can learn and live with freedom and joy.