Teaching may be the toughest job you'll ever love, yet the teacher turnover rate is at an all-time high nationally. Chances are, you're a little burned out, too. Why is this case? Why do teachers who still love the profession deep down choose to leave? What would help them stay?

The CSU Writing Project is excited to explore these challenging questions by asking you to present your work at the 2020 NWP Rocky Mountain Regional Conference in Fort Collins, Colorado. The conference will be devoted to helping educators nourish their minds, bodies, and souls by giving them space and time for professional renewal and personal restoration in community. We invite educators from varied contexts who work with youth, other educators, and community members to submit proposals related to the theory and practices connected to "sustainable teaching," a theory of change that educators from the CSU Writing Project have developed together over the past 3 years.

We define "sustainable teaching" as the process of fostering self-compassion and renewal in educators who support the growth and development of students in turn. Sustainable teaching puts *teachers first* with the goal of creating a collaborative community that values ​an integrated approach to education and enables all participants to thrive.

We invite proposals in interactive formats, described below, geared toward exploring these or other questions related to the conference theme:

* What mindfulness and resiliency practices will allow us to integrate our personal and professional lives as educators so that we can remain in a profession we love? How do we create and sustain supportive communities where we can make this happen together?

* What role do literacy practices--creative, artistic, academic--play in feeding our minds and souls? What strategies help us "fill the well"?

* What toll do the stressors of teaching take on our bodies? How do we set boundaries so that we don’t exhaust our resources? What practices invite pause and contemplation and give us permission to attend to our physical and emotional needs?

* What strategies can we use to cultivate and practice self-compassion? How do we integrate self-care, play, and laughter in our lives, our classrooms, and other professional contexts? How can we foster these practices?

* How can we design learning environments that support our students in embracing the vulnerability inherent in learning?

*  What skills and practices do we need to critique, and then change, systems that thwart our well-being and that of our students, especially those from the most vulnerable populations?

* What do we imagine a sustainable environment for teaching and learning to be? What would it look and feel like? How do we advocate for ourselves so that we can make it happen?

* How can we cultivate a gracious mindset toward others in educational contexts--our students, colleagues, administrators, parents, community members, and stakeholders? What strategies can we use to establish and maintain relationships with allies who will help us leverage the resources we need to stay in teaching?

* How do we model for all stakeholders, including our students, how to live, work, and learn sustainably?