100. 5 Overlooked Teacher Burnout Recovery Mistakes No One Is Talking About But Every Teacher Should Avoid

Apr 02, 2024

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It’s hard to believe The Resilient Teacher Podcast is already at 100 episodes. Time flies when you’re having fun.

I’m so excited to celebrate with you today with a listener’s choice - I asked, you answered, and now we’re doing a round up of 5 of the biggest mistakes that teachers make when they try to recover from burnout.

You’re definitely going to want to listen to this episode to hear all about the mistakes you could be making, the super simple giveaway I’m doing to celebrate this milestone, some advice, and lots more.

And whether this is the first or the 100th episode you’ve listened to of this podcast, THANK YOU! I hope it’s been (or will be) a helpful resource for you whereever you are in your teacher burnout recovery journey.

TOPICS COVERED:

A giveaway
5 of the Biggest Mistakes Teachers Make in Burnout Recovery
Self-Care is NOT the solution for teacher burnout
The importance of community care over self-care
The limitations of time-saving techniques in teaching
The impact of non-educator advice on burnout recovery
The challenges and potential pitfalls of using AI in education
A Special Announcement

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE:

Grab Your FREE Ticket to the EmpowerEd 2 Teach with AI Conference - The EmpowerEd 2 Teach with AI Conference kicks off on Friday, April 26th featuring 10+ speakers ready to teach you how to prevent & recover from teacher burnout, reignite your passion for teaching, and work smarter not harder with AI.
Take the FREE Teacher Burnout Roadmap to Burnout Recovery Quiz - Take this short, fun, and informative quiz to discover what you need to sustain your teaching career and begin burnout recovery. This quiz will help you understand what support systems you need, how to prioritize your mental health to live a fulfilling and energized life as a teacher, and what drives your self-care.

RELATED RESOURCES:

Join the Waitlist for Automate Your Classroom Course - Learn the step-by-step roadmap TO creating a sustainable teacher task simplification and automation system to beat burnout, squash stress, get back YOUR time, and sustain your career in education
Request Professional Development from your Administrator

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RELATED EPISODES:

MORE ABOUT THE RESILIENT TEACHER PODCAST:

The Resilient Teacher Podcast is the show that will give overwhelmed educators the support, tools, and mindset to reduce teacher burnout and keep teaching sustainable. Each week, Brittany Blackwell, M.Ed. & her guests will share inspiration and actionable steps to avoid or recover from the dreaded teacher burnout. You'll be inspired to individualize self-care and learn to prioritize your well-being and mental health, all while making a bigger impact on your classrooms and community.

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And if you are feeling extra amazing, I would be super grateful if you would leave a review on iTunes, too! Those reviews help other educators who are burned out and needing support find the podcast, and I love shouting you out on the Community Reviewer of the Week Segment! Just click here to review, select "Ratings & Reviews" and "Write a Review" and share what you are loving about the podcast!

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TRANSCRIPT:

[0:00] I am so excited because you are listening to the 100th episode of the Resilient Teacher Podcast, which is a huge milestone for all of us, me for sticking through this for almost two years, and for you guys sticking with it, being a part of this journey, and just committing to kicking the teacher burnout cycle once and for all.
This episode is a friggin' celebration, y'all.
Obviously, I'm going to be giving you some serious value, but you're also going to want want to listen to every second of this episode.
Since I am going to be dropping a huge announcement, you guys get to hear it first before anywhere else.
There's a chance to win a giveaway, just really so much more.
And with this being such a big milestone, I felt like it was only right to give a listener's choice from you guys.
And so I asked you and you answered. In this episode, I want to pull back the curtain a little bit and share with you the five mistakes that teachers make when they are in burnout recovery that inadvertently keep them in the burnout cycle.
And the last one that I'm seeing a lot of teachers do right now specifically is one I haven't heard anybody talk about before.
So make sure to stick around to the end and let's get into it.

[1:19] Before we get into this episode, I want to let you know I am seriously so thankful.
Whether this this is the first or the 100th episode that you have listened to of this podcast.
Thank you. Thank you so much. I hope it's been or will be a helpful resource for you wherever you are in your teacher burnout recovery journey.
So before we get into the nitty gritty of this episode, my first announcement and celebratory goodness is that we are doing a giveaway.
You didn't think I'd celebrate like 100 episodes without doing a giveaway, right?
I am giving away four $25 gift gift cards, and we're going to make this super simple.
All you have to do to enter this giveaway is screenshot this episode or any other episode that you have enjoyed recently on the podcast, share it on your Instagram stories, and tag me at teachingmindbodyandsoul with text sharing where you're listening to your podcast from or what you enjoy about the podcast.
Also, if you don't have Instagram, you can just email me your picture and your text about why you enjoyed the podcast to britney at teachingmindbodyandsoul.com.
And you can get two bonus entries if you have not left a review before on Apple Podcasts and you do, just screenshot your review and send it my way and you will get two extra entries into the giveaway.
The giveaway will end Tuesday, April the 9th and I'll share in my Instagram stories the four winners of the $25 gift card then. The thing is.

[2:47] So many people think that burnout recovery is easy, and it's not.
It's a constant process.
So just kicking us off initially, I think it's important to share that most teachers make the mistake of thinking that they can just get out of burnout, and once they're out, they're golden.
And that just ain't it.
You cannot just leap out and expect everything to be rainbows and butterflies and sunshine from there on out. No, it's more like it's got some twists.
It's got some turns. The whole I'm over burnout, so now I'm set for life thing, that is not realistic.
Recovery is more like a roller coaster. It's filled with highs.
It's got lows. It's got some loop-de-loops just for good measure.

[3:34] And doing too much for your burnout recovery is counterproductive to your burnout recovery.
I think this lesson alone in burnout recovery is burnout recovery in a nutshell.
So many of us end up burnt out because we have perfectionistic tendencies and we've been able to push through so many of the problems in our lives that we treat burnout recovery as the same thing.
This requires us to let go of the need to do all the burnout recovery all the time.
We want to be the best at burnout recovery, and that makes us the worst at it.
And it takes addressing these tendencies of urgency, of perfectionism, of people-pleasing by making things right as soon as possible.

[4:30] Burnout has some physiological components that we cannot make go faster than they go.
We have to respect our own speed, our own capacity, and that's a lesson that's going to help us recover and stay in recovery that matters.
You have to understand that it's a process that you will never stop going through.
Second, when we chat about the long haul of recovery...

[4:59] I think about how schools have been handing out these don't forget self-care mantras like it's a magic wand.
But the thing is, is treating self-care as a catch-all cure is where we've kind of dropped the ball for teachers.

[5:15] Pushing this narrative that individual actions alone can combat burnout, that's like saying, here, fix it with some yoga and a bubble bath and expecting that to tackle everything from overwhelm and overwork to underappreciation.
And while self-care absolutely is essential, this approach is inadvertently contributing to the isolation of teachers.
It's placing the onus of recovery solely on that individual teacher, overlooking the systemic issues that contribute burnout, to, you know, neglecting the power of community support.

[5:56] We should instead be talking about community care, where we feel supported not just by the institution, the school, the district, but by each other.
In a perfect world, community care would be what schools and districts do by putting structures in place that encourage collaboration, that open dialogue, mutual support, where true community happens.
And that doesn't always happen. And that's where the mistake lies.
Teachers thinking that they can do it all alone because the schools, other people have drilled self-care.
But the truth is no one can do this thing alone.
You're not meant to do it alone. And being told to put a self-care band-aid on it is not helping.
And speaking of bad advice, The third mistake that I see teachers make is religiously using time-saving techniques that do not work for them.

[6:48] One of the hurdles that I see teachers often encounter in their journey to recover from burnout is the allure of time-saving techniques, productivity hacks that promise these big results with little effort.
And it is so easy to fall into that trap, especially when you're searching for anything that might offer a lifeline in the sea of overwhelm.
But a prime example of this is the Pomodoro Method.
On paper, it sounds fantastic for managing and maximizing productivity.
Work intensely for a short period of time, then take a brief break.
Repeat. It is touted as this game changer for those with mountains of unstructured time to tame.

[7:35] But teachers operate in a world where their time is not their own.
Their days are meticulously segmented with each minute accounted for from lessons to meetings, from grading to planning, and the nature of teaching means that that unmanaged time repeats.
These techniques assume is available is, in reality, incredibly scarce.
So try to apply a method like the Pomodoro method in such an environment like this can be like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.
It just, it doesn't work.
The technique assumes that you can control when you start and when you stop tasks at will, but teachers don't have the luxury of taking a a break after 25 minutes, especially if they're in the middle of a class supervising lunch in a meeting.
And you know what happens to teachers when they try these things and they just don't work?
They feel like a failure. And when you're in burnout, that's already a constant feeling, a constant thought.
So instead, what needs to happen and is more beneficial is for each of us as individuals to find and even create more bespoke strategies that are tailored to the rhythms and routines of teaching.

[8:49] Embracing these methods that genuinely fit within the ebb and flow of teaching life can lead the way for a more sustainable recovery from burnout, allowing us to reclaim our time, reclaim our energy in a way that feels more empowering and more realistic.
And I think when we can find teachers who have done and actually been there and done that from these communities, that's where we actually see the progress.

[9:17] Which leads me into number four, an.

[9:22] And it's one of the biggest mistakes that I see teachers make, which is listening to the opinions and the advice of non-educators.
I think there's well-meaning pals, your loving family, your spouse, and even those peppy online gurus who are tossing advice your way like confetti.
And they mean well, you know, sure.
But without setting foot into a classroom beyond their school days, those well-intentioned tips just miss the mark by miles.
They're adding more to the pile of junk that is constantly thrown at us.
And I want to be very clear about my opinion on this. When I say non-educators, I mean people who are not educational professionals and have never been an educational professional.
The teaching world is its own unique universe.
It's got challenges. It's got joys that those outside outside cannot fully grasp.
The advice that works wonders in the corporate or the creative, you know, freelance job.
That does not translate into the world of lesson plan students' needs and grading marathons.
It's like trying to use a map of Paris to navigate Tokyo.
They're both really great, you know, complex cities, but good luck finding your way around, right?

[10:40] Non-educators, as much as they want to try to understand, they cannot get the emotional depth of our work, the highs of those student breakthroughs, the lows of those really tough days.

[10:53] The compassion fatigue, and everything that comes with caring deeply for our students.
The suggestions miss the mark.
And it's not just about sifting through these, oh, you should try this suggestions.
It's also about kind of tuning out the, the teachers have it easy or what do you have to be stressed about?
You chose this job kind of talk, you know, that negative noise from people who have not spent a day behind the teacher's desk, have no idea why we became teachers.

[11:26] But that can add layers of frustration, and it diminishes the very real challenges of teaching.
And this kind of vibe feels like you're being misunderstood on a good day and completely undervalued on a tougher day.
It chips away at that spirit, and it makes the climb of burnout feel steeper, which is sending you right back into the cycle, which is another reason why teachers need that that teacher tribe, that community support, and more than anything, some serious boundaries so that these opinions and these thoughts can't break through.
Those one-size-fits-all approaches that people inside and outside of the profession can give are just not what we need.
Teachers need individualized support, and that is one of the reasons that I have my personalized teacher burnout recovery roadmap quiz so that you can find those unique individual steps with all of these things in mind.
You can learn more and you can get that roadmap at teachingmindbodyandsoul.com slash quiz if you have not already done so.
Last but not least, the fifth mistake that I see teachers make in burnout recovery is something that is pretty new and I have not seen anybody else talk about it.
And it has to do with us being in the dawn of the AI era and education.

[12:47] It's a shiny new tool and it's promising to slash hours off of our workload.
And the allure is there. I get it. I've talked about it. It's understandable.
But the reality is a little bit more complicated.
I get excited to see teachers who are looking to streamline tasks and carve out a little bit more breathing room and that they're turning to AI for help.
But instead of saving time, I see a lot of teachers finding themselves tumbling down that rabbit hole, investing more time, learning the ropes, tweaking the output, searching for the next best teacher AI tool, and sometimes just wrestling with the tech to get it to work right.

[13:29] This is not about the tool itself. AI has the potential to be a game changer in education.
It can personalize learning. It can ease administrative tasks for teachers.
The hiccup comes from when the tool that's supposed to be a time saver becomes a time sink.
And it's a classic case of the solution becoming part of the problem.
And here's where this misstep kind of lies.
Teachers are diving into it without a strategy.
And they just don't have a system for using the tool.
Just trying one and then another and then another and never really coming up with a workflow.
It's the classic shiny object syndrome. And I get it, I really do.
I mean, like sometimes I am just as bad.

[14:15] But then there's also those teachers who just don't know where to start with it at all.
There's so many things to choose from, and it's like, ah, I'd rather not choose at all.

[14:26] Navigating that vast, that sparkly world of AI and education can feel a little bit like a kid in a candy store. It's exciting. It's overwhelming.
It's a tad bit dizzying with all the options.
Knowing this all too well and recognizing the sheer potential that AI holds to transform form our teaching without overwhelm and helping to reduce burnout, plus like having a ridiculous number of you kind of reaching out to me about AI all the time, I decided, you know what?
We need something free. We need something PD. And I did not mean to rhyme right there.
But I know most of the professional development that we deal with, it's boring. It's long.
It feels like a waste of the very little time that we have. And that is exactly why I am excited to share that I have partnered with 12 other educators and created a free virtual conference.
We decided to throw out that old playbook and bring you something completely different, a professional development experience that is actually engaging, actually interactive, and packed full with value. you.
No more snooze fest webinars, no more one size fits all solutions that don't quite fit the bill.

[15:34] This isn't just another item on your to-do list.
It's an opportunity to dive into the world of AI with open arms, ready to discover those tools, those strategies, those insights that are going to make a real difference in your classroom.
We're talking about practical, actionable sessions on everything from how to use AI to personalize learning, to simplifying your workload with smart smart, time-saving tech, and even navigating ethical considerations of AI in education.

[16:03] Everything from teacher-facing to student-facing AI, to ensure that you have a plan in place.
This isn't just to allow you to keep up with the trends, but to help you lead the charge and innovative empower to education.
And the best part, it is all from the comfort of your home or your classroom, and it will not cost you a dime, because we believe that the best investment in our students' future is empowering teachers like you with knowledge, with skills, with tools that you need to thrive, beating burnout and reigniting passion for teaching.
You can grab your free ticket at teachingmindbodyandsoul.com slash empowered or head over to the show notes for any of the links that we discussed today.
The heart of it all is intentionality. Whether it's deciding which hacks to try, whose voices to let in, how to buddy up with AI without getting lost in the tech maze, the secret sauce is moving with purpose and a clear head.
By doing so, the path to recovery is a lot less about avoiding those missteps or those mistakes and more about crafting this thing that's uniquely suited to you and your needs as an educator.
This journey is not about getting back to where you were but about moving forward stronger wiser and with a renewed sense of passion for the incredible work that you do do not forget you are a resilient teacher we're in this together you've got this.

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