Join Kimberly Bolton, a seasoned teacher turned mental health advocate and coach, in her podcast series "Bites of the Apple." In this episode, Kimberly kicks off a four-part series for February 2024 titled "Building Emotional Strength in Education." Focused on addressing the prevalent issue of teacher burnout, Kimberly shares her insights and actionable strategies to help educators thrive in their careers. Drawing from her 20-plus years of experience, Kimberly discusses the signs of burnout and provides practical solutions. She delves into the challenges teachers face, such as heavy workloads and the lack of support or recognition. With a compassionate approach, Kimberly offers guidance on effective time management, collaboration, and the importance of building a support system. The episode emphasizes the significance of emotional and mental well-being in the teaching profession, highlighting mindfulness and self-care practices. Kimberly encourages teachers to seek professional support, normalizing the idea of therapy and counseling. Listeners can look forward to upcoming episodes in the series, covering topics like handling difficult conversations with parents, strategies for young teachers to thrive, and coping with school violence. Kimberly's podcast aims to spark conversations and empower teachers, reminding them that they matter, teaching matters, and their hearts are their superpowers. Tune in, subscribe, and embark on a journey of inspiration and motivation for educators.
Building Emotional Strength in Education: Recognizing and Combating Teacher Burnout
- Host: Kimberly Bolton
- Series: Bites of the Apple
- Theme: Building Emotional Strength in Education
- Focus: Recognizing and addressing teacher burnout
Segment 1: Signs of Burnout
- Kimberly shares her personal experience as a teacher and administrator.
- Identifies key signs of burnout: chronic exhaustion, overwhelm, and emotional fatigue.
- Emphasizes the impact of external pressures from administrators, parents, and educational bodies.
Segment 2: Solutions for Heavy Workload
- Acknowledges the heavy workload teachers face.
- Offers practical solutions:
- Effective time management: Prioritize tasks, seek guidance from experienced colleagues.
- Delegate and collaborate: Share responsibilities with grade-level or content-area teachers.
Segment 3: Lack of Support and Recognition
- Discusses the importance of feeling valued and supported.
- Recommends building a support system:
- Seek mentors and create a support network.
- Communicate openly with colleagues and administrators about workload concerns.
- Encourages celebrating small victories and milestones.
Segment 4: Emotional and Mental Well-being
- Highlights the emotional toll of stress on teachers.
- Advocates for mindfulness and self-care practices.
- Stresses the normalization of seeking professional support through therapy or counseling.
Conclusion:
- Summarizes the three major stress areas: heavy workload, lack of support, and emotional well-being.
- Encourages teachers to start conversations about burnout.
- Promotes upcoming episodes on handling difficult conversations, strategies for young teachers, and coping with school violence.
Closing:
- Invites listeners to watch the bonus interview with Josh Magro for deeper insights.
- Encourages sharing and subscribing to Bites of the Apple for future episodes.
- Provides contact information for overwhelmed teachers to seek support from Kimberly Bolton.
Hey there, teacher. Do you want 2024 to be your best year yet, but you're afraid that you're on the road to burnout? Well, tune in today for actionable strategies to help you thrive in your career. Hi, I'm Kimberly Bolton. I'm a 20 plus year teacher and administrator turned teacher mental health advocate and coach.
And you can find me online at Kimberly Bolton. com. This podcast is part of my super blog called Bites of the Apple. It's bite sized nuggets of inspiration and motivation for stressed out teachers.
And today kicks off a four part series for February 2024 called Building Emotional Strength in Education. And all month long, we're going to focus on mental health awareness for educators. And today's byte is all about recognizing the signs of burnout and what we can do about it. So I don't know about you, but over the past 20 something years, I've had plenty of days where I just sat in my car when I got to school and I literally had to psych myself up in order just to open the car door.
And for me, it was really never about the kids, even the knuckleheads. I loved every single one of them. And I'll tell you about my favorite sometime. But as a teacher, it was all the other adults and their agendas, particularly the not so great administrators, some parents, some district office folks, the State Department of Education, and even the legislature.
All those grown ups with their competing agendas really weighed me down. And teachers, just so you know, the pressure is even worse as an admin. But that's a story for another time. So today we're talking about recognizing the early signs of burnout and what we can do about them. And I work with so many teachers who deal with this.
I knew it would be a good topic for a Bites of the Apple episode. So I have three things right now for us to take a look at. Number one, teachers have a seriously heavy workload, and this causes chronic exhaustion, both physically and emotionally, and these feelings of being overwhelmed and just unable to meet all of the demands of everything on your plate.
And there's two things that I have to offer as possible solutions. The first one is effective time management. I want to encourage you to prioritize your tasks and break them into manageable chunks. Ask the seasoned teachers in your building to help you filter what's more important and less important.
And just let go of the idea that you're going to get everything done. It's impossible. Just sing the Frozen song, Let it go, let it go. And just let it go. The other thing is just to go home. At the end of the day, leave work at work and go home. It's still going to be there tomorrow. The other solution that we can take a look at for heavy workload causing stress is to delegate and collaborate.
See if you can collaborate a little more with your grade level or content area teachers to break up the responsibilities of planning. And don't grade every single paper that comes across your desk. Allow practice to be practice. Once a formative assessment gets entered into the gradebook, it's a summative assessment.
Now, one idea that I used to do, was to take a six sided die and for that week's worth of work, one, two, three, four, five, I would roll a die and whatever number that fell on, that's the work that would go in the grade book. And if it landed on number six, it was teacher's choice. So that was one of the things that I used to do in order to help me not have to grade so many papers.
The second cause of stressed out and overwhelmed is lack of support and recognition. And this really can help teachers feel undervalued or unappreciated. And especially if you have a lack of support from colleagues or administrators. And there's two ideas for that one too. The first one is to build a support system,
I want to encourage you to seek out mentors or create a support network. They don't necessarily have to be your grade level or your content area, just collaborative teachers that you can bounce ideas off of. And I also want to encourage you to keep the lines of communication open with your colleagues and your administrators.
Tell your administrators when your plate is over full and ask for their support. That was one thing that I used to do all the time was to find creative ways to help teachers when they were overwhelmed. And the other thing to also take a look at if you're feeling lack of support and recognition is to celebrate your own small victories and milestones.
Even if your school doesn't do it, develop your own with your grade level or your content area or your mentor groups. Those are great ways to get that started. The third area that teachers usually get pretty stressed out about is the emotional and mental well being that is caused by so much stress.
This creates irritability, impatient, and sometimes it can lead to anxiety and depression. So my couple areas of things I want to offer you for that is, number one, mindfulness and self care practices. I know People think it's trite, but it's really not, if you take a look at it, because it really works. You know, we touched on emotional resilience and regulations in my last episode, and there's also a great bonus interview with Josh Magro, who's a licensed mental health counselor, and he gives us some great advice.
And one of the things that we got to keep thinking about is the saying, you can't pour from an empty cup. You know that one? Well, I'm gonna invite you to take that one step further. Fill your cup and give from the overflow. Because self care looks more like boundaries, not bubble baths. And the last thing to think about for your emotional and mental well being is to take a look at professional support.
We need to normalize the idea of seeking therapy or counseling. Most of the teachers that I work with are also currently, or have been, in some sort of therapy. So, check out your benefits package at your school. Many offer several free counseling sessions through an employee assistance program or some benefits packages.
So to summarize, the three major stress areas include, number one, a heavy workload, number two, lack of support or recognition, and number three, emotional and mental well being.
So, I want to highlight this today so that you know that it's just not you. You're not the only one. So many of the teachers I work with are stressed to the max and burning out. And we talk about these kinds of things all the time. So let's start the conversation and do something about it. So for your next steps, I'm going to offer that you watch the bonus interview that I have with Josh.
He offers a wonderful perspective. And if this doesn't go deep enough for you today, then I encourage you to reach out for support. And if you don't have your own support system, I'm here. Now, the next three weeks are all about building your emotional strength. So stay tuned for episodes on handling difficult conversations with parents, some strategies for young teachers to thrive, and coping with school violence, a supportive dialogue.
So if you like what you hear, please share this with your friends. Subscribe now to get notification of new Bites of the Apple episodes delivered right to your inbox. And follow me on all your favorite social media platforms. And teachers, send me your favorite strategies to avoid burnout. I would love to highlight you in a future episode.
Email me at Kimberly@KimberlyBolton.com And if you're still overwhelmed, please contact me. I'm here to help. So thank you for listening in. And remember, you matter. Teaching matters. Your heart is your superpower, and I believe in you.