Sharpening MY Saw: Looking Out for #1, So I Can Help #2 BURN IN: Part 7 of I Was Burned-Out

When I finally started to pull myself out of my second “funk” back in January, I started to do a lot of soul searching. As I started questioning my wants and needs as a person, I started thinking more selfishly. When I say that, I don’t mean that I became an egotistical jerk. I didn’t go around saying, “I’m doin' ME!” That’s not at all what I mean at all. Or do I???

Stephen Covey says in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People that,

“To be effective, we must devote the time to renewing ourselves physically, spiritually, mentally, and socially. Continuous renewal allows us to synergistically increase our ability to practice each habit.”

For me, this meant spending time creating goals and making plans for MY future in many DIFFERENT areas of MY life. My personality is not one that lends itself to being happy in one spot for long. Whether it be sitting in the same place or staying within the same job or home for an extended amount of time. It was time for me to ACCEPT who I really am and realize that, although I am in a school that is allowing me to grow as a professional now, I am ready to expand my personal and professional growth in other ways. As soon as I decided that I was in control of my own destiny, my attitude improved even MORE! I am in search of what Tony Robbins calls, “CANI” the need for Constant And Never-ending Improvement.” (I began reading Awaken the Giant Within, by Anthony (Tony) Robbins in January. This is another MIND BLOWING book about how our daily decisions change our destiny!)

“Sharpening the Saw” may seem to be all about improving your skills as a teacher, a cook, a mom, etc. but actually, sharpening the saw has more to do with growing YOU, as a whole. Constantly focusing on one area of your life will only lead to burn-out, in my opinion. That’s what I believe started to lead me down the path that ultimately sunk me. (Insert all of the waves of panic and stress that consistently came from my previous workplace before, I took action.) I was thinking only about my life as a teacher. I wasn’t in a place where I imagined that I COULD do anything but teach.

When I was in a PLACE where I had SPACE to grow, that is when my mind was open to all of MY abilities. When YOU are in a place where you are allowed to ask questions, make mistakes, and truly collaborate, YOUR mind can be opened too. Again, this goes back to my VERY FIRST POST last week when I said that, although it is important that our State and administration focus on student growth, they are leaving out the most important part of that growth. If they are not allowing educators to have SPACE and OPPORTUNITY to grow, they won’t. Period. Teachers will either A. Do what I did originally and QUIT or B. Be the most miserable individuals in the building and they are the MOST IMPORTANT BRIDGE between CONTENT and KIDS!

I challenge YOU. Make a list of all of the things that are making YOU UNHAPPY. Think of all of the things that you HATE and that are BURNING YOU OUT. Do it! How many of those things do you feel are out of your control? Count them. Here’s the punchline…

THEY ARE IN YOUR CONTROL. YOU CAN IMPROVE YOUR SITUATION IN ANY ONE OF THOSE AREAS.

You may have to get creative. You may have to put a lot of time and effort into some things and for others, it may be a simple phone call that you need to make. The MOMENT that I decided not to be the VICTIM of my own previous decisions, is when I started making changes. Some BIG, some small. Here are a list of a couple of my current goals that are SHARPENING MY SAW DAILY:

1. I am CRAVING to connect with other professionals who are feeling BURNED-OUT or are afraid that their fire is slowly dying. I want you to be as excited to go to work as I am lately. I went from crying in my car on the way to work to thinking about my job as a catalyst for GREAT THINGS to come in my life, therefore affecting my ability to be a great teacher, employee, and co-worker.

2. I have begun my Google Education Training! Google is one of the tools that I have used this year to seriously simplify and improve my collaboration, planning, and teaching. I was so inspired by a conference that I went to in April that I started training on my OWN! Now that is BURNED-IN!!

3. I started THIS BLOG! I haven’t written in YEARS. This is one of the ways that I am trying to grow myself. Through sharing my journey, my triumphs and my failures I am hoping to help YOU. MY burn-outs have made me a better person, not just a better teacher. I have SO MUCH to IMPROVE and am so excited!. I have the DESIRE to improve. I can’t wait to share my wins and losses with you!

If you don’t know where to start with “Sharpening Your Saw” as a teacher, please let me know what I can do to HELP YOU. I am CRAVING to help others, like me, who have struggled or are currently struggling with HOW TO IMPROVE THEIR BEHAVIORS AND ATTITUDE in their classrooms and schools. Please email me at burnedinteacher@gmail.com and tell me YOUR story and what YOU need that you are not currently getting in your life to improve your outlook. You can follow me on Twitter @burnedinteacher to see what’s up in my classroom and online as I reach my goal of becoming a GOOGLE INNOVATOR!

That’s it! That’s the LAST post of my plunge into blogging series of “I Was  Burned Out…” Although I won’t be blogging every day anymore, I am so excited about continuing to share my journey of “CANI” (Thanks, Tony!) with you weekly!

BURN ON.

Fake It Till You Make It: A Checklist of Burned-In Behaviors: Part 6 of I Was Burned Out

Fake It Till You Make It:  A Checklist of Burned-In Behaviors

“By putting forth a spirit of trust and safety, we will prompt others to become extremely open, and feed on each other’s insights and ideas, creating synergy.”

Stephen Covey

In his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey defines synergy as what happens when all previous habits are rolled into one. Synergy is the sum of all of its parts.

Listen, I’m going to make this post extremely simple and to the point. You either decide that you want to continue teaching, or you don’t. There is no other way around it. I decided a year and a half ago that I didn’t want to teach anymore and I quit. I went back 6 months later and some mornings, pulled into the parking lot with tears in my eyes. Then, I got sick of living that way. I had to make a decision. I was going to continue to make myself miserable (because it was ultimately me that was the problem) or I was going to burn myself in.

The “fake it till you make it” quote couldn’t be more perfect when thinking of synergy in this situation. My attitude stunk at the beginning of the year. It wasn’t going to change without me FAKING that I was loving my life as a teacher again. So I did. I faked my happiness. Faked that I loved getting up so stinking early to leave by 6:50 am to get to work on time (I know you feel me there). Faked that I cared about meetings that were supposed to be helping me. Faked that I wanted to become involved in my new work community. I FAKED MYSELF SICK. Literally. I really did get sick. I had to call a sub. It was bad.

Then, I made a change and there were a lot of really great things that happened when I started behaving the way that I wanted to feel. My attitude couldn’t help but want to join in once I made teaching uncomplicated and more efficient (ahem, synergized?). What made all of this easier is that when I took the risk that I did a year ago, I ultimately put myself in a place that wasn’t consistently dragging me back down every time things were going well. That was where this all began. Action.

Below, you will see the last five posts put into list form. These are, in a nutshell, what I did to get myself on track to enjoy my the teaching career again. Check the things off that you already do, and work on the things that you can’t honestly say that you do consistently:

• I researched unhappiness and found a book that I thought could help me.
• I was proactive. I didn’t like something, so I changed it.
• I dragged myself out of the black hole that was negativity.
• I failed and learned lessons I never would have learned otherwise.
• I failed, but met some great people along the way.
• I began to really care about how my coworkers and students perceived me.
• I set some serious career goals for myself. I know where I want to go.
• I faked my happiness until I actually started to be happy.
• I started working smarter, not harder.
• I learned some new things. I practiced them until I got good at them.
• I valued my personal and family time over work.
• I began to question the way that I did things in/out of the classroom. (What am I doing/not doing to sabotage my efficiency, effectiveness, and happiness?)
• I built meaningful relationships with my coworkers and my principal.
• I truly collaborated and tried new things outside of my comfort zone.
• I realized what a great place I was in and how lucky I was to be there.
• I was not afraid to talk about my personal struggle.
• I created synergy.

Wow. Seeing it in list form brings tears to my eyes. When I started teaching again this year, I thought I was incapable of so much. I became completely stagnant. My misery was happy staying right where it was. The last 9 years have come with a lot of highs. But the heights wouldn’t be so magnificent, had I not experienced the lows. Just because I became a teacher 9 years ago does not mean that I can’t set more goals for myself. Educating lends itself to so much more that “just teaching.” I am so excited about the path that lies ahead. The things I did  were the catalyst for what is pushing me to WANT more personally and professionally. I know you want more too, or you wouldn’t be reading this post.

Tomorrow is the last post in this series of my story about how I was burned out and my steps to getting burned back in. I can’t wait to talk to you about how I am “Sharpening My Teaching Saw!”

BURN ON!

The One Question You Should Ask Yourself Today to Understand YOU Better: Part 5 of I Was Burned Out

Stephen Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People goes into a lot of detail about the different kinds of listening that we do every day. What he really emphasizes is EMPATHETIC LISTENING. He defines it as listening with the intent to understand, both intellectually and emotionally. He also gives a clear outline of the STEPS to take to understand before being understood.

If there is one habit I wish that I would have learned as a child, it would be this one. Trying to understand before being understood is one of those habits that I still struggle with today, especially with my students and my own children. I tend to be very reactive to their choices and am quick to correct, blame, or assume the worst before even attempting to understand.

Asking yourself this question will help you to understand A LOT about why you are feeling BURNED-OUT:

If your classroom was a workplace, would you want to be an employee of it?

In my 9 years of teaching, I have worked with some of the most amazing educators. They are fun, pleasant, and are some of the most understanding individuals that I have ever met. I would LOVE for them to be my boss. On the flip-side, I have worked with some who, if I was an employee of theirs, I would quit the day I started.

Think of your day. Think of your expectations. Think about whether you are REALLY trying to understand your students and their abilities and needs.

*PAUSE* This is NOT a blog about teaching strategies. You will not hear me harp about differentiation, tiered lessons, RTI or any other buzz terms that are out there right now . All I am asking you to do is to be REFLECTIVE about your attitude and expectations of the children in your care each day. *UNPAUSE.*

Ask Yourself:

Would I want to work for me?

If you have been following this blog for the last few days, you can clearly see that I was very unhappy with who I was working for in my first years of teaching. I did NOT want to work for them. Although after that first year, I improved my communication and teaching skills and gained more respect from my administrator and peers, he and I could not see eye-to-eye when it came to how I wanted to be led. That fact was clear all of those years.

If I flipped my question of the day on its head and asked, “Would I want to be a student in this classroom?” in reference to my past workplace experience. N.O. That’s why I sought better for myself and found it. Other people are doing fine there. It just wasn’t a place where I felt that I could grow. All those years we just couldn't understand one another. I was exhausted. I just burned out. My attitude stunk, my motivation tanked, and I was in a dark place.

Understanding before being understood is really all about communication. Communicating that you understand what you are hearing or seeing. Communicating your feelings. Communicating your message back.

If you are BURNED-OUT, you are probably conveying the message that you don’t really CARE if what you are asking of kids is inappropriate for their age or not, you just do it because that’s the way it has always been done OR because it’s the way you see others doing it. Would you want to work for a boss whose attitude is that patronizing? That, my friend, is not just a way to burn-out, but a quick way to burn your kids out too, therefore affecting their behavior, causing more feelings of frustration in you, and that just causes the kids to be more frustrated, etc, etc.

If you have time, go back and reread all of my posts from this week. Are you REALLY seeking to understand what this blog is all about? It’s meant to help me, yes. I have had all of these thoughts for YEARS. However, it is mostly meant to cause a ripple effect. I want you to become BURNED-IN too! The first step to getting there is to understand WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT. YOU are the only one who can change how you feel. Start with burned-in behaviors and the attitude will follow.  

As always, please comment below with any questions or comments about this post. If you have ideas for a future post, you can email me at burnedinteacher@gmail.com. Also, follow me on Twitter @burnedinteacher!

BURN ON, MY FRIENDS!

Thinking Win-Win Vs.Beginning with the End In Mind

In Celebration of my VERY first posted comment, I am writing a SECOND post that compliments both Thinking Win-Win and Beginning with the End in Mind. 

Mrs. Szynal wrote:

I completely agree with intentions outweighing abilities! I am constantly over-committing myself. Just yesterday, after a full evening of dinner and shopping, I came home and went to the gym (because that is a commitment I want/need to keep), and then after getting home at 8:45, made a lasagna for a coworker who had taken time off (because they needed food and no one else was volunteering), made 10 origami flowers out of dollar bills (because it is a coworker's birthday today and we all wanted a fun way to deliver cash and I'm "better at those creative things" so I was elected to do it), and made a salad for her birthday lunch. Nothing too crazy, and all things I had great intentions for, but I did not have the time or mental or physical energy to do, especially with other things I needed to get done. I don't want to stop being kind and helpful but I want some of my own time back. How can I keep being kind without being burned out? I want my coworkers to say I am helpful and kind, so how can I keep that but without sacrificing my own well being? :) 

TWO WORDS. OPPORTUNITY  COST.

In my post about Beginning with the End in Mind, I listed 3 things that I thought about when I found myself burning back out. The first was obviously the main idea of the entire message. I began to think of my purpose for doing what I was doing. What did I want others to think of me as? It sounds like that was your main goal here was to let others know that you care about them. I am sure you achieved that goal. You are OBVIOUSLY a thoughtful, kind-hearted person who is willing to take time away from your own wants/needs (i.e. family, schoolwork, etc.) to support someone who needs it. 

With that said, I would have to ask you: Do you think your friend who needed dinner would have felt less appreciative if you would have taken them a meal from KFC or some other yummy restaurant in your town? And your friend who was having a birthday. Could you have thought of a way to work smarter on making it creative? Maybe having a student take her money every hour all day with quotes that were printed and wrapped around it about how AWESOME he/she is? All that would have taken was a few clicks, some tape, and willing kiddos who would have loved to make a teacher smile down the hall on their birthday. 

Opportunity cost is when you sacrifice something for the sake of something else. For example, if I was trying to save money for vacation, I wouldn't go out to eat as much for the weeks/months leading up to that vacation, because I want to keep that extra money for vacation. 

When you decided to sacrifice your time for the good of friends, you did 2 things:

1. You saved money. But was it worth the potential $20.00 saved? I mean really, you probably spent about $10.00 on all of the materials for the lasagna at some point. You just had them at your house already. 

2. You made the situation a Win-Lose, at your own cost. Your friends gained a great dinner and a thoughtful birthday gift, but you lost an evening. Could you have worked smarter instead of harder in these situations? Time really is a commodity. 

Let me ask you another question. You go work out after work most days, it sounds like. I don't know much about your mornings, but have you considered transitioning to morning workouts instead of afternoon? I would advise you to really think about every second that you spend driving to the gym, getting dressed, how long you work out, hang out a little after, drive home, shower, etc. Seriously. Set a timer tomorrow from the time you start either getting dressed/driving to the gym after work to when you are out of the shower at home (pending you shower right when you walk in the door). What would your OPPORTUNITY COST be if you would work out in your own home or at the gym in the morning before work? There are actually a lot of studies that say working out in the morning makes for a better day anyway. Plus, you would save money too, should you choose to work out at home. BONUS! ;)

I hope this helps, Mrs. Szynal. Best of luck to you. Burn on, my friend!

10 Reasons YOU Should be Thinking WIN-WIN at School: Part 4 of I Was Burned Out

Think Win-Win:

The Best Habit for a Highly Effective Teacher

This is by far my favorite habit. The title speaks for itself, so this post is going to be pretty short. What can you and someone else do together that will help you both WIN?

Stephen Covey says in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,
In order to establish effective interdependent relationships, we must commit to creating Win-Win situations that are mutually beneficial and satisfying to each party. 

I’m going to drop a word now that is going to make some of you want to slam your head against your keyboard right now… ready?

COLLABORATION. (Take a deep breath. It really is better than what all you BURN-OUTS may have experienced.)

Google defines collaboration as “The act of working with someone to produce or create something.” I’m pretty sure that between Webster and some school buildings, the definition has been switched to, “The act of meeting in a room and being handed a list of things from our principal to talk about that could have been typed into an email while everyone sits around staring at eachother thinking about all of the other things they could be doing with this time.” Am I right???

In my first years of teaching, my idea of collaboration was tainted with to-do’s, calendars, and lists of topics to discuss from our admin. I thought that’s what it was. People sat around grading papers while others were planning the field trip that was coming up the next month. I, of course, learned that I was not part of this meeting of the minds and sat there thinking of all of the other freaking things that I had to do!!! BURN-INS. That. Is. Not. Collaboration. That is just plain wasteful.

Collaboration is sitting down and asking, “So, what are we thinking for next week? What does the curriculum map say? What is our Social Studies standard that we are going to embed in our reading and/or writing? What do we already have done?” There should be a lot of clicking, typing, and “ah-ha”ing going on. Get my drift?

If you have truly collaborated with someone, you are walking away with a physical or digital PRODUCT that you created TOGETHER and a plan of how to use said product! ‘Nuf said.

Have you ever seen the YouTube video of the penguins standing on the iceberg, helping to tilt the iceberg to ward off a killer whale? If not, check it out. It's a pretty great concept and example of collaboration and teamwork.

Those penguins were all moving in the same direction for the good of the cause.

The ants thought creatively to save a team member who was struggling.

And those crabs were not going to let someone above them take them down!

THAT IS COLLABORATION!

My current teaching partner and I have our entire next week planned, printed, locked, and loaded (with the exception of a few tweeks the next week) by Friday of the previous week AT LEAST. Sometimes even by Thursday. That’s some serious collab, my friends. It can be done.

Here are 10 reasons you should be scheming, planning, and reflecting with (a positive) someone OTHER than yourself:

1. It’s WAAAAAAAYYY more fun.
2. Your planning partner is better than you at some things.
3. You are better than your partner at some things.
4. You can split tasks among each other.
5. You are different people and think about things differently! That’s a GOOD thing!
6. You can chat about triumphs and struggles that you are having in your classrooms and figure out how to tackle the struggles.
7. IT IS WAY FASTER!
8. When you are sick or taking a personal day, your partner knows exactly what you will be doing that day and can answer questions that your sub may have.
9. You can learn NEW teaching strategies. (BURN-OUTS, these BURN-INS have some GREAT IDEAS!!!)
10. You can learn some new tricks from an old dog. (BURN-INS, this one is for you. Shut up and listen sometimes. Those vets know a thing or two.)

It may take you a trial or two to find someone who is willing or able to sit down with you and plan. Also, you may pick a BURN-OUT who does not desire to try new things. If so, keep on moving to find someone new. Don’t get discouraged. Trust me. The reward of actually collaborating with someone is worth the search. It truely is a WIN-WIN situation. Humble yourself and take a leap of faith for the good of a very important commodity: you and your students’ sanity.

Email at support@burnedinteacher.com or comment below with any questions or ideas that you have about collaboration.

BURN ON!

The 5 Questions I started Asking Myself to Burn Back In: Part 3 of I Was Burned Out

I’ve been thinking all day about what I want to tell you about Habit #3- Put First Things First and how that habit has changed me, but FIRST, let’s recap that last 3 days. I have shared a lot with you and I know sometimes that can get messy.

On Saturday, I welcomed you all and let you know what my goals are for the blog that is The Burned-In Teacher!

Sunday, I began to let you into my world of being  BURNED-OUT. I told you a little about how I got to that point, as well as my decision to BE PROACTIVE about my situation and how I got out of it. I also told you about the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey and how much it influenced my life almost immediately.

Yesterday was all about BEGINNING WITH THE END IN MIND. I wrote about my desire to be SEEN and HEARD differently than I knew that I was. I made THREE big changes to my career life:

1. I began with the end in mind. I changed my BEHAVIOR, so that I could change people’s attitudes and feelings about me.
2. I changed my WORK HABITS. I began to use tools differently than I had before. I threw stuff out that wasn’t working for me anymore and brought things into my work life that worked more efficiently.
3. I viewed my TIME as valuable. I made a decision that work was work. That’s where it was staying. If I had too much to do, then that was MY fault.

Okay, what I just did is part of what has helped me to become BURNED-IN again. Rehashing things that I have already done is one way that I am helping myself to be able to LOOK AHEAD and GROW MYSELF.

Stephen Covey says, “The challenge is not to manage time, but to manage ourselves.”

I told you on Saturday that I would share a little about why I left my old corporation. Without going into too much detail, one of the reasons I left is that I was not in a place that managed TIME, RESOURCES, or PEOPLE well. Rarely was there a time where everyone knew what was expected of them. There was no direction, except for when you did things wrong. Rather than being proactive, I lived in a world of constant reaction.

My entire first year teaching was the worst year of my teaching career. I was told that the team I would be working with was a great team to work with and that statement couldn’t have been farther away from the truth. To put it lightly, I was thrown to the wolves. I came to the point in that first year, where I didn’t ask anyone for/about anything, because I knew that I was nothing but an ambitious pest to my teaching partners. I was set up for failure TIME and TIME again by this “team.”. At the end of the year, I was certain I wouldn’t be asked back. When I was told, “We’ll try this one more year,” by my principal, I was relieved for my job and terrified to work another year with those people.

Looking Back, there were so many things that I could/should have said/done or approached differently. I SHOULD have managed myself better, but, like most of you new BURN-IN’s, I came into my new job with the triumph of the Titanic. I could conquer anything AND everything all at once. My ideas and intentions, fully outweighed any of the abilities that I had yet to improve.

ALL OF THESE THINGS THAT YOU JUST READ LED ME DOWN THE BURNED-OUT PATH BEFORE I REALLY HAD A CHANCE TO CHOOSE A PATH.

PUTTING FIRST THINGS FIRST would have helped me to be more successful that first year. I should have:

• focused more on teaching in my classroom, instead of worrying about my lack of relationships and asked “What can I control in my own classroom?”
• planned ahead better, instead of day-by-day and asked “Where am I going with this?”
• set up a system of reflection for myself and asked “What didn’t work today? What can I do better tomorrow?”

In addition to all of this, there were no curriculum maps, no plans, and (obviously) no one that was willing to help steer me in the right direction. I had to learn the hard way time after time. Luckily, I learned from my mistakes and mostly kept my head down for a lot of years.

Putting First Things First as a teacher is all about knowing what is important this hour, this day, this week, and this month. That all starts in a corporation and building that is, FIRST, willing to set your expectations up for you and then willing to HELP you if you aren’t meeting those expectations. If I wouldn’t have gone through what I did my first 8 years, I wouldn’t realize how sweet it is to work in a place that tells me their expectations had I not had those experiences before.

The goal of schools today is to teach to the high standards that are put in front of them. Whether it be Common Core or not. You know already that you have standards to teach. Be GRATEFUL if you have a curriculum map. The alternative is constant guessing and stress about whether you have met all of the standards or not. With all of the other responsibilities that we have as educators, we should FIRST be set up for success with a clear direction.

Here are 5 questions I asked myself when I began to put first things first:

1. What is draining the life out of me at school or in my classroom?
1. These are the things that you should put FIRST on your list of things to fix. TYPICALLY, for me, these are the things that I used to spend the least amount of time on because I couldn’t stand to think about them.
2. What is going REALLY well?
1. These are the things that you need to put on the BOTTOM of your “To Do” list. They are obviously things that you have spent time on in the past and have worked out a good system for.
3. Are there any BETTER ways to do this?
1. For example, I used to take 3 binders of data, a notebook to take notes, my computer and my iPad to meetings. Now I take my computer, because I created a system that works for me where all of my data and notes are together in one place! It’s GREAT!
4. What can I ASK SOMEONE else to either look up for me or help me with?
1. Hopefully, there is someone in your building that is willing to help you to feel more successful. If you don’t have someone OR they are equally struggling, then maybe you need to go to Sunday’s post and read about BEING PROACTIVE.
5. Last but not least, What can I get rid of?
1. These things could be physical or digital things. Teachers can be hoarders by nature, thinking that they will use something again that they used 3-4 years ago and never do. If you haven’t used it this school year, PITCH IT OR DELETE IT. That clutter can bog you down, leading you to feel even more overwhelmed than you already are.

There you have it! Take some serious time to consider these questions. Comment below and let me know what you are putting FIRST to either STAY or BECOME BURNED-IN!!!

BURN ON!

3 Things I Changed When I Burned Out Again: Part 2 of I Was Burned Out

Have you ever heard of a little boat called the Titanic? Of course you have. It started out as a triumph. Big, beautiful, unsinkable. And then it sank. On its first trip. The captain and its crew, as well as the passengers, thought it was invincible. It could take on anything. That ship could do it all. That's what I thought I could do when I graduated college.

Now, I am no history buff and I certainly don't know all of the facts about the Titanic or the sinking of the ship, but I saw Titanic in the theater when I was 15 and that makes me expert enough for today's post.

My point in using the Titanic as a metaphor today is that I want you to visualize yourself as the ship. (You knew that was coming.) But my other comparisons may surprise you. The captain and crew? They are your intentions. The passengers? Your abilities. We, as teachers, start out believing that we can do anything. Our crew is good. Our passengers trust our crew, just as our abilities trust our intentions. Our passengers believe whatever the crew tells them. Even if that crew is dead wrong or even LYING  to them.

As teachers, our intentions are always good, but we consistently overestimate our human abilities. I waited until my 8 1/2 year mark to jump ship. (Pun intended.) But...  water-logged, I climbed back in. Luckily, my crew and passengers didn't all perish, but they were badly injured.

I sobbed when I applied for teaching positions after we all lost our jobs at the non-profit. Even after I accepted my current position, I had to take a drive to sob some more. I couldn't believe that I was going back. I didn't sleep, because I was already stressing out about all of the things that I knew would be asked of me as an educator. And because I was a twinge excited. As teachers do, I began planning my room set-up in my mind, and what my day would look like. My personality lends itself to want to be the best and my intentions CONSISTENTLY outweigh my abilities. In August, I went all in just as I knew I would and by October, my ship started sinking again.

Around October, I was seriously struggling. I loved my school. I loved my kids. My teaching partner was phenomenal and my administration was supportive and pleasant to be around. So what was my PROBLEM? I was falling into what I KNEW school to be from my previous experience, not what it actually was for me now. I had been staying up late grading and planning, talking negatively at home about anything that I could knit-pick at, and I surely wasn't happy about the time that my principal gave me feedback on my evaluation that was less than perfect. I couldn't get through a conversation with him without crying. One day, after leaving school crying AGAIN, it hit me. My problem was ME. I was sinking my own ship! My passengers didn't believe in my crew, and even my crew didn't believe in my ship. So the ship just stopped. That's when I realized that I was doing three things incredibly wrong:

1. I didn't have an end in mind. Stephen Covey says in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People to think of your funeral. What would you want people to say about you there? Did I want these nice people who barely knew me to say that I was a negative, over-worked, crybaby? Hell no! I turned off the negativity and took action. If I think negative thoughts(which isn't often), I just don't say anything at all. In fact, I don't say much anymore unless I am asked, because who was I in the first place to not just sit back and shut my mouth, listen, and learn from people who had been there for years and were still loving their job?

2. I was not working smart ENOUGH. I mean, my partner and I worked well together and we got along incredibly. But I was still making A LOT of extra work for myself. I had technology tools that I wasn't trying to make work for me and questions that I wasn't asking. I'm lucky to work in a school that clearly lays out their expectations and resources. So, I used my resources, and I asked questions. My work load cut down significantly, and I have this blog to prove it.

3. I made time a commodity. I know how important it is to be part of a school community. I value my principal who makes this number one in our school. I am lucky to be part of this community, but I had to remind myself that this was my job, not my home. I was getting to school at 7:15 and not leaving until 5:30 most nights. Then, I would go home, rush my kids to bed and then work until 11:00. I came in on the weekend and worked again those nights too. Sound familiar? I almost NEVER bring work home with me anymore. It can wait until tomorrow. Or Monday.

The end I have in mind for me is to be someone who came to work, made kids' days fun and productive, was nice to my coworkers, helped when I could, listened carefully without panicking, and was pleasant to work with. What's your END?

If you have never read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, then you are seriously missing out on some soul-searching awesomeness. This book really did change my life. There are also some great summaries out there on the www, if you want the short version of the book!

Comment below or email me at support@burnedinteacher.com and tell me what your "End in Mind" is. What do you WANT your coworkers to say about you? What steps are you willing to take to get to that end?

BURN ON!