The Sustainable Teaching Project supports educators through mindful, creative, and restorative practices that create space to pause, reflect, reconnect, and renew. By acknowledging the demands of teaching and the unique challenges confronting educators right here and right now, we hope to help build a kinder, more sustainable profession rooted in empathy and connection.
We envision a world in which...
- educator wellbeing is recognized as essential to healthy schools and thriving communities;
- educators do not have to sacrifice their wellbeing in order to care for others;
- the conditions of teaching allow educators to remain creative, present, and supported over long and sustainable teaching careers.
We believe that educators deserve spaces to...
- pause and reflect,
- reconnect to meaning and purpose,
- build sustainable practices for stress and renewal,
- experience community and shared humanity,
- feel supported as whole people, not just professionals or caregivers.
We are committed to providing resources that are...
- trauma-informed,
- grounded in nervous system awareness,
- rooted in reflection, community, and creativity,
- realistic for actual school days.
Upcoming Events
Join us for a series of free workshops designed to support reflection, renewal, and connection. Each gathering focuses on a blend of meditation, movement, creative reflection, and opportunities to connect with fellow educators. All events are free and open to any K-12 educators within New England.
Sign up for our mailing list to learn more.
Release and Restore: The Big Exhale
Date: Friday, October 9
Time: 6:00-7:30 p.m.
Location: TBD
Description: Educators spend so much of their time holding things together—for students, colleagues, classrooms, and communities. This restorative 90-minute experience invites you to notice what you’ve been carrying and explore what it feels like to let some of it go through a playful, expansive mix of movement, breath, sound, laughter, silliness, stillness, and connection. Come as you are and leave with a little more space to breathe.
Permission to Rest: The Winter Pause
Date: Sunday, December 6
Time: 6:00-7:30 p.m.
Location: TBD
Description: The weeks between Thanksgiving and winter break can ask a lot of educators, making rest feel especially necessary, and especially hard to find. Join us for a restorative evening of gentle yoga, guided deep relaxation (yoga nidra), and connection designed to help you slow down, soften, and replenish. No experience is necessary; simply come as you are and give yourself permission to pause.
Vision and Intention: Making Space for What's Next
Date: Saturday, January 16
Time: 2:00-4:30 p.m.
Location: TBD
Description: Begin the new year with curiosity rather than pressure. Through conversation, reflection, and creative vision boarding, we’ll step away from traditional resolutions and explore what we want to make more space for in the months ahead. Join us for an afternoon of connection, creativity, and intention-setting rooted in possibility rather than productivity.
Our Approach
We believe that educator sustainability is both an individual and collective practice. Educators require information, tools, and repeatable techniques that they can physically experience and adapt to their own lives and classrooms. Each of our programs include opportunities to:
Understand
Learn about stress, burnout, and nervous system regulation. Discover that stress is not a personal failure, but a normal embodied response.
Experience
Practice breath, movement, mindfulness, creativity, and grounding. Decide which practices feel right for you.
Reflect
Reconnect with values, needs, boundaries, and meaning. Identify favorite practices and how they can integrate into your unique school days.
Connect
Build community through conversation and shared experience. Walk away with new connections and support.
Why this? Why now?
Teaching has always required care, creativity, and resilience, but today many educators are being asked to do more with fewer resources and less support. An April 2026 report issued by the National Education Association (NEA) showed that educators are navigating rising workloads while pay has failed to keep pace with inflation, leading to a 5% decrease in real earnings. A recent Gallup Poll revealed that a third of all teachers hold a second job unrelated to education in order to make ends meet, and educators are leaving the profession at unprecedented rates.
In New Hampshire, these challenges are especially urgent. The state continues to rank last in the nation for state education funding, and schools lost nearly 7% of their teachers in a single year while the number of students per teacher increased by over 5%. Meanwhile, most professional learning focuses on instructional practice without addressing the sustainability of the people doing the work.
The Teacher Sustainability Project was created in response to this moment. iLearnNH is committed to supporting educators not just as professionals, but as whole human beings deserving of connection, reflection, and sustainable ways of continuing the work they care deeply about.
To learn more about the Sustainable Teaching Project, check out The Connected Classroom Substack or join The Sustainable Teaching Project mailing list. We look forward to breathing, moving, creating, and connecting with you.
