What’s the antidote to burnout? Self-care, particularly in the form of reigniting your soul, essence or passion by getting back to the things you love.
“We don’t talk about it much today and we don’t feed it,” said Joel Katte. “As people in professions that serve others, sometimes we’re the worst at taking care of ourselves.”
Katte is the creator and owner of Ignite Love in Schools, a workshop he offers as professional
development for school districts and their teachers.
“Teachers are working at breakneck speed,” he said. “It’s a demanding, challenging profession. There’s significant burnout, frustration and distraction.”
Ignite Love in Schools is Katte’s side business. He uses personal days and vacation time from his full-time position with Fayette County Public Schools to conduct his workshops. Katte is the school district administrator over three alternative programs: the Family Care Center, Fayette Regional Juvenile Detention Center and Lexington Day Treatment Center. He served as principal of Meadowthorpe Elementary for five years prior.
Professional development for teachers typically focuses on data analysis, curriculum standards and new software platforms. The difference in Katte’s workshops? They’re about investing in teachers as human beings, he said.
“They’re designed to bring out the best in their people,” he said. “It’s really about relationships, and the first is with yourself.”
Katte urges workshop participants to reclaim the strengths they have that are related to their hopes and dreams, and to pursue their passions now instead of waiting for winter break, summer break or retirement, at which point “we’ve suddenly lost touch of who we are,” he said.
“Feeding and fueling who teachers are and who they’re dreaming of becoming has a positive impact on the whole school culture,” he said.
Katte has so far worked with Bowling Green Junior High School, Jefferson County Public Schools and Jessamine County Schools, among others. Earlier this year he presented a full-day session at the Kentucky School Counselor Association’s annual conference.
“Unconditional love and unconditional respect has been at the core of the work I do in schools. Accept people as they are, kid by kid, teacher by teacher. We have to connect there.” —Joel Katte
“Unconditional love and unconditional respect has been at the core of the work I do in schools,” Katte said. “Accept people as they are, kid by kid, teacher by teacher. We have to connect there.”
Katte and his family moved to Lexington from his native Wisconsin in 2010. Katte has a master’s degree in educational leadership from Aurora University in Illinois and received his superintendent’s certificate from the University of Kentucky and his Rank 1 teaching certificate through Morehead State. He has also gone through facilitator training from Franklin Covey and Dale Carnegie. His wife, Dawn, encouraged him to start the Ignite Love in Schools program in 2015 and is his creative collaborator.
As a child, Katte’s dream was to be a major league baseball player. “I was pretty sure that was going to happen,” he said. “I gave it everything I had.”
He was actually drafted by the California Angels out of high school and played second base for their minor league team in Arizona. He was released after a year and went on to pursue his love of teaching and making a positive difference.
Practicing what he advocates, Katte has reignited his own passion in baseball and now plays shortstop in the Lexington Adult Baseball League.
“I am so energized to be playing baseball at 41,” he said. “Doing the things that set your soul on fire is key. We can choose to do that.”