Teacher Wellbeing

The final episode for Season 8 is a beautiful conversation with artist and teacher Jane Mant.Take the Teacher Wellbeing Persona Quiz at www.selfcareforteachers.com.au/quiz

Hi everyone and welcome back to the Teacher Wellbeing Podcast, which is now 4 years old!In celebration of this milestone, I’m sharing a replay of S04 E10 from 2018, about the Three Thinking Traps that Sabotage Your Wellbeing As a Teacher.Last week I shared my favourite episode, but this week I’m sharing your favourite episode, or at least, the most downloaded episode of the last 4 years.It’s about the three thinking traps that sabotage your wellbeing as a teacher and what to do instead. I see these thinking traps all the time and I experience them myself, so don’t feel like you’re alone in it. Of course it’s not an exhaustive list, but these are the top three that I see and I think it’s useful to identify them so that we can get out of the trap. I’ve heard Katrina Bourke say that we have to "name it to tame it" when talking about emotions, and I think it applies here too. Once we’re aware of these thinking traps, we can catch ourselves in the act and redirect our thoughts to be more conducive to supporting ou

The Teacher Wellbeing Podcast is turning 4! In celebration of this milestone, I’m sharing a replay of S05 E04 from 2019. This is my absolute favourite episode of the last 4 years, and it’s also the episode I’ve had the most feedback from listeners about. This really resonated with you then, and I think it will resonate with you now too.The School Wellbeing Champions meetup is on again, on the 10th and 13th of March 2021. Head to selfcareforteachers.com.au/wellbeingchampion to find out more!Despite the jokes that teaching is 9 - 3 with 12 weeks holiday a year, we know it to be otherwise. We know that the work starts well before 9am, finishes well after 3pm and that large parts of those holidays are usually spent working too. We also know that workload has been increasing over the last 10-20 years. The introduction of new improvement measures such as Professional Standards for Teachers and the national curriculum, as well as the impact of NAPLAN and the My School Website have resulted in more administrative wo

Today I’m excited to bring you my conversation with Steve Francis from HappySchool.com.au and we are of course talking about creating happy schools! Steve tells us about his teaching and leadership background in QLD and Hong Kong, and how his passion for supporting the teachers that he worked with turned into a Masters researching teacher stress, and then eventually that turned into the Happy School business. We talk about the findings from Steve’s research, including the 3 key factors for staff wellbeing in schools and the really important piece of school leaders acknowledging and recognising the good work of their staff.The School Wellbeing Champions meetup is on again, on 10th and 13th March 2021. This is a virtual networking event for teachers and school staff who are the ‘wellbeing person’ at work. Find out more and sign up at www.selfcareforteachers.com.au/wellbeingchampions

What is culture?Two definitions I like are: ‘people like us do things like this’ and ‘ideas, customs, and social behaviours of a particular people or society.’Many teachers tell me they feel at odds with the culture in their workplace. Or worse than at odds, completely undermined by it.Well, if that’s you, I hear you. I know how challenging it can be.I also want you to know that you don’t have to let it be a foregone conclusion. If your school culture is one of Depleted Teachers and you want to be a Resilient Teacher, then you can shift your own personal culture to move towards that instead.Here’s 4 steps to help you:- Decide what culture you want- Identify what thoughts, beliefs and actions enhance and promote, or inhibit and undermine that culture- Surround yourself with people who get it, support you and will hold you accountable- Take action, tweak, follow upRemember, if you’re interested in having proactive wellbeing conversations in your staffroom, follow along with the prompts by @flourishingfebruary!

At the best of times, teaching is exciting, exhausting, scary and rewarding. First year teachers find it is all of this and more!There are so many new things to learn and so, so much work to do.Non-teaching friends and family don’t really understand the demands of the job, you are still feeling like a bit of an imposter (are they really letting me in the classroom by myself?) and the students can and will test you because you’re new.There are so many expectations to meet, a lot of new names to remember and lots and lots and lots of paperwork.It is all too easy as a teacher to always put your needs at the bottom of the list.This is even more of an issue in your first year as you are eager to prove yourself and likely trying really hard to avoid any negative assessments of your abilities.Here’s a few dos and don’ts for self-care in your first year. These are from the following blog posts:https://selfcareforteachers.com.au/first-year-teachers-self-care/https://selfcareforteachers.com.au/collective-wisdom/Sign up

This episode is the audio replay from an Instagram Live I did on the 15th January 2021. Come hang out with me on Insta, I'm having fun with Reels and things! https://instagram.com/selfcareforteachers Sign up for the Free webinar: https://selfcareforteachers.com.au/webinar And enrol in the Resilient Teacher Group Coaching Program here https://selfcareforteachers.com.au/resilientteacher

Happy New Year! You did it, you made it through 2020, the weirdest, hardest year yet. Wherever you are in the world, I want to acknowledge the huge challenges and upheaval 2020 brought and give you a big pat on the back. Well done, it is no mean feat.So we find ourselves in 2021 and I wonder if perhaps your social media newsfeed and email inbox is filled with messages about how unworthy you are, how you need to punish yourself for any pleasures or indulgences over Christmas and the holidays, and overhaul you entire life by January 14 to be enough.Well, this isn’t one of those messages. Those messages are utterly wrong and completely crap. You are SO worthy, already and always. You do not have to punish yourself for enjoying yourself, even if perhaps you feel you over did it a bit. And you most certainly do not need to overhaul any part of your life by January 14 to be enough. You are enough. Already. Always.If you’d like some gentle support in being proactive about your health, wellbeing and resilience this y

In this episode I'm sharing my predictions for the 2021 trends in the teacher health, wellbeing and resilience space in Australia (and beyond). This is also the last episode of Season 7 and for 2020. I will take a little break and see you in 2021!My predictions are:1. Schools are taking on board the wellbeing message and doing SOMETHING but it will continue to be hit and miss.2. Wellbeing Champions continue to grow and be driven by staff instead of leaders. Individuals are making impacts in the schools and communities where they live.3. Education policy and Department expectations will continue to be problematic but also continue to acknowledge the need for teacher wellbeing. At least they're paying lip service now?4. Unions will continue to be necessary but as we saw with Qld this year, people are unhappy with the result. We can acknowledge things would be worse without the unions fighting for us and still be unsatisfied5. Teacher Wellbeing/Wellness businesses are increasing in quantity. It's great that ther

Who benefits from individual teachers and schools being caught up in and measured by the way things look and appear as opposed to what difference is really being made academically, socially, emotionally?Links mentioned:Instagram @selfcareforteachersResilient Teacher Program Wait ListRethinking Resilience podcast ep Invisible work of teaching podcast ep BOOK: Changing Australian Education: How policy is taking us backwards and what can be done about it by Alan ReidAEU FB page webinars about funding inequality in Australian schoolsFeminist Coach Academy podcast https://feministcoachacademy.com/podcast/Feminist Coach Academy Certification Training https://feministcoachacademycourses.com

Part 2 of my conversation with Stuart Keene, Clinical Exercise Physiologist. If you haven't yet listened to last week, please do so first.Early bird Prices until 11th December:2021 Self-Care System2021 Self-Care Systemhttps://selfcareforteachers.thinkific.com/courses/selfcaresystem2021Fatigue Resilience Masterclass Serieshttps://selfcareforteachers.thinkific.com/courses/fatigueresilienceOther Links Mentioned:Symptom Tracker Sheet in Freebies Library Book a call with Stuart HRV sensor WhoopHRV sensor EliteHRV

I speak with my husband, Stuart Keene, Clinical Exercise Physiologist, about movement as medicine and the science of exercise and HRV as fatigue management and mitigation.

I really love this time of year, because it’s the time I start looking at planners and calendars and thinking about all the possibilities of a new year. It’s exciting!That being said, the flip side of excitement is often anxiety. And this can be a really anxiety-filled time of year for many! I share what I've learned from Hagrid about managing this anxiety, and the very powerful language shift to get rid of What Ifs once and for all!PS Remember, there's still time to come to the Wellbeing Champions Meetup on Saturday: http://selfcareforteachers.com.au/wellbeingchampion

I’m sharing 3 reasons why your school needs to have a wellbeing champion role that is focused on teacher and staff wellbeing. First, I acknowledge the Gaibul people of the Toowoomba area who are the traditional custodians of the land on which I am recording this today, where I live and work, and where Self-Care for Teachers operates. I acknowledge their elders past present and emerging and that sovereignty was never ceded. So I invite you to take a moment to acknowledge the First Nations people of the land on which you are standing right now too.So right now I acknowledge this idea of having an official Wellbeing Champion position in schools is aspirational. We don’t currently have an official role of Wellbeing Champion or Wellbeing Coordinator or Head of Wellbeing in most schools. Therefore this episode is really more about my vision of what these roles could be in schools, rather than necessarily what we currently have. I’d love for it to be something to spark your imagination and hopefully some conversatio

I have a beautiful conversation with Beth Cregan from Write Away With Me. Beth is a teacher and a writer and runs professional development on writing and creativity for teachers as well as teaching writing to students. We talk about how teachers can use writing to support their wellbeing, both individually but also collectively in staff groups, as well as how writing can be a powerful self-care practice. We also discuss how self-care practices really come to the forefront when we’re already depleted but that we need to be extra gentle in starting up new practices in challenging times, plus the power of poetry and journalling.Beth also shares some great tips, one of which is called ‘The Book of Wonderings’, which is really all about how impactful it can be to ask ourselves and ponder on questions. So if you haven’t yet listened to last week’s episode about Self-coaching Questions for Teachers, I recommend that as a follow up. Also remember you can get the accompanying workbook in the freebies library at selfca

Today I'm sharing with you 29 questions you can ask as part of a process of self-coaching. Coaching is just a conversation where one person takes on the role of asking questions that help the person being coached to uncover the answers for themselves and sometimes to break out of the thinking patterns and habits and mindsets that they might not have even realised was holding them back or getting in the way of getting what they want. Coaching takes many forms but essentially it’s just asking better questions, and you can do this for yourself. It’s obviously helpful to have an external person go through this process with you but it is a skill you can practice and improve on, and self-coaching can be a great tool in your wellbeing toolkit that can help you when you feel stuck, when you feel like something has to change, or when you come against a challenge and need to make some decisions.So today I’m going to take you through 29 Questions that you can ask yourself as part of a self-coaching process, or you can a

A follow up chat with Bek, who is a teacher you may remember from Episode Three of the very first season of the podcast. Way back in the beginning of 2017, I spoke to Bek about her journey of finding more personal wellbeing as a teacher and treating herself like a person first and a teacher second. And at the end of 2019, we caught up with a bit of an update.Bek shares her story of how her journey progressed and how her wellbeing and health habits had to shift and tweak after she became a mum and also got a promotion at work. And she is now a mum to two little boys. So at the time we recorded this, she was just about to go off on her second lot of maternity leave. And at the time this episode is released she has just finished that second lot of maternity leave.Exciting things:Cultivating Extraordinary Wellbeing Video Training www.selfcareforteachers.com.au/cultivatingWellbeing Champions Meetup www.selfcareforteachers.com.au/wellbeingchampionSchool Staff Wellbeing & Resilience Sessions: taking bookings for

It's good to be back behind the mic and I'm excited to talk to you today about 11 mistakes I see teachers and schools making when it comes to their health, wellbeing and resilience. These are things I see quite commonly in my clients and I've also made a lot of them myself, so I absolutely get it and I'm sharing these with the greatest empathy and compassion. If you recognise yourself in these, know that I'm right there with you and we're human so learning and growing and messing up is part of the deal.Exciting things:Cultivating Extraordinary Wellbeing Video Training www.selfcareforteachers.com.au/cultivatingWellbeing Champions Meetup www.selfcareforteachers.com.au/wellbeingchampionSchool Staff Wellbeing & Resilience Sessions: taking bookings for 2021 now! Email hello@selfcareforteachers.com.auEpisodes mentioned:S04 E11 Three thinking TrapsS01 E18 Self-Care and DifferentiationS05 E07 The Other Side of the Wellbeing EquationBooks mentioned:7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven CoveyThe Gifts of Im

In the first teacher story recorded since coronavirus, Wendy shares her story of health challenges and new wellbeing resolutions, and how that was all impacted by the disruptions to work and life that Covid-19 brought. Remember there's also a couple of days left to join is round of the Resilient Teacher program: www.selfcareforteachers.com.au/resilientteacher

This is the audio from Lesson 2 of the free workshop series about Teacher Wellbeing and Resilience. Click here to watch a replay of it this week for free, on Facebook! Or find it in the Freebies Library at www.selfcareforteachers.com.au/libraryEnrolment for the next round of the Resilient Teacher Coaching Program is now open, and early bird pricing is available until Sunday 5th July, so join now!