Feeling the weight of being overwhelmed in teaching? 🧐 Dive into today's episode as we uncover strategies to not just cope but thrive in the new year. 🚀 Explore the power of reflection, setting SMART goals, and creating a gratitude journal to shift your perspective. 👩🏫💖 If you're ready to rediscover the joy in teaching, this one's for you! 🌟✨
🔗 Explore more insights and join our Winter Break Reset Mini-Course using code PRESENTTEACHERPODCAST for $10 off! 🎁
🎧 Listen for more transformative teaching insights! 🍏💡
Feeling the weight of being overwhelmed in teaching? 🧐 Dive into today's episode as we uncover strategies to not just cope but thrive in the new year. 🚀 Explore the power of reflection, setting SMART goals, and creating a gratitude journal to shift your perspective. 👩🏫💖 If you're ready to rediscover the joy in teaching, this one's for you! 🌟✨
🔗 Explore more insights and join our Winter Break Reset Mini-Course using code PRESENTTEACHERPODCAST for $10 off! 🎁
🎧 Listen for more transformative teaching insights! 🍏💡
When you first started teaching, you stepped in and you are all in. You may have wanted to start teaching since you were in kindergarten, like me, or later in life, but either way, you walked into your classroom, boxes in hand, super excited to have your very own classroom for the first time and to start making the impact that you know you are destined to make. However, you quickly realized there was a lot more to teaching than you may have realized, even though you went through student teaching. And right now you're feeling overwhelmed and behind and you're looking for a way to get caught up and to teach with ease. And, secretly, you're starting to lose that teacher sparkle and you're wondering how to get it back. You want to wake up in the mornings excited to start your day, excited to make an impact. You want to walk into your classroom with a lightness and ease as you turn on your classroom lights and sip up your coffee, to look around your classroom, to see it already set up, ready to go, and you want to watch your students and welcome them as they come in and then come in knowing exactly what is expected of them and running the classroom so smoothly that you don't even have to say a thing, and you want that moment where you're watching all this happen, where you get to be in the moment and teach and watch your students learn, and you want that moment where you think to yourself wow, that was easy, easier than I thought. If you are ready for this, don't worry, I got you. Today we are going to dive in how to love teaching again in the new year, so let's dive in. Hey, teacher Bestie, my name is Helena and I'm the creator of the Present Teacher podcast. I'm a first year teacher coach and in this podcast, you are going to learn everything from simple, actual classroom management, social learning and teacher wellness strategies. You know that impact you want to make in the classroom, or we're going to make it happen here.
Speaker 1:In order to fall in love with teaching again, there's a couple steps you need to take. The first one is reflection. You need to be really aware of where you are right now in order to figure out what's causing you or what's getting in the way of you feeling like you can enjoy teaching again. And with this clarity, we can start taking action and moving forward towards enjoying teaching and gaining that teacher sparkle back. So here are some questions you can start asking yourself as you think about the school year. The first one is what is going well this school year? Some examples could be that you love your students, that they bring you joy every, if not most, dates and you're starting to make friends with the co-workers. Or you finally reached out and started to be friends with that other teacher down the hall. Your students are starting to make noticeable growth. All of these are examples of some things that are going well.
Speaker 1:Take some time to reflect on at least three things that you're grateful for for this year. The second question you want to ask yourself is what can I improve this year? What isn't going well? This could be maybe you're overwhelmed by lesson planning. In fact, you're spending Sunday nights staying up super late trying to plan for the week and you want to figure out a way to make that stop. Or maybe you really want to. You're overwhelmed by the behaviors. You don't know how to manage your classroom. Or you're not confident in your skills and you want to figure out a way to be more confident and to have a smoothly-ran classroom without you saying a word. Maybe one thing you want to work on is that you need more boundaries. You are bringing work home all the time and you're always working and it's starting to drain on your personal life. Either way, take some time to reflect on three to five things. That isn't going well this school year. That is stopping you from being the teacher that you know, deep down, you are capable of being. Think to yourself this is where I want to be. What's getting in the way of that right now?
Speaker 1:After you've taken some time to reflect on those two questions, here's the third one I want you to ask aren't going well? Are they things that you can control? Yes or no? Yes, they are things you can control. As in, maybe you don't feel confident in your classroom management skills. Is that something you can control? Well, technically? Yes, you can start learning more about classroom management. Now let's say that one of the things that is getting in your way is admin. Maybe you're having a hard time getting admin to support you this year. Is that something you can technically control this year, no other than unless you quit? But is it something you can maybe look at changing in the future? Yes, maybe at some point you realize that this district isn't a good fit for you and you want somewhere where you do have admin support. So you're going to finish up the year the best you can and then you're going to switch to a school where you feel supported. There's nothing wrong with switching districts. I myself have switched districts and that I'm happier than I've ever been.
Speaker 1:After you've taken some time to reflect on those things, ask yourself what is one area I want to work on? Now you might have had a pretty long list of the things that aren't going well that you can control, but here's the deal when you try to fix everything, you fix nothing. When you try to learn about everything, you learn nothing. We don't teach our kids everything they need to know in second grade math on the first day. Otherwise, are they going to learn anything? Definitely not. Instead, we focus on one skill at a time, and we need to do the same with ourselves.
Speaker 1:Pick one goal that you want to work on for the month of January. Once you show efficiency or mastery in that, you can then move on to the next thing. There's one area you want to continue or one area you want to work on and dive deep on in the month of January? Maybe you want to learn all you can about classroom management. If that is you, I want to invite you to check out the Ultimate Classroom Management Guide, where I walk you through the top five questions. I often get asked about managing a classroom to the point where you don't have to say anything and it runs smoothly. Or maybe this month you want to focus on lesson planning. Maybe you want to focus on lesson planning and prepping. If that's you, I would like to invite you to join us in the Ready Set Prep Challenge, where I show you how to maximize your prep through getting tested quickly. Maybe you want to work on communication with families. Maybe you want to work on setting boundaries. Either way, what is one area you really want to focus on for the new year?
Speaker 1:The first step to falling in love with teaching again was through reflection. You want to get aware of what your feelings are and where you are at in your teacher journey, so you know where you want to go in the future. The second step is you want to pick one step and make a goal. The reason that I say pick one step and one goal is you don't want to get overwhelmed. You're not trying to tackle everything at once. Instead, pick one goal and set it for the month of January.
Speaker 1:So this I recommend, as you probably know as a teacher, is to set a smart goal. If you're not familiar with a smart goal, a smart goal stands for specific, measurable, actionable, relevant and time sensitive. It has to be specific. I'm not going to say by the end of January, I need to be the world's best classroom management pro, because that's not very specific. I'm not gonna say that also, it isn't measurable and it could be actionable, but I don't have really action steps. It is relevant and it is time sensitive. Instead, I could say by the end of January, I want to have taught three procedures and had my students practice consistently so that they can do it automatically without me having to remind them. That's specific, measurable, actual, relevant and time sensitive. So if you pick one goal and you make one measurable goal for the month, you are that much more likely to succeed than as if you were to pick five or 10 goals. If you have a lot of goals, it's gonna be hard for you to remember what your focus is on. If you wanna dive deeper into goal setting, a book I like to revisit every year, specifically in December, as January is your best year ever by Michael Hyatt. This book helped me with planning my goals and my personal life and my teaching career, and here at the present teacher, I'll make sure to put a link in the description as well, so you can grab that book too if you wanna dive deeper into it.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about some examples of some smart, measurable, actionable goals that you can set for the month of January. Let's say that your goal is classroom management. That's what you wanna focus on. You can say this month I will read three books on classroom management. Or maybe by January 31st 2024, I will have incorporated three new classroom management strategies consistently in the classroom. Or by January 31st 2024, I will have had smooth transitions with zero distractions for an entire week. Or maybe it's January 31st 2024, I will have reviewed and retop five procedures that students can now do consistently on autopilot without me having to remind them. Those are some examples of some smart goals you could set for the month of January.
Speaker 1:Now let's talk about I don't know lesson planning. Let's say that your focus was lesson planning for this year. Here are some goals that you could set for the upcoming year. You could say that by January 31st 2024, I will have planned out four weeks in advance, without staying late or working on the weekends. It's specific, measurable, actual, relevant and time sensitive. You know what you're working on. You have a deadline. Or by January 31st 2024, I will have lesson planned two weeks at a time on my prep on Mondays, four times a month. Maybe you're picking a day in a time that you're lesson planning and you have an amount of lesson plans you're supposed to do during that prep and you can measure if you reach that goal.
Speaker 1:The whole point of a smart goal is you can say yes or no if you achieved it. It's not this gray area, it's very black and white. So, as a review, the steps so far to find your teacher's sparkle back is to one to reflect, reflect on your teacher's journey so far, so you know where you're starting out or where you're at currently. The second thing is to set a goal, specifically a smart goal. After you've chosen a focus, the third thing is to choose a fun goal. Now, I don't know about you, but I personally reached teacher burnout during my first year of teaching when the amount of time I was spending in my work life and my personal life was out balanced. So in order to counteract that, just like you have a goal for your work life. You also want a goal for your personal life, so choose a fun goal. By fun I mean a personal goal. One thing that teachers often do is they get so caught up in that teaching world and their teaching life that they often neglect themselves or the things that they love, and it becomes out balanced.
Speaker 1:So follow the last steps we just talked about by picking one thing you'll do every day for yourself. It can be something as simple that takes five minutes. Common myth there is out there is that self-care and taking care of yourself has to be this long, complicated process. It doesn't. It could be something that takes as little as five minutes. Here are some examples of some things my clients have chosen and when they have chosen to take the five minute challenge. The first one is reading. Maybe you read a book for five minutes, journaling, meditating, walking, cross-stitching, listening to music, dancing. Either way, if you accept this challenge, I want to invite you to set a time. Each day You're gonna take five minutes for yourself. You can afford five minutes for you, I promise you. So decide to set an alarm on your phone that says five minute challenge and during that time, pick something for five minutes to do for yourself, but you want to pick one thing that you'll do for yourself and how often. If you take the challenge, it'll be five minutes each day for 30, 31 days.
Speaker 1:So, as a recap, the things you need to do so far to find the joy in teaching again is to one, reflect on your journey. Two, to pick a goal. Three, to choose a fun personal goal. And four, to have gratitude, to focus on gratitude. Now, this part is specifically gonna focus on finding the joy in the classroom.
Speaker 1:So it's easy to be caught up in all the things that are not happening yet or not going well in the classroom, and one way to find more joy in the classroom is to switch our minds from focusing on what's not going well to focusing on what is going well. So they often say, what you focus on, you create more of. If you're always focused on more students that aren't growing and this stuff isn't happening and you're never getting this in the classroom, your mind is going to focus and bring more stories like that to your attention. It's kind of like if you decided to get new AirPods for your iPhone to work out at the gym or new to wear and you are so excited about them, and then, once you buy them, you suddenly realize that everybody has AirPods. Your mind completely recognizes or brings forth the thing you're focused on, since you are focused on buying AirPods now, it'll show you that a lot of people have AirPods, when before you didn't seem to realize or focus on that. That's what happens with your mind.
Speaker 1:So what you want to do is you always want to focus on what's going well or going right for you, and your mind will bring forth that to your attention. So here's how we're going to make this adjustment and how we're going to do this with intention. We are going to use a gratitude journal. Now this is something that through my own mental health journey that my counselor recommended, but every day for 30 days, write three things down that you are grateful for. You can also, if you're not big of a writer and you have someone you want to share this with I did this with my partner, my now husband, at one time. We shared three things we are grateful for every day for a month, but essentially, you're one to point out three things that happen that day or that you're looking forward to that day, if you do it in the morning for 30 days. Now here's the catch. It has to be something different from the day before.
Speaker 1:What you often find is you're too close to the big picture. Now I see this way too often with my clients, especially as a new teacher coach. I will go into the classroom of these amazing teachers who are honestly doing an amazing job, but because they're too close and they're focused too much on the lack of, they don't see the growth that their kids are making. They don't see the progress. But since I go in and I'm able to step back and I walk back in, the progress I see, even in a short amount of time, is just phenomenal. Trust me, where kids are growing, it is making a difference. You're just way too close to the situation you're in your classroom for you to see the amount of growth and amazingness Sometimes that's happening in your classroom. So doing this exercise of focusing on three things you're grateful for every day allows you to take a step back and see the difference that you are making and the growth that you and your classroom and your students are making. That wraps up the four steps to finding joy in the classroom again.
Speaker 1:So, as a quick recap, the first one was reflection. This helps you get clear on where you are in your teacher journey so you know where to move forward. The second thing was to pick one specific goal for the classroom. We did this intentionally is because oftentimes, when you don't feel like there's joy in the classroom, it's because you're starting to feel overwhelmed. What this does is it stops your mind from focusing on 20 things and helps you focus on one thing, and it gives you action steps and helps you build momentum to go forward in your teacher journey and to make progress and to start making growth or to continue your growth. The third thing that I want to invite you to do is to choose a fun goal Now, oftentimes, when teachers are having a hard time, finding joy in their life is their personal life and their work life.
Speaker 1:There's a this bout, there's a lack of balance somewhere. So by having a career focused goal and a personal goal, you are evening out more focus, which helps you have gratitude for when you're in the classroom and you see the growth, but it also allows you to have gratitude in your personal life and to also see the growth as well. And the fourth and final thing we talked about was to have a gratitude journal or to take some kind of gratitude challenge. This will really help put everything together and help you rediscover the joy in their classroom. And, with all that being said, I want to leave you with this If nobody has told you lately, you're doing an amazing job, just like I've seen with my clients and teachers that I go into their classrooms and work with.
Speaker 1:I know it's hard to see the growth right now, but it's there, and I didn't see it either when I was in the classroom, but I can tell you from a coach's perspective it's there. You're doing a great job. I know right now it all feels overwhelming, but I want to invite you to really focus this new year on finding joy, not only in the classroom but for yourself, and to do that with intention, because that kind of life is where you have the space and capacity to make the deep impact that you are creating. With that being said, if you want to dive deeper into any of the topics we talked about, I created a winter break reset for mini course for new teachers that you can watch on the go, and through this episode only, you get a $10 coupon off that course. So if you want to dive deeper into this and you want me to walk you through how to reset your year with that mini course. I will go ahead and put the coupon in the link in the description so you can grab that and join us inside. I am so grateful because already there's been about 50 people that join and I'm so excited to hear about their progress and to see them diving in on this winter break.
Speaker 1:As always, remember we are stronger together and I will see you in the next one, teacher Bestie. Bye. Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode. I hope that you were able to take away some value that will help you thrive inside and out of the classroom. It would mean the world to me if you could take five seconds right now and leave a review on this podcast. And if you found this podcast especially helpful, make sure to take a screenshot of this episode right now and tag me on your socials so that we know you're listening. As always, remember that we are stronger together. With All the Love in the World, helena, aka the President Teacher. See you next time, teacher Bestie.