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For teachers whose work follows them home

The school day ended hours ago.
Why are you still carrying it?

Start with the workload, the worry, and the boundaries around your evening.

After the Bell by Ellis Hartwell explores teacher burnout through the realities of grading, classroom demands, parent emails, Sunday-night worry, and a job that can expand into every hour you give it.

Find your copy Read a short excerpt

Kindle · Paperback · Hardcover
Available on Amazon · By Ellis Hartwell

A teacher pauses beside a stack of schoolwork at her kitchen table in the evening.
From Ellis Hartwell18 chaptersTools in a classroom contextWorkload · Boundaries · Recovery

Sound familiar?

The kitchen table
has become a second classroom.

There is another stack to grade, an email you feel you should answer, and a lesson you could keep improving. Even when the papers are put away, tomorrow’s school day is already taking up space.

Hartwell examines the demands around teaching as well as the thought patterns that can make it difficult to stop. The practical sections explore grading, boundaries, decompression, sleep, and the question of what a sustainable next chapter might look like.

Read a line from the book

A moment to pause.

“This is the room where you get to be the student who is struggling, and gets helped, not graded.”

Ellis Hartwell · After the Bell
Introduction · The Room Where You Get Helped, Not Graded

The introduction sets a deliberately gentle reading pace: one chapter at a sitting, in an order that matches the problem taking up the most room.

Read the full book

Inside the pages

A book for the teacher
behind the lesson plan.

01

Look beyond the to-do list.

Explore burnout, compassion fatigue, moral injury, and the pressures of behavior management, stakeholder expectations, and professional identity.

02

Put edges around the work.

Read about workload triage, a grading contract, email boundaries, and the transition from school to home.

03

Think about your next chapter.

Explore the Sunday-night brain, support at home, asking for help, and options to recommit, reshape your work, or leave.

After the Bell by Ellis Hartwell — book cover

The book behind the ideas

After the Bell

A Teacher’s Guide to Understanding and Recovering from Burnout

By Ellis Hartwell · Published by Tsunami Reading

  • Find examples rooted in classrooms, grading, and school routines.
  • Explore CBT-based tools through situations teachers recognize.
  • Consider boundaries alongside the working conditions that make them difficult.
  • Return to the chapter on your most pressing concern, without turning the book into another assignment.
Choose your edition

Is this your next read?

A chapter at a time.
A place to begin.

For teachers and educators who recognize the evening grading, the Sunday dread, or the feeling of having little left for life outside school. The book offers a way to examine those experiences and consider practical next steps.

This is an educational self-help book. It does not replace professional medical or psychological advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Browse the contents

Find the chapter
that speaks to you.

Six parts and 18 chapters, followed by appendices and a glossary.

PART ONEUnderstanding the Wound
  1. Burnout Is an Injury, Not a Weakness
  2. Compassion Fatigue — When Caring for Kids Runs Dry
  3. Moral Injury — When the System Forces Your Hand
  4. The Biology of Chronic School Stress
PART TWOThe Job Inside the Job
  1. Workload, Grading, and the Job That Never Ends
  2. The Behavior Drain
  3. Admin, Parents, and the Audience You Can’t Please
  4. The Identity Trap — ‘Teaching Is Who I Am’
PART THREEThe Toolkit
  1. The Loop in the Classroom
  2. Rewiring the Thoughts That Keep You Stuck
  3. Reconnecting With Meaning
  4. Boundaries Without Guilt
PART FOURRecovery Fundamentals
  1. Sleep and the Sunday-Night Brain
  2. Decompression — Leaving School at School
  3. The Body That Carries You
PART FIVEPeople and Help
  1. Burnout at Home
  2. When and How to Ask for Help
PART SIXWhat Comes Next
  1. The Return-to-Purpose Plan

Take the next step

Let your next read
be something for you.

Go beyond the excerpt. Explore the explanations, examples, and practical tools in the complete book.

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Before you choose

A few useful answers.

Does this reduce burnout to better time management?

No. Workload, classroom demands, administrative pressure, and professional identity all have dedicated chapters. The practical tools sit within that wider picture.

Do I also need the workbook?

The book explains the ideas and tools. The separate companion, The Teacher Burnout Recovery Workbook, offers space for structured exercises and tracking. It is optional and purchased separately.

Can I download a PDF or EPUB here?

The digital edition is available through Amazon as a Kindle book. This website does not currently sell PDF or EPUB downloads.

You are allowed to have an evening beyond the bell.

Find your copy on Amazon