Hacking Teacher Burnout Summer Book Study Series: Kick-Off to Your Summer Teacher Self-Care Plan

It’s here!  SUMMER!  And while this is time to rest and relax, it’s also time to do that deep inner work that will set you up for success next school year.  And I’m here to help you set up your teacher self-care plan this summer! 

Welcome to Episode 186 of the Burned-In Teacher Podcast! I am so excited that you're here joining us for the Hacking Teacher Burnout Summer Book Study Series! Today I am going to be setting you up for success by letting you know what is in store for the rest of this summer as we go chapter by chapter and step by step through my book Hacking Teacher Burnout using my Hacking Teacher Burnout Book Study Guide. 

So, I have to be honest with you. I'm recording this episode in May (you know I'm a huge fan of batching, blocking, and planning ahead!) because I’m setting myself up for this summer. For me, one of the biggest perks of being a teacher is having summers off, and I truly do take the summer OFF.  Of course, I do use a lot of that time to catch up on work for all of you out there in the world, but I take full advantage of being able to sleep in a little bit and do what I want when I want, and I hope that the same is happening for you! 

Before we get started, I do want to take a moment to remind you to request to join the Burned-In Teacher Podcast Facebook Community if you are not in there already. I'm going to be asking you to do little challenges within the Podcast Facebook Community, and I would LOVE to highlight your thoughts, your wins, and some of the images that I may ask you to share within the Facebook Community.

In preparation for this episode and our FIRST book club meeting, I asked you to read the forward, prologue, and introduction (pages 9 - 29).  And to get us started, I’m going to be asking you some thought-provoking questions about the content. 

In the foreword (pages 9 - 14), my friend Gretchen shares the realities of so many new teachers. When Gretchen was new to education, she had high ambitions, then reality started to settle in. Just for context, I've only ever worked in Title 1 (or very close to Title 1) schools. I don't know anything different, and part of me is super grateful for that because it can be a real culture shock, as it was for Gretchen. My first years of teaching were actually in the school district that I graduated from, so I was very comfortable with the population of students.

Tell me about the expectations that you had for your career compared to the reality, like Gretchen. Go to the Podcast Facebook Community to share your response! 

In the prologue (pages 15 - 17) I share a story of Valerie. To be honest, I came up with this scenario because, even though I had already started publishing this book long before COVID, Times 10 Publishing put a rush on it so it would release in 2020. So even though many of us are not working from home anymore, as Valerie was, what resonated with you most in terms of the blurred boundaries that Valerie was dealing with? Head on over to the Podcast Facebook Community to share your response! 

That time was obviously very stressful. Did you relate to her solutions at the end? What words come to mind as you read this? Did it bring up any bad memories of your experiences teaching through the pandemic? Or were you not in the classroom at that time like me? I left the classroom in 2018 to pursue Google training and Burned-In Teacher full time and I did not return until 2021. So some of us were not teaching through that time, but God it was hard to watch!

So onward to the Introduction (pages 19 - 29). This section of the book focuses on you starting right smack dab of where you are right NOW. In this part of the book, I ask you to do several things:

#1:Determine your Burnout Type. I explain that there are three different types of burnout and ask you to decide what you're feeling right now - not how you want to feel but literally how you’re feeling right now in the real raw reality that you're in at this very moment. 

#2: Determine your Stage of Burnout. Next, I explained the Stages of Burnout. By the way, if you want an even more depth description of the Stages of Burnout, go to my TpT store and download the FREE Stages eBook.  In it, I tell you all the things that you can think, say, and do to move through the Stages of Burnout even faster. Think about what Stage of Burnout are you in and why you believe that’s the stage that you’re in.

#3: I ask you to set an intention/goal for reading the book. This is so exciting because even though some of you aren't quite done with your school year yet, you can still dream about what you want your goals to be for reading this book:

• Do you want to finish it before the book study is done? 
• Do you want to take one action per chapter? 
• Do you want to see massive changes in your attitude or behavior? 
• What changes do you hope to see once you finish the book?
• What do you want to be noticeably different? 

I really want you to dream and create a vision for yourself for this summer. There are no wrong answers. This is your race and your pace! And it may take longer than this summer for you to gain all of the clarity that you need to know what it is that you want your career in education to look like, and that’s okay! 

I just don't want this book and this experience to be “shelf help”, what I want for you is for this to be the book that truly helps you to work on yourself and your career so you can enter the new school year with strategies and habits that you've never had before.

All right Burned-In Teachers, that's all for this book club meeting! So join us next week when we dive into Hack Number 1: Begin Where You Are. For our next meeting, you'll be reading pages 31 through 47 and I highly encourage you to use the Hacking Teacher Burnout Book Study Guide to get all those thoughts that have been jumbled up in your head onto paper. I promise you're going to see things in a totally new way than you ever have before!

Call to Action: Things You Can Do Tomorrow 

1. Find out your Burnout Type.  Go to https://www.burnedinteacher.com/burnoutquiz to find out!
2. Determine your Burnout Stage.  Download your FREE copy of the Stages eBook to find out more.
3. Set your intention for the book study.  What do you want to accomplish? How do you want to feel?

Resources Mentioned in This Episode 

• Order your copy of Hacking Teacher Burnout
• Get the Hacking Teacher Burnout Book Study Guide
• Download the FREE Stages eBook