About Me

Hi, I'm Jon.

Allow me to introduce myself.

My name is Jon Magnus, and I am a Distinguished Educator of Excellence from Washington State University, the 2018 NCESD Regional Teacher of the Year, and a Washington State Golden Apple Award winner. I am also a dedicated and determined Life Coach.


I managed a classroom for over two decades and lived for the lightbulb moments. I strove to generate a love for learning and celebrate student success. I poured my heart and soul into teaching and, in return, experienced an immense sense of fulfillment.


Yet, despite this professional satisfaction, I noticed that many of my colleagues and fellow educators had begun to exhibit signs of discouragement, fatigue, and burnout. Then, the Coronavirus Pandemic gravely exacerbated the situation. Newspaper articles, podcasts, and radio broadcasts confirmed this phenomenon as a fast-growing and severe problem with national implications. Why? Because educators across the United States share these feelings. Consequently, they have begun to pursue other employment actively. The stark reality shows that teachers are leaving the profession in droves, with different employers warmly welcoming them for their broad skill set and ability to multitask.

The Origins of SHINE

Using my twenty-one years of in-class, solution-oriented problem-solving, I began researching and developing a system to place essential tools of resilience and revitalization into the hands of fellow educators. As I started, I recalled the voice of numerous flight attendants as they spouted their pre-flight safety messages to parents flying with children.


“Should the cabin experience sudden pressure loss, stay calm and listen for instructions from the cabin crew. Oxygen masks will drop down from above your seat. Place the mask over your mouth and nose. Pull the strap to tighten it. If you are traveling with children, make sure that your own mask is on first before helping your children. “ The lesson is simple. Place the oxygen mask over YOUR mouth FIRST. Then, you can effectively protect your children.


This universal lesson also applies to educators and students. How can discouraged, burned-out, negative teachers with one foot out the door create engaging and inspiring learning environments? We know the answer. They can’t. Healthy, intuitive, and confident educators foster the same attributes and attitudes in their students. Therefore, it is essential to develop strong, self-aware, highly-prepared teachers who grasp the realities of the classroom of the 2020s.

What is SHINE In Action?

Using the principles of my book SHINE Life Lessons Revealed, published in 2015, I developed SHINE in Action.


Throughout my educational career, I attended a plethora of training sessions. Some were effective, a few engaging, and others completely irrelevant. At times, the sheer information dump and level of detail were overwhelming - and tedious. Within minutes, I measured the relevance of distributed information, and within minutes I engaged or moved on to planning lessons in my head while feigning rapt attention.


I found the best sessions hands-on, personal, and relevant. Thus, I developed SHINE in Action around these concepts - three hours of interactive, reflective, thought-provoking, engaging, and fun activities.


SHINE in Action provides broad yet essential approaches with five tried and tested goals:


  • Mastering self-knowledge - Knowing one’s strengths (and how to maximize them), one’s challenges (and how to turn them into strengths), triggers (and how to go untriggered), and effectively drawing upon one’s support system.


  • Knowing the audience - Fully understanding the human make-up of the classroom of the 2020s. Realizing the challenges that come with a wide variety of students from vastly different backgrounds all in one classroom.


  • Keeping intentional- Having clear and consistent expectations, knowing and honoring learning targets, working in advance to economize time, streamlining processes, and experiencing the satisfaction of checking items off an ever-growing “to-do” list.


  • Developing resilience - Understanding how to resolve and circumvent the inevitable challenges that arise for teachers daily. Using effective strategies to evaluate and modify approaches to problem-solving and keeping a solutions-oriented perspective.


  • Maintaining an uplifting outlook - Striving for positive outcomes, embracing possibility, rejecting negative self-talk, engaging in affirming attitudes, and shifting difficult situations to opportunities for growth and improvement.