Latest / New Teacher Talk / Ep 126: Teachers...Check Your Stress Before You Wreck Yourself!
Transcript
- 0:02Welcome to another episode of New Teacher Talk.
- 0:05On our podcast channel we discuss the most common
- 0:08challenges early career educators experience,
- 0:11and we focus on creating a community of support and finding
- 0:17answers whether you're teaching in a rural suburban or
- 0:21urban setting.
- 0:22As an extension
- 0:23to podcast channel, you can find us on our socials. Instagram @newtechertalk.
- 0:30And, Youtube at www.youtube.com/@newteachertalk1.
- 0:40I'm Dr.
- 0:40Anna,
- 0:41an early childhood generalist who mentors educators on
- 0:44their journey toward National Board Certification.
- 0:48And, I'm Dr.
- 0:48Beth.
- 0:49My experience as an educator includes being a high school
- 0:52band director, mentor, and teacher educator.
- 0:56Dr.
- 0:56Anna and I are so excited to have Jolee Jones with us
- 1:00today.
- 1:01She is the Director of Organizational Development and E
- 1:04xperiential Learning with the Douglas County School
- 1:08District in Colorado.
- 1:10What is special about Jolee's work is that she focuses on
- 1:14stress, which we know as educators,
- 1:17early career or even veteran teachers,
- 1:20we all experience stress.
- 1:23So she will be talking about checking your stress before
- 1:26you wreck yourself.
- 1:28Jolee,
- 1:29we are so glad that you accepted our invitation to join us
- 1:32today.
- 1:33Thank you for having me.
- 1:34I'm so excited to be here.
- 1:37Why is the topic of stress and burnout so important to us?
- 1:43Stress is everywhere. Stress is all around us,
- 1:45and it's something that our teachers and our leaders
- 1:48contend with on a day-to-day basis.
- 1:50It's something they really can't get away from if they're
- 1:53just walking through their life normally.
- 1:55And since the pandemic,
- 1:57we've really seen education burnout tick up to the point
- 2:00that it is now the number one career in industry
- 2:04experiencing burnout.
- 2:05I believe it's a median average of 2.65 years of teachers
- 2:09staying in the same job before they decide to move or leave
- 2:12the industry.
- 2:13And that's really, really impactful for our industry.
- 2:17And so why should teachers and recruiters be focused on
- 2:23managing stress as we are starting into the profession or
- 2:30as we're looking at candidates for our positions in
- 2:34schools?
- 2:36Stress takes us out of our best state.
- 2:39If we give in to stress,
- 2:40our teachers can't really give back to the kids.
- 2:42They can't give back to their learning communities to help
- 2:45one another grow and really helping education as a whole.
- 2:48And so as recruiters and leaders in this industry,
- 2:51if we are really starting to look at how we can manage
- 2:53this,
- 2:54it really helps the longevity of teachers to help them stay
- 2:58focused and grounded in the work that they are doing.
- 3:01Stress, when we give into it,
- 3:03when we're not mindful about the stress that is impacting
- 3:06our lives,
- 3:07takes us out of our flow and our ability to impact
- 3:09students, our learning communities and those around us.
- 3:13We really need to be able to provide intentional strategies
- 3:18for ourselves and for our teachers going forward.
- 3:22And let's be honest,
- 3:22when our teachers are more grounded and less stressed,
- 3:26they can help their students do the same.
- 3:28We're seeing this same issue with our students.
- 3:31Recent book by Jonathan Haidt,
- 3:32The Anxious Generation talks about this anxiety,
- 3:35it has kicked up and a lot of it has to do with cell phones
- 3:38and social media,
- 3:39but it's also about the immediacy of how we're able to get
- 3:43information, and our kids are stressed.
- 3:46And so how do we help our teachers from the get-go manage
- 3:49their stress again so that they can be there for one
- 3:52another, they can be impactful and helpful,
- 3:54supportive for one another and also our students.
- 3:59What I really like about what you're sharing is it really
- 4:02directly addresses the number one reason for why people are
- 4:07leaving the profession and putting students at the center.
- 4:12Let's go deeper.
- 4:13How should we think about stress to better understand it?
- 4:17Stress is a big animal to tackle,
- 4:19but a lot of the research is really starting to hone in on
- 4:23the different ways that it impacts us.
- 4:24And so I've been using a model that was introduced to me
- 4:27through The Energy Project,
- 4:29a company that does a lot around our own energy and
- 4:31capacity,
- 4:32and also in a recent book by Mo Godot and Alice Law,
- 4:36Unstressable.
- 4:37And they talk about the way that spiritual self is that
- 4:46spiritual realm.
- 4:47So we're not getting into religion,
- 4:48for some people that is religion,
- 4:49but how does it impact our non-spiritual self?
- 4:53From that mental standpoint,
- 4:55we get stuck in incessant thoughts, negative thoughts.
- 5:00You have one thought in a day, a student says something,
- 5:02a co-worker says something to you,
- 5:04and your mind is off to the races.
- 5:07And that thought keeps coming back to you,
- 5:10and that is actually providing stress for us.
- 5:14Emotionally, a lot of us, I don't know how many times,
- 5:17we've all been in a conversation, you pass someone,
- 5:19you say, how are you doing today?
- 5:21Fine.
- 5:22Fine is indicative of us pushing our emotions down.
- 5:26We're not working through our emotions.
- 5:29I might be really stressed.
- 5:30I might be frustrated with somebody.
- 5:32I might be happy about something,
- 5:33but this other thing that's coming in,
- 5:36this other situation that has occurred is coloring it all.
- 5:39And I just say, I'm fine.
- 5:41That's not us dealing with our emotions.
- 5:44And then there's the physical aspect.
- 5:46We have all experienced neck, back, shoulder pain.
- 5:51Any kind of chronic pain that we have is more than likely
- 5:54associated with stress.
- 5:57There are research numbers that 70 to 90% of all doctor
- 6:01visits are somehow related to stress.
- 6:04That's staggering.
- 6:07So it may not be the reason that you go in, but ultimately,
- 6:10that's the underlying reason for that doctor visit.
- 6:14And then spiritually.
- 6:16Spiritually is when we start giving in to other people's
- 6:19demands.
- 6:20So part of this is about boundaries,
- 6:21but this is also living authentically within ourselves.
- 6:25When we start doing things for other people,
- 6:27because we want to people please,
- 6:29we're trying to take care of others.
- 6:31But what we end up doing is giving ourselves away.
- 6:34The things that were priority for us and that were
- 6:37important for us,
- 6:38our passions suddenly become secondary to other people.
- 6:42And what that does is it really pushes down our spiritual
- 6:45self,
- 6:45the thing that gives us drive and passion in the things
- 6:48that we do.
- 6:50And so when we think about stress from those four different
- 6:53modalities,
- 6:54it can really allow us to start to dig in a little bit
- 6:57better, a little bit more finite, a little more nuanced,
- 7:00and start to address the stress little by little.
- 7:04So it's not this big abstract concept of stress.
- 7:08How do I handle my stress?
- 7:10Well, let's look at each one.
- 7:12How do I start to deal with that physical pain?
- 7:15Maybe I go out to the gym,
- 7:17maybe with the mental piece of that,
- 7:20maybe I do some meditation.
- 7:23And there's a lot of different strategies that we can start
- 7:25to grab a hold of and start to utilize,
- 7:28but we have to really start to break stress down into
- 7:31smaller pieces.
- 7:34Jolee, that makes so much sense to me.
- 7:37I've never thought about breaking stress into those finite
- 7:41areas.
- 7:43When you were giving examples,
- 7:45it made me think about how each one of those impacts a
- 7:49teacher in a day.
- 7:51That lesson didn't go well.
- 7:53Or I got this nasty gram from someone in the morning,
- 7:57and it's colored my whole day.
- 8:00And I keep going back to it and replaying it in my mind
- 8:04rather than just saying,
- 8:07I'm going to let go of that until I have more mental
- 8:10capacity to deal with it and think about it.
- 8:15Or maybe just set it aside because it really isn't
- 8:18important.
- 8:20But I've made it important.
- 8:22Yeah, we add a lot of extra noise into our own stress,
- 8:26right?
- 8:26With those thoughts,
- 8:27be it just small kind of passing thoughts or the obsessive
- 8:30thought that really digs in, right?
- 8:33Especially as a new teacher, if you mess up a lesson,
- 8:37you struggle with a lesson.
- 8:39And then maybe you get feedback from that and maybe you
- 8:42struggle taking feedback.
- 8:43And now that thought is just in there.
- 8:47I'm never going to be right as an educator.
- 8:49This is not what I should be doing.
- 8:50I was all wrong about it.
- 8:52And that obsessive thought creates stress,
- 8:55creates a cortisol buildup in our body.
- 8:59And maybe that's part of why we're seeing this turnover
- 9:01rate at 2.65 years, right?
- 9:04Before they're changing jobs or they're leaving the
- 9:07industry altogether.
- 9:09It's an obsessive thought that has taken root.
- 9:11And how can we stop that?
- 9:14And it's interesting that you say 2.6 years,
- 9:18because that's just prior to when you might get tenure in
- 9:23the district.
- 9:24And is it the fact that I'm not sure they're going to ask
- 9:28me back and that would crush me?
- 9:31Or is it that if I go further, I'm committed, I'm here?
- 9:38Mm hmm.
- 9:39So thinking about that aspect of stress and that critical
- 9:44point in one's career,
- 9:47I almost wish we could do some more research into that
- 9:52topic.
- 9:54There's so much that's there, right,
- 9:56around stress and how we can start to impact that,
- 10:00how we start to think about what is an impact or a lever
- 10:04early on in an educator's career,
- 10:07that how do we support and take care of them holistically?
- 10:12I think a lot of districts do a wonderful job of, again,
- 10:16creating those learning communities and making sure that
- 10:18we're supporting from a curriculum standpoint and giving
- 10:21them new teacher orientation and all the things that we're
- 10:25used to seeing,
- 10:26but how do we start looking at this and really making it
- 10:30more, I would say, meatier,
- 10:32something to chew on a little bit more?
- 10:34Wellness programs are great.
- 10:36I think that we can do more with it.
- 10:37I think that's what I'm working with our wellness and
- 10:40benefits department to kind of in the background,
- 10:43like how do we really beef this up a little bit so that
- 10:45we're taking care, again, of our leaders, our teachers,
- 10:49the new teachers that are coming in,
- 10:50even our staff that are supporting our district.
- 10:53The spaces that we don't always put forward within our
- 10:56systems, they're crucial.
- 10:58They're a critical part.
- 11:00And when one department is struggling,
- 11:02but that department is supposed to be helping our teachers
- 11:05through IEPs or even busing,
- 11:08then it impacts the entire system.
- 11:10And so we have to have a more holistic view of stress and
- 11:14its impacts and how it leads to burnout long-term.
- 11:18So what we want is something called just-right stress.
- 11:21And in that just-right stress, that is where we find flow.
- 11:25It's just a touch of discomfort, right?
- 11:28And with a touch of discomfort, we get our stretch zone.
- 11:31We're just outside of our comfort zone.
- 11:33And again, that's where we activate flow state.
- 11:35So most of us have experienced that joy of working on a
- 11:39project or working through a problem.
- 11:41And all of a sudden, maybe we're trying for a new skill.
- 11:46And at first, it's challenging.
- 11:48It's uncomfortable.
- 11:49But as we dig into it,
- 11:51and as it starts to get a little bit easier,
- 11:53time slips away, focus narrows, and at the end of it,
- 11:57and on the other side, we're like, Oh, that was fun.
- 11:59I enjoyed that process.
- 12:00We feel invigorated by it.
- 12:02And that's just right stress, right?
- 12:05That the level of challenge just exceeded our abilities.
- 12:09And so we had to push that ability up,
- 12:11we had to learn and create a higher level of ability in
- 12:15order to meet the challenge and eventually exceed it.
- 12:18Right.
- 12:18And that's what flow is all about is making sure that
- 12:21equation of challenge and ability is rightly matched.
- 12:28You know, Jolee,
- 12:29you've piqued my interest because when it comes to stress,
- 12:32people often talk about distress and eustress,
- 12:36you stress can be good stress,
- 12:37but you've taken that another step further, much further.
- 12:41This notion of just right stress,
- 12:45the flow. That really has made me take pause and think
- 12:49deeply about what you're saying.
- 12:52So thank you for that.
- 12:55Leaders, sometimes, again, because stress is so huge,
- 12:59right, and we see our staff struggling with stress,
- 13:02sometimes from a caretaking perspective,
- 13:04we want to remove all the stress, we want to make it easy,
- 13:07and what that actually does is it keeps people in their
- 13:10comfort zone or even below it, right,
- 13:12and so they're not actually using their skills.
- 13:14And there's another fabulous book,
- 13:16some other research that I've done around oxytocin,
- 13:19and it's Paul Zach, I believe,
- 13:21and he wrote a book around trust and trust within the
- 13:24workplace.
- 13:26And he talks about one of the best things a manager can do
- 13:28is to create trust, is to create that just right challenge,
- 13:33right, he says when we do that as managers,
- 13:35when we push our people and say,
- 13:37I know this is going to be hard for you,
- 13:39I really think that you are capable of doing it,
- 13:42it creates, we have actually have oxytocin, that trust,
- 13:46that love chemical that releases within us, and we go,
- 13:50okay, and we rise to the challenge, right,
- 13:52we may struggle a little bit,
- 13:54but that just right stress, puts that in that flow state,
- 13:57and we become closer to our manager for giving us that
- 14:01opportunity.
- 14:03And then on top of that, right,
- 14:04you have now a new relationship.
- 14:06When we have relationships and connection,
- 14:08we also take care of that emotional and that spiritual
- 14:13realm of stress,
- 14:14that becomes a strategy to help lessen stress in those two
- 14:18areas.
- 14:20What I appreciated that you said about the idea of the
- 14:23relationship and posing a task that might be challenging,
- 14:30but the really important part that the employee needs to
- 14:33hear is, but I believe in you, and you can do this.
- 14:39Absolutely.
- 14:39And too often we only hear that first part, this is hard.
- 14:46You're on your own, go for it.
- 14:50And we forget that we've got people there that believe in
- 14:54us and can support us in these things that are hard.
- 14:59Belief is powerful.
- 15:01It truly is.
- 15:03And the idea of those relationships that we feel that we
- 15:07are a team approaching this hard thing.
- 15:12And that when you might stutter,
- 15:15I'm here to help you and encourage you and to offer my
- 15:21thoughts and my help.
- 15:24Mm-hmm.
- 15:25It might be there,
- 15:26but I'm not always so sure that early career teachers and
- 15:30teachers in general always feel that authenticity coming
- 15:35back at them.
- 15:37I trust you because we're having a lot of hearing non-trust
- 15:43from the public,
- 15:45from outside noise that we aren't good enough that we have
- 15:50to give you a pre-packaged curriculum.
- 15:52We can't let you tinker in your work.
- 15:57We don't believe in you.
- 15:58And I think that when teachers hear that enough,
- 16:02that's when that idea of self value and that trust in
- 16:08yourself and it comes back to those four points you've
- 16:12talked about.
- 16:13I don't feel good.
- 16:15My emotions are in a tizzy.
- 16:18My mental space isn't here.
- 16:20Am I really good enough?
- 16:21Am I really capable?
- 16:23I don't have that thought that yes, I can travel on.
- 16:28My spirit is crushed.
- 16:31And I'm weighed down physically by all of this.
- 16:37Yeah, it becomes heavy really fast, right?
- 16:40The distrust that a new teacher,
- 16:42even seasoned teachers feel when they're not feeling that
- 16:46support from a community, from leadership,
- 16:49maybe from a curriculum department.
- 16:51Maybe it's just their own thought in their head.
- 16:53Maybe that's not actually true, right?
- 16:56But again, the thought creates the emotion,
- 16:58creates more thoughts, creates more emotion.
- 17:02And then we have a physical manifestation of it.
- 17:05It is this vicious cycle.
- 17:08And one of the things that came out within my reading and
- 17:10my research around this is that we are not set up.
- 17:14Our nervous systems are not set up for the kind of stress
- 17:17that we encounter in modern day.
- 17:20Modern day stress no longer starts with the tiger or the
- 17:24saber-toothed tiger chasing us, right?
- 17:26Modern day stress starts with a thought, right?
- 17:28This wonderful thing that sits at the top of our body,
- 17:32our brains, doesn't stop.
- 17:35It is constantly going.
- 17:37And so when you have those thoughts that are just creating
- 17:40noise, that are creating obsession, to again,
- 17:43look at trust, look at relationship and say,
- 17:46I do believe in you.
- 17:47I trust you to do this.
- 17:49Be creative.
- 17:50Creativity and innovation and education.
- 17:53I would say that nine times out of 10,
- 17:55when you ask someone about their favorite teacher,
- 17:57it was that teacher that did something out of the box,
- 18:00right?
- 18:00That wasn't doing the cookie cutter.
- 18:02And so how do we get back to a place of that?
- 18:04Where we calm everyone's stress, including our communities,
- 18:09including our leadership and say, it's okay.
- 18:12We know that we can still innovate and still take care of
- 18:16our students and our teachers and everyone in really,
- 18:20really wonderful and intentional way.
- 18:23Absolutely.
- 18:24So what are some ways that we can navigate stress in our
- 18:29professional and personal lives?
- 18:32There are a number of ways that we can,
- 18:33we can dig into that, but, uh,
- 18:34a simple framework that I like to use,
- 18:37it's the three L's it's limit, learn, and listen.
- 18:42And, and really think about this as a cycle.
- 18:44So it just continues to go and go and go.
- 18:46It's not linear in its fashion,
- 18:49but first we want to start with limit.
- 18:50So how do you take stock of the stressors that are actually
- 18:55impacting your day?
- 18:56Right.
- 18:57And, and break your day up into smaller pieces.
- 18:59I think, again, if we look at it whole from a whole day,
- 19:02go, oh, I can't even start to imagine everything.
- 19:06So start with your morning,
- 19:07and there are stressors from the moment we wake up.
- 19:11A lot of us, you know,
- 19:12we have our phones as our alarm clock.
- 19:15And so we might be in a beautiful state of REM sleep or
- 19:18having a wonderfully weird dream and that alarm goes off.
- 19:21Right.
- 19:22And it jolts us that right there is an immediate stressor.
- 19:26And then I am guilty of this as well.
- 19:28This is still one of those areas that I'm working on is I
- 19:30grab my phone and I start scrolling and look at whatever
- 19:33notification came through in the night that is not relevant
- 19:36for me.
- 19:37I don't need to see some random news story about what's
- 19:40happening with snowpack in the mountains.
- 19:42I don't need that at 6am.
- 19:43Right.
- 19:44But I do that right away.
- 19:46And we, a lot of us do that.
- 19:48It's a really staggering number of people that pick up
- 19:50their phones in the first four minutes of being awake.
- 19:53And then you go to make coffee.
- 19:55You go, you know what?
- 19:56I forgot to pick up coffee last night.
- 19:59Now I have to add that coffee run into my commute.
- 20:02That's a stressor.
- 20:04Just a small nuisance, but it's there.
- 20:07And so how do you start to look at your day and start
- 20:11again, break it down?
- 20:12What are the things that just make me go, right?
- 20:15Write it down.
- 20:16And when you start to look at that, then you can say, okay,
- 20:19what can I take away?
- 20:21Well, I can dust off that old alarm clock.
- 20:24It's sitting in a box somewhere downstairs.
- 20:26And use that and leave my phone outside my room.
- 20:29Immediate stress or stress relief, right?
- 20:32I don't,
- 20:32I'm not tempted now to look at my phone because it's not
- 20:35there.
- 20:38Right.
- 20:38And so that's an easy, easy one to do.
- 20:40If you're worried about your commute, right,
- 20:42you're constantly leaving right at the last minute,
- 20:44you know, if I leave by 730, I'll be right there on time,
- 20:47but you're never on time.
- 20:48Right.
- 20:49Because there's construction and there's an accident.
- 20:51So leave 10 minutes earlier.
- 20:53There are simple things that you can do to limit the
- 20:55stressors that are in your day to day.
- 20:58Right.
- 20:59And so how do you start to limit those things?
- 21:00So take an inventory and look through and say,
- 21:03what are one or two of these?
- 21:05Start small.
- 21:05That's what I would say to you is start small.
- 21:07And start to take those off the list and remove it and
- 21:10practice it.
- 21:12The next one, learn.
- 21:13This is not just about the knowledge within a book or an
- 21:17article or that type of thing.
- 21:18This is also about practice.
- 21:20We have to practice what we learn.
- 21:23Otherwise it is just, we're going to dump it, right?
- 21:25Our brain will go, you don't need that anymore.
- 21:27And it will flush it out through its natural way that it
- 21:30works.
- 21:31And so when we start to practice this new stuff,
- 21:34I often talk about in other trainings that I do.
- 21:36Like if I have been to so many conferences where I am fired
- 21:41up, I am learning new things,
- 21:43I'm writing them all down in my little notepad,
- 21:46and I'm going to do this,
- 21:48I'm going to incorporate this into my work.
- 21:50And then I put that notebook aside and then I literally
- 21:54found five notebooks from old conferences I had gone to
- 21:57about a year ago.
- 21:58And I was like, oh,
- 22:00look at all these fabulous ideas that I had.
- 22:02I put none of it into practice.
- 22:04So what you have to do in this learning part of this
- 22:06framework is to put it into practice.
- 22:09But again, don't overload yourself.
- 22:11You're not going to fix stress in one week, right?
- 22:15So start to practice those things,
- 22:16make those things a habit and then listen.
- 22:20The last one is about listening to your mind, to your body,
- 22:23to your emotions and to that spiritual self, right?
- 22:26What is your gut and your intuition telling you to do?
- 22:29So many of us ignore that intuition to the point now that
- 22:33we are unfamiliar with how it actually feels in our body.
- 22:37So how do we start to recreate that connection with our own
- 22:39selves?
- 22:40And what is your emotion telling you?
- 22:42Do you have heat in your chest when you have to walk into a
- 22:46particular meeting?
- 22:48Oh, that's information for you, right?
- 22:50Do you feel your gut tighten when you talk to a certain
- 22:54person?
- 22:55Do you feel tingling and lightness when you go into the
- 22:58classroom?
- 22:58All right.
- 22:59And what does that mean?
- 23:00It can mean different things.
- 23:02For me, my gut tightening tells me no.
- 23:04When I feel that tingling in my upper body, it means, yeah,
- 23:08we're in a happy place and we're excited to be here,
- 23:11even if it may be uncomfortable.
- 23:12So we have to start listening.
- 23:14And when we go through that cycle of limit,
- 23:16learn and listen, we'll eventually end up back at limit,
- 23:21right?
- 23:21Because we've started to shift our entire world.
- 23:24And when we start to shift our world,
- 23:26it opens up new possibilities.
- 23:27And we can go back to that stressor list.
- 23:30And maybe we create a new stressor list for our morning,
- 23:33our afternoon, our evening, maybe our weekend is separate.
- 23:36And we say, this no longer serves me anymore.
- 23:40In this new realm,
- 23:41this new place that I've come to in this work,
- 23:46this thing now stresses me out.
- 23:48Maybe it gave you solace before, but maybe now it doesn't.
- 23:51And so you can now limit that and you start that cycle over
- 23:54and over again.
- 23:56So it becomes just, it's ongoing.
- 23:58And so you get to a place where you're really limiting the
- 24:01stress and the things that you cannot limit,
- 24:03the things that are there like that morning commute,
- 24:06like the person that's going to cut you off.
- 24:08Practicing something called committed acceptance is really
- 24:11important.
- 24:13I accept that that person cut me off.
- 24:15Maybe they have somewhere they need to be right now.
- 24:18I am exactly where I am supposed to be.
- 24:20And that is okay, right?
- 24:22It becomes like a mantra that you say to yourself and you
- 24:26accept it and that you commit to changing your life or
- 24:30commit to doing something that makes your life better.
- 24:33I'm going to leave five minutes earlier tomorrow because I
- 24:35keep seeing that same car on the commute.
- 24:37We must leave the house at the same time,
- 24:39and I don't want to be cut off again.
- 24:41So I'm only five minutes early, right?
- 24:43So you commit to doing something different,
- 24:45but you have to accept where you're at first.
- 24:48The things that really came out to me and what you were
- 24:51just speaking about, Jolee,
- 24:53is that we have to start really thinking about ourselves
- 24:56and not in an egocentric kind of way.
- 25:00But think about what we need,
- 25:03how we can take care of ourselves,
- 25:07and not necessarily look to someone else to do that for
- 25:12us.
- 25:14Take control.
- 25:17You're in control of a lot of the stress that manifests in
- 25:20your day.
- 25:22And so yeah, take control, take responsibility,
- 25:25but your body, your mind, your thoughts,
- 25:28all of those things, they are wise if you let them be.
- 25:33And so there's that adage, right,
- 25:35of being selfish is not selfish or taking care of yourself
- 25:38is not selfish.
- 25:39I think it's actually what it is.
- 25:41It's okay to take care of yourself.
- 25:43Put ourselves first before we can take care of others.
- 25:49Absolutely.
- 25:50I think it's hard for a lot of educators.
- 25:53There's a caretaking component to a lot of educators and
- 25:58right,
- 25:59our culture tells us if you're a caretaker you take care of
- 26:01somebody else first.
- 26:03It's just not true and it doesn't have to be the case.
- 26:06You come with more energy more capacity when you take care
- 26:11of yourself.
- 26:12If your back is hurting, it's okay to rest.
- 26:16It's okay to take that break.
- 26:18If you realize that you are clicking through tabs on your
- 26:21computer because you're not actually getting anything done
- 26:23because your mind is unfocused and tired, stand up,
- 26:26go connect with someone, stand up, go outside for a walk,
- 26:29get fresh air, and come back to it.
- 26:32That is taking care of yourself so that you have energy and
- 26:35capacity continue on to do the work that is important.
- 26:40Our listeners really appreciate episodes like this, Jolee,
- 26:43that are so practical, filled with ideas to use right away.
- 26:50Let's keep this conversation going.
- 26:52If our listeners would like to ask you a specific question,
- 26:56connect with you.
- 26:58Maybe somebody listening would like to have you as a
- 27:00keynote speaker or come to their school district and talk
- 27:03more about stress and how to work with that as a teacher.
- 27:08How could they reach out to you?
- 27:11Reaching out to me through one of my couple of emails.
- 27:13I also do this.
- 27:14I have my own consulting company, Ellipsis Consulting.
- 27:17I have an
- 27:18email, jollee@ellipsisconsulting.org and that's J-O-L-E-E. That email or jolee.jones@dcsdk12.org. And that's my district email. And I will talk about stress day in and day out. This work is near and dear to me. Three and a half years ago, I was in my own state of burnout and it was something that I came through.
- 27:18I didn't realize I was in burnout until I was starting to make my way out. And funny enough, I started doing research on burnout. And I started to look at the data and the research and said, oh, I was there. And by the definition that the World Health Organization puts out in the dimensions of burnout, I met all three of those. So these things that I talk about with you today and also in my keynote and my trainings, these are things that I've used. These are things that I have lived and that have worked. And now three and a half years later, I'm a completely different person. I go through my life differently. I take stock of the things that I learn and that I read and I put them into practice as quickly as I can, because I know that it works and it's helpful. I would say now too, there's a belief that idea of pushing through, right? If I just keep going, keep going, I'm gonna be more productive. That's false, right? We have to take breaks. And what I would say is from my own personal experience is that now on the other end where I'm through burnout and I am managing my stress and I am very mindful of what comes into my world, I am more productive.
- 29:16Your story is compelling,
- 29:17and it really is quite true that by taking these strategies
- 29:21and thoughts and ideas that you've shared,
- 29:24that you can manage your life,
- 29:27especially in a very stressful situation.
- 29:30Thank you so much for sharing your time with us and being
- 29:34our guest today.
- 29:35For our listeners, first of all,
- 29:38we thank you for being here.
- 29:40Jolee has mentioned a number of books and resources in
- 29:43today's episode,
- 29:44and we will capture those books in the show notes.
- 29:48So if you'd like to read and learn more about these ideas
- 29:52and strategies she's been talking about,
- 29:54they will be there for you.
- 29:56Also,
- 29:57we will put her contact information in the show notes so
- 30:00you can reach out to her directly.
- 30:03So as we close, just be sure to follow us on our socials.
- 30:06Each week,
- 30:07we share a practical resource that you can download through
- 30:10our Instagram
- 30:11page @NewTeacherTalk. You can also look for our Tuesday Teacher Resource on our Instagram page and check out our Thursday Thought to keep you motivated. And in addition to following us on our socials, we would love you to become a regular follower of this podcast channel. Just hit that follow button, and each time we drop an episode, you will get notified. And remember, as a new teacher, we are here to support you.