This article considers the very real issues many of us face in the classroom when we, and our students, confront difficult or depressing issues, situations, or materials. Working with topics such as human rights abuses, environmental degradation, racism and xenophobia, and poverty among many others, students and faculty can experience compassion fatigue, burnout, and vicarious trauma. Yet, rarely are these issues addressed in the classroom, or even, as professors, in our own research and practice. Seeking to start a conversation on this issue, this article explores compassion fatigue, burnout, and vicarious trauma and the effect these can have on student and faculty well-being, and then outlines a number of techniques and actions that can be taken in our classrooms to help us focus on the positive.