Teaching Without Losing Yourself — The Podcast

July is here. And if you are honest, school has already entered your mind at least once this week.  Not because you planned it. Not because anything official has started. Just a quiet thought. A text. A mental inventory of what your room still needs. And before you realized it, school was in the room.  In this episode we are talking about the mental return — the drift that happens weeks before tea...

  You Are More Than Your Usefulness — Summer Is Where You Remember That.   Four weeks. And this is where June lands.  We named the crash. We named leisure sickness. We named the Calling Trap — the internal voice that tells you caring a lot means sacrificing a lot. And we named the outside version of that same trap — the make summer count pressure that comes for your guilt.  And underneath all of i...

 You made it through week one and week two. You named the crash. You named leisure sickness. You named the Calling Trap — that internal voice that tells you sitting still is falling behind. But here is what I need you to know going into week three. The Calling Trap is not only living inside of you. It is also coming at you from the outside. And it is sneaky. It is coming at you dressed up and look...

Why Sitting Still Feels Wrong — Even in Summer. You made it to summer. The calendar is finally open. There is nowhere to be and nothing due. And yet — something in you will not let you be still. You feel restless on a day with nothing planned. You say yes to something before you have had one full week off. You hear that quiet voice in the back of your mind telling you that a good teacher is alread...

  You Made It. So Why Doesn't It Feel That Way?   The school year is over. You made it. So why doesn't it feel the way you thought it would?  If you are sitting in the first week of summer feeling exhausted, disoriented, or guilty for doing nothing — this episode is for you. What you are feeling is not a sign that something is wrong with you. It is what happens when a body and a mind tha...

Some of you are done with students. Some of you are in workdays. Some of you are still finishing. No matter where you are right now — your body knows this year has been long. This is the final episode of the Waiting to Exhale series. And this week we are talking about the part nobody discusses — what happens when the school year ends on the calendar but never ends inside of you. You carry it into...

 This is your last week with students ,or close to it.  And if you are honest, you are trying to manage this week the same way you managed October. The same expectations. The same energy. The same pressure on yourself to hold everything together.  That is exactly where the weight is coming from.  In this episode of the After the Bells series, we talk about what carrying it too tight looks like in...

You're Not Managing Content Anymore… You're Managing Energy. You planned the lessons. You have the materials. You are ready. So why does it feel harder than ever? In this episode of the After the Bells series, we go one layer deeper into what May is actually asking of teachers right now. The testing pressure has lifted. The instructional heavy lifting is done. But somehow you are more dr...

It's May. The countdowns are on the walls. Students are already mentally checked out. And you still have to show up and do your job like it's October. That tension is real. And it's one of the hardest parts of this time of year that nobody talks about. In this episode, we're naming the contradiction teachers are living in right now — and why feeling off this time of year doesn&...

There is always something left at the end of a teaching day. Always one more email. Always something you meant to fix. Always something you wanted to have ready for tomorrow. And most teachers have learned to just… stay a little longer. Handle a few more things. Push through. But here's what nobody is talking about — the work was never going to feel finished. And waiting for that moment is co...

This month’s theme is Perfection is not required , and this week we’re looking at how that shows up in your day through your time. In Week 1, we talked about going back to things because you don’t want to be wrong.  In Week 2, we talked about finishing something but continuing to add more to make it better. But even if you stop doing both of those, your day is still full. Students still need you....

 You've probably said it — or heard it — more than once: there's not enough time. But part of what's happening isn't the job itself. It's what you've been adding to it. This episode breaks down exactly where that extra time is going and why it feels like the right thing to do in the moment. One small shift this week can start changing that.    We’re not here to fix. W...

 This week, we’re starting with something most teachers don’t even realize they’re doing.  You’re not trying to be perfect. You’re trying to avoid being wrong.  That shows up in small ways throughout the day. Rereading emails, going back to fix things that were already fine, and thinking about conversations after they’re over.  None of it feels like a big deal. But it adds time to your day in ways...

March is a long stretch in schools. The work doesn’t slow down — it adds on. And at some point, the day starts feeling smaller than everything that needs to get done. In this episode, we talk about what happens when the list is longer than the day, and how that pressure can quietly shift into feeling like you have to prove you’re doing enough. This conversation brings it back to something simple a...

March is when results start getting louder in schools. Practice scores, data meetings, parent questions, evaluation conversations — and it’s easy for teachers to start connecting those results to how they see themselves. In this episode, we talk about the difference between doing your job well and carrying every result like it defines you. Teachers influence results, but they don’t control every f...

 March is not light.  There’s assessment prep, data meetings, district initiatives, evaluations, parent communication, and shifting student behavior — and for many teachers, no real break in sight.  When everything layers at once, your pace changes. You answer faster. You tighten your tone. You live slightly ahead of your day.  In this episode, we talk about what it means to stay controlled in a m...

 Students first.  Parents first.  Colleagues first.  Family first.  And somewhere along the way, you move yourself to the bottom of the list.  In this episode, we talk about what happens when you are consistently last — how it affects your patience, your energy, and your ability to sustain the work you care about.  This isn’t about fixing you.  It’s about noticing what’s been happening quietly ove...

Most teachers don’t FEEL rushed. They feel RESPONSIBLE. But they move from one thing to the next without ever letting anything register. In this episode, we talk about why you rush past the good stuff — the calm moments, the nothing-went-wrong parts of your day — and how that habit quietly adds to your exhaustion. We’re not fixing you. We’re increasing awareness so you can catch the rush and inter...

January is over — but for a lot of teachers, the body hasn’t caught up yet. You might not feel stressed or overwhelmed, but you still feel on . On alert. On ready. On standby. In this episode, we talk about why that happens — how teaching trains your body to stay ready even when the day is done — and why rest hasn’t fully landed yet. This isn’t about fixing anything or forcing yourself to slow dow...