Teach and Thrive Learning Circles: Priming Early Career Teachers to Flourish

This article shares innovative practices from a workshop series called Teach and Thrive Learning Circles (TTLCs) offered to pre-service and recent graduates from the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program at Colorado College (CC). TTLCs aim to proactively prime pre-service and early career teachers to navigate the pressures that can contribute to burnout and attrition. Inspired by the scholarship on teacher development and characteristics of thriving teachers, I invited twenty-two novice teachers ranging from pre-service through three years of experience to co-construct and co-facilitate the TTLC monthly workshops. In this article, I first share an overview of our co-construction process, the resulting workshop structure, and chosen topics. Based on trends from a pre-workshop questionnaire, the workshop topics included early career teacher development, maintaining purpose, self-care, navigating toxicity, and cultivating efficient systems. Next, I provide a detailed synopsis of the first workshop focused on early career development. I provide an overview of this workshop to offer readers an example of our TTLC structure and a glimpse into its value. I share the session workshop agenda, materials, and TTLC teacher reflection journal themes. Preliminary qualitative trends derived from the reflection journals suggest that understanding their development through the lens of the teacher lifecycle scholarship empowered them to be more patient with their pedagogical growth and to seek out mentorship and peer support to thrive. The TTLC framework, example session, and preliminary themes presented offer liberal arts teacher educators a dependable framework to establish similar offerings in their context.