Latest / Teacher Approved: Elementary Teacher Tips & Strategies / 199. Time, Tech, & Tasks: The 3 Boundaries That Save Teacher Summers

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199. Time, Tech, & Tasks: The 3 Boundaries That Save Teacher Summers · Teacher Approved: Elementary Teacher Tips & Strategies

• 0:00
  Heidi: This is episode 199 of Teacher Approved.
• 0:06
  You're listening to Teacher Approved, the podcast helping
• 0:09
  educators elevate what matters and simplify the rest. I'm
• 0:13
  Heidi.
• 0:14
  Emily: And I'm Emily. We're the creators behind Second Story
• 0:17
  Sindow, where we give research based and teacher approved
• 0:20
  strategies that make teaching less stressful and more
• 0:22
  effective. You can check out the show notes and resources from
• 0:26
  each episode at secondstorywindow.net.
• 0:29
  Heidi: We're so glad you're tuning in today. Let's get to
• 0:31
  the show.
• 0:36
  Emily: Hey there. Thanks for joining us today. In today's
• 0:39
  episode, we're talking about why boundaries are the secret
• 0:43
  ingredient for summer fun and back to school readiness, and
• 0:47
  sharing a teacher approved tip for making summer memory magic.
• 0:51
  Heidi: But first, it is time for Try It Tomorrow, a favorite
• 0:54
  quick win that you can try in your life right away. Tell us
• 0:57
  about this week's try it tomorrow, Emily.
• 0:59
  Emily: This week I want you to make a to don't list. It's so
• 1:03
  simple. Just write down five things you're giving yourself
• 1:06
  permission to skip this summer. Maybe it's checking your school
• 1:10
  email daily. Maybe it's redoing your class decor from scratch
• 1:15
  again.
• 1:16
  Heidi: Put that list somewhere visible, like, you know, on the
• 1:18
  fridge or in your planner, somewhere where you will see it
• 1:21
  and think of it as your summer permission slip.
• 1:24
  Emily: If you like this idea or anything else we share here on
• 1:27
  the podcast, would you take a second and give us a five star
• 1:29
  rating and review on Apple podcasts?
• 1:33
  Heidi: Over the years, Emily and I have created an extensive
• 1:36
  library of back to school products to help you find the
• 1:39
  tools that will make the start of your new year easier. Today
• 1:42
  we are spotlighting our pattern blocks activity set.
• 1:46
  Emily: Now you're probably not ready to think about the first
• 1:49
  day of school yet, but we have got some great tools to help you
• 1:53
  check off one of your most important first day tasks with
• 1:57
  basically no prep. So this one's not too painful to think about.
• 2:00
  So on the very first morning, your students need something to
• 2:02
  do when they arrive immediately when they walk in the door.
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  Heidi: And this can be so tricky to plan because you haven't
• 2:09
  taught these students where to get the supplies, or your
• 2:12
  expectations for managing supplies. On the first day, kids
• 2:15
  are probably going to be arriving at different times.
• 2:17
  They often come in really early. And of course, everyone's
• 2:21
  anxiety is super high.
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  Emily: So for that first day activity, you need something
• 2:26
  calming, open ended, and easy to engage with. Enter the pattern
• 2:31
  blocks. You can print off some of our super cute school themed
• 2:35
  pattern block mats. You put a couple on each desk along with
• 2:38
  some blocks, and kids can stay happily engaged for 20 or even
• 2:42
  30 minutes.
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  Heidi: We also have a similar set of activities that use
• 2:46
  Legos. You get all the same benefits of using the pattern
• 2:48
  blocks, but it really might be easier to round up a tub of
• 2:52
  loose Legos than it is to get a class set of pattern blocks.
• 2:55
  Emily: Plus you might feel like the older kids will have more
• 2:57
  buy in to the activity when they see Legos instead of pattern
• 3:00
  blocks, although, in our experience, even the older kids
• 3:03
  love a pattern block. You can check out the show notes for
• 3:06
  links to both of these products, and give yourself the relief of
• 3:09
  knowing that your first activity of the first day is already
• 3:12
  planned, prepped and ready to go.
• 3:16
  Heidi: So here we are in June, which means that many of you are
• 3:18
  either done with school or you can see the finish line so close
• 3:22
  ahead. And if you're anything like we were during our teaching
• 3:25
  years, you might have some conflicted feelings right about
• 3:28
  now.
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  Emily: Oh yeah, there's this weird teacher thing that happens
• 3:31
  in summer. You're exhausted and ready for a break, but you also
• 3:34
  feel guilty about how excited you are to be done, and then
• 3:37
  there's this pressure to immediately start being
• 3:40
  productive.
• 3:41
  Heidi: Oh yes. I remember sitting on my couch the first
• 3:45
  week of summer break, still in my pajamas at noon or probably
• 3:48
  three, let's be honest, and feeling just overwhelming guilt.
• 3:52
  Like, shouldn't I be organizing my classroom library right now?
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  Or shouldn't I be planning next year's reading units?
• 3:59
  Emily: Instead of watching Doctor Who marathons, right? Or
• 4:03
  if it's not the heaviness of productivity, guilt weighing you
• 4:06
  down, it's that niggling sense of panic that you can't quite
• 4:09
  escape. It's like being circled by a school of sharks, or, are
• 4:16
  sharks in schools? What do they call those?
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  Heidi: Pods, collections, gathering? Whatever sharks do,
• 4:24
  there is a lot of them, and it feels like they are circling a
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  little bit closer every day. It takes a monumental amount of
• 4:30
  work to get ready for the new school year, and as much as we
• 4:33
  just want to relax in our summer, there's always the sense
• 4:36
  that something is just off to the side waiting to pounce.
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  Emily: It makes me picture those little goblin guys from Disney's
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  Hercules. I think they're called pain and panic, but I think for
• 4:46
  a teacher, they could easily be called guilt and panic.
• 4:50
  Heidi: Oh definitely. Just picturing them right now, that's
• 4:54
  perfect. And they are persistent and ruthless, and one of them
• 4:59
  sounds like Bobcat Goldplate, and that is an extra bummer for
• 5:02
  sure.
• 5:03
  Emily: I'm impressed that you knew that guy's name. I know who
• 5:06
  it is, but I did not know that was that guy's name.
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  Heidi: I did live through the 80s, so, you know.
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  Emily: So did I! Most of the 80s.
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  Heidi: Only half of them.
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  Emily: 60%.
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  Now this may be a controversial opinion, but we believe teachers
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  deserve to enjoy their summer without constant jabs from
• 5:25
  cartoon imps.
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  Heidi: You can never say that we shy away from the hot takes
• 5:30
  around here.
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  Emily: It's true. If it, if it needs to be said, we're gonna
• 5:33
  say it. Teachers deserve a break. So we're going to give
• 5:36
  you the secret weapon for taming teacher guilt and panic, and
• 5:40
  that weapon is boundaries.
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  Heidi: Wah, wah. Very anticlimactic. Boundaries are
• 5:47
  not the most thrilling content to be talking about, but they
• 5:50
  are oh so summer saving. That's because teaching doesn't stop,
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  just because our contract does, and if we're not careful, summer
• 5:57
  just becomes a quieter form of burnout.
• 6:00
  Emily: But with the right boundaries, you can actually
• 6:03
  recover and still feel ready by August. Boundaries are the
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  invisible fences that protect your peace, your time, and they
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  let you enjoy your life and still start the year feeling
• 6:13
  prepared.
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  Heidi: Imagine how you might spend a typical summer. You're
• 6:17
  on call for your family's every need. You end up planning three
• 6:20
  vacations, organizing the pantry, attending 12 PD
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  webinars, overhauling your math centers, and when back to school
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  season rolls around, guess what? You feel anything but rested.
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  Emily: And that's where boundaries come in, not as
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  another thing to do, but really as a way to protect the season
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  that you're in.
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  Heidi: So today, we are walking you through three kinds of
• 6:41
  boundaries that every teacher should consider this summer:
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  time, tech and task load. We love a list, especially if it
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  can start with the same letter. Now these aren't rigid rules.
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  We're offering you some flexible frameworks that you can adapt to
• 6:55
  your own life and your own needs.
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  Emily: When you set clear boundaries around your time,
• 7:00
  your technology use, and your task load, you create space for
• 7:03
  the kind of recovery that actually prepares you to be the
• 7:06
  teacher you want to be.
• 7:08
  Heidi: Our teacher approved summer plan, I feel like we
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  should have like a little trademark, copyright or
• 7:13
  something.
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  Emily: Tmtm.
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  Heidi: It has two parts, recovery and readiness. Last
• 7:20
  week, in Episode 197 we talked all about the four different
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  types of recovery and suggested ways for how you might want to
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  include them in your summer plans.
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  Emily: Summer recovery is the best kind of recovery, so
• 7:31
  definitely check out that episode if you missed it. But
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  the second part of our summer plan is readiness. We need
• 7:36
  recovery to refuel after a draining school year, but we
• 7:40
  need readiness so we don't find ourselves completely burned out
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  by September 15 from trying to get the new year up and running.
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  Heidi: The first step to our readiness plan is to imagine how
• 7:49
  you want to feel as you head into the new school year. If you
• 7:52
  want to start the school year feeling more prepared than ever,
• 7:55
  what tasks do you need to accomplish to give you that
• 7:58
  feeling?
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  Emily: Then the next step is to identify the specific goals that
• 8:02
  will help you get there. You will probably have some school
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  related goals in there, like reading a couple teaching books,
• 8:08
  or finally figuring out how to fit more social studies into
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  your day.
• 8:12
  Heidi: And, of course, joining us for the Teacher Summer Talk
• 8:15
  Summit and the Back to School Success Course, right?
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  Emily: Yes, you definitely want to grab your spots for those in
• 8:21
  June. But also think about personal goals that can help you
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  get ready for school. Maybe you want to start going to the gym
• 8:28
  every day now, so that it's already a habit when school
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  rolls around.
• 8:32
  Heidi: Or maybe you want to spend some time this summer
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  trying out easy meal prep ideas so that meal times during the
• 8:37
  school year are way less frantic.
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  Emily: If you want some help working through these readiness
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  goals, there's a page for this in, you guessed it, our free end
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  of your roadmap that we've been talking about nonstop. If you
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  don't have it yet, what are you doing? There's so much good
• 8:52
  stuff in there, so go grab that from the link in the show notes
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  if you don't have it.
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  Heidi: Once you have an idea of what back to school readiness
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  looks like for you, it's time to put some boundaries around those
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  goals. I know our people pleasers and our perfectionists,
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  they don't love the idea of setting boundaries.
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  Emily: But you need to shove guilt and panic way back down
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  into the underworld by reframing your thinking. Boundaries aren't
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  secretly going to turn you selfish or mean or lazy. They're
• 9:20
  about being strategic with your resources.
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  Heidi: time boundaries. This is about being intentional with
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  when you work on school stuff, and probably more importantly,
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  when you don't.
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  Emily: And I know what some of you are thinking. Emily, I have
• 9:44
  so much to do. I can't just not work on school things.
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  Heidi: We are not suggesting that you don't work on school
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  things ever.
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  Emily: We would be the most hypocritical people ever if we
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  told you not to do school stuff during the summer, since that's
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  the main thing we usually used to do during the summer.
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  Heidi: Yep, every summer. But learn from our mistakes and be
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  strategic about when you work on school stuff and how much you're
• 10:08
  going to do.
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  Emily: So instead of working too much, some teachers don't want
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  to think about it at all. And I know some of you are out there.
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  It's easy to assume summer means we have all the time in the
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  world, but unfortunately, the whole I'll just do school stuff
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  when I feel like it plan often means that we never feel like it
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  until that lovely, motivating sense of panic sets in.
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  Heidi: Now it might seem like working too much and not working
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  enough are opposite problems, but they really are two sides of
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  the same coin.
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  Emily: Yeah, it's like guilt and panic had a horrible baby, and
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  that baby is named anxiety.
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  Heidi: Babies do cause anxiety. Let's be honest. If we feel
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  anxious, we might cope by throwing ourselves into
• 10:49
  unrealistic to do lists, or we might cope by ignoring that to
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  do list altogether. Either way, we end up stressed out and
• 10:57
  really not feeling any more ready.
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  Emily: So let's not do that. Instead, try carving out
• 11:02
  designated blocks of time for working on school tasks. Those
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  time blocks will look different for everyone, and they'll likely
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  change over the course of the summer.
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  Heidi: Yeah, you may decide that you're going to work on school
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  tasks for 30 minutes every morning, and then you can just
• 11:17
  enjoy the rest of the day. Or you may decide that you're going
• 11:20
  to work in your classroom every Wednesday. Even just one hour a
• 11:23
  week for intentional prep can work wonders.
• 11:26
  Emily: I love this approach because it gives you both
• 11:28
  structure and freedom. You know you have dedicated work time so
• 11:31
  you really can relax during your off time without that nagging
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  feeling that you should be doing something productive. You can
• 11:37
  tell that feeling, hey, I have a plan. Back off.
• 11:41
  Heidi: Another option for managing your time is the
• 11:43
  monthly approach. Maybe in June you're not going to do any work.
• 11:47
  Emily: Except, of course, to join us in the Teacher Summer
• 11:50
  Talk Summit. But don't worry, that's going to be so fun, it
• 11:53
  won't even feel like work.
• 11:55
  Heidi: That does feel like the perfect thing for June. And then
• 11:58
  in July, you might do light prep work, and then in August, you
• 12:02
  can really dive into more focused preparation.
• 12:04
  Emily: Whatever you decide, the key is making a decision and
• 12:07
  sticking to it, because when you don't have boundaries, you end
• 12:10
  up in this weird space where you're not really relaxing but
• 12:13
  you're not really being productive either.
• 12:16
  Heidi: Yeah, you're not getting the benefits of rest, and you're
• 12:18
  not doing your best work. It's kind of the worst of both
• 12:22
  worlds. But when you have clear time boundaries, you can be
• 12:26
  fully present in whatever you happen to be doing.
• 12:29
  Emily: So the second type of boundary is around technology,
• 12:32
  and this one might be the hardest for some of us, many of
• 12:35
  us, most of us.
• 12:37
  Heidi: Oh, yeah, definitely. We are supposed to be connected all
• 12:40
  the time, checking email, scrolling Instagram for
• 12:43
  classroom inspiration, we're just feeding on it constantly.
• 12:46
  Emily: One simple tech boundary is taking your school email off
• 12:50
  your phone for the summer. You can still check it on a computer
• 12:53
  or reinstall it briefly if you really need to, but this makes
• 12:56
  sure you're not just opening it out of habit and accidentally
• 12:59
  ruining your summer peace, and who hasn't been there.
• 13:02
  Heidi: Or if that feels too scary, maybe try putting
• 13:04
  boundaries around when you check it. Maybe you only check your
• 13:08
  school email once a day, or, even better, once a week.
• 13:11
  Emily: You could also try being more intentional about which
• 13:14
  teacher related social media accounts you follow.
• 13:17
  Heidi: Pay attention to how you feel after looking at certain
• 13:20
  accounts. Hold on to those accounts that make you excited
• 13:23
  to teach, and then just unsubscribe from the ones that
• 13:26
  trigger your comparison brain.
• 13:28
  Emily: Yes, because social media can be such a double edged sword
• 13:31
  for anyone, but especially teachers, because it can be so
• 13:34
  inspiring. And hopefully our account is super inspiring for
• 13:38
  you, but it can also make you feel like everyone else has it
• 13:41
  more together than you do. We don't want that.
• 13:44
  Heidi: And while we're talking about social media, just a
• 13:46
  warning to be careful about Pinterest during the summer
• 13:49
  break. I know we all love Pinterest, but it can quickly
• 13:53
  turn from inspiration to overwhelm.
• 13:55
  Emily: If you're going to venture into Pinterest land, try
• 13:58
  setting a timer. Give yourself 20 minutes to browse, save what
• 14:01
  you love, and then close the app. Don't let yourself fall
• 14:04
  into that Pinterest rabbit hole where suddenly it's 2am and
• 14:07
  you've pinned 47 different bulletin board ideas.
• 14:10
  Heidi: Yeah, nobody needs 47 bulletin board ideas. The goal
• 14:14
  of tech boundaries isn't to completely disconnect from the
• 14:17
  teaching world. It's to be intentional about how and when
• 14:20
  you engage with it.
• 14:22
  Emily: The internet is so full of quote unquote inspiration,
• 14:25
  but also full of comparison traps and decision fatigue. So
• 14:28
  don't let the tech bros steal your summer, because they are
• 14:31
  designing their apps to be so dang addictive.
• 14:34
  Heidi: Those dang tech bros.
• 14:37
  Our third type of boundary is around task load. We want to be
• 14:41
  strategic about what we take on and what we let go.
• 14:44
  Emily: This one is huge, because teachers are natural
• 14:46
  overachievers for the most part. We see all the things we could
• 14:49
  do to improve our classrooms, and we want to do all the
• 14:52
  things, all of them.
• 14:54
  Heidi: All the things, all the time. But as we have learned the
• 14:57
  hard way, time and again, trying to do everything usually means
• 15:02
  you don't do anything particularly well. It's better
• 15:06
  to focus on a few high impact tasks than to spread yourself
• 15:09
  thin across dozens of small projects.
• 15:12
  Emily: Time boundaries and technology boundaries work
• 15:14
  really well with task boundaries. Once you schedule
• 15:17
  your productive work time, you want to make sure that that time
• 15:20
  really is productive, and that means having a clear vision for
• 15:22
  what needs to be done during that time.
• 15:26
  Heidi: If you're going to go to the trouble of hiring a
• 15:27
  babysitter for two hours so that you can work in a coffee shop,
• 15:31
  you don't want to waste 45 minutes of that time just
• 15:34
  figuring out where to get started. Or what would be even
• 15:37
  worse, spending 45 minutes in some kind of Tiktok rabbit hole.
• 15:41
  Emily: Yes. So having a list of tasks is important, but knowing
• 15:44
  where to start on that list is vital. Back in episode 131 we
• 15:48
  talked about how to prioritize your summer to do list. Go
• 15:51
  revisit that episode if you want to deep dive. But the first step
• 15:54
  is to imagine how you want to feel as you head into the new
• 15:57
  school year, and then identify specific goals you can set for
• 16:01
  the summer that will help you get there.
• 16:03
  Heidi: With that to do list in hand, ask yourself, which tasks
• 16:07
  will help you move closer to feeling prepared, and then you
• 16:10
  start there. Yes, printing vinyl cubby labels would be super
• 16:14
  cute, but is that more useful than having your copies made for
• 16:18
  meet the teacher night?
• 16:19
  Emily: It's probably definitely not as impactful on your mental
• 16:22
  load, for sure. We also recommend setting boundaries
• 16:26
  around other people's expectations. Maybe your
• 16:28
  principal sends an email in July suggesting everyone update their
• 16:31
  bulletin boards. You can politely acknowledge it and add
• 16:34
  it to your to do list for August, or decide it's not a
• 16:37
  priority this year.
• 16:38
  Heidi: Now, during the summer, you may also find that other
• 16:41
  people in your life expect you to be at their beck and call
• 16:43
  because you are on a break. Your neighbor might think that you
• 16:46
  should be happy to watch her kids because now you have all
• 16:48
  this time off, or your parents might expect you to come help
• 16:52
  stain their deck, because, I mean, what else are you doing
• 16:54
  all day?
• 16:55
  Emily: When other people think you owe them their time, I've
• 16:57
  found it often comes from a place of jealousy, even if they
• 17:00
  aren't aware of it. They wish they had summers off too, while
• 17:03
  completely ignoring that you still have professional
• 17:05
  development and planning responsibilities and everything
• 17:08
  else that comes with being a teacher. Oh, and you're not
• 17:10
  getting paid for all of that either. Let's not forget that
• 17:13
  part.
• 17:15
  Heidi: So when this happens, try to assume that people who are
• 17:18
  claiming your time aren't really aware that they're overstepping.
• 17:21
  Let's be honest, that might not be true, but at least you'll
• 17:25
  feel better if you don't jump to the worst conclusions.
• 17:28
  Emily: And then just say no if you need to, or offer a limited
• 17:31
  role. Maybe you can watch your neighbor's kid from nine to noon
• 17:34
  one day a week, or you can help your parents with the deck one
• 17:38
  afternoon. But you can't take on the whole project.
• 17:41
  Heidi: But, you know, still say no. You can say no, and I know
• 17:44
  it is so hard to do, but it does get better with practice, and
• 17:48
  you are not unreasonable to decline an assignment that you
• 17:51
  didn't ask for. The goal isn't to be rebellious or difficult.
• 17:56
  The goal is to protect your energy for the things that truly
• 17:59
  matter in your life.
• 18:01
  Emily: So as you're making your summer plans, remember these
• 18:03
  three kinds of boundaries. Time boundaries to help you be
• 18:06
  strategic about when you work and when you rest. Technology
• 18:10
  boundaries to create space from the constant input of teacher
• 18:13
  demands. And task load boundaries to focus on what
• 18:16
  truly matters instead of trying to do everything.
• 18:19
  Heidi: When you have clear boundaries, you can be fully
• 18:21
  present in whatever you're doing. When it's work time, you
• 18:24
  can focus completely on the task at hand, and when it's rest
• 18:27
  time, you can truly rest without guilt. We're saying no to
• 18:31
  teacher guilt.
• 18:33
  Emily: Again, you can count on us to stand up and say the
• 18:37
  unpopular things. No to teacher guilt. Plus boundaries help
• 18:41
  prevent the end of summer panic. When you have boundaries and
• 18:44
  stick to them, you end up with a much more realistic sense of
• 18:47
  what you can accomplish. No more over promising to yourself and
• 18:50
  then feeling disappointed.
• 18:52
  Heidi: If saying no is a struggle for you, like it is for
• 18:55
  so many people, try thinking of everything you get to say yes to
• 18:59
  because you're not taking on too much. You get to say yes to
• 19:02
  enjoying your unpaid time off. You get to say yes to
• 19:06
  reconnecting with loved ones. You get to say yes to
• 19:08
  rediscovering the parts of your life that just kind of get
• 19:12
  buried during the school year.
• 19:13
  Emily: And most importantly, you get to say yes to showing up in
• 19:16
  August well rested and excited about teaching, even if your
• 19:19
  bulletin boards aren't Pinterest perfect. And whose are, really?
• 19:23
  Heidi: Teacher well-being directly impacts student
• 19:26
  outcomes. When you take care of yourself, you are taking care of
• 19:29
  your students too. Your future students deserve a teacher who's
• 19:32
  rested, excited and ready to give them their best, and
• 19:36
  boundaries are what make that possible.
• 19:39
  Emily: We would love to hear what you are saying no to this
• 19:42
  summer. Come join the conversation in our teacher
• 19:44
  approved Facebook group.
• 19:46
  Now for our teacher approved Tip of the Week, where we share an
• 19:49
  actionable tip to help you elevate what matters and
• 19:52
  simplify the rest. This week's teacher approved tip is make a
• 19:55
  summer sensorium. Tell us about it, Heidi.
• 19:58
  Heidi: So we talked about this back in episode 134, but since
• 20:02
  it happens to be summer again, it seems like a good time to
• 20:04
  revisit this topic. So I learned about this from Gretchen Rubin
• 20:08
  on her podcast, Happier?
• 20:11
  Emily: Yeah.
• 20:11
  Heidi: Somehow that didn't seem right.
• 20:13
  Your sensorium is your different sensory perception taken as a
• 20:17
  whole. Our brain takes the different inputs from each of
• 20:21
  our senses and then assembles them into what our perceived
• 20:24
  experience of a moment is. So in this episode, we have talked a
• 20:28
  lot about what to say no to, but it is also important to
• 20:32
  prioritize the things that we want to say yes to.
• 20:35
  Emily: And hopefully one of the things you want to say yes to is
• 20:38
  really experiencing your summer break. Take a minute to think of
• 20:42
  your favorite summer sights, sounds, touches, tastes and
• 20:46
  smells, and then make a plan for how to include them in your
• 20:49
  summer activities. This will help ensure that you're really
• 20:52
  savoring the full scope of what this season has to offer. And I
• 20:56
  feel like we're good at doing this at the holidays, if you're
• 20:58
  someone who really loves Christmas, but I don't know that
• 21:01
  it's ever occurred to me to do this in the summer, so it
• 21:03
  probably hasn't occurred to a lot of you either.
• 21:06
  Heidi: Yeah, and summer's, summer's great. We really need
• 21:09
  to soak this in. Think how enriched and rejuvenated you'll
• 21:13
  feel after a summer of sweet, drippy watermelon and those
• 21:17
  chlorine scented kids and twinkling fireflies and living
• 21:21
  room dance parties and walking barefoot in the grass.
• 21:24
  Emily: Summer has some really great sensory opportunities, so
• 21:27
  do what you can to soak them all up.
• 21:30
  Heidi: To wrap up the show we are sharing what we're giving
• 21:31
  extra credit to this week. Emily, what gets your extra
• 21:33
  credit?
• 21:34
  Emily: Well, my extra credit is something that I think all of us
• 21:37
  can appreciate and connect to, which is turning off almost all
• 21:42
  of my many daily alarms for summer.
• 21:45
  Heidi: Ah, the best feeling.
• 21:46
  Emily: Giving so much extra credit to that. Having three
• 21:49
  kids at three different schools has meant a lot of running
• 21:52
  around to get everyone where they needed to be last year, and
• 21:55
  it was just the best treat the other day to turn all of those
• 21:59
  off, and I get to enjoy sleeping in pretty much every day, which
• 22:03
  is my ultimate joy in life.
• 22:05
  Heidi: I love that so much for you, that is such a treat.
• 22:08
  Emily: Thank you. What are you giving extra credit to, Heidi?
• 22:11
  Heidi: Well, I'm giving extra credit to Resident Alien season
• 22:15
  four, since it finally started. My favorite kind of TV show, if
• 22:20
  you've been here for a while, you probably heard me talking
• 22:22
  about this, but I love a TV show that is quirky with a big heart.
• 22:26
  So things like Ghosts, what are some other favorites?
• 22:30
  Emily: Ted Lasso.
• 22:31
  Heidi: Ted Lasso! Oh, yeah, Community, Office, obviously.
• 22:34
  And this show gets five stars for both quirkiness and big
• 22:37
  heartedness. So if you are unfamiliar, Harry is an alien
• 22:41
  who crash lands on Earth, and so to fit in, he kind of has to
• 22:45
  cosplay as the town doctor. And as he does so, he learns all the
• 22:48
  ups and downs of being human along the way. He's obsessed
• 22:52
  with Law and Order and pie and his mortal enemy is a nine year
• 22:56
  old boy, and the insults that they sling back and forth at
• 22:59
  each other are hilarious. So if you need a summer show, this is
• 23:03
  perfect. It's funny and it's heartfelt and it's not too
• 23:07
  heavy. And if you're not into sci fi, I promise the sci fi is
• 23:10
  more just like comedy than it is like heavy space travel stuff.
• 23:14
  So I love the show. I've, I think I've re watched it three
• 23:18
  times. I still, I laugh every time.
• 23:20
  Emily: Well, you've harassed me about it for years now, so I am,
• 23:23
  I am committing that I will finally watch this, because I'm
• 23:28
  out of all my other shows, so I'm gonna watch this one.
• 23:31
  Heidi: Well, I'm glad you got to the bottom of the bucket, and as
• 23:34
  Sheriff Mike would say, Ladies love their buckets.
• 23:38
  Emily: I'm excited to know what that means.
• 23:42
  Heidi: And it is streaming on like three different things. So
• 23:44
  I think it's on Sci Fi, it's on USA, and it's on Peacock, and it
• 23:49
  might even be on Netflix. So it's easy to find these days.
• 23:52
  Emily: Sweet.
• 23:54
  Heidi: That is it for today's episode. Boundaries are the
• 23:56
  secret ingredient for a summer that is both joyful and
• 24:00
  successful.
• 24:01
  Emily: And don't forget our teacher approved tip to create
• 24:03
  your own summer sensorium list.
• 24:08
  Heidi: We hope you enjoyed this episode of Teacher Approved. I'm
• 24:11
  Heidi.
• 24:12
  Emily: And I'm Emily. Thank you for listening. Be sure to follow
• 24:15
  or subscribe in your podcast app so that you never miss an
• 24:18
  episode.
• 24:18
  Heidi: You can connect with us and other teachers in the
• 24:21
  Teacher Approved Facebook group. We'll see you here next week.
• 24:24
  Bye for now.
• 24:25
  Emily: Bye.