Burning Out Teachers

What can one do about a teacher they suspect is on the track to burn out?
1. Tell them they are working too hard.
2. Just let them go. There are teachers like that and that is their style. Take advantage of their efforts while they last.
3. Join in on their idealistic pursuits, perhaps relieving some burdens, but more critically energizing them by your explicit support.

If I were a principal . . .

For professional development I would send teams of teachers to museums.  I have found that every time I have visited a museum, of any kind, it has stimulated ideas for not only what I might do in my classroom-- but how I would like to work with a teacher from another discipline to produce a thematic unit.

This is an altazimuth theodolite housed at the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments at Harvard University.  This instrument provides a powerful nexus for an interdisciplinary unit of study between at least social studies, math and science.  

I'd find a way to get teachers into each other's classrooms.  Every time I have had the chance to watch another teacher I have found something I could use.

I would teach.  I would need to do it to stay informed about the conditions of the learning environment.

I would set the standard by modeling it.  I would do what I ask teachers to do.  I would show that it can be done.