Teacher Wellbeing

Wellbeing Champions Meetups are happening this week for anyone who feels like they are the 'wellbeing person' at their school or who cares a lot about staff wellbeing at work (hint: if you're listening to this podcast, that's probably you!) You are invited to this virtual networking event to Connect with others like you from around Australia: go to 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 conversation in your staffroom. Links mentioned in this episode: •Sign up to The Advocate Newsletter http://eepurl.com/dqyp2n •Book a Free Discovery Call https://selfcareforteachers.as.me/?appointmentType=5675726 •The Freebies Library at www.selfcareforteachers.com.au/library •Cultivating Extraordinary Wellbeing Video Training www.selfcareforteachers.com.au/cultivating •Wellbeing Champions Meetup www.selfcareforteachers.com.au/wellbeingchampion •School Staff Wellbeing & Resilience Sessions: taking bookings for 2021 now! Email hello@selfcareforteachers.com.au •

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 selfcareforteachers.com.au/library I recommend doing that soon too because when you sign up for the Freebies Library you also get to then receive 'The Advocate' which is the Self-Care for Teachers newsletter. I have some exciting things coming up in the next few months and early 2021 and I'll be announcing them first to readers of The Advocate, and they'll also get some special early bird options too! Now this episode was recorded late 2019, so when Beth says 'last week she went to rural Victoria', it wasn't actually last week at the time of releasing this in November 2020! And as with Bek's episode a couple of weeks back, there will be no mention of the pandemic in this episode because when we recorded this it hadn't happened yet. Beth tells me that since the pandemic some of the writing programs have moved online. I believe the writing program for students in already online and others are coming soon. The best place to connect with Beth these days is on Instagram @write.away.with.me and there's a Facebook page to follow also. Quick reminder about the Wellbeing Champions Meetups happening in a few weeks time, on the 18th and 21st November. These are for anyone who feels like they are the 'wellbeing person' at their school or who cares a lot about staff wellbeing at work, and so if you're listening to this podcast, that's probably you! So you are invited to this virtual networking event to Connect with others like you from around Australia, go to selfcareforteachers.com.au/wellbeingchampion for more info. If you're listening to this after November 2020 go to that link anyway because there will be more of these events and details will be there. Resources mentioned in this episode: •Teaching with Fire: Poetry that Sustains the Courage to Teach, edited by Sam Intrator and Megan Scribner •Poems by Mary Oliver, including Wild Geese •Poems by David White •The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron •Eat Pray Love and Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

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 also use these with a buddy and coach each other. These are questions that I commonly ask my clients. This is not an exhaustive list of questions you can ask as part of coaching or self-coaching, and of course you don't need to ask all of these either-this is NOT an all or nothing activity. You might even just pick one or two of these questions that really feel like the best fit in the situation and just try them on for size. Some of the questions are in a set that help you look at a situation or topic from multiple angles and the questions go together in a series. There are no right or wrong answers here. This is an exercise is imagination and creativity, in self-discovery, self-awareness and . There's no perfection needed in the way you answer these questions. The way you answer them today might be different to how you answer them tomorrow and that's fine. These questions are about helping you get out of the regular habits of thinking that we often fall into, the stories that we tell ourselves, and the narratives that we're deciding and believing are true. However, these stories or narratives or beliefs are not necessarily reality or how other people involved perceive the situation. So by challenging our habits of thinking we're actually able to see more possibilities than we already can and perhaps to make better or different choices. Links mentioned in this episode: •The book 'The Dance of Anger' by Harriet Lerner •The Freebies Library at www.selfcareforteachers.com.au/library •Cultivating Extraordinary Wellbeing Video Training www.selfcareforteachers.com.au/cultivating •Wellbeing Champions Meetup www.selfcareforteachers.com.au/wellbeingchampion •School Staff Wellbeing & Resilience Sessions: taking bookings for 2021 now! Email hello@selfcareforteachers.com.au

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/cultivating •Wellbeing Champions Meetup www.selfcareforteachers.com.au/wellbeingchampion •School Staff Wellbeing & Resilience Sessions: taking bookings for 2021 now! Email hello@selfcareforteachers.com.au

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/cultivating •Wellbeing Champions Meetup www.selfcareforteachers.com.au/wellbeingchampion •School Staff Wellbeing & Resilience Sessions: taking bookings for 2021 now! Email hello@selfcareforteachers.com.au Episodes mentioned: •S04 E11 Three thinking Traps •S01 E18 Self-Care and Differentiation •S05 E07 The Other Side of the Wellbeing Equation Books mentioned: •7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey •The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown •The Dance of Anger by Harriet Lerner

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/library Enrolment 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!

Back in January I ran a free workshop series about Teacher Wellbeing and Resilience, with the subtitle "what ever teacher needs to know before the 2020 school year begins." Looking back on it now, I can't believe how prescient that actually was. So I'm running a replay of it this week for free, on Facebook! Enrolment 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!

You are almost at the end of the weirdest, most challenging term ever. Just in case you haven't paused to acknowledge yourself, take a moment to do so now. This last term has been the biggest disruption to Australia's education system in history. Twice. Across Australia, teachers have never worked harder or had to be more flexible, adaptable and cooperative in the face of some huge challenges and rapidly changing circumstances. Yet, here we are. Just a week or two left until holidays (depending where you are in Aus) and you did it. You have been an integral part of getting this nation through the health, social and economic crises that we are still in the midst of. Join me for this free live workshop series, screening on Facebook. If you can't make it when I go live, then you can watch the replay in the Facebook event. •Take The Australian Teacher Health and Wellbeing Survey: www.selfcareforteachers.com.au/survey •Sign up for the free Teacher Resilience and Wellbeing Workshop Series here: https://www.facebook.com/events/713958529378484/ •The next round of the Resilient Teacher coaching program begins in July so you can get on the waiting list at selfcareforteachers.com.au/resilientteacher Set aside some time in your calendar next week to invest in yourself and your wellbeing going forwards. Whether you join me for the free workshop series or not, please take some time this week to acknowledge all that you have accomplished this term. If you want to, raise it as a topic of shared reflection and celebration in the staff room or with your teacher buddies. Take a moment this week to be grateful to each other and to yourself for making it through this incredible term. This is one for the history books, and you have been a part of it. As always, remember you're a person first and a teacher second and you are SO worthy of your own care x.

In this episode I want to explore two myths that are sabotaging your health and wellbeing, and those are the ideas that health and wellbeing is binary and linear. Now, when I say myths, I'm not necessarily talking about mythology, as in The Greek Gods and Goddesses, Hercules and Zeus and Athena and Aphrodite. That's not what I mean. I'm talking about that other definition of myth, which is a widely held belief or idea that is actually a misconception. However, all myths have some truth to them, but to believe them literally is problematic. So, these two myths that I want to share with you today, about binary and linear health and wellbeing outcomes, are things that our culture, our Western Industrial culture really socialises or conditions us to believe as true. We have been taught for our whole lives that life, the world, relationships, health, everything, is binary and that it's linear. And it's not! Links mentioned in this episode: •The Australian Teacher Health and Wellbeing Survey: www.selfcareforteachers.com.au/survey •Waiting list for the Resilient Teacher Group Program: www.selfcareforteachers.com.au/resilientteacher •Get tickets for the Fatigue Resilience Masterclass on Sleep: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/fatigue-resilience-masterclass-4-sleep-tickets-104930172972 •Sign up for Replay Week of the Resilience & Wellbeing free Workshop Series: https://www.facebook.com/events/713958529378484/ •Results of the 2018 Survey: https://www.selfcareforteachers.com.au/twps04e03/ •Concept of Tilting

Support the podcast today via Pozible: https://www.pozible.com/project/teacher-wellbeing-podcast-season-6 This is a longer episode, and it's a really really fantastic teacher story. I also share my ongoing commitment to anti-racism work and unpacking my privilege as a teacher and a coach. There are just SO many learnings and I'm so grateful that Tina shared her story with us. Now, like many of my episodes this season, it was recorded before COVID so there's no mention of that at all, but we do talk about people pleasing, boundaries, the challenges of moving away from your support networks for a job, and the challenges and opportunities of living and working in a small town. The two big themes from this episode are around having a safe workplace, and taking care of physiological needs, that bottom level of Maslow's Hierarchy. So Tina shares her experience of being bullied at work, and how as an early career teacher she didn't necessarily know that that wasn't normal, and it was thanks to an older, wiser, more experienced colleague pointing out to her that that was what was happening that she was able to make some decisions about what was right for her. And running alongside that like I said was a whole lot of body messages that were really telling Tina to pay more attention to her basic physiological needs, but like so many of us, it took a diagnosis of a health condition for her to actually pay attention to those messages. We do focus on early career teachers in this episode because Tina is an early career teacher, but I know many aspects of the story will be familiar to people at all stages of life and career. As always, remember you're a person first and a teacher second and you are WORTHY of your own care. May you continue to look after yourself wholeheartedly this year, be a beacon of inspiration for others and an example to encourage your colleagues to do the same.

This interview is with Katrina Bourke of Katrina Bourke coaching, who you may remember from way back in Series 2. We talk about schools around Australia returning to on campus learning for all students, and the way that transition is playing out for teachers and leaders and school staff, and what we can do individually and collectively to support ourselves and each other during that transition and the challenges of the ongoing uncertainty around the way the school system and the COVID-19 crisis will continue to unfold. I really wanted to release this episode this week because I believe it's important, timely conversation for educators as schools navigate this current transition, which is happening right now. But before we get to that interview, I want to take a moment to pause and acknowledge something else happening right now. If you're listening to this episode at the time of its release, in the first week of June 2020, there are protests in the USA this week following the murder of George Floyd in police custody, which is following on from a long list of police brutality against BIPOC, black, indigenous and people of colour, and I want to acknowledge the hurt and trauma and injustice of that. To my US listeners, particularly African American listeners, I am thinking of you. Black lives matter. In Australia, it's also Reconciliation Week and we have our own black lives matter movement because we also police brutality here. According to the Guardian Australia's Deaths Inside project, there have been "at least 432 Aboriginal deaths in custody since the royal commission in 1991." If this is news to you, or even if it's not, I will put a couple of links in the description of this episode that I recommend you read for the Australian context of this, because it gets so little media or public attention here. I acknowledge and recognise the pain and trauma of this injustice for Aboriginal people here in Australia too. If you're following @selfcareforteachers on social media you may have seen that this week I am participating in the #amplifymelanatedvoiceschallenge, which is about centering the voices and lived experiences of folks of colour, so I'm not posting my own content on social media this week. I'm sharing the work of BIPOC teachers and leaders and content creators in my stories, and listening and learning, reflecting on my privilege and how I can unpack that going forwards. This isn't a one and done thing, it will be ongoing internal work for me and for all of us to unravel how society conditions us and what we allow to continue at the expense of black and indigenous lives. I want to say also that I don't need praise for this, it's not about me, and I'm not at all sure of the right response but I know that ignoring this and saying nothing would be wrong. I support the #blacklivesmatter movement, it is a matter of human rights. To my listeners who are white, I invite you to spend some time reading and learning about it, too. Start with the links below and then keep learning, and listening to the lived experiences of folks of colour. Links Ellen mentioned: •Amplify Melanated Voices Challenge by @jessicawilson.msrd and @blackandembodied •Guardian Article about Aboriginal Deaths in Custody •We must bear witness to black deaths in our own country by Amy McGuire •75 things white people can do for racial justice but...

In this episode, I interview Melissa, a teacher with a powerful story about taking back control and power and responsibility for own health and wellbeing. Contribute to the Crowdfunder for Season 6 here: https://www.pozible.com/project/teacher-wellbeing-podcast-season-6 I'd love to hear your questions and comments! All the details about how you can leave me a voicemail are here. Links mentioned in this episode: • The Pozible Crowdfunding campaign: pledge today! • Teacher Health and Wellbeing Survey coming soon: listen to the podcast episode about the 2018 survey results here. • Replay Week of the Teacher Wellbeing and Resilience Free Workshops: starts 29th June. It's free, sign up here. • Fatigue Resilience Masterclasses 3 on STRESS • Fatigue Resilience Masterclass 4 on SLEEP • Replays of Fatigue Resilience Masterclasses 1 and 2 can be purchased through the Pozible campaignDid I mention that you should pledge your support for the Pozible crowdfunding campaign for the Teacher Wellbeing Podcast today?

Hello everyone and welcome back to Season 6 of the Teacher Wellbeing Podcast! I'm so excited to be here and back on your airwaves and in your earbuds every week for the next 10 weeks at least. Today I'm excited to share with you the voicemails that I have received since I asked for listeners to call in and Leave me a voicemail for Season 6 of the Teacher Wellbeing Podcast answering this question: "Thinking back on your first year of teaching, what did you learn about staying healthy and cultivating wellbeing as a person and as a teacher? Put another way, what advice would you give your first-year teacher self about staying healthy and cultivating wellbeing as a teacher?" https://www.selfcareforteachers.com.au/voicemail Contribute to the Crowdfunder for Season 6 here: https://www.pozible.com/project/teacher-wellbeing-podcast-season-6 Dear listener, you can still call in and leave me your voicemails because I have loved hearing these answers: • You can ask a question that you'd like me to answer on the show • You can answer this reflective question of what do you wish you'd known in your first year or what advice you would give your first year self • And I'd love to hear from you about your experience in this pandemic. In particular I'd like to spark some reflection for you on what you have learned from this pandemic that you will take forward with you, what you have let go of and or what really matters. I'd love to hear your questions and or your answers and all the details about how you can leave me a voicemail here. Links mentioned in this episode: • The Pozible Crowdfunding campaign: pledge today! • Teacher Health and Wellbeing Survey coming soon: listen to the podcast episode about the 2018 survey results here. • Replay Week of the Teacher Wellbeing and Resilience Free Workshops: starts 29th June. It's free, sign up here. • Fatigue Resilience Masterclasses 3 on STRESS • Fatigue Resilience Masterclass 4 on SLEEP • Replays of Fatigue Resilience Masterclasses 1 and 2 can be purchased through the Pozible campaignDid I mention that you should pledge your support for the Pozible crowdfunding campaign for the Teacher Wellbeing Podcast today?