All right, teacher friends, here we go. Grab your flare pens because here we are in this episode, we're going to talk about powerful reflection prompts for teachers. How summer is the perfect Perfect time to reflect on your practice and I'm not talking about when you were going through teacher training school and you were getting observed and you had to hand in the lesson plan and then you had to do the lesson and then I always struggled with this that you know the observer would observe you the professor and then it would be like right reflection and I never knew what to say right after the first couple of times I was saying the same thing you know because it's how How could you have had the students more engaged?
You know, how did the lesson go? What would you do different next time? How did you differentiate it for everybody? You know, there's only so much you can say. So I'm not talking about those types of reflections, about making your lessons better. for students. Of course, we should do that. And that's built into the day.
I'm talking about how summer, when you're finally off that treadmill of just keep running, running, running, running, running, and you take a step off and you have a time to reflect, I'm going to give you some powerful prompts to really reflect How can you show up differently as a teacher and ultimately how can you be happier?
This is what this is all about, right? This whole podcast. Having healthier boundaries, having better work life balance, showing up as your best self, being less triggered. I promise you there are some prompts in here that you haven't thought of before. It takes very little time to reflect. It's a practice I have a lot and I can't wait to dive into the questions.
with you and then I have a very special resource of course for free for for all of you look at me so excited I'm tripping up over my words to help you out so see you on the inside. Welcome to the Balance Your Teacher Life podcast where we talk all things avoiding educator burnout, setting healthy boundaries and achieving better work life balance.
If you're passionate about education but tired of it consuming your whole life You have found your home in the podcast universe. I'm your host, Grace Stevens, and let's get going with today's show.
Okay. Now some of you are probably thinking, listen, she tripped over her words in that intro, how difficult would it be to go back and rerecord that? You know what? This is how I roll. I got to tell you. It's already my third attempt, because just as I was really going, the next door neighbor's gardener showed up and started blowing their lawn.
And it was really loud. So, you know, it's. This is real world. This is real life. I'm a real person. Okay. And so here's how we roll. I, I expect you to extend me enough grace that, you know, it isn't perfect. Okay. We're here for the content, not for the production value. Okay. There's many beautiful, well crafted, true crime podcasts with sound effects and studios.
And, you know, at the end when they're like this this podcast was edited by this person, sound production by this person. It goes on for 10 minutes and I'm like, this podcast is me. Everything, plan, record, edit, post, make the social media assets, write the show notes, it's all me. So anyway I do keep it real.
And with that, I just have to say, it is a struggle to know how much just to get straight to the content for you all. And how much to really just share about me, because I've got to tell you this week, as far as teaching goes, and I'm not, you're going to say, but you're not even in the classroom anymore, Grace.
Yeah, I've been going through it. And I'll tell you why I've been going through it. It's because all my friends are still teachers. And so over summer we spend a lot of time catching up, right? That's when they have time. And then we, you know, we have a couple of girls trips, always see my teacher friends.
And one of them in particular, I spent a few days with last week and she was just very quiet the whole time. And when I finally asked her what's going on, she told me, I don't want to go back. And that resonated so much, that's such a horrible feeling. And of course I said what I thought were the right things, like, oh my gosh, you've got another three weeks.
Like, I understand that's hard. Once you get there, it'll probably be okay. You know, don't waste the next three weeks worrying about not wanting to go back. It's the same discussion that I have with myself and many educators have every stinking Sunday. Right. When school is in like, Oh, I don't want to go back tomorrow.
Listen, don't waste Sunday worrying about tomorrow. Once you get there, as soon as you get into it, it'll be all right. You'll resign yourself to your fate. Right. So that was one that really struck with me because I really know what that feeling is. And it hurt me that she is feeling that because she is a very seasoned teacher who has always been just a champion of positivity in the past.
So that kind of hurt. And then to be honest, I have a friend who is my very closest teaching buddy for many, many years. And I have been to two funerals for her family members in the last month, her husband, and then very tragically her child, who was only 33. And so that of course has been really sad and caused me a lot to reflect, but what was kind of beautiful Was it's been 10 years since we taught the same school together.
She actually took a little bit of an early retirement. How many teachers of that small school showed up from her, from the school secretary to people in the office to teachers who are long time retired. So many of them showed up for her and it really was a beautiful testament to. What a huge community school is and how much of your life is I mean, she taught at that school for 36 years, so that was her life for many, many years, but even then talking to some of those teachers yesterday, who I hadn't really seen for a long time, how some of them are just really struggling in education, it just.
Inside and outside the classroom. Anyway, it's just been a heavy, heavy week. So, there, I put it out there. But, you know, school is going to be in soon for some of you. Listen, if you're listening in England, I know school just got out in England. You'll be like, why is this lady talking about back to school?
But some of my friends are going back to school in as little as two weeks. So, I thought it's the excellent time to bring up a practice that I've always done over summer. And that is the power of reflection. And I really think when we finally have some time to, like I said in the intro, get off the treadmill, right?
Once the school year gets going, that momentum just pulls us forward and all we're trying to do is, you know, get to the weekend, get to the next unit, get through the day. Like we don't have a lot of time to step back and look at the bigger picture, right? So summer is a good time for that. And I'm again, I'm not talking about, this podcast is all about you having a better experience, okay?
There's a lot of podcasts out there on teaching pedagogy, on, you know, student outcomes. Listen, when you go back to school, you don't want, don't you worry about reflecting on student practices. You're going to have so much of that. There's going to be, you know, PDs on that. There's going to be rubrics.
You're going to get observed. There's going to be data meetings all year long for that. Okay. On about students, we're looking at questions that focus more on your personal experience, your emotional wellbeing, your professional. Satisfaction. Right? I'm encouraging reflection on the positive aspects of your job.
You know, your self care practices. How do you maintain enthusiasm and avoid burnout through the year? Let's talk about some Reflections on that. Now, whether you want to get out your beautiful flare pens. I was always a person to love to do things in different colors, whether you like to type it down on a, you know, open a Google doc and make it, you know, kind of a, a repeated practice every year or keep it somewhere that you can have a look at it.
various points during the year, like, Oh, wait, remember I said I was going to do this differently this year, however you want to do it. Okay. I do have a resource. I will tell you about it at the end. I have a professional resource that that I sell and that is a beautiful resource, but like I have a six week free version of it and I'll tell you about it at the end, but for right now, let's get into it.
Okay. Again, we're not talking about like the reflections that we were forced to do where I would have to. You know, kind of make up stuff like how did the students demonstrate mastery? Here, let me tell you something they didn't do. Let's look at that objective on the board after we've gone through it.
Anyway, different, different tangent. Let's not get off on that. All right, let's talk about how to have a reflection on how to have a better year. Okay, so here are just some questions. I'm going to rattle off some questions and, you know, you journal or write about what, you know, kind of resonates with you.
Okay, these are some questions I've asked myself in that they might not all resonate with you, but they might get you thinking deeply and hopefully at least one or two of them will and that can, you know, make all the difference. Okay, so I'm just going to go through them. So first off, I would ask myself, right, think back to last year.
And think about what self care activities did you engage in and how did they impact your mood? Okay, so like maybe for you self care was, you know, leaving work at a reasonable time or making sure you went for a walk with your dog, or you went to an exercise class, or you watch Netflix, or again, Did you just binge watch true crime?
You know, I had that whole episode on watching your mental diet. So hopefully you engaged in some kind of self care and how did it impact your mood? That's really what you want to look at. Did it make me feel better, more energized, more relaxed? Did it just kind of agitate me? Yeah, was I scrolling through bored teachers or something, which, you know, I thought would make me laugh, but really just made me feel miserable and, and disempowered to do anything about teaching.
Okay, so. What self care activity did I engage in and how did it impact my mood? Okay, and then here's another question. How did I set and maintain professional boundaries? Did you? Did you set boundaries? Did you just, were you just resentful that other people didn't respect your boundaries even though you had not communicated them?
Next week, this is part of a two part kind of back to school thing next week and the episode is going to be on setting up a complete boundary plan. Do not miss that. Okay, but think about it last year. Were you resentful that people felt entitled to more of your time, your energy, maybe even your things, your lesson plans?
Did you do all the planning for the whole grade? You know, were you resentful and annoyed at that? Realistically ask yourself, did you set boundaries? Did people trample all over them or did they not know where they were? Right. Okay, another question, trying to think about your resilience, right? Really think about a situation that you handled well, right?
What were some situations that you handled well? I'm going to give you another technique for the last question, but just think about that. We tend to beat ourselves up. We tend to lose sleep, ruminating, replaying conversations in our mind, or even worse than replaying them is when we're kind of rehearsing them.
Right? Who is it who said that? Mark Twain, I've lived through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened, right? That's kind of paraphrasing, right? You have those imaginary conversations in your mind. When you get that email from the principal, stop by after school, right? You run through those terrible scenarios and in your mind you're having this He'll say this and I'll say that and none of it ever happens.
Right? So while we hyper fixate on some of those, what about all the things that went really well? Tricky situations. There's all, every day has challenging situations. That's just not in teaching. That's outside the classroom too. What did it say about your resilience, right? How were you really resilient?
How did, what went well? Okay. And then I always like to think about, you know, I can say it like, how did you connect with a colleague, you know, or your professional community, you know, those are all the teacher kind of jargon words. I'm just going to say, who did you hang with and how did you make it feel?
How did that make you feel, right? Who did you hang with? Did you hang out with people who made you feel better about teaching? Or did you hang out with people who stressed you out? Were you hanging out in the staff room? How did that make you feel? A good place to hang out? Or, if it's full of trauma and negativity and people just wanting to, you know, stinging around and admire the problem, do you need to create some community of your own?
Maybe that's having a weekly walk with one of your co workers or eating lunch in your room or finding a little bench or a little quiet spot on campus where you can eat and, you know, some people have to go hide in their car, which you have to do, but really give some thought and some intentionality to who did I hang around who made me feel better?
Right? When I walked across campus, were there some people seem to be having a better experience than me? How can I hang out with them next year? Okay, so give some intentionality, some reflection around that piece. Okay? What about, what did I do to make the teaching environment enjoyable for myself? Okay, did, for me, it always boiled down to teaching my favourite stories.
It was for me. I mean, I love to teach Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I mean, I would jump up, dress up as an Oompa Loompa. I would have a whole Willy Wonka day. Golden, I mean, golden tickets, the whole bit. Kids would do the best writing ever for persuasive writing. They would convince Mr Wonka to make their candy.
All the things like, but I love to teach that. I love it. And, and I was able to teach, I mean, within a framework, I had, of course, scripted curriculum that I needed to do, but, oh, we needed persuasive writing. Oh, I found a way to, to merge the two, right? For me, it was always about quality children's literature.
I used to love to read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe because of Winn Dixie, all those, right? Those things brought me joy. Nothing made me happier than kids seeing me pick up the book and be gasped like, huh? She's going to read. All right. What else do you do? We talked last week about classroom decor.
Maybe there are things, you know, I, I was trying to draw the point that if you invest a lot of time and money and energy in classroom decor, it is more for you than it is for student outcomes. And there's nothing wrong with that. You spend a lot of time in your classroom. Okay. So if there's something about the environment, one year I bought myself a massive, it's called a moon pod, like a really really crazy overpriced beanbag.
But I love that thing. I just loved it. At lunch if I just really wanted to just disappear, I could just kind of plop myself into that thing. It was supposed to be zero gravity. Whatever, it was just a huge beanbag. But it always gave me comfort and I felt very cozy there. So, what can you do to make your teaching environment more enjoyable?
For me, it was always having a joy jar too, getting the students involved in that, right? That might be one of those things. What things did you do last year? Did you make a joy jar, never used it, or decided it wasn't for you? You know, whatever, just reflect. That's the whole point. Okay, so let me Let me kind of turn it a little bit student focused, because one of the things I like to always reflect on every year was how did I grow professionally and personally throughout the year, and mostly that was through relationships, I have to say.
I would always. You know, reflect on which students forced me to grow the most this year. Now, I'd say forced, but it is, right? You I've mentioned before that there is always that one, although in the last few years it was always a handful, but the one student I would call my spiritual practice, right?
That that kid caused me to learn to be more patient than I ever thought I could be. But at the end of the day, those students. Were the ones that caused me to grow the most. And to be honest, I probably got the most satisfaction out of those, you know, tricky students, right? I would replace that word with attention.
Oh, they need so much attention with the word connection. They need so much connection. And you know, especially when it's a, maybe a different demographic than you, like what, and you know, I, especially towards the end of teaching, I'm in my late 50s, you know, what do I have in common with this kid? Like how can I find a way to connect that's going to bring out the best in them, right?
And those I really like to reflect on that. Sometimes at the beginning of the year I like to make a guess like which students do I think are going to challenge me the most this year and help me grow the most this year. And usually the kids I end up missing the most, right? That's those are the kids that towards the end of the year I get frustrated like, oh no, it took us all year to get to this great point.
where it's gelling smoothly with us and now I got to send them off to the wild to like, you know, us, you know, is the next teacher going to be that patient? Are they going to figure it out? So so reflect on that. Okay. And what are some ways that I can be proactive about recharging next year? You know, that's going to tie in a lot, I think with next week's episode about setting a complete boundary plan.
I'm going to talk you through the pieces of that, but think about it. Going back to that first question, what self care activities did I engage in? How did they impact my mood? How can I do a better job of that this year? Maybe what can I do more of? What can I do less of? Right? Relaxing, recharging, what can I do?
Okay? Ten years from now. Which students are you going to remember the most, right? Which ones brought you the most joy, caused you to stretch the most, right? Which students taught you to rethink some assumptions you had? I bet you, I bet you, some of them are those kids who are a spiritual practice. At least in my experience that was always the way.
They really caused me to rethink some assumptions I had. Okay, so that's already a lot but I'm gonna, I'm gonna give you two more reflections. So I don't want to overwhelm you but I really want you to think about them and the power we know how cognitively we know how the brain works that if you actually write it down you are going to open those new pathways in your brain.
But let's talk about this one and these two are going to pull it all together in, you know, what I'm known for is my positive mindset habits for teachers. Okay, so this is a very powerful habit. is the habit of gratitude. I want you to think of who was someone who made your year easier last year that you can thank.
It doesn't matter if you didn't thank them last year. Maybe it was a parent who went above and beyond. You know what? There is no statute of limitations on saying thank you to someone. You, you didn't miss the boat if you didn't do it last year. Was it the nurse? You know, one year I had a student who came to me in the middle of the year.
They'd been homeschooled because they had become diabetic. They're, you know, almost died from that. And the parents were kind of managing the medication situation at home. Very stringently and halfway through the year, they thought, okay, well, this kid could come back to school, came in my class.
I'm telling you his Dexcom, you know, that monitor went off 10, 15 times a day. Like I had to be trained to administer insulin. Like I just, that nurse had my back. She had lots of things to do and she was split between two campuses and she let me have her personal, you know, cell phone number if she wasn't on campus.
And I thought we were having you know, kind of an emergency with that child. Like she really had my back. She trained me to do all the things I needed to do so I could feel comfortable and, and she really had my back that year, more than one way. And, you know, it's not too late to go back and tell her that.
I mean, I'm sure during the year I told her, Hey, thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Oh my gosh, you got me. I need this so much, but in a deeper way. So was there somebody who made your year easier last year? Maybe it was a custodial staff, support staff, the secretary. Maybe it was another coworker. Maybe it was somebody in a different grade level who really you know, took on a bit of a mentorship role.
Could be anyone. But again, I just want to tell you that this, when you thank people sincerely, it, it really boosts them. But you know, it's scientifically validated. It boosts you too. It does so much for you when you take the time to write a little gratitude letter or an email. Again, there is no statute of limitations on thanking people.
Okay, you can go back and thank somebody who helped you in their childhood. I don't, we love that with students. You know, I have a student I haven't seen in, you know, 15 years and they finally tracked me down somehow, much easier now with social media, right? And like, say thank you and like, hey, you might not remember you did this, but I do.
And it made all the difference. Isn't that what we, I mean, that's, that's the, like, the golden fleece of teaching, right? That's the good stuff. Okay. So that's a good one. And then the last one I want you to reflect on. And we've talked about this before is I want you to make a badass list, right? The idea comes from Jen Goatlieb and her book, Be Seen, which is actually, you know, about marketing and branding and all those things.
So probably not something you've read, but I think the idea of this badass list is really good. It's a list of things that you're really proud of. Hey, that was really tough last year and I did it. This was really tough last year and I did it, right? Make a list, put it in a note in your phone, put it on a piece of paper that you keep in your planner.
It doesn't matter. If you're not sure, like, hmm, what did I do that was great? You know, go look back through your phone. You'll see the field trips, the Halloween costumes, the sporting events, the school performances, all the things that seemed like, oh man, why am I doing this? Doing this, but like you were badass.
You pulled it off. Okay. The challenging student, that terrible IEP meeting that went on for weeks, but you ended up really helping that student in a positive way, make the list, make the list. It helps you kind of feel you know, on those days when you need a little boost or you need to dig deep to find your resilience.
It. can help. Okay. All right. So when you've got all this, some of those questions hopefully resonated that you can think about and you can reflect about and journal about. Write it down. Again, that's how our brain works and makes new pathways is when we write down. But here's the one thing I really want you to focus on.
How do you want to show up this year? We focus so much on the to do list. Oh, got to get this, got to get that, got to get the labels, got to get the number of books, got to, of course you do. You have a lot to do. But what has a greater impact on your life is you spending time on your to be list. Who do I want to be?
How do I want to show up? Right. What is your vision for you as an ideal educator? Right. Sit and think, what does your ideal day in the classroom look like? I used to do this every morning before I would get to school, just a few minutes early, get everything set up, and then I would just close my eyes. I really believe in the power of visualization.
Talked about it a lot in my book. There is such a lot of neuroscience there to say that the exact parts of your brain get It triggered if you're imagining something happening or if you're actually doing it, okay? So, just, I would imagine, what do I want my ideal day to look like? What does it sound like?
For me, it would sound like kids laughing. It would sound like me laughing. It would sound like me saying, great job, oh my gosh, you did such a great job lining up. You know what? And I, you know, Should be embarrassed to say I used to have the clip chart. Okay, man, 20 years ago, it's how we rolled with the clip chart.
I would visualize all those clips on purple, you know, at the top of the clip chart when everybody was having an outstanding day that was purple or lavender or lilac, whatever you want to call it. And Purple. Like, I would just imagine, oh my gosh, and I used to have this thing, come on, I taught the littles, that if somebody got to purple and I wasn't paying attention, I'd be like, move your clip up.
And they'd be like, Miss S, I'm already on purple. Well then, woohoo, it was a big deal. I would put that clip on my lanyard. You ever seen that? The teacher walking around, who teach the littles, they got their lanyard and they got some kid's clothes pin number 20 is on there because I told the kid to move their clip up and they were already on purple.
Like, Mrs. it's already on purple. Okay, I'm going to wear up my lanyard, right? So I would visualize that, me walking around with, with, with, with clips on my lanyard for that, for that kid who is the spiritual practice. I would just have this, take a few minutes to cast this vision of how my ideal day would be, what it would look like, what it would sound like, what it would feel like.
And I would just really, how do I want to show up? How do I want to show up? Not everything goes perfect in the classroom. We all know that. So when that fire alarm goes off or when that student is, is activated, like, well, how do I want to show up? I want to show up as my best self. So that's really something worse.
It's worth journeying on. Who do I want to be? Not all the things I need to do. They'll get done. They won't get done. Whatever. That's going to be forced on you. But how you want to show up, you have 100 percent control on that. There are so many things in the classroom can go awry that you have no control over.
But how you show up, and therefore how you react, and how kids co regulate with you, Your energy, you have 100%, 100 percent control of that, right? So don't just leave that to chance. Take some time to think about it. Journal about it, reflect on it. Okay? All right, that was a lot. I hope some of it resonated with you, whether or not you got out your flare pens, whether you're not, every year I would try that digital planner, oh goodness me, every year I'd say, this is the year I'm going to do it, and then I would do it.
Ditch it after a week and go get me my planner. So, some of you may know I do have a lesson and life planner that incorporates a lot of the positive mindset habits into a weekly format along with your lesson plan. I will put a link down to that. Very ridiculously affordable compared to the other things that I would see.
So I put a link in there. But now on to the free resource. I said, okay, so years ago. The first thing that I published with regards to teaching was my Positive Mindset Journal. Okay, and so what this is, it was like the first I believe. Now if you go on TPT, there's so many people, oh I could tell you so many stories of people who actually called it the same thing and copied the same copy and then put it on Amazon the exact same cover, like come on people.
But regardless I made it a Positive Mindset Journal and so what it is, it has 36 weeks. And it has a quote at the beginning of the week, and then it has some scientifically validated little exercises, like the best three parts of your day. You know, all those things, who do I want to champion? If you listen to my episode on the Ted Talks, that was inspired directly from.
Rita Pearson, every child needs a champion. So every week I would find some, you know, underdog kid, maybe not even the underdog, but some kid that I would champion, I would go out my way to find positive things about, write notes home about, you know, who can I thank this week? What was the funniest thing a kid said this week?
A little doodle box, just things to keep your brain, scientific little habits to keep your brain Positively focused in, in proven little strategies, but in a fun format. So I made that book. It had a lavender color. Then I made it with a teal color. I made it with a bunch of different covers because it lasts a whole year.
And some students teachers had told me I want a different one for each year. And I treasured mine. I still look at them. I have cut out little, you know, photos, little little love notes that kids gave me, whatever fits in there or pasted in there. So anyway it is available on Amazon. I think it's.
On sale this week, Amazon put it on sale, maybe because they're having their prime week. I don't know. I don't get involved in Amazon's pricing. That's something bigger than I have a bandwidth for, but anyway, I think it's just 10 bucks, but there's a six week version that you can print out for free. And I'll put the link below.
I kept it very simple. gracestevens. com forward slash journal. Okay. Grace Stevens, Stevens with a V. E N S S T E V E N S dot com forward slash journal. You'll get a six week version of that. Just keep printing out six weeks. If you want, that's how you want to roll, do it. I'll be pleased with that. Just do it.
If you want a hard copy, it does make a beautiful gift. It does make a nice keepsake memento. I never bought the yearbook at school. I always thought they were ridiculously expensive, but I used it as my own kind of personal yearbook, print out a picture of the kids at the back. So anyway, go get your free version.
at gracestephens. com forward slash journal or go to amazon online at walmart online at target i know some people aren't into amazon i get you i feel you but run a business necessary evil at this point and so go ahead hopefully that is helpful and i have one last request oh my goodness I would love, if you've listened this far, when you've listened to the podcast, chances are you like it, or you wouldn't have stuck around this far.
Will you please tell someone? It seems like a big secret. Like I mentioned at the beginning, I do everything myself. It is a labour of love. Absolutely it is. And I get so tickled when people tell me, Oh my gosh, I heard your podcast on this. I heard your podcast on that. Really made me think or whatever.
I love to listen to it when I'm, you know, my prep period or whatever. I love that. But it is, it is a hard grind trying to grow this thing. I figure if everybody who listened just told one person, Hey, you know, I listened to this thing. It's kind of cool. You know, throw it in there with your true crime. No one's saying you need to stop listening to other things, but add this into the rotation.
You know, if everybody did that and just told one person, I would double the reach of this podcast. That would really. Really be cool. So it would mean the world to me if you would do that or smash on whatever app you're listening to those stars. I think that does something. I'm not exactly sure. Subscribe something.
Those are the minutiae I tend not to get bugged down with in business. But that will be wonderful if you can do that. All right. So if you're wrapping up your summer, enjoy every. Last ounce of it. But I implore you next week, listen in so that the one thing you need to do to set yourself up success next year is have a good boundary plan.
I'm going to help you with that next week. So in the meantime, no matter where you are, if it's summer, you're still in school, you're dreading going back, whatever it is, listen, you can create your own path and bring your own sunshine. And I will happily, happily connect with you next week.
