The Balanced Teacher Path: How to Teach, Live, and Be Happy (Free Spirit Professional®)

Great book-This was a good read. This is great for teachers in a rut. It is well written and an easy read.

Such a great book! The importance of striking a balance between work and life is absolutely critical and is often understated - especially in teaching. This should be required reading for all professions.

This book was filled with the most obvious ideas for "restoring balance!" Cliche tips like exercise, play kickball with the kids at recess, make sure to eat your fruits and vegetables, and to talk with a friend. I had to purchase this book for a class and was generally dumbfounded by what gets published. If you do have to purchase it for a class, as I did, the good thing is the book reads like a pamphlet and took me 30 minutes to read/skim cover-to-cover.

What an inspiring, beautifully written book! Not just for teachers! Excellent story and advice for everyone! I LOVED THIS BOOK!

Very helpful! Lots of ideas to help and inspire.

Love this book!

As an education reporter, I read a lot of books that are a chore to get through. This one was just fun; Justin Ashley is a skilled communicator with a sense of humor. While this is aimed at teachers, most of his advice will strike a chord for everyone. Who hasn't worried that excellence in a career demands giving up a personal life, or dealt with toxic colleagues, or tried to stretch a paycheck? At one point I got so absorbed that I was confused when I came across classroom-specific advice; I had forgotten I wan't the target audience.There's no single thunderbolt insight here that you've never seen anywhere else -- and Ashley gives full credit to his wide range of sources -- but this kind of book is all about delivering the message you need at a time you need it in a way that gets through. I suspect this will reach a lot of people in exactly that way. It's an upbeat book, but it also delves into how deep the personal damage was when Ashley let his life get out of balance. I think a lot of people can relate to someone who's candid about facing depression and drug dependency and coming back from it.

While some people may find the advice in this book obvious, I found it both insight and reflective. As a young teacher, where burn out rates are high, this book provides a detailed guide on how we can stave that off and affect students in the long run. Too many great teachers leave for better paying jobs or put too much on themselves. This undue stress can make us feel like we are letting everyone down, including ourselves. In a profession that's undervalued and underpaid, this book provides a survival guide to help the average teacher find their happy medium. I recommend it to all my teacher friends!