And now there's something completely different. And for those of you who aren't old enough, which is probably most of you to know, that that was the famous Monty Python film in the seventies. I'm aging myself, but and, and you see, I have this ability to amuse myself. Thank goodness for that. I have to say that sometimes my partner says to me, oh my gosh, you're so easily amused.

To which I always answer and thank goodness for that. So I'm amusing myself. But let's get to this week's subject, which is a little different. It is the subject of teacher burnout and book studies and no, here's the big. Block twist. I am actually going to suggest that your campus does not do a book study on my positive mindset habits for teachers.

Wait, what? Yes. I'm gonna suggest there's only a few circumstances in which this will really boost morale and give the teachers the kind of tools they need to reduce stress and reignite their passion for teaching. All of the things that that book. Does, which it really does. I have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of reviews and emails from teachers who have told me this book was career changing.

Life changing. I love that. But I'm gonna tell you. Most of them found their own way to the book. It was not through a mandated book study. So we're gonna talk about why that might not work on a campus, what else you can do instead. And that's it. So you know, book this episode is one of the many reasons that every year when I go to find my taxes, my accountant says to me, are you running a business or a charity?

I talk people out of paying me. I dunno why that's probably the topic for another episode. But anyway, after the brief intro, I'll see you on the inside. It'll be sure. It will be fun. It will be helpful for you. I really think so. All right. See you on the inside. Welcome to the Teacher Self-Care and Life Balance podcast, where we focus all things personal development to help teachers feel empowered to thrive inside and outside of the classroom.

If you are passionate about education, but tired of it taking over your whole life. You have found your new home in the podcast universe, you'll love it here. I'm Grace Stevens, your host, and let's get going with today's show. All right, I'm gonna start with a story. I was back in the eighties. I was 20 years old and my first like.

Big job. I would say I, I'd had lots of, I'd been working since I was 14. I'd worked in a pizzeria. I, ooh, I reached the pinnacle. IWI was a Saturday girl at Mark's and Spencer's when I was 16 and a half. That's how old you needed to be. So, and then I cocktail waitress my entire way through college to be debt free.

But while I was in college, what I would say my first big girl job was, I was a tour guide for a educational tour company. It turned out that it was for American students. Primarily, and so as the students were off spring break and summer and so was I, that was it. I was a tour guide. Anyway, I was all trained off.

I go, my first tour it was called London, Paris, France, and it was a 12 day tour and I took these 50 kids and about. Four teachers all the way. London, Paris Rome, and at the end I was to collect, they were handwritten. What do you call that? Oh my gosh. Okay. Evaluations. That what it was, it was an evaluation.

And so, you know, they had to check off how were the hotels how, how was the food, what was the pacing of the tour? You know, I was trying to get feedback, whatever. And of course it was the final question, how was your tour coordinator? And so there were 51 people on that tour, and I've gotta tell you that I collected those evaluations.

I put them in an envelope. They were supposed to be in a sealed envelope, delivered to the company headquarters. You are not supposed to look at them. Okay, I'm gonna fess up now 40 something years later that only 50 evaluations made their way back to the tour company because the first one I read said, and I quote, cover your ears if kids are listening.

Grace is a bitch and I hate her. I swear that was the first piece of feedback I ever got. Now the other 50 were glowing. But this one particular girl and I know why she didn't like me. It's a long story. And I'm sure if I was 17 and her, I wouldn't have liked me either. Okay. So. Anyway that, what is the moral of that story?

The moral of that story is you should not take when you're an author, which I have been for 13 years, right? Just, you know, don't take those reviews personally, the bad reviews, all those things. So I have to say, I'm gonna toot my own horn a little bit, which is not my comfort zone. But I have, between all the books I've written, literally over 1,005 star reviews between Amazon, Goodreads, other things.

I get lovely emails every week. I'm so blessed that people connect with the material and like they feel heard, feel validated, all those things. Practical tips that they can use. Hey, finally somebody who gets it. These are the things I hear. Now I have. Noticed a trend and I kn in these instances, I always knew this was gonna be an issue.

And that is when people have been given this book as part of a book study or kind of like it's been mandated, shall we say. Okay, so I'm gonna talk about the circumstances under which it thrills me that I see bulk bulk book orders, or when people contact me and say, can I. I have a discount, I wanna. By bulk orders of one of my books and why a lot of the times, depending on what they're doing, I kind of talk 'em out of it.

So let's talk about it. All right, so here's the first thing, and you can just think back to your own experience. Any time your administrator has given you a book, I can tell you the times I've been given a book by an administrator that was really about teaching. One was it was supposed to be all uplifting.

It was supposed to, it was, I can't remember what it was called. It had an apple on the front. Of course it did. But it was kind of like, you know that Chicken soup for the Soul series where there's small experts of like little uplifting stories and so it, it was that. So you know, who's gonna take offense of that?

We're supposed to be motivating and, you know. Okay, great. However, I think it would be better to encourage teachers to reflect on their own. Practice and come up with a list of, of powerful stories of their own and share them with themselves. So some kind of practice around that, journaling or whatever.

So it, one thing that I do encourage people, I think it's a beautiful gift for new employees, for Teacher Appreciation Week, for if you are like a curriculum coach, my Positive Mindset, habit journal. I think is a beautiful gift. In fact, fun fact, when I change school districts I teach under a different name.

I do not teach under the name Grace Stevens. I will be very honest about that. Stevens is my maiden name. I teach under my married name and grace is my middle name. So there is no way that anybody who had hired me or knew me would know that I ever go by Grace Stevens. I kept my professional life and my teaching life very kind of separate, and so when I joined this new district and they handed out to new, all the new employees, my own journal with my photo on the back, it was a little bit of a like, oh, well that's kind of awkward for a minute.

But what a beautiful gift. What a way to let people just you know, journal if they want their happiest moments of the day. So those are scientifically validated. Little exercises, fun things. Where do you keep favorite quotes? The funniest thing that happened to me this week, which cha which student can I champion this week?

These are all great things and I, in fact. Give that book out a lot. Even if I am substitute teaching, sometimes I'll leave a copy of that journal just on the teacher's desk and say, here, here's a little gift for you. Okay. So that's totally appropriate. But let's say I, I would, let me think of another.

Book that I was given, we were given a book one time, and it was from business and it was about customer service. And when we were given it, the admin, the principal said to us, oh, I read this book over summer. It really affected me. I got you all a copy. She presented it like it was a gift, but then of course the next time we had a free, like early release day and we didn't have a staff meeting, we were supposed to meet in our PLCs.

It was like, make sure in PLC you discuss. You know, chapters one through three, whatever, and it was all about how the customer is always right. So imagine how that kind of came across. Basically, you are telling us to read a book where the customer, in this case, the interpretation will clearly be, the parents were always right.

It, it did not land well. Okay. It did not land well. So one, you've given us a reading assignment, not a gift. Okay. We already have enough on our plates. Two, you know, read the room, kind of tone deaf. Okay, so here's where I feel that can. Backfire on admins, even if they are very well intentioned. And certainly my book, the one that is, is most recommended most read is Positive Mindset Habits for Teachers.

And it is practical strategies. It is short. It is very applicable. It is the furthest thing from toxic positivity. I can read you a couple of quotes from the book, but you know, just the first. The first chapter is called The Elephant in the Classroom, and the elephant in the classroom that nobody seems to want to talk about remembering that I wrote this book quite a few years ago, is how unhappy teachers are, how stressful teaching is, how there is a huge amount of turnover and there are not new teachers coming up through the ranks.

Now, when I wrote this, I believe it was 2017 or 18 you know, way before. We had our pandemic way before ai, way before all these things that are stressing everybody out so much, you know, it was the elephant in the classroom. Now that's all anyone can talk about is how unhappy teachers are. But this book was not about toxic positivity.

It. And you may, I've done episodes on what toxic positivity is. It's when you are trying to be upbeat and positive, but you are invalidating people's experiences. So toxic positivity would be that messaging like we're all in this together and good vibes only. And you know, let's keep this all positive, which, you know, is well intentioned, but is pretty toxic.

We gotta acknowledge where people are at and the struggles they're having. Okay, so this book is the. Opposite of that. However, just going on the title, I can imagine if you were a teacher and you were already, you know, in the throes of burning out and there was a very negative campus culture, right? Which is why an admin will be drawn to this book.

Oh my gosh. What practical strategies can I give people for. Authentic self-care as an educator, personal development to stop people burning out. Like, what a nice thought to give this book, as opposed to some book on, you know, pedagogy or improving test scores or, you know, all the other things we have to read.

Okay. I can see that if I was a teacher who was already overwhelmed and now you give me this book, even though it's short. Even though it has that happy, smiley brain on the front, and it's written for teachers by a teacher, no big, you know, fancy words, no jargon, all that stuff, I can still see that you would be, oh my gosh, this is an assignment.

It's one more thing I have to do. And then this is the vibe I get. This is where I have run into some negative feedback in the past when it has been done as a book study and maybe I have come on to do an author q and a. Or one one district, they were in Colorado. It wasn't the school district, it was their union had put it on and you could get units that you needed if you took this class.

And I remember one lady was just, you know, they, that they were, I was, what do you call that when you, you just come and you attend the class, but you aren't vocal? I was auditing the class. I was auditing the class to see if the teacher needed some help with the exercises or anything else. And I remember.

One lady was so in particular, she was just so resistant to everything and she was like, it's not enough that I come to work every day. Now I have to be happy to, like, it was just that vibe. She took it very personally that people were insinuating that she needed to be happier and you know, I get it. I get it.

Totally valid. Totally valid. I substitute taught at a school last year and when I showed up, somebody recognized me. I had presented at a new teacher conference, and again, I teach under a different name than I present under in, so she was shocked when she saw me on campus and she was like, oh my gosh, you know, you are so great and everybody needs to hear what you said.

It was about setting healthy boundaries. The presentation I'd done and she said, please. Give your book to my admin, tell him you do pd, blah, blah, blah. They were local. They lived just a couple of you know, miles from my house, so no big deal. And so I did that and then I was invited back to the school in the same classroom.

So this was a teacher who was so in love with what I'd done. She had kept a, no, I had, written her pinned on her wall and that I had been requested back when she needed to take another leave. So this teacher that I had substitute taught for, who wasn't the teacher who I'd met at the conference, it was a different teacher, but she still had had this experience with me of being very happy with what I've done with her kids.

It was a TK class. They were adorable. And she ran into me a little while later. Obviously the principal must have said something and she even, she said to me, well, oh, you're gonna come and teach us now how to be happy. Like it was really not a good vibe. So I get to see how that would backfire.

Okay. Teachers are already so overwhelmed giving them something else that feels like an assignment, not a gift, is not well received. And also the subject matter. It is hard to give somebody a book on being more positive. That insinuation there is that they're not positive. Well, let's put it this way. If you are really a person who always wants to do your best, is interested in personal development, is interested in showing up as your best self, and somebody were to give you this book, you'd be like, what great resource.

However, you would probably tend to be a little bit more on the positive bias side anyway. If you are a person who is overwhelmed, resentful, super negative IE, you're the person who really needs this type of information. Unfortunately, I was always aware when I wrote it that the people who need it most would be really resistant, and the title and the premise would annoy them.

That's me being honest, I always knew that. And so I feel that the people who love this book, who have found it life changing is because they were drawn to it. They were looking for it or somebody recommended it to them. They had said, oh, hey, you know what? I read this book and it was great, and you're kind of like me, and I think you.

Okay. Another area, which I find this book has been really helpful and one of the reasons I kept it very short and to be honest, very inexpensive compared to other educational books, this book is a steal of a deal, is because some teacher colleges mandated as reading for new teachers, and I think that's beautiful.

They need to be in class anyway. They're paying for school anyway. I don't. See any of that? I mean, if they buy the book the appropriate way, I get some royalties, but I don't get paid by the teacher colleges, but. The book is very affordable. It is a pet peeve of mine, how expensive textbooks are. It was a pet peeve of mine that with all the things that I learned in teacher training school and how many classes I had on how to write the seven Step Perfect lesson plan, nobody taught me how to avoid burning out, how to set boundaries, how to not be abused by a system.

That is really the foundational piece is just getting teachers to do more and more and more and more. Okay, so I feel like I love that. People who, kids who need to, who have been kids. I don't mean to say kids. Come on. I went back to school to get my teaching credential at 37 years of age. So. People who are in a credentialing program.

I think that's a great use of this book. Okay. It's a reality check. It's some practical tools. It is inexpensive and you're gonna get units for it. Beautiful. Beautiful. I think that's awesome. Okay. How else could you use it? I think it would be awesome if somebody feels compelled to do a book study on campus.

Give teachers a. Choice, let teachers be in charge of their own professional development. In this case, this book is a combination of professional development, but personal development. It's the skills we were never taught, right? And we weren't taught in school. And these are skills we need to thrive in life.

And so I feel that a lot of people would be interested in it if it were given as a choice. But maybe your biggest issue is classroom management, in which case. Having a book study or an option to do a book study on a book about classroom management on which there are many, many excellent books would be more appropriate.

So if you're thinking of having campus-wide book studies, maybe have. Options. Choose two or three areas, survey your population what would be most beneficial to you, and have different people in charge of the book studies. Okay? Don't mandate that people learn skills that they might already think they have and think twice again, about gifting books to teachers, because sometimes, as you know, a whole campus, it is a beautiful thing to do.

Like I said, my journal completely. Appropriate. What a lovely gift. It's a keepsake that teachers can keep for years to come. I have, you know, five or six journals of my own that I've filled out over the years when I after I started printing it, and I love them. Okay. So that is appropriate, but I just wanted to put it out there that if you want to create a book study.

For your campus, for your PLC, for whatever, just know that it might not always come off as the positive thing you hope it will be. What started as you wanting to boost campus morale and have a whole, you know, great sense of community that you're studying something together is actually starting to feel just like another compliance.

Checkbox. Okay. All right. It's one more thing that overloaded Teachers now feel like I, I don't wanna have time for an extra reading, an extra meeting, an extra reflection. It can come off as toxic positivity, even though it isn't, and of course, it, it's just backfiring on you. Okay. Remember self-determination theory.

Teachers need choice, not just mandates. We know that from students, right? How many times do we know students need a choice and a voice? Okay, so do teachers. It does not smack of authentic support. It can seem like symbolic kind of support. It can look like lip service to helping with self-care. But unless it's backed up by actual systemic changes, let's say it's just feeling inauthentic.

So that's it. So one of the things I do offer. Teachers if you or admins, if you go to my website, is discounted volumes of books if you want it for a book study or a gift for your staff. If you buy a certain number, I will even do a free Zoom q and a or whatever. But I just wanna let you know, in a lot of cases when people.

Contact me for that. I ask them, how do you intend to use it? How do you intend to support it? Okay. There might be better resources that I have, I have done for you Instant impact PDs. We call 'em. I used to call 'em PDs in a box, but somebody else I. Trademark. That's now I call it instant impact pd, which is like a, like a, a plug and play kind of two hour meeting that you can do on lots of topics.

Better communication, setting healthier boundaries focusing on what you can control. There is a component that teachers can do independently on their own time. During A PLC, you just watch a video and follow along. And then there is a piece that can be in a staff meeting with. A exercise that can be facilitated, so that feels less of a one and done, right?

There's a year long program where you get support. There's all kinds of other things that I do. And even though a book study is an easy lift and a very inexpensive thing to do, I would suggest if you wanna give a gift to your entire staff, please go look at the journal. That is truly a gift for people to use themselves.

Nobody's gonna ask you, Hey, share out your journal, right? We, we know that's a private thing. And every couple of years I try and change the cover. People ask, like, I've had it three years in a row, can you change the cover? So depending on where you get it, it might have a different cover, but it's always the same material.

So anyway, so that is that it, that might, this might seem like the weirdest episode ever, but that's it. I just wanted to get cautionary tale. I was gonna read some excerpts from the book that. Really show how it is totally not toxic positivity. They're at the beginning of the book and I'm thinking people, you know, people who are just so adamant that like, oh, this doesn't sit well with me.

One lady did say, the author thinks she's so great and she wants us to be great too. I want Ev I do. I think I'm so great. No. Do. I think I work really hard at figuring out how to have a more positive teaching experience. Yeah. I worked really, really hard on that for over 20 years for myself, and then people ask me to share it and I don't.

Want to shove it down anybody else's throat. So sorry to that lady that she felt somebody shoved it down her throat, but it wasn't me. I didn't buy her the book. That's all I'm saying. Anyway, all right, next week again, something completely different. We're gonna talk about a great resource for teachers that I get lots of people trying to be on my podcast that have nothing to do with teaching or education.

I dunno, my name shows up somewhere and. An AI generated letter comes out. I'm not kidding you. I get between five and 10 emails a week from people who are just like, so not a match. I tend not to have guests anyway, but if I'm gonna have guests, it's gonna be something that's of value to you and it's gonna be from people who are teachers or in the education space.

Not gonna be wasting your time or my time with anything else. So next week there is gonna be a terrific guest. I will leave that cliffhanger there, but in the meantime. Time. Oh, may your coffee be strong and your students compliant and you know, may you just keep a healthy perspective. I know I'm on a lot of different forums and I see so many admins telling me teachers are really struggling this year more than ever.

And it breaks my heart because y'all, it's just like October just started. We are just getting started, people. So hopefully everybody will settle in. Okay. But until next time, you can do this. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything that you do for other people's children. The world needs your passion and your talents, and until next time, create your own path and bring your own sunshine.