The Teacher Burnout Podcast

Educate and Rejuvenate Yourself This Summer with Kelsey Sorenson
[00:00:00] Welcome everyone to the teacher burnout podcast. I'm excited today. I have a guest with me, Kelsey Sorenson. From educate and rejuvenate a life coach, a TPT seller, an author, and a podcaster. And today we're going to be talking about how teachers can keep growing and developing over the summer and some ways that you can do that.
Welcome to the Teacher Burnout Podcast, where we explore the challenges of burnout for teachers and share practical strategies to support teacher well being. I'm your host Barb Flowers. If you're a teacher looking for ways to prevent burnout or an educational leader searching for strategies to support your team, this podcast is for you.
Let's dive in.
Welcome to the podcast, Kelsey. It's so great to have you. Thank you so much for having me, Barb. I'm excited to be here on the teacher burnout podcast. Well, let's go ahead and just jump right in and talk about how do you feel teachers can keep growing and developing [00:01:00] over the summer. I think that's one of the benefits that we have in this profession is that we get this time to kind of reset and have, you know, reflection and just rejuvenate ourselves, that time for ourselves.
So how can they make the most of that and keep growing? Yes. I think it's so important to, at the beginning of your summer, really just kind of think like, what is it you want to get out of it? Like kind of try to be intentional and purposeful with it, because like you said, it is a beautiful opportunity for us to develop and grow professionally.
Also personally, , and also to, you know, rejuvenate and take a break as well. But I think what happens is if we go too far into either one, right, if we go too far into like, I just need to completely check out from school this summer, like I've heard, like there were even like last year, some comments like on our ads, like, Oh, I don't even want to think about school, like all summer long.
And to me, . The problem with like not thinking about it at all is if you feel like you have to [00:02:00] go three whole months or however long your summer is without thinking about school, then that, to me, that's a sign that you were just burning yourself. Out too much during the school year, right? If you need three whole months to recover.
So if that's the case, then we really want to figure out now during the summer, while you have this opportunity, how do I find a balance? How do I make sure I find that time to again, both educate and rejuvenate myself, right? And that's what we're trying to do with educate and rejuvenate event that both of that you're participating in is we're helping you learn how to uplevel your skills as a teacher, like in all the different subjects, anything you could think of with that, but also how can I rejuvenate myself now during the summer and during the school year?
So kind of preparing yourself to create these new habits during the summer, when you have more time where you can kind of trial and error, like, okay, what is it that refreshes me? So then by the time you get back to the school year, you can. Be more ready to continue that throughout the entire school year.
School year. Does that make sense? Yeah. And one of [00:03:00] the things that I always say to people, because I, I hear, you know, we are so lucky in the field of education to have these breaks, right? It's really nice to have the holiday break, spring break, the summer break. However, like you said, if you're so burnt out or you're overwhelmed throughout the whole entire year, and then you take that and you just have to completely remove yourself, , it's good to have boundaries.
But I think if we do it too much. And we're not focusing on our own personal growth. We're really not even going to help that overwhelm and burnout when we go back to school, because we're not addressing the problem. We're just removing ourselves from the problem. It's like trying to put a bandaid over a broken leg or something, or like thinking like, Oh, a student's failing.
I'm going to just change their grade to an A. It's like, you can't do that, right? You need to figure out what is the actual root cause of the problem. Right. And that's what I love is that summer is the perfect time to do that. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. So talk to us a little bit about how teachers can go back to school, just feeling [00:04:00] refreshed and not burnout, having that balance, like you said, between Educating themselves and growing professionally and personally, and then rejuvenating so that they're not working all summer to the extent that they go back, you know, more tired than when they left school for sure.
So I think at first it's kind of defining what feels rejuvenating to you. Like, what is it you really need to refresh this summer to feel like, okay, I am getting that rejuvenation that I need. Is that like, working with a life coach? Is it spending more time outside? Is it like, Spending more time with your family.
Like what is it that you need to really rejuvenate this summer, making sure you make time for that. And then as well, like reflecting on the past school year, not just like, okay, that's behind me. Like it's all done, but what is it that went well? I always like to start with what went well, because you can name something like, even if you're like, oh, the school year was just a train wreck.
Like, don't think about it that way. Right. Let's look at what went well this school year, . Try to write as many [00:05:00] things as you can. And then what is it that didn't go well? What is it that I want to change next school year? Like, was I always tired every single day at the end of the day?
Or, , did I stay longer than I want to next school year? Or did I not have boundaries that maybe I should have this school year? just kind of think of those things. So you can reflect and kind of make a plan for that during the school year. And then also that can be like, what is it I want to learn?
Like, is it like, I need more help with, you know, management with my small groups. Do I need to read a book about that or attend a like educate and rejuvenate session about that? Or do I need to learn more about like the science of reading, or do I want to incorporate more STEM? What are some things like actually teaching wise that you want to do more of next school year?
And how can you have fun learning about those things Again, not all summer. It's finding that balance between educating and rejuvenating this summer, finding time for both. Because if you do too much of one, like if you're your whole summer is like busy, busy, busy, and that can be both work [00:06:00] or personal.
Like a lot of teachers were like, I want to spend my summer. I want to get my whole house organized. I want to clean up my closet. And then, you know, all the trips, vacations with families and kids and all their stuff. And then, you know, also the. Learning the teaching things you want to do. If you're spending all your time being productive during your summer, then you might start the school, you're already feeling burned out.
So it's like, again, being really choosy and specific with that stuff you want to do. And then on the rejuvenate side, if you spend your whole summer, just rejuvenating, and I'm going to just read books all summer that are just fun books and. Only do that stuff. Then you're not thinking of your future self who actually wants these changes next school year.
You're only thinking of your present self. So we want to think of how do I take care of my present self right now? And then how do I help my future self? Who's at back to school next school year to feel more like, okay, I am ready to take on this school year. And I think going along with what you're saying, if you don't do anything to educate yourself [00:07:00] as far as related to your professional, your career, then I think it makes it harder to go back because I think educating yourself and having new strategies, whether they're personal strategies for better routines and boundaries, or even new teaching strategies that rejuvenate you alone.
That you're going to be excited to go back and implement those things. So I think that that also can be rejuvenating. Yeah. Like kind of like lights that spark back up. Like, Oh yeah, this is why I went into teaching. It's like, even what I like to say, kind of my tagline is revitalize your teaching, rejuvenate your spirit and reignite your passion for life, which your life is both teaching and not right.
They're both a big part of your life. So it's really, we want to reignite that spark. Spark of like, okay, I'm excited about this. I'm excited to try these new strategies and how can I have fun with it? Like, you know, asking yourself, like, I want to learn about this. What is the most fun way that I could do that?
And really enjoy it this summer and then be excited to go back to try and implement it. Well, talk to us about [00:08:00] the conference for educate and rejuvenate. I get to be a speaker at the conference and I'm really excited. I have a session about, energizing your teaching again. So I think that that'll be a good one to, you know, rejuvenate yourself, but talk to us about what that'll look like and how they can join us.
Okay. Can I just say real quick, I love that topic. Like re energize your teaching. I feel like that's a lot of what we need on over the summer, like learning how to re energize it. So I can't wait to watch your session, but the full event, like I am so excited. Can I just say, so we have. A group of like, it's over 50 speakers.
We've got, the reason why it's so many is we have both a teacher track and then we have a parent track as well, because I am a former teacher, current homeschool mom. So we've kind of brought homeschool parents in as well, but we were like, no, we're not taking away from the teachers. We're just having everything that teachers could possibly need there.
So there's over 50 speakers. You get to pick and choose. If you're like, I just want to stay on the teacher track. There's, over 30, I think, I think 40 of them are relevant [00:09:00] to just teachers like who are in the classroom. So again, we have all these presentations on like the science of reading on writing STEM, math, science, social studies, all the topics you could think of that you need to teach about, right.
And then we also classroom management organization as well. Like all of this, we make sure we have like all the basics covered, like what you would expect in a professional development. But what I like to say is like, there are so many teacher conferences people can choose from, right? The more of them are just popping up and popping up.
And I think most of them are going to cover those bases, like that professional development, really helping you up level. And we do that. We definitely do that with space, but ours is professional development meets personal development. So we also have a lot of sessions, not just like one or two, but we have many sessions about like burnout overwhelmed.
We have live life coaching happening during it. We have, we start each day with either a yoga class or a, , cardio workout. So you kind of get your body moving before you get into it. Like, we're really just trying to think of you, [00:10:00] not just as a teacher, but as a whole person. So how can you not only, Up level to educate your students, but rejuvenate yourself.
And that is my goal and my mission with these events. So we always get so many comments that people like, one of them was like, I've been teaching for 21 years. I've been doing PDs and this is the best one I've ever done. And we have so many comments like that about this event. So , there really is something different about it.
And it's not because of me. I'm not saying. I don't know why I'm saying it because I'm like, Oh, I put on this event and it's the best one out there, but it's really the incredible speakers who we all get to connect with and the incredible attendees who all come. There's a lot of it that's live we have like discussions with the presenters like you can watch the sessions on your time but we have these like live discussions.
The chat is going crazy. People make virtual friends at the event. Like it's really a unique experience. So I would love to have your listeners come and join us. And I know that you have a special link for them to use to come and join the event. So please click on Barb's link in the show notes or wherever else you'll put it.
[00:11:00] Join us to educate and rejuvenate. It's going to be a really great time. Yeah, and I'm so excited to be part of the conference this year because it does go along with so much of what I try to do to help teachers and just this idea that we do need to take care of ourselves and looking at ourselves as the whole person and I love the idea.
I'm so passionate about exercising and like you said, moving your body to just feel good. So I love that I've never been to a conference except for an actual exercise conference that starts the day that way. So I think that's such a , great way to start the PD for everyone. So, if you're interested in joining us, please click the link.
I'll have it in the show notes and join us and really take the time to educate yourself in whatever area you want to get better, but take that time to rejuvenate. I think this is so important. Don't be a person who. Continues to feel burnout and you just disconnect and don't take the time to take care of yourself.
So Kelsey, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today. It was great talking to you. Great learning about the conference. [00:12:00] And if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me at barb at barb flowers, coaching. com. And I will answer any questions you might have about the conference.
And I hope that we see so much for having me. I loved being here and. Excited to connect with your listeners at the event. Thank you.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.