Personal Growth and Well-Being
Sustainable teaching requires care for the educator as well as the practice. Well-being supports sound judgment, resilience, relationships, and long-term service to students.
The official Element
Element 6G: Teachers cultivate and sustain personal motivation, commitment, energy, and health by balancing continuous professional growth with their own physical and emotional wellness.
What this Element asks of an educator
Sustainable teaching requires care for the educator as well as the practice. Well-being supports sound judgment, resilience, relationships, and long-term service to students.
Read together, these indicators ask educators to make personal growth and well-being visible in planning, teaching, student experience, and follow-through. The aim is not to display every indicator in every lesson, but to understand the full range of the Element and select a focused practice to develop with evidence.
Official Example Indicators—and an SDLA reading
The Commission presents Example Indicators as illustrations rather than a comprehensive or required checklist. Their sequence shows the breadth of this Element and gives teachers, mentors, and coaches a shared language for focused development.
Engage in practices of self-care in order to mitigate…
Official indicator: Engage in practices of self-care in order to mitigate stress, maximize well-being, and meet the demands of their personal life and the teaching profession.
Actively pursue professional learning and growth opportunities to improve…
Official indicator: Actively pursue professional learning and growth opportunities to improve their quality of practice or to build expertise and experiences to take on leadership roles.
Cultivate positive and productive relationships with other school staff…
Official indicator: Cultivate positive and productive relationships with other school staff members to create a climate of safety, trust, and respect that supports efficacy and resilience.
Add to and benefit from the broader knowledge base…
Official indicator: Add to and benefit from the broader knowledge base of the professional community.
Developing the practice
Name a precise growth problem
Turn a broad aspiration into one observable practice, an action, and evidence to revisit.
Learn with other people
Use students, families, colleagues, specialists, mentors, and community partners as sources of knowledge and feedback.
Protect trust and sustainability
Attend to ethics, equity, legal responsibilities, professional boundaries, follow-through, and personal well-being.
Evidence worth noticing
- a focused professional goal connected to student experience
- reflection records showing a decision, action, evidence, and revision
- collaboration artifacts documenting roles, feedback, and follow-through
- an ethical, equity, or workload decision with its reasoning and observed effect
Evidence caution: No single artifact proves accomplished practice. Interpret evidence in context, center student experience and learning, use multiple sources, and avoid collecting identifiable information that is not necessary.
A pinch of data integration and digital learning
Digital systems can organize information, improve access, coordinate work, or shorten a feedback loop. They are valuable only when the educator can explain the human decision they support, the information they require, and how privacy, accessibility, equity, and professional responsibility are protected.
Counselor job description
Recognize a colleague whose role may support student well-being and a sustainable staff support network.
Questions for reflection and coaching
- Where is personal growth and well-being already visible in my practice, and what evidence supports that judgment?
- Which students experience the current approach differently from the way I intend?
- Which official indicator names the most important next area for growth?
- What is one affordable, manageable adjustment I can test, and what will I look for afterward?
- Whose perspective—student, family, colleague, specialist, or community partner—would improve the next decision?