Prevent Burnout with Teacher Mom Self Care with The Teacher Mamas Podcast [episode 66]

Kelsey

You are listening to episode number 66 of wife teacher mommy the podcast prevent burnout with teacher moms self care with Ashley and Roberta from the teacher mamas podcast. If you are a teacher or a mama or both this episode is for you. We’re talking all about teacher self care, mental health, burnout and how it affects teachers and moms and what you can do about it, you’re going to learn their secret method for preventing burnout, so let’s go.

Kelsey

Welcome to wife, teacher, mommy the podcast. I’m Kelsey Sorenson, former elementary teacher and current homeschool mom. And even though I’ve been a resource creator since 2014, I’ve realized that printables alone aren’t all you need in order to thrive as a teacher or homeschool parent. That’s why I also created this show and got certified as a life coach to help you finally kick burnout to the curb and feel competent with whatever challenges come your way. With the right mindset strategies and new teaching inspiration, you’re going to be well on your way to your best teacher life. Now, let’s go

Kelsey

welcome to the podcast today’s so excited that you’re here. I’ve got another great interview for you today that I’m really excited to share with you. And actually Roberta and I we’ve actually been talking for a while about getting together and be interviewing them for my podcast and them interviewing me for they’re so glad we finally got around to doing it because we have a great conversation. I can’t wait for you to listen to it. But first I want to remind you that we have our educate and rejuvenate reveal party in less than a week. If you’re listening to this live on March 28. We’re going to get together it’s going to be such a great time. And I even if you heard my last bonus episode I recorded a was at the Taylor Swift eras tour, which by the way was absolutely amazing. If you were a Taylor Swift Fan, you should at least go look up those videos on YouTube. It was in credible, she performed for over three hours. I mean, huge Taylor fan. It was my first time seeing her in concert, though. So it was a great time. And I got lucky that I just got face value tickets like I got really lucky I was able to get in and get those tickets. I know so many of you probably weren’t as fortunate. So I’m definitely grateful for that. But anyways, that’s not why we’re here today. But while we were driving home, we drove down to Arizona because you didn’t come here to Utah. So we had like an 11 hour drive. And while I was doing that was putting together the slides for that I will be doing that we’ll be sharing with you for this reveal party and coming up with more additional clues about our keynotes if you guess right during it, you’ll get entries, additional entries into some giveaways we’ll be doing live, I’ll be revealing early bird pricing, I’ll be revealing the entire list of speakers we’ll be having it’s going to be a great time. So definitely go to educate and rejuvenate.com that will take you to that waitlist if you’re in time for that or if not, it’ll take you to wherever you need to go to sign up and get your ticket and see everything if it’s already been revealed by the time you’re listening. So one thing I will reveal to you today though, is that actually Roberta they are speakers at the event. So I’m very excited about that. And let me introduce you to them really quick before we dive into today’s interview. So Ashley Johnson and Roberta Kightlinger are both mamas and teachers, and together they discuss various topics near and dear to their hearts, like routines, health habits, self care, and so much more. They think that living a healthy lifestyle is for every member in the family, from young children to adults, everyone in the household will benefit from the teacher Mama’s podcast, and we’re so excited to have them here today on wife, teacher, mommy the podcast, so be sure to listen. And if you love what you hear from them, check out their show too. Now let’s get to today’s interview. Okay, welcome. I’m so excited to have you on the podcast and dive into this interview. So compulsive, you introduce yourselves and tell me a little bit about yourself and your teaching background and your families. I know you’re you’re the teacher mama’s so let’s see Ashley, you can go first.

Ashley

Well, thank you for having us on. We’re super excited. So my name is Ashley Johnson and I am a shop teacher. I teach seventh through 12th grade chop classes, Industrial Tech, and then I have I have high school, welding and woods and like an advanced manufacturing class. So I’m just, you know, all over the place all day long. I got into teaching my senior year of high school and I’m I have never stopped loving it, but have experienced burnout. And that’s kind of where our podcast came from. And then that combined with basically the pandemic, and Roberta and I seeing like how prevalent burnout became during the pandemic, I think it was very prevalent beforehand. But the pandemic just really brought it out of people, even more so and so, over on our podcast, we talk about self care and self love for ourselves as teachers, as moms as if you’re a dad listening, and how when we’re taking care of ourselves, it can really help with all the things burnout around us. So that’s kind of what we focus on on our podcast.

Kelsey

That’s awesome. Okay, Roberta, if you want to go ahead and introduce yourself to

Roberta

Sure. So I’m Roberta, I am a mom of two. And a wife. Right now I am currently a stay at home mom and I do some tutoring on the side. So I get to go with my four year old to his ECFE, you know, early childhood classes. And that’s been really fun and enjoyable. So in this season, that’s been great. But before that, I started off as a title, one teacher in pre K. Eight, I think is what the title was was for. So I got to work with all of those grade levels within a day. And then I worked as a second grade teacher, and then as a kindergarten teacher was what I did, before leaving to become statement, stay at home mom. And I’ve been in education for so long, like even before being a teacher, I was a classroom paraprofessional, I was a reading tutor through the Minnesota reading core, which was a part of America. And that was fantastic. So lots of different like, education zones that I’ve been a part of over the years. And now I get to enjoy motherhood and tutoring one on one.

Kelsey

That’s awesome. And so the two of you see both of these backgrounds in education and your parenting and doing all the teacher mama stuff. And then you came together sounds like during the pandemic and put together this podcast is that right?

Roberta

Yeah, we met when I was teaching also was when you were teaching is when we met. Yeah. And our kids are best friends. And oh, so you go like way back.

Kelsey

So when did you two meet each other?

Roberta

We met in 2016. We’re both teaching at the same school. And the only reason I remember and actually doesn’t is because that was the year I moved back to Minnesota from Pennsylvania. So I that’s a staple year I remember it. So we’ve been friends ever since our kids are friends. But then yeah, the pandemic hit and I got a phone call from Ashley saying, you know, I need some accountability. Because I can’t handle just sitting at my computer all day, will you be my accountability partner. And we started doing some fitness stuff in the morning through zoom together. And it’s just really it’s taken off from there.

Kelsey

That’s awesome. And is that when you started? The teacher is the teacher Mama’s podcast, right? Yeah,

Roberta

it was maybe a year later, two years later.

Kelsey

That’s cool. So what is it you do together over at the teacher Mama’s podcast? I bet you you told me a little bit. But is there anything else you want to add to that?

Ashley

So it started with the podcasts. And then I mean, we kind of started that with our Instagram page at the same time. And then we decided that we kind of wanted to turn it into a little bit more. So we created a mini course for parents because moving from pandemic to going back to school was quite a struggle for I know for sure for my family, routine wise. So we Roberta and I decided, hey, let’s make this mini course for parents where we teach parents how to make a visual routine. For me, it’s just a it’s posted on the bathroom wall for my kids. And then Roberta does a PowerPoint. And so it’s just sort of visual routine chart for them to follow. And our mini course just kind of helps keep them accountable as they are going through their routines and stuff in the morning. And then after that we decided hey, okay, let’s go go on with our larger course now, which is our course to help teachers either come back from burnout or prevent themselves from experience burnt experiencing burnout as a teacher, even just for teachers who are looking for more healthy ways to take care of themselves. So we kind of helped those three different groups of teachers within our course.

Kelsey

That’s awesome. So you talk about burnout a lot and you’re working with teachers on burnout specifically It sounds like so why do you think teachers are more burned out now than ever? Right now,

Roberta

I think the biggest thing is feeling so much on our plates. Now, that’s what we hear over and over again, is that there’s just so much on their plate, there’s so much extra that was added during that pandemic, and not necessarily anything that was taken off. So one of the things we really encourage is to look at all of our responsibilities and expectations and really ask ourselves, are they? Are they expectations that we’ve placed on ourselves? Or are they actually expectations placed on by our administrators, one of the biggest things is checking our email, you know, during the pandemic, it’s like, we felt like we had to be available 24/7 to parents and students. And although that may have been necessary for the first little bit, while everyone was kind of panicking, and like, What in the world are we doing? I would argue it wasn’t even necessary, then there still needed to be boundaries. However, there was a little bit more leeway that and then there is now and now it’s looking at what are the boundaries? Your administrator, there’s no way they expect you to respond at midnight? There’s no way they respond, they expect you to respond on a Sunday, like, what are the actual expectations? And what are you going to have as a boundary for checking your email and responding to emails, and then if it needs to be explicitly say that to your parents, like, this is my expectation for email, I will respond during these, you know, business hours, within 24 hours, or whatever the policy is, that you come up with, with for yourself, but it’s having a specific boundary instead of just allowing email to run our lives. So that’s one of the big bigger ones that we’ve heard about is like, but I need to like grade this right away and get back to this parent or, you know, whatever the case may be. But that’s just one of the examples. So it’s like, it’s boundaries around these different expectations that we may be placing on ourselves and aren’t actually real expectations.

Kelsey

Yeah, I think that’s so true that a lot of teachers are just like, we have such high expectations of ourselves. We’re like, Oh, I like feel like I need to be doing this. And maybe we don’t even realize we’re like putting that on ourselves. So I think that’s such a good point. And that really kind of being intentional. And looking at that, like you were mentioning. I think that is so good. Ashley, do you have anything to add to that?

Ashley

Yeah, I just, I mean, I see so many teachers, I mean, we we give them we give them we give them we give because that’s who we are, right? Like, that’s what teachers do. And so we oftentimes we put ourselves on the backburner. We are not we’re taking care of everybody else around us all the time, whether it’s our kids, our spouses, our kids at school, other teachers at school, and we tell other people that they need to be taking breaks and relaxing and taking time off from work and you know, like, unplugging, and then we don’t do it ourselves. And so that’s really what we focus. That’s really what we focus on is, you know, like, if, if we’re not taking care of ourselves, then who is going to nobody, like no one else around us is going to take care of us. So we need to hold ourselves accountable for taking care of ourselves so that we can have that full cup and be able to pour into other people, and be the best we can be I hear so often, like, I don’t have time to take care of myself, I don’t have time. And I’ve all like all I ever think of is like, you know, all the other people in my life who have like, ended up in like hospital situations or something not to go like super like, you know, to the dark side there. But it’s like, you ended up in the situation because you weren’t taking care of yourself. And then now you are there and you don’t have time not to take care of yourself, you’ve you’ve gone so far the other way. And I think that’s where like, you know, a lot of us teachers are experiencing these burnout and stress symptoms, which we’re maybe ignoring, because we feel like we have no time to take care of it. Well, your health is at risk if you don’t slow down if you don’t stop and take care of yourself. So I think that’s a big part of it is we just we always tell ourselves, we just don’t have time.

Kelsey

I absolutely agree with everything you’ve had to say. And even that point of like, if you don’t take care of yourself, you’re gonna be forced to do it at some point. Like if you end up in the hospital, whatever that literally was me at one point, like, I mean, I could go on, I’ve done a whole episode about that story. But it’s like, if we don’t, we will at some point it will catch up to us, it will catch up to us. So it’s like you think it’s not a good use of your time but truly what I’ve learned is it’s like the most important use of your time, but it does kind of feel like a buzzword like we hear self care like thrown around like oh self care. self care, but like, what does that mean? You know? What would you define as self care? And how can that help teachers navigate burnout? Maybe Roberta, we can start with you on that one.

Roberta

Sure. So we define self care as taking care of our mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, and even environmental self. So taking care of all those different aspects, not just the physical self, but also our mental and emotional needs, as well as taking a look at our environment. And is there something in our environment that we need to take care of, in order for us to be the best versions of ourselves. So it’s more than just taking a bath with a candle, you know, that, which is I think what that buzzword brings to, to mind when we hear, we’ll do some self care, I think the first thing that comes to mind for a lot of women is, is a bath, or going to get like a manicure or pedicure, which Yes, can be self care, but is that that’s self care that’s like helpful in the moment. It’s not giving you lasting long term effects. So, for example, one of the things that we talk about a lot is journaling, which can really impact a lot of these different areas. But one of the examples that I love to give is, if we’re having a stress point, for me, for kindergarten, we had this horrible situation where recess was a disaster. An absolute disaster, once was a disaster, because we weren’t there with them. This was a very young group of kindergarteners. So they needed a lot of extra expectations and the people that happened to be able to be watching them at the time, were used to older kids. And so after having so many write ups, and having to take time out of our prep to go to meetings and try to problem solve and like make these behavior plans for recess are like enough is enough, this wouldn’t be happening. If we were out there. We journaled. We talked my co teacher and I, and we came up with a solution. So instead of just complaining about it, it’s taking the time to sit down and journal. Okay, what is the problem? What exactly is the problem? And what are some possible solutions? And then talking with, in this case, the other kindergarten teacher, her and I talked about all of our options, and figured out what’s the best option we have. And we didn’t think our administration was going to go for it. But we’re like, you know what, we’re never going to know if we don’t ask. So we went, we had this proposal written up, we went to our administration, we’re like, look, we, you know, we’ve had this issue with lunch and recess, here’s our solution, send us to lunch and recess, and send some parents in for quiet time, we’ll set the kids up for quiet time, they’re already going to be laying down listening to music or a book or whatever. And that’ll be much easier for the parents or the recess aides to handle. So send them in during that time, we will take their lunch and recess duty so that we can be there to help with the behaviors and teach the kids the skills they need to succeed. And so by journaling and talking to each other, and being vulnerable and brave, we then went to administration, they saw the value in our idea. And we’re like, Yeah, let’s give it a try. And it ended up being fantastic. The rest of the year, it worked really well. Yes, we moved our lunch, but we still got that lunchtime, and behaviors decreased drastically, it made the rest of the year so much easier. But we had to be brave enough to ask for what we needed. and problem solve instead of just complaining to each other and not coming up with solutions.

Kelsey

So good. Like sometimes self care really is like, you know, talking to somebody about it and like advocating for yourself. So I love that story. Ashley, do you have anything to add to that as well,

Ashley

the ones that I love talking about the most are I mean, this whole thing sparked for me because I started working out so for the physical self, I wholeheartedly believe like we need to move our bodies and a lot of us say we don’t have time for it, or we don’t want to because it’s uncomfortable or whatever. And Roberta and I really focus on not like full on exercising but movement throughout the day. So even if it’s just like a couple minutes here, a couple minutes there. Get up and move with your kids get up and move with your kids at home. Can you get out and go for a walk get fresh air get some vitamin D like the trifecta. So I love using fitness for my physical health. I love using healthy eating. So we talk about those two things quite a bit. And I also love talking about healthy boundaries. We’ve kind of touched on that a little bit Roberta did at the beginning with like checking email. But this is I also relationship boundaries as well. So what I mean by that is like, and Roberta kind of touched on this as well, but like instead of just complaining about things with like negative people, like, are you going into the lunchroom and like hanging out with a bunch of negative people? Or are there other people on staff who you could invite into your room instead, I actually, recently just did this I was I was sick of being in the lunchroom. And so I invited another female staff member who I’ve always had a good like school relationship with, but I was like, you know, what, I’m kind of like, I want to have deeper connection. So like, I just invited her to my room for lunch. And she was like, I’d love to, you know, just like having those healthier relationships. You know, not not complaining, and, and figuring out problem solving, like Roberta said, instead of, we get sucked into this trap of, you know, like, we’re hanging around the negative teachers, and then we become more negative. And it’s just like this sucking soul sucking cycle, you know, so, and then, you know, boundaries with parents with students coming in during your prep, we love talking about prep time boundaries, how many of us like walk around and waste our prep time away, because you know, maybe it’s the end of maybe our prep is at the end of the day, and we are just like, so exhausted. And so instead of just like jumping into lesson planning, or grading or whatever, maybe we need to take a little bit of a break, and maybe do a couple minutes of movement. Or maybe you’re so physically exhausted, that that’s not really a good idea. But maybe you need more techniques, like just sitting there for a few minutes and focusing on breathing. Doing a couple minute meditation on your phone, or just sitting in the quiet, maybe you need music, I’m a person who if I need if I’m like, way, just like not focusing, and I can put some music on for grading like that will really help me so like just really listening to ourselves. You know, we’re so busy. We’re running all the time. We don’t ever get quiet enough and listen to ourselves. And think about what do I need right now? And so like, we can give you all this stuff, but like, really, it comes from within, like just sitting there being quiet and like asking yourself, what do I need? Do I need to be listening to music? Do I need to be breathing right now do I need to get up and move what is my body telling me that I need so listening to our bodies is another big one that we talked about a lot.

Kelsey

I’m interrupting this episode for just a moment because I want to let you know about some new options we have available for coaching. If you want to thrive as a teacher with support completely personalized to your teacher life’s struggles, goals and means I take a limited number of one on one clients, and I would love for you to be one of them. We will work closely together via zoom calls scheduled conveniently, according to your schedule, plus Voxer, which is a walkie talkie app where you can get personal coaching from me right from your pocket. Plus, you will also get all the benefits of group coaching and our resources because wife, teacher mommy club credit is included with every one on one package. And that credit could even be applied to a current membership. If you are already a Club member, go to wife, teacher mommy.com/coaching to learn more and fill out a no obligation application Talk soon. Hi, I’m totally with you on that. I feel like we’ve gotten so disconnected from our bodies. We’re still like in our heads all the time. And like, so when I started working with a life coach, it’s just like, how does that feel in your body? And I was like, What What are you talking about? You know, I feel like we’ve gotten so disconnected. And we have to do that work to actually like, you know, get in there and be like, What am I feeling? What does this emotion actually feel like? Am I actually processing it? Or am I resisting it? Or like what’s going on there? So yeah, I love that you bring that up, because I feel like that is such an important part of self care. And I love the both of you when I said like what does self care mean? Like what you dove into was not like, oh, like taking a bubble bath or whatever. Like that is great, you know, like we mentioned, but it’s really these other long sustaining things, as you mentioned. So I love that. And I think we’re kind of on the same page there.

Roberta

Yeah, I think there are the things that I was recently in a coaching call. And we divided the things that we do for ourselves self care, self care into three categories, which I have really taken off with, but the things that bring us joy, I think that gets missed a lot. And honestly when I divided my list of things that I do for myself in self care, my list of things that brought me joy was probably the shortest list. So now it’s like my mission to add things to it that that bring me joy, but so what brings us joy, what gives us energy, and then what restores our balance So on sort of things are interchangeable, like when I do yoga, it does give me energy, it also restores my balance. So some things went into these different categories. But I think it was helpful for me to think about it in that way to be to think that, you know, self care doesn’t just restore our balance. There are also things in self care that gives us energy, and stops us from having that like brain fog. And then there are things that bring us happiness and joy. And I think that’s honestly one of the first things we tend to cut out as moms in general, not just teachers, but moms in general, as adults in general, that’s the first thing to go. It’s like, I don’t have time for things that are fun, or bring me joy. And that’s unfortunate. There’s just a lot of research coming out about the benefits of joy, and really the harm we as adults put on ourselves by not allowing ourselves the time to have joy and fun in our lives. So that’s something I’m personally working on is increasing the things that that bring me joy. But I thought that was really cool. So it brings you joy, lifts your energy and restores your balance.

Kelsey

I love that I love how you broke it down into those categories, and like, really helps you be intentional about what it is you’re allowing into your life. Yeah. So I truly believe all of this, what we’re talking about, like tackling burnout, self care, and everything is all related to our mental health in general. So with all the other things that take a priority, do you think many teachers are putting their own mental health on the backburner? Like, I feel like that’s kind of what we were just talking about, but like, I think that many teachers are, and why do we think that this is something they shouldn’t be doing?

Ashley

100%? Actually, you

Kelsey

start this time? Yeah, 100%

Ashley

I think burnout really is just like our mental health is going basically, like, we’ve been stressed out and overwhelmed for so long, that now we’re experiencing symptoms of burnout, which is basically stress and overwhelm to the max. And when that happens, yes, you are putting your mental health, possibly your physical health, your spiritual health, all of that on the backburner. And I want to be clear, like some there are some positions out there that are maybe not meant for you. And maybe just switching a position like changing your environment might be enough for you to get out of your burnout funk. But if you are not, then simultaneously like making sure that it’s not going to happen again, by taking care of yourself, then you’re just going to keep continuing this cycle over and over and over again. I experienced burnout, my first year of teaching, and that is when I quit. I quit teaching for two years after that. Partially because there were no other teaching positions. But also because I was just like, I was out. I was like, this is this is absolutely crazy. I need a break after my first year. Like I think that’s pretty ridiculous. So I actually bartended and waitress for two years, cleared my head, got another job at a different school, which it was just crazy over there. And then, you know, I was after that school, I was like, almost ready to be done again. Because I had been through three schools at that point, before I had my first year of teaching. I taught in Alaska for two years in a in a village up there. So I was very close to burnout up there as well. So I I’ve been to some crazy schools with just crazy administration. And I was like, if this is what teaching is, I want nothing to do with it. I finally like I moved over to the school where I am. And I am like the happiest I’ve been. I have good administration. You know, I have I have things that I didn’t have at my other schools. And so sometimes, like just moving schools, moving positions might be the trick for you. But again, like if I wouldn’t have during the pandemic, if I wouldn’t have started doing this stuff. I already felt myself falling into that burnout state again, at the school that I’m at now. And I was like, if I don’t do something about this, like it’s just gonna keep happening again. And so I could feel it. I was listening to my body at that point. And I could like I could feel it coming on again. So yeah, I mean, burnout, mental health. It’s like basically one in the same.

Kelsey

For sure. Roberta, do you have anything to add to that to

Roberta

one of the things? I think it’s mostly like older generation teachers that I would hear this from primarily and I think it’s getting better as like the mental health. stigmas are being addressed more openly than they ever have been in the past and but I hear a lot like First of all, it’s hard to leave to go like see a therapist or something like, it’s hard to find a sub. So they’re like a lot of teachers are like, well, I don’t, I don’t have the time because I literally can’t take time off of work for it. But then also, I think there’s like, an, especially in lower income districts, I’ve seen teachers who are like, my kids have things so rough, my life is fine, I should be fine. And instead not understanding, like, by seeing what our kids are going through, it does affect us. And that in itself is a reason to seek, like mental health help. And a therapist and I think some schools are starting to have therapists for their teachers on staff, which is incredible. But then you have the stigma of well, what if people see me walking in there? And what are people going to think, and just this whole like, thing of negativity around seeking help? Again, I think it is shifting, but it’s still there, like this whole negative stigma on needing help with our mental health or admitting that our mental health isn’t top notch, that there’s something to be achieved. There’s just this negativity around it. And it is changing. And I hope that our podcast is helping to get the conversation going. I know the conversations with our own friends and clients are really good conversations around this and like, who cares what anyone else thinks type stuff like you do you and what you need to do. And we need to let go of this negative thought process around just mental health in general.

Kelsey

Absolutely. Like I believe every teacher should be able to, like look after their mental health, and there’s nothing wrong with that. And I think that conversation like, you know, on podcasts, such as yours, or mine, or on Instagram, I feel like there are a lot more conversations going on than there used to be. So I, I’m really glad that it’s happening, and that we’re talking about mental health. And, you know, it will to hopefully lift each other up and encourage each other to get help if it’s needed. And you know, for some of them might be like, dire, like, Okay, I’m about to go into like the hospital, whatever. And then for others, it’s just like, Something’s just not quite right, or I’m struggling a little bit like, it’s different for everybody. But I think we could all use some additional help. So there’s no no shame in that.

Roberta

And I also think there’s this idea that we can only seek help if there’s something wrong. And I personally don’t believe that to be true, I think we can be seeking help, like, if especially the schools that have these therapists on hand, like they’re there for the teacher, they’re there for you to go to. It’s like, even if nothing’s wrong, take advantage because maybe you can learn some strategies that you didn’t know that you can have in your toolbox, either for yourself or for your students, when something pops up. Like, I think even if you’re healthy, there are things that we can learn and grow from. And so taking advantage of the resources that are available, is helpful. And, and I think we’ve recently had a conversation, which won’t air for a while, but the conversation, we were talking about how it can just be so helpful. Even if, like there’s a resource that we don’t think is going to be helpful for ourselves, like tapping meditation, for example, I had had a conversation where they’re like, I, it doesn’t work for me, it’s not super helpful for me. But I do want to learn more about it. Because maybe one day it will be. And maybe it’s going to be just the thing that one of my students needs to help that. So by learning these different strategies, you know, it’s not just helpful for ourselves, but for our own children, for our kids in the classroom. But I’ve also on a personal level found like having all of these tools and having researched all of these different options, it helps my my relationship with my friends and my spouse, like, see him starting to struggle, and it’s like, hey, here are some things you can try and help him come up with his own toolbox. So yeah, I think it’s not just for those of us that are struggling, but also those that are feeling okay, because we won’t always feel okay, is the thing like we’re not always going to be in a good place. That’s just human nature. We’re all going to have these dips. And so if when we’re healthy, we can learn what to do when we have those dips. We’re going to be in a much better mind brain space to be able to handle those dips

Ashley

going back to like being able to use it in the classroom or being able to use it with your own kids at home. I do this all the time. Like I have most I’m because I’m a shop teacher so I’ve mostly boys so I don’t like advertise it as like self care, you know, because they’re these Tough module guys, you know, but like, I bring the tools to them all the time, I just like kind of disguise them and like hide them and but like I can definitely tell it helps. I’ve done like gratitude bell ringers before and it actually shocks me and surprises me at like, how many of my boys because I usually I would give them like options of you could do the gratitude or you could journal about your day or like, you know, whatever. And a lot of them would pick the gratitude. And then I’m like, oh, and then this makes me happy because I’m I’m reading like, all of your gratitudes for the day, you know, just kind of like brightens your day a little bit too. So. And like everything that I learned I do with my kids as well. My My daughter is super stubborn. So I have to basically disguise everything for her as well. Roberta knows she is not into like the breathing techniques. So I have to use a bunch of other things on her. She does. She’s just a she is a stubborn child. But yeah, it definitely helps when they are like having meltdowns, and they are out of control. And like how can I bring in all these self care tips and tricks and everything that I’ve learned into mothering as well. So

Kelsey

such a good point, because I feel like when we learn this stuff for ourselves, and both of you mentioned this, we’re able to use it like with our students or with our children. And it really helps like all of those around us too. So like it’s like not selfish. It’s like, we’re thinking of ourselves, we’re taking care of ourselves. And we’re better able to help those around us too. So I love everything that you’ve had to share today. This has been such a great interview. And I’m excited that our audience now gets to know you too. So exciting. And you’ll also be speaking at our summer conference this summer, educating rejuvenate, we’re so excited to have you. So lucky to have you as everybody can see today. Can you give us a little Can you give us a little sneak peek of what you’ll be talking about? Yeah, so

Ashley

I think we’re going to talk about our our method that we use in our course. And we’ll kind of break it down a little bit further and give people some like actionable steps that they can take. I’ve also done Roberto and I kind of need to talk about it a little bit more, but maybe we’ll throw in like some of our prep time. Yeah. We’ve done we’ve done on our prep time strategies as well. So like maybe that will be kind of our, our vibe for this one is talking about, you know, self care all over the place, but then kind of maybe narrowing it down for prep time as well. And like how to utilize our prep times so that we don’t have to bring things home. So yeah,

Roberta

yeah, I love the feedback we’ve gotten from the feedback we’ve gotten from both veteran teachers and new teachers on our prep 10 strategies. class that we give has been really, really wonderful and humbling and really great. Like it’s helpful, not just for the new teachers, but also, you know, our veteran teachers that have been doing this for a long time.

Kelsey

I love it. So like new teachers, veteran teachers, everybody, be sure when you come to the event to watch their session, it’s going to be incredible. If you’re listening to this like right is we’re airing it, you can join the waitlist to know as soon as tickets go live. And we haven’t revealed the full speaker lineup. So this is just a tiny Sneak Peek that you’ll get here. Actually, Roberta at the event, we have not revealed everybody yet. So you guys got to be like a little sneak preview. So fun. And if you’re listening later, anytime between now and last week of June, go to educate rejuvenate.com to learn more. But while they wait, because there’s some time to wait, tell them a bit more about what they have what you have to offer our listeners right now like your course or if you’ve got Do you guys have like a freebie or something.

Roberta

One of the things that we love talking about is, is meal prep, because it’s kind of the last thing we want to do at the end of the day. We also as teachers, it’s like you have to pack your lunch or you have to eat the school lunch, which isn’t always the healthiest. So it’s like this balance of I want to pack but then I never have the time. So what our freebie right now is all about meal prep and meal planning and how to make it really easy so that you’re planning and prepping for the whole week. And making it as easy and effortless as possible. Ashley and I both hate being in the kitchen. So it’s really geared around like how can you make this work and be healthy and what you need with the minimal amount of time in the kitchen as possible. So I really love I love that right now. It’s a I believe it’s a five day email Our course and that’s our freebie. So every day, there’s a little lesson with an action step and it’s really attainable and easy to do each day. And then and then those sources are with you. And then the very last day you get my personal like, spreadsheet that I have of all of my meals that I do, most of them are crock pot. And all of those links are there to be shared. So that’s one of one of the freebies right now.

Ashley

You know, we we’re not in a course launch right now, but we’ve also got our well our mini courses always up and ready for people to do it’s it can be easily done in a couple of hours. That’s the routine one. We’ll send you that link as well for any parents looking for looking to get their kids on more of a nighttime and morning time routine so the struggle is not there anymore. No more yelling as you’re going out the door and all that fun stuff. And then we’re not in a course launch right now for our this repels burnout course but if you get if you get into that freebie that Roberto was just talking about, you will get emails for when our next course launch is so you’ll be in the know right away as soon as we know.

Kelsey

That’s awesome, great way for them to stay in touch and know of all the future things that come up to So that’d be awesome. And then where else can our listeners find you online? We know you have your podcast

Ashley

Instagram is the best place we are at the teacher Mama’s podcast and that’s Ma Ma I know some people say spell mama differently but it’s Ma Ma for mamas at the teacher mamas podcast for Instagram.

Kelsey

Awesome. Well, this was so fun. Thank you so much for taking the time to be here and sharing all of these tips to help teachers prevent burnout and take care of themselves. The all the busy teacher moms out there are going to appreciate it so much. If you’re enjoying this podcast, be sure to hit subscribe so you don’t miss an episode. And if you’re ready to take the next step with me, then you are going to love wife teacher mommy club. Our top selling resources for pre K through sixth grades have been used and loved by 10s of 1000s of teachers. The club gives you one click access to all of them to meet the needs of every child to teach while saving tons of time. Plus, you’ll have our certified life coach in your back pocket with several monthly workshops and an Ask a coach portal you can use 24/7 The combo of resources and coaching is our secret sauce to your best teacher life. Think of my team and I is your personal team, doing the lesson planning for you and on the sidelines coaching you and cheering you on as you focus on what you do best impacting the children you teach. Plus, if you’re loving this podcast, you’ll also have access to our private podcast just for members, where I continue the conversation with all of our guests with members only bonus episodes. And don’t forget the club with VIP access to educate and rejuvenate our Summer Conference in our private Facebook community full of like minded educators support each other huge us