Latest / Teacher Approved: Elementary Teacher Tips & Strategies / 243. How to Protect Your Planning Time (So You Can Stop Working For Free)

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243. How to Protect Your Planning Time (So You Can Stop Working For Free) · Teacher Approved: Elementary Teacher Tips & Strategies

• 0:00
  Heidi: This is episode 243 of Teacher Approved.
• 0:04
  You're listening to Teacher Approved, the podcast helping
• 0:09
  educators elevate what matters and simplify the rest. I'm
• 0:12
  Heidi.
• 0:13
  Emily: And I'm Emily. We're the creators behind Second Story
• 0:16
  Window, where we give research based and teacher approved
• 0:19
  strategies that make teaching less stressful and more
• 0:22
  effective. You can check out the show notes and resources from
• 0:25
  each episode at secondstorywindow.net
• 0:28
  Heidi: We're so glad you're tuning in today. Let's get to
• 0:31
  the show.
• 0:34
  Emily: Hey there. Thanks for joining us today. In today's
• 0:37
  episode, we are talking about how to protect your planning
• 0:40
  time and actually make it productive. Plus, we have a
• 0:44
  teacher approved tip that will save you from a Valentine's Day
• 0:47
  panic.
• 0:48
  Heidi: But let's start with a try it tomorrow, where we share
• 0:50
  a quick win that you can try in your classroom right away. So
• 0:52
  Emily, what is our suggestion for this week?
• 0:55
  Emily: This week challenge yourself to look up and smile
• 0:57
  whenever a student enters the room. The idea of this comes
• 1:01
  from my favorite Toni Morrison quote, which is, "When a kid
• 1:04
  walks in the room, your child, or anybody else's child, does
• 1:07
  your face light up? That's what they're looking for."
• 1:10
  Heidi: I love that quote so much, because even as an adult,
• 1:13
  think about the boost you feel when someone feels happy to see
• 1:17
  you. And I think that means even more to kids.
• 1:19
  Emily: Oh for sure, and especially because for some of
• 1:22
  your kids, you might be the only person who seems happy to see
• 1:25
  them, so all it takes is a few seconds, but the impact can last
• 1:29
  all day for that kiddo.
• 1:31
  Heidi: And if our podcast makes you light up, would you do us a
• 1:35
  huge favor and take a few seconds to leave a five star
• 1:38
  rating and review in your podcast app? Ratings and
• 1:40
  interviews are one way that new listeners find us, so every one
• 1:43
  of them really, really does help us out.
• 1:45
  Emily: And it really makes us light up.
• 1:47
  Heidi: It does!
• 1:48
  So last week we talked about protecting your energy in
• 1:51
  February, and to build on that, this week, we are following up
• 1:54
  with some practical tips for making those boundaries a
• 1:57
  regular part of your day, and we are starting big with one of the
• 2:01
  most persistent energy drains for teachers, and that's when
• 2:05
  your prep time isn't spent prepping.
• 2:07
  Emily: Yeah, it seems like every day you sit down for your 25
• 2:10
  minutes of planning, and somehow you're answering emails, putting
• 2:13
  out fires, chatting with a colleague who stopped by, and
• 2:16
  then it's time to go grab the kids from the library already.
• 2:19
  Heidi: But of course, when that happens, the tasks that needed
• 2:22
  your attention didn't just disappear. They moved into your
• 2:25
  evening or your weekend or the hour before school when you
• 2:29
  should be drinking coffee and just chill and mentally
• 2:32
  preparing for the day.
• 2:33
  Emily: Or in my case, those tasks end up moved into going to
• 2:37
  school on the weekends to get that done.
• 2:39
  Heidi: Oh yeah, you used to do that a lot.
• 2:41
  Emily: I actually love going in on Saturdays, though, because
• 2:44
  that meant I didn't have to deal with distractions, because there
• 2:46
  were no interruptions, no one's stopping by to chat. And the
• 2:49
  best part, you don't have to share the copier. You could be
• 2:52
  running more than one copier at one time.
• 2:55
  Heidi: You have all of the power.
• 2:56
  Emily: Yes, it's bliss. But of course, that was before I had
• 3:00
  kids and I had that option then. Most people don't have that
• 3:04
  option. And honestly, teachers shouldn't have to go in on the
• 3:06
  weekends just to get uninterrupted work time.
• 3:08
  Heidi: No, no, we should not. But I think that's why this
• 3:12
  topic matters so much. We've heard from so many teachers who
• 3:15
  say that their planning time feels like it belongs to
• 3:18
  everyone else except them. Now there's the coverage requests,
• 3:22
  parent emails, a colleague who needs to vent, meetings, you
• 3:25
  know, the admin just stopping by with a quick question. It all
• 3:29
  adds up.
• 3:30
  Emily: And you can see why this happens. Teaching is
• 3:32
  collaborative, and none of us are doing this alone, but if
• 3:34
  your planning time is consistently getting hijacked,
• 3:38
  you're essentially doing a chunk of your job for free on your own
• 3:41
  time, which you're probably already doing plenty of your job
• 3:43
  for free, so don't add any more to it.
• 3:44
  Heidi: Seriously, and it's not because you're doing anything
• 3:47
  wrong, that is a systems problem. But unfortunately,
• 3:50
  fixing the system is outside the scope of this podcast.
• 3:53
  Emily: It's too bad, because we've got great ideas, but
• 3:55
  nobody wants to hear that.
• 3:57
  Heidi: But since we can't fix everything, we want to at least
• 4:00
  give you a guide for navigating all of it more productively.
• 4:05
  Emily: So here's how we're thinking about this, protecting
• 4:07
  your planning time really comes down to two pillars. Pillar one
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  is protecting the time itself, guarding it from interruptions
• 4:14
  and distractions.
• 4:15
  Heidi: And then we have pillar two, which is about directing
• 4:18
  the time. The goal is to know exactly what you're going to
• 4:21
  work on before you sit down.
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  Emily: We picked the imagery of pillars on purpose, because one
• 4:26
  pillar is just a statue. It doesn't do you much good. You
• 4:29
  need two pillars to hold anything up. If you are setting
• 4:32
  boundaries around your planning time, but then you sit down and
• 4:35
  stare at a to do list or scroll on your phone (guilty), then the
• 4:38
  boundaries are useless.
• 4:40
  Heidi: And on the other hand, if you have a great system so you
• 4:43
  know exactly what to work on, but your planning block keeps
• 4:46
  getting interrupted, then that system is never getting used.
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  Emily: So you need both. Protection without direction
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  leads to wasted time. Ooh, that sounds so like catchy, too.
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  Protection without direction leads to wasted time. Direction
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  without protection collapses under constant interruptions. So
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  let's start with pillar one, protecting the time. And Heidi,
• 5:07
  you have a story about this.
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  Heidi: I do. So now this was many years ago, but I was in the
• 5:13
  work room after school, and I ran into another teacher, and I
• 5:16
  was surprised to see her, because I thought she had
• 5:18
  already gone home. I think I had gone to, like, ask her
• 5:20
  something, and her lights were off. Her door was shut. I just
• 5:22
  assumed she left for the day, but here she was. She had been
• 5:26
  in her room the whole time just working with her lights off so
• 5:30
  nobody would interrupt her.
• 5:31
  Emily: Oh, that's so smart.
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  Heidi: I was amazed. I was like, Oh, you could just do that? Like
• 5:35
  it never crossed my mind that I could make myself less
• 5:39
  available.
• 5:40
  Emily: Yeah, but that would have been hard in your room. It was,
• 5:42
  see, I could totally hide in my room because of the way the door
• 5:46
  was. There was a section of the room that was not visible from
• 5:50
  the door, so I could be back there, and I didn't have to,
• 5:53
  like, worry about lights on or lights off, because I had a wall
• 5:55
  of windows. So that's where I would hide if I didn't want
• 5:57
  people to find me. But you had no windows in your classroom.
• 6:00
  Heidi: Yeah, yeah. Lights off in a windowless room is not super
• 6:03
  practical.
• 6:05
  Emily: You could have a headlamp.
• 6:08
  Heidi: But that conversation really shifted something for me.
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  Just because it was convenient for someone to pop in and ask me
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  a question didn't mean that it was a good use of my time to
• 6:18
  help them right then.
• 6:19
  Emily: Exactly. So that's our first suggestion for protecting
• 6:22
  your planning time. Use physical and visual boundaries. This
• 6:25
  might look like closing your door or even just partially
• 6:28
  closing it, maybe turning off or dimming your lights. If you're
• 6:31
  lucky enough to have windows like me.
• 6:33
  Heidi: Rub it in.
• 6:34
  Emily: Or positioning yourself away from the doorway, if you
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  have a good hiding spot like I did. Even a simple sign that
• 6:39
  says, Planning! Back at 4:15! can work wonders.
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  Heidi: The goal is to prevent interruptions before they
• 6:45
  happen, because interruptions may seem harmless, but they're
• 6:49
  really not. They're not just stealing your time, they're also
• 6:52
  stealing your focus. It can take several minutes to get your
• 6:56
  brain back into what you were doing, even after a short
• 6:59
  interruption.
• 6:59
  Emily: And I know some teachers worry that making yourself less
• 7:02
  available feels rude or unfriendly. Most of us really
• 7:05
  value relationships, and it's important to us to be helpful,
• 7:09
  but setting boundaries during your planning time is not anti
• 7:12
  team. It's pro sustainability. You can't be available to
• 7:16
  everyone and also be productive in 25 minutes. Something's got
• 7:19
  to give.
• 7:20
  Heidi: And honestly, your relationships with your
• 7:23
  colleagues will probably be better when you're not running
• 7:26
  on empty all the time. Planning time is not relationship
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  building time. It's work time. And you know what? That's okay.
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  Emily: And if you have to put a sign on your door, I think you
• 7:34
  can soften the blow a little by going funny. I've seen some of
• 7:38
  these just in, like, people's work cubicles online. I've seen
• 7:40
  this where it's just like, don't talk to me, I'm too easily
• 7:43
  distracted! Or like, you know, I'll never get back to work,
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  please don't talk to me! I'm an eager puppy, or whatever. Just
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  so I think you can, you can make a joke out of it, of just like,
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  I'm in, I'm in timeout, don't talk to me, if you're worried
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  about how it might come across. So those are physical
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  boundaries. Heidi, what's the second piece of protecting your
• 8:02
  time?
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  Heidi: Well, this one might be even harder, but no email during
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  planning time and no phone either. I know that hurts, but
• 8:11
  hear us out. Planning time is often, you know, what, 20
• 8:15
  minutes, 30 if you're lucky? And one parent email with a
• 8:19
  complaint or concern can completely derail that entire
• 8:23
  block. I have been there more than once.
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  Emily: Oh, yeah, and ruin the rest of your day. And it's not
• 8:30
  just the time it takes to read and respond, but the mental and
• 8:31
  emotional energy it takes to process it. So when you open
• 8:34
  your inbox, you're basically saying to someone, tell me how
• 8:36
  to use my time. You're going to let other people's priorities
• 8:40
  jump ahead of your own.
• 8:41
  Heidi: And it's also a good idea to pay attention to how much
• 8:44
  time your phone is stealing. You think you're just going to check
• 8:48
  a text, and then you see a reminder about a dentist
• 8:51
  appointment you need to reschedule, and then you're
• 8:53
  thinking about your kids' schedule, and then somehow
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  you're scrolling Instagram and five minutes have finished.
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  Emily: That's why this boundary is important. Your phone pulls
• 8:59
  your brain out of work mode and into life mode. And once you're
• 9:02
  in life mode, it's so hard to switch back with only 15 minutes
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  left in your planning time.
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  Heidi: So set a rule during planning time. Do what you can
• 9:10
  to limit email, work chat and personal messages. Unless
• 9:13
  something is genuinely urgent, and most things aren't, it can
• 9:17
  wait.
• 9:17
  Emily: Okay, one more piece of protecting your time, and this
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  one is more practical, make sure you start on time. It might not
• 9:23
  seem like a big deal, but let's look at some numbers. If you
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  have a 25 minute planning period and it starts five minutes late,
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  you've lost 20% of your time.
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  Heidi: So it's really important that you have your students
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  ready for planning time the second it starts. That means
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  taking that last five minutes before your prep starts to
• 9:41
  transition your students, you know, set an alarm if you need
• 9:43
  to, so that you aren't losing any of that time.
• 9:45
  Emily: And this might be hard, but if your planning time is
• 9:48
  consistently getting cut short because of coverage issues or
• 9:51
  schedule problems, that is worth advocating for. Maybe the
• 9:54
  teacher ahead of you is always late picking up their class, so
• 9:57
  you drop your class off at art and then have to watch her kids
• 10:00
  in the hall until she gets there.
• 10:02
  Heidi: Oh, yeah, I have been there, but you know, to be
• 10:05
  honest, I've also been the teacher who was late picking up
• 10:08
  her kids a time or two.
• 10:09
  Emily: Yeah, we all have days where the copier's being slow or
• 10:12
  we weren't watching the clock, but if it's becoming a
• 10:15
  consistent problem, it's worth speaking up about.
• 10:18
  Heidi: And I know it's tough when you feel like you're making
• 10:21
  a big deal about something that seems minor, but this is not
• 10:25
  that minor, if you look at the big picture.
• 10:27
  Emily: Yeah. Because when your planning time disappears, the
• 10:29
  work doesn't, it just moves into unpaid hours.
• 10:32
  Heidi: Yeah, that adds up to basically a whole planning time
• 10:35
  that you've lost. So it's definitely worth speaking up if
• 10:38
  you have got an ongoing problem with this situation.
• 10:41
  Emily: And you've got to advocate for yourself, because
• 10:43
  nobody else will.
• 10:45
  Okay. So that's pillar one, protect the time, physical
• 10:47
  boundaries, no email or phone, start on time, and know what you
• 10:51
  actually need.
• 10:52
  Heidi: Now let's talk about pillar two, directing the time,
• 10:55
  because even if you successfully guard your planning period from
• 10:59
  every interruption, you still need to know what to do with it.
• 11:02
  Emily: And this is where a lot of teachers struggle. You sit
• 11:05
  down, you look at your giant to do list, and you think, Where do
• 11:07
  I even start? So you grab your phone just to check something,
• 11:11
  because that at least feels productive. And now it's time to
• 11:14
  Heidi: It's a trap, and the way you avoid that trap is to decide
• 11:14
  get your class.
• 11:19
  what you're doing before planning time starts. Think of
• 11:22
  this as kind of choosing your lane. Before the week begins,
• 11:25
  assign each of your planning blocks a category of work. Maybe
• 11:29
  Monday's planning time is for lesson plans, Tuesday is for
• 11:31
  copies, Wednesday is for grading, Thursday for data,
• 11:34
  Friday is prepping for the week ahead.
• 11:35
  Emily: The goal is to ensure that you're not sitting down and
• 11:38
  asking yourself, okay, what should I work on, every day.
• 11:41
  When you sit down, you should already know what lane you're
• 11:44
  Heidi: What I love about this is how accessible it is. You don't
• 11:44
  in. You're not standing at a crossroads trying to figure out
• 11:47
  which direction to go.
• 11:52
  need any complicated systems or materials. You just need a plan
• 11:56
  and maybe a sticky note to write it on. The simpler the better.
• 11:59
  So assign each day's planning time its own tasks, and then try
• 12:03
  it out.
• 12:04
  Emily: And you'll probably have to tweak it a bit until you find
• 12:06
  the right setup for your needs, but it's such a low effort way
• 12:10
  to have high impact on your productivity. Every minute you
• 12:13
  spend deciding what to work on is a minute you're not actually
• 12:16
  working. Choosing your lane keeps you from swerving all over
• 12:19
  the road during a 25 minute planning period.
• 12:22
  Heidi: And then once you know your lane for the day, the next
• 12:24
  question is, what is the one task that will make the road
• 12:28
  ahead smoother? This might mean addressing the most time
• 12:31
  sensitive task, or it might mean knocking out a task that will
• 12:35
  make three other tasks easier.
• 12:37
  Emily: Sometimes the most urgent task and the most impactful task
• 12:40
  are the same thing, but often they're not. The most urgent
• 12:43
  task might be responding to that parent email, but the task that
• 12:46
  smooths the road ahead might be setting up your slides for
• 12:49
  tomorrow so your morning doesn't start chaotic.
• 12:51
  Heidi: Or copying a whole week's worth of math papers at once,
• 12:54
  instead of scrambling each morning, or creating a template
• 12:57
  for your weekly newsletter so you're not reinventing it every
• 13:00
  Friday. These tasks require a little more upfront work and
• 13:04
  planning, but they do pay off fast. Think of it like filling
• 13:08
  potholes, fixing one gap makes the whole drive easier.
• 13:11
  Emily: One more thing that can help with directing your time is
• 13:14
  to categorize your tasks by size. So keep a running list. It
• 13:18
  can be just, you know, in a notebook or on a sticky note,
• 13:20
  where tasks are tagged based on the time they'll take. So when
• 13:24
  you finish your planning tasks for the day and you've still got
• 13:26
  five minutes left, you can pull a five minute task off your
• 13:29
  list.
• 13:30
  Heidi: This is one of my favorite productivity hacks. I
• 13:32
  use this all the time, even just in my own life.
• 13:35
  Emily: Yeah, it's so smart. It saves you from a lot of decision
• 13:38
  fatigue, because I tend to just be like, Oh, I don't know what
• 13:40
  to do, so I won't do anything.
• 13:42
  Heidi: Or, yeah, I've only got a few minutes if there's not
• 13:42
  anything I can get done in that time.
• 13:46
  Emily: Yeah, so then you're not wasting time wondering what you
• 13:48
  can realistically accomplish in the time that you have. So, you
• 13:51
  know we love maximizing our pockets of prep, and organizing
• 13:55
  tasks by the time they take is one of the best ways to use
• 13:58
  pockets of prep.
• 14:00
  Heidi: Okay, one last suggestion for directing your time, use
• 14:03
  timers and batching. Set a timer for 10 or 15 minutes, work on
• 14:08
  one thing, and the timer goes off, stop even if you're not
• 14:11
  done.
• 14:12
  Emily: And this might feel counterintuitive, but it works
• 14:14
  because it's something called Parkinson's Law, which basically
• 14:17
  says that work expands to fill the time you give it.
• 14:20
  Heidi: This is something our mom said all the time when we were
• 14:22
  growing up. If you tell yourself you have 25 minutes to grade
• 14:26
  papers, somehow it's going to take 25 minutes. But if you tell
• 14:29
  yourself you have 12 minutes, you will be surprised by how
• 14:32
  much you can actually get done.
• 14:33
  Emily: And if you can't finish something in one planning block,
• 14:36
  that's okay. If you don't need it for tomorrow, batch it across
• 14:39
  days. Do 10 minutes of grading Monday, 10 minutes Tuesday, 10
• 14:42
  minutes Wednesday, it'll all still get done.
• 14:46
  Heidi: It's easy to feel like 20 minutes isn't enough time to
• 14:48
  accomplish anything meaningful, and honestly it isn't, if you
• 14:52
  don't manage those 20 minutes like they matter.
• 14:55
  Emily: Short planning time doesn't have to mean ineffective
• 14:58
  planning, but it does require being intentional. So let's do a
• 15:01
  quick recap. Protecting your planning time comes down to two
• 15:04
  pillars. Pillar one is protecting the time, no email or
• 15:08
  phone and starting on time.
• 15:10
  Heidi: And pillar two is directing the time. Choose your
• 15:13
  lane before you sit down, identify the task that will
• 15:16
  smooth the road ahead, categorize tasks by size, and
• 15:19
  use timers to stay focused.
• 15:21
  Emily: Now, of course, we are human. Not every planning time
• 15:24
  can be a master class in efficiency and productivity.
• 15:27
  You're a real person who is just doing their best in a difficult
• 15:31
  job. So it's important to be aware of what you need during
• 15:34
  that time. Sometimes more than making copies, what you need is
• 15:37
  time to go to the bathroom, eat something, rest your feet or
• 15:42
  just breathe.
• 15:44
  Heidi: This is especially true if you didn't sleep well, or you
• 15:48
  weathered a student meltdown earlier in the day, or your
• 15:50
  hormones are making everything more difficult. Sometimes the
• 15:53
  most important thing you can do during planning time is to take
• 15:56
  care of yourself.
• 15:57
  Emily: Yeah, you need to be able to function for the rest of the
• 16:00
  afternoon, so give yourself permission to check in. What do
• 16:02
  you actually need from this time? If it's five minutes to
• 16:04
  eat a granola bar and stare at the wall, that is valid, take
• 16:08
  the five minutes and then get back to work.
• 16:10
  Heidi: Protecting your planning time isn't about squeezing more
• 16:13
  productivity out of yourself. It's about creating a
• 16:16
  sustainable way to do your job without giving away all of your
• 16:19
  personal time.
• 16:20
  Emily: If this is the kind of thing you want to dig into more,
• 16:23
  we are talking more about strategies like this in the
• 16:25
  Teacher Approved club. It is our membership for teachers who want
• 16:28
  that ongoing support and community to make their teaching
• 16:31
  lives a little easier. We have a link to that in the show notes
• 16:34
  if you want to check it out.
• 16:36
  Heidi: And we would love to hear your tips for how you protect
• 16:38
  your planning time, what works for you, what boundaries have
• 16:41
  you set. Come share with us in the Teacher Approved Facebook
• 16:44
  group.
• 16:46
  Emily: Now for our Teacher Approved Tip of the Week, where
• 16:48
  we share an actionable tip to help you elevate what matters
• 16:51
  and simplify the rest. This week's Teacher Approved Tip is
• 16:54
  just a friendly reminder that if you're planning to give
• 16:56
  Valentines to your students, you want to buy them now.
• 16:59
  Heidi: Yeah, Valentines are one of those things that can sneak
• 17:02
  up on you. You think you have plenty of time, and then
• 17:04
  suddenly it's February 10, and the store shelves are already
• 17:07
  picked over, and then you're stuck with, like, weird off
• 17:10
  brand Valentines with, you know, Happy Valentine's Day from Steve
• 17:14
  the snake. Who's Steve the snake? Nobody knows, but he's
• 17:18
  all that's left.
• 17:20
  Emily: I always liked giving something that was a little more
• 17:22
  memorable but still affordable, so maybe a card with a fun
• 17:25
  pencil or cute paper airplanes that the kids can fold and
• 17:29
  actually play with. But that usually meant ordering online,
• 17:31
  because most of what you can find in store is candy based.
• 17:35
  Heidi: Now, obviously, there's nothing wrong with candy. Kids
• 17:37
  love candy, but if you want something that feels special,
• 17:40
  you need to figure that out now. Some of our favorite places to
• 17:44
  order Valentines from are Oriental Trading, MindWare,
• 17:47
  Paper Source and, of course, Amazon, they all have unique and
• 17:50
  interesting options at good prices.
• 17:53
  Emily: And a tip on Oriental Trading and MindWare
• 17:55
  specifically, make sure you're signed up for their emails so
• 17:57
  you can snag a coupon code. That can save you a ton, especially
• 18:00
  on shipping.
• 18:02
  Heidi: And if you are able, you might want to consider buying
• 18:04
  one or two extra boxes of Valentines. Because of cultural
• 18:08
  differences or family finances, it's not uncommon for kids to
• 18:11
  arrive on February 14 without anything to hand out, and you
• 18:15
  don't want them to feel left out or sad. It's it's really
• 18:17
  heartbreaking if you've been the teacher in that situation.
• 18:19
  Emily: Yes, having a backup stash means you can quietly slip
• 18:23
  them some Valentines to share without making a big deal of it,
• 18:26
  and they don't need to be fancy, just a couple boxes from the
• 18:29
  Dollar Store can do the trick.
• 18:30
  Heidi: And also keep this in mind if you were expecting
• 18:32
  students to arrive with boxes that they have decorated at
• 18:35
  home. If a student shows up without one, don't assume it's
• 18:39
  because they weren't interested. Sometimes it's just not within a
• 18:42
  child's control to manage all of these extras. Be ready with a
• 18:45
  backup, even just a bag that they can decorate quickly, or a
• 18:49
  simple container that you keep on hand.
• 18:51
  Emily: That's why I always preferred to decorate
• 18:53
  Valentine's bags in class. Then I knew everyone was covered,
• 18:56
  plus I ate up some time on a day that was not going to be
• 18:59
  productive in the least.
• 19:01
  Heidi: Yeah, I don't understand why every teacher doesn't do
• 19:03
  that. It's such a nice time filler on Valentine's Day.
• 19:05
  Emily: Yeah.
• 19:06
  Heidi: Now these things aren't big things, but they can make a
• 19:09
  big difference for a kid who might otherwise feel embarrassed
• 19:12
  or left out.
• 19:13
  Emily: So buy your Valentines now, order online for the best
• 19:16
  options, and grab some extras for any students who might need
• 19:19
  them.
• 19:20
  Heidi: Okay, to wrap up the show, we're sharing what we're
• 19:22
  giving extra credit to this week. Emily, what gets your
• 19:24
  extra credit?
• 19:25
  Emily: I'm giving extra credit to the most recent season of The
• 19:28
  Traitors. I have already given this extra credit before, but I
• 19:33
  don't care. I love it so much. Like, if you're not watching The
• 19:35
  Traitors, what are you doing with your life? It is, it's just
• 19:36
  so delightful. And I always just assume everybody knows about The
• 19:36
  Traitors, but then you talk to people who are just like, it's
• 19:40
  just not been on their radar at all. So it's basically like
• 19:48
  playing the game that we called mafia growing up, where
• 19:52
  everybody, and it's usually celebrities, which I much
• 19:55
  prefer. There were some of the past seasons had real people,
• 19:58
  and I didn't like them as much, because then you feel bad for
• 20:00
  the people who get kicked off.
• 20:01
  Heidi: Because they need the money for their mom's surgery or
• 20:04
  whatever.
• 20:06
  Emily: Yeah, for celebrities, I don't feel bad at all. So they
• 20:09
  go to this castle in the Scottish Highlands. Of course,
• 20:12
  Alan Cummings and his very over the top Scottish brogue for this
• 20:17
  role, and his over the top fashion as the host. And they
• 20:21
  are all trying to figure out who among them is a traitor. So
• 20:24
  secretly, a few of them have been designated as traitors, and
• 20:28
  they are trying to be undetected in this game. And the faithfuls
• 20:32
  are trying to figure out who they are. And it just...
• 20:35
  Heidi: Because the traders are going around at night, killing
• 20:37
  people.
• 20:37
  Emily: Yes, exactly. And at the end, if they get to the end and
• 20:41
  only faithfuls are left, then they split the money. But if
• 20:44
  there's even one traitor left, the traitor gets all the money.
• 20:48
  So it's a big challenge of trying to figure out, like, who
• 20:51
  do you trust? Like, who's being, who's being the sneaky traitor
• 20:54
  behind your back, and who's, who's a traitor, but not very
• 20:57
  good at it, and so they get caught really fast? Sometimes
• 21:00
  that happens.
• 21:01
  Heidi: Yeah, they play their hands. They overplay their
• 21:03
  hands.
• 21:03
  Emily: It's such a hoot. And honestly, I don't watch a ton of
• 21:06
  reality shows. So for the most part, I don't even know these
• 21:10
  celebrities. Like, there's always a handful of Real
• 21:12
  Housewives, and I don't watch any of those, and there'll be
• 21:15
  like, Love Island.
• 21:16
  Heidi: Big brother.
• 21:17
  Emily: Yeah, big brother, Survivor. I don't watch any of
• 21:19
  those shows. So mostly I don't even know these celebrities, but
• 21:23
  I don't care, like you get to know them, and it's fun. And
• 21:25
  usually there's at least a few people, like this time, there's
• 21:27
  a comedian Ron Funches that I love, a comedian and actor, and
• 21:31
  Mark Ballas from Dancing with the Stars.
• 21:33
  Heidi: Oh, that's fun.
• 21:34
  Emily: And a few other people that I do know, but for the most
• 21:36
  part, it's people I don't know, but I don't care. It's still
• 21:38
  fun. So if you're not watching it, you should be watching it.
• 21:40
  It's on peacock.
• 21:40
  Heidi: I haven't started this season yet. I'm waiting for it
• 21:41
  to build up episodes, because of course, they only drop one a
• 21:46
  week.
• 21:46
  Emily: No, they, but to start, they dropped like three the
• 21:49
  first week and then two. So I've already watched five.
• 21:51
  Heidi: Okay, that's good. I've been catching up on the, because
• 21:55
  on Peacock, you can see the UK Traitors.
• 21:57
  Emily: Yes, which are also good.
• 21:58
  Heidi: So that's been really fun.
• 22:00
  Emily: Yes, they're at the same castle. They do it at the same
• 22:03
  castle, but it's a different host, and the vibes are a little
• 22:04
  different, but it's fun too. I like the British ones too. It's
• 22:07
  a good watch.
• 22:08
  Heidi: Definitely.
• 22:09
  Emily: What are you giving extra credit to, Heidi?
• 22:11
  Heidi: Well, I'm giving extra credit to everyone who helped
• 22:13
  with our Teacher Winter Talk Summit that ended a couple weeks
• 22:16
  ago. This took months and months and months of careful planning
• 22:20
  and so many hours of work. Emily deserves all of the bonus
• 22:24
  points, all of the gold stars, all of the extra credit.
• 22:26
  Emily: Where's my crown? I will accept it.
• 22:29
  Heidi: Seriously, or a couple days off of work.
• 22:31
  Emily: Yeah, I would take that too.
• 22:33
  Heidi: But the event was awesome, and Melanie and Sara
• 22:37
  and Mari and Kate and so many other people worked behind the
• 22:41
  scenes to make sure that all of the pieces work together. You
• 22:43
  have no idea how many tiny little pieces all have to come
• 22:47
  together to make this event work.
• 22:49
  Emily: Oh, yeah, yes. And then our amazing presenters, too.
• 22:52
  Heidi: Extra extra credit to everyone who presented. They did
• 22:55
  such amazing sessions. I got great takeaways. Hopefully all
• 22:58
  of you did too. And extra credit to everyone who signed up, who
• 23:02
  listened to the sessions, who joined for the live calls.
• 23:05
  Emily: Oh, those were so fun.
• 23:06
  Heidi: It was so fun to get to see some of you, and you know
• 23:08
  everyone who worked hard on their bingo boards. That was a
• 23:11
  commitment.
• 23:11
  Emily: Yes.
• 23:12
  Heidi: It really was a fantastic weekend, and I'm already getting
• 23:14
  excited about the Summer Summit. Emily has picked out a really
• 23:18
  fun theme.
• 23:19
  Emily: You guys, it's gonna be so good!
• 23:20
  Heidi: Well, that is it for today's episode. Try out our two
• 23:26
  pillar framework for protecting your planning time, and don't
• 23:29
  forget to grab those Valentines before they are gone.
• 23:31
  We hope you enjoyed this episode of Teacher Approved. I'm Heidi.
• 23:38
  Emily: And I'm Emily. Thank you for listening. Be sure to follow
• 23:41
  or subscribe in your podcast app so that you never miss an
• 23:44
  episode.
• 23:45
  Heidi: You can connect with us and other teachers in the
• 23:47
  Teacher Approved Facebook group. We'll see you here next week.
• 23:50
  Bye for now.
• 23:51
  Emily: Bye.