Improve Teacher Retention by Boosting Morale and Creating Positive Work Environments with Chief People Development Officer Dr. Christie McMullen
Dr. Lisa Hassler
Welcome to the brighter side of education. I'm your host, Dr. Lisa Hassler, here to enlighten and brighten the classrooms in America through focused conversation on important topics in education. In each episode, I discuss problems we as teachers and parents are facing and what people are doing in their communities to fix it. What are the variables, and how can we duplicate it to maximize student outcomes? In this episode, I focus on teacher attrition. What can administrators do to retain teachers? In 2021, the National Education Association NEA recommended districts make significant changes to reduce stress and improve morale in schools to avoid a great resignation.
Well, it's 2023, and I don't think many school districts listened. Teacher burnout is being felt around the country. Schools are facing teacher shortages, driving education leaders nationwide to find solutions that address the challenges of teacher burnout, retention and recruitment. However, educators don't need any more chair messages or casual Fridays. It's about support and autonomy. Decrease in morale is increasing. Feelings of demoralization while addressing the understaffing of schools to alleviate the current crisis is critical, that could be a short lived success without systemic changes. So what kind of systemic changes, you may be wondering, and how can an administrator play a key role in it?
Well, Dr. Christy McMullen is here with us today to discuss teacher burnout and how to make the work environment better. Christy was a high school science teacher, a high school assistant principal, and instructs master level students in educational leadership at National Lewis University. She is the Area Director for Avid and CEO and Chief People Development Officer of Aim. Analyze, improve and Move. Christy is also a bestselling author of the book Learning Can Stick, a guide to make every learning experience safe, logical, fun, and memorable. Welcome to the show, Christy.
Dr. Christie McMullen
Thank you, Lisa. I'm so excited to be here. Today is going to be a lot of fun.
Dr. Lisa Hassler
You always make things fun, so that's wonderful about you. Can you tell us about your background in education and how you got into people development?
Dr. Christie McMullen
Absolutely. So I'm a 24 year educator. However, I'm pretty sure I came out of the womb teaching people things. So as a child, I would line up my dolls, and my most favorite gift I ever got was a giant chalkboard that I got when I was like, five or six years old, and I would write on it, so I knew I wanted to be a teacher. That's something that was just kind of who I was. What I didn't realize is that my gift is actually in teaching adults. So what happened is I started out teaching high school science, taught all the different sciences, moved to Florida, and was asked to teach this class called Foundations of School Success was what we named it.
And Foundations of School Success was supposed to teach 9th graders to be good people and survive high school. I almost quit that year. It was terrible. There was no curriculum. They gave me 35 kids at a time for 90 minutes, and they said, here, teach them to be good people and to survive high school. And I was genuinely excited about that until I realized that it takes about nine weeks to truly get a group of teenagers to buy into you completely. And that was how long I had them for. So fast forward to the following year, and my principal came to me and said, christy, we have this really cool new thing called Avid that we would like you to teach.
And I said, do I have to teach 9th graders? And she said yes. And I said, no, thank you. Thank goodness they came back and they said, no, wait, you're going to get to pick your kids. It's going to be great. And honestly, it was the most challenging and wonderful thing I ever did. So I taught Avid, which is an advancement via individual determination. Essentially, it's an organization that helps educators get better at what they do so that students have options when they graduate. So I taught it for a couple of years, and then, because I had one whole year more experience than anybody else in the district, I became the district director, which was essentially I was in charge of the twelve schools that had Avid in Pinellas County.
And then fast forward another couple of years, actually about six. And I became an assistant principal over an Avid program. But ultimately, it was my job to make sure Avid became a thing. And it really is in Pinellas County, I think they're up to almost 60 schools that have it. And it's essentially getting people to be better at their jobs so that they feel equipped to teach every student. Right when we come out as educators, whether we went to school to be educators or not, we're not exactly filled with a bunch of ideas for how to really teach kids.
And that's what we do. We help make sure that teachers feel equipped to teach kids so that those kids have all the options in the world. So that's kind of my journey. So what happened when I switched from being in the classroom to being the district director is I started teaching teachers. And what I learned is that everything about me is made to teach adults. And I never would have thought that because I never had any intention of leaving the high school setting. So that's kind of my story, Lisa, in a long and roundabout way.
Dr. Lisa Hassler
Yeah, that's exciting. You know what I'd never heard of? Acid. And then I'm down here in Sarasota County. Are you guys in Sarasota County at all?
Dr. Christie McMullen
You are one of the very few that we don't have. That's why you haven't heard of it.
Dr. Lisa Hassler
We need it.
Dr. Christie McMullen
We were so close, and then you had to switch in superintendent. So we're working on it, but we're in Manatee. We're in all of the districts around you, around us? Have you made it into Sarasota?
Dr. Lisa Hassler
It's a doughnut hole. We're just like, right, we're not, like, in it yet. Well, I think it would be great if you were, so that would hopefully then someone here listens to this and then finds a way to make that happen. I think that would be good for the teachers and the students. So now you conducted a study about allowing educators to learn from one another through classroom walkthroughs. Can you discuss the key takeaways from this study?
Dr. Christie McMullen
Yeah. So I had the honor and privilege of working with a grant that was in the middle of the state of Florida, Hardy's, Highland, and DeSoto's counties. And what we were supposed to do is play. I wonder what would happen if and while we were doing that, one of the main things that we had teachers do was watch each other teach and let them learn from one another. And what happened was kind of miraculous. Not surprising, though. I studied four schools, and in three of the schools, every teacher had a chance to walk each other's classrooms and just observe.
Right. They were just looking for, what do I see? What can I borrow? How did they do that? Strategy. Oh, my gosh, johnny acts like that in her room and not in my room. How do I do that? And so it opened dialogue for teachers to talk to each other, and that was all that was needed for these teachers to have enough confidence to try new things in their classroom, which was pretty much what I thought I would discover. But I had one school that the principal didn't tell the teachers why somebody was walking into their room, and she didn't tell the teachers that were doing the walking what they were looking for.
So everybody in the situation felt judged. The teachers that were being walked in on felt judged. The teachers that were doing the walking felt judged. And so the use of high yield strategies actually went down instead of up. And what that taught me as I was studying all of this was culture matters more than anything. It trumps everything. If teachers don't feel valued, appreciated, and supported, they're not going to try new things. But more importantly, they're not going to do the right thing for kids because they don't feel like they're capable of being successful. So if we start with our teachers and make sure that our teachers feel valued and appreciated, our students will also feel valued and appreciated, and then they will achieve.
Right. We're all about student achievement in education, but you can't get there without building relational capacity first.
Dr. Lisa Hassler
Yeah. And I think when you're talking about creating that climate for growth, how can administrators make their work environments better then for teachers and then ultimately the students?
Dr. Christie McMullen
So I use the motto, if you don't make work fun, people quit. And that's because we quit things that aren't fun, right? We don't go on a second date if the first date was miserable and we don't go back and see a movie a second time if the first time it was kind of a bummer. So the same is true at work. If we don't make work fun, people quit. And sometimes they don't actually quit quit. Although that's what we're seeing right now with an awful lot of teachers is they're literally saying, bye, I'm going to go do something else.
But they do check out, right? So I think about since we're in an educational space, the kid that puts his head down, he's putting his head down for a couple of different reasons, right? But a lot of times it's because he's bored and doesn't feel like he can contribute anything to the space. Teachers are exactly the same way. So you asked, how can administrators do a better job of creating a space where teachers want to be? You've got to make work fun. And fun isn't just you mentioned casual Fridays, right? Like, it's not just casual Fridays.
It's okay. You have this really significant gift of writing lesson plans. Let's leverage that and let you help your department write lesson plans because that's your gifting. Or you are so fantastic at collaborative structures. Could you please do a training for our staff on collaborative structures instead of it only coming from a few people and everybody else feels like, well, I don't know why I'm here, so why would I bother doing great? So the number one thing that an administrator can do to make work fun is to value their employees and make sure people feel equipped to do their jobs well.
Dr. Lisa Hassler
Excellent. Your book, Learning Can Stick serves as a guide to make every human interaction safe, logical, fun, and memorable. You offer help for people to reimagine their interactions. How do you get people to remember what you said?
Dr. Christie McMullen
I recognized over time that there is a formulaic way to set up space so people's minds will be open to learning. And so that's where safe, logical, fun, and memorable comes in. So when you think about safe, safe is learning people's names, is recognizing that it's okay to make mistakes. It's all about psychological safety, not about whether or not you're going to trip over a backpack. That's important too. But the safe has to be that people know this is a space where she cares about me, where I can try new things, where I can make mistakes, where I can do things.
And so whether that's a conversation with your child about what they should eat for breakfast or a major conversation with 600 people that you're training, safe comes first. Once somebody feels safe, they can learn from you. But then comes logical. And the logical piece is all about having a plan and sticking to the plan. But you can't be the only person who knows the plan. So frequently we will have a plan, and we'll say, okay, here's how I'm going to do things, and we do them that way. But the problem is that I know what I'm expecting.
I didn't bother to tell you, and by not telling you, you're wondering the whole time, okay, how long is this going to last and what's expected of me? And am I supposed to walk away with something? So the logical is about making sure that everybody in the situation knows what to expect and has an ability to be successful in that space. So, like, one of the things I do all the time is a one pager. A one pager is literally everything you need to know. It's kind of like what you sent me before this podcast right here's.
Everything you need to know and expect about what I'm going to ask you so that you can feel comfortable moving forward. But how often have we gone to a conference or sat in a learning environment and we had no idea where the person was going or how long it was going to take to get there or what was expected? And they're literally reading the PowerPoint slides to us. Yeah, that's not logical. So that's safe and logical. Lisa, what questions do you have about those two? Before I talk about fun and memorable.
Dr. Lisa Hassler
When you think about the logical, it reminds me of how when you're going to teach a class, you always tell them the objective. This is what we're learning today, this is why we're learning it, and this is what I expect. This is the outcome. So we're going to have a quiz, so I want you to be taking notes on this. We're going to do a project. So I want you to be thinking about what kind of ideas you want to be sparked or inspired to be doing, but you always tell them what you're going to be doing with it.
And I think that that's very true with teachers as well. Not just in the professional development, but also for expectations for their learning environment or expectations for hey, listen, this quarter or this year, we're focusing on these things from an administrative perspective is something to be considering is how do we have that logical piece for our teachers to have that buy in and that they're excited about that plan, and then they can actually be a contributing force to that as well. And then when I was thinking about when you were talking about the head on the desk for the child and how teachers are not only leaving the field by physically leaving the field, but also this quiet quitting that we're hearing a lot about where people are like, you know what? I'm drawing the boundaries.
Like, I've got to have lines in the sand now. I can't be at someone's beck and call on the weekends and at night. And we allowed ourselves to do that with emails and texting and these group threads that were on. And teachers are feeling that "I can't disengage and balance my own home life as I used to be able to maybe 20 years ago, 15 years ago, when it wasn't an expectation," and then we allowed those lines to become blurry. And then in some cases, administrators also have that expectation that "if I'm doing it, then you're doing it."
And so that quiet, quitting part of it is a mental health. Like, I just have to have that boundary. But also, like, you're saying, like, the head on the desk for the child. I think teachers are feeling that, too, where it's like, either "I don't have the buy in or I'm just overwhelmed and exhausted. I don't really know how I fit into this."
Dr. Christie McMullen
Yeah, so you said a couple of different things, and it makes me want to go in lots of different directions, but I'm going to focus myself for a second and back up to why logical is so important to us as humans. So Brene Brown doesn't know that she's my bestie, but she's one of my besties. And she says that everybody has a movie script playing in their head all the time, and we don't bother to give the other actors and actresses the script, but then we get really upset with them when they do not act as they are supposed to in the script. So when I think about administrators with their teachers, they have all these assumptions going on in their head about how this discipline plan is going to roll out or how it's going to play out in your classroom or what lesson plan should look like.
But they haven't handed the teachers the script. Now, the teachers want to be good at their acting job, right? They want to be excellent, but they can't because they have no idea what the target is. So if we were kind and gave people the script and said, here are the expectations, here's how you can make an A if you will, right. How you can be successful, then they can be successful. But until we hand it to them, they can't. So that's that logical piece. And then I also think about my son. So I have twins. They're 22, Jackson and Chloe.
And they're brilliant and wonderful. And this is a snapshot into Jackson's world. But Jackson might be one of the smartest humans I know, and yet school has never been the place where that manifests. It is because he's a truly gifted kid, right? Both of my kids tested gifted in kindergarten. Great. But his giftedness equals "if I don't know the answer, I feel stupid." And so if he didn't know where to turn something in, right, if the teacher didn't have a logical plan for where things went, he just wouldn't turn it in. He would have done the assignment, but rather than ask and look stupid, he would just simply not turn it in.
Well, that obviously doesn't work real well in an educational setting. But how often does that happen, that you have students who simply don't want to appear stupid, so they just don't try because it would involve asking, well, guess what? Those kids grow up and become adults, and those are the teachers in your building who want to appear smart to you and don't want to ask, where do I put the IEP after I complete it? So they complete it, but they don't turn it in. So that's that logical piece is you have to give people the script so that they can be successful in your space, whatever your space is.
Okay? So let's talk fun and memorable. Does that sound good?
Dr. Lisa Hassler
Yes.
Dr. Christie McMullen
Okay, so safe and logical lead to fun and memorable. And fun does mean wide open laughter, right? That's important. But fun is also feeling valued and appreciated. It is fun to know your talents are being used. It is fun to know that you're well equipped to do your job. It is also fun to laugh out loud. It is fun to have a happy hour every once in a while. But fun looks different to everyone. And yet there are some commonalities, and those commonalities involve the dopamine that's released in your brain because of it. So when I say fun, I really mean that.
If administrators want teachers to stay and not quit, if you want to have a good conversation with somebody and let them want to keep talking to you, you have to make it fun, because our brain only fires neurons when there's some sort of emotion tied to what we're doing. So whether that emotion is positive or negative, we're going to remember those events much more clearly than we remember the events where there was zero emotion. So how often do you have classrooms or faculty meetings? Let's go with that. Faculty meetings that evoke zero emotion, right? People are bored out of their minds.
They're texting on their phones. They're not paying any attention because you didn't make my neurons fire. So what can you do to make it fun? I literally give scratch and sniff stickers to adults. Like, actual these smell like caramel. Scratch and sniff stickers have been a staple in my world for the last 17 years. And the idea behind the scratch and sniff sticker is it's fun, right? It evokes emotion. It makes people go, oh, I don't remember the last time I got a sticker. How fun is that? And I have seen grown people with lanyards sniffing the end of the lanyard that has a sticker on it.
And it works in every industry, and it works like it just works because it's fun. Music is fun. Making sure that people know that their voices are heard is fun. So you have to be fun. Fun isn't silly. Fun is important so that people's neurons will fire and they'll actually remember things, which leads into memorable. So the memorable part is the part that we frequently forget to do and yet can't be successful without. And I use the phrase sprinkle, splash, flood, drip, drip, drip when I talk about memorable. So you have to spiral whatever it is that you want people to know.
But here's what happens, right? And since we're talking about administrators and how administrators can do a better job of keeping their teachers, I'm going to use this example. So here's the discipline plan. Today's August 15, and we're going to go over the discipline plan. Here's the discipline plan, step by step by step by step by step. All right, go implement it. Right? August 15. It is now September 30, and I've had my first infraction, and I have zero clue what the discipline plan is supposed to be because I haven't had to work with it for six months, right?
So sprinkle, splash, flood, drip, drip, drip. Works like this. All right, august 1. Hey, on the August 15 meeting, we're going to talk about the discipline plan. Here it is. And just look over it. All I'm asking is that you look over it ahead of time. The preview to the movie The Flood is August 15 when we talk about the discipline plan. And you work with the discipline plan, and you get into groups, and you figure out what it's going to look like. But the part we forget to do is the drip, drip, drip. So we live in Florida, right, where when it rains, it really means it.
So after a flood of water, most of that water is lost in runoff. Well, most of the information in a flood is also lost in runoff, unless you drip, drip, drip off the trees afterwards. So the drip, drip, drip is the follow up email that says, okay, so here's your copy of the discipline plan. Be sure to post it in your room. And then three weeks later hey, how's that going? Do you have any questions? Another the next faculty meeting. Hey, we're just going to brush on this. Look it back over where do you have concerns?
Because when you meet it on September 30, that information is now in your head versus I told you that on August 15. I don't know what your problem is. You should know it, right? So that's how you make things memorable, is you make sure that you spiral the understanding so that it is not a one and done, because one and done doesn't work.
Dr. Lisa Hassler
No, it doesn't. I was thinking about the scratch and sniff, which is I don't want to say it's off topic, but it kind of is
Dr. Christie McMullen
No It's on topic.
Dr. Lisa Hassler
So when I taught first grade, I did the scratch and sniff, right? And then I raised it to another level. I actually got, like, the lip balms that are the different scents. They're, like, really strong. And then I was like, all right. So what I did is I called them smellies and instead of giving them a scratch and sniff sticker, I rubbed a little bit on their hand okay, the top of their hand.
So I would just pull one out if I had a little apron, like a little Magic Bus thing, and I'd pull it out, and I'd be like, "I don't know what this one is." And I covered them all so they never knew what scent it was. And then I would rub a little bit on, and then they would smell it, and they would try and guess it. "This is root beer!, or, oh, This is strawberry! Right?" And it became more fun that way. And they were really excited to get a smelly. It's just something fun and that, oh, you did such a good job.
Here's a smelly. And so then...
Dr. Christie McMullen
Grown people get just as excited as roasting. I'm not kidding. And I can prove it. I have seen it happen. You think it's something for littles no, I disagree. It is all ages
Dr. Lisa Hassler
Well, I had this one kid who had this red nose. It was everything all over his nose. Red all over. And I was like, "oh, what has happened to you?" And they're like, yeah, "he brought his own smelly." "I'm like whoa, whoa, whoa. You just don't bring your own smellies to school." So then what he was doing is he got, like, one really big one, like of like a cherry or something, and rubbed it all over his hand, and then rubbed the nose so close to the hand that the chapstick got all over his nose. Then he would always have this smell.
Yeah, it went crazy. And I'll tell you, I was just at Publix shopping yesterday. They have this, like a little end cap thing of I don't even know what it was. All I know is that you could smell them and you pushed these little things. And here I was, like, rubbing my nose up to it, trying to smell it, you know, and my husband was like, are you "Really lisa, are you smelling right now? Are you getting that close to the smelly thing?" I said "Yes, I am. There's two, and I want to smell each of them very well."
So there's something about scents that gets people excited.
Dr. Christie McMullen
It hits a different part of your brain. It brings in additional experiences. And typically with the adults. Like, I never in my wildest dreams would have thought that stickers work the way they do with adults, but I've now done it truly, in probably 20 different industries. So not just with teachers. I really thought, okay, of course it works with teachers, because teachers just think they'd like real estate agents, mortgage brokers, medical workers, doctors, all different industries. What it is, is it brings you back to a point in your life where you had a different memory, right?
So it might be a particular smell. So what I usually do is I fan the stickers out, and I say, all right, would you like blueberry peppermint or popcorn, and it's instant how fast people will pick something most of the time, unless I have, like, a whole bunch of fruity scents and somebody's like and I'm like, all right, how about peppermint? And I'll go, oh, yeah, that's what I want. So it is very instinctual, the thing that it brings you back to. And then every time I give it, somebody will say, I remember my first grade teacher, or I remember my I used to have this thing, or I had a sticker book or whatever, and it truly triggers something in your mind.
So my favorite story has to do with this CEO in the medical industry. And this gentleman carried himself like a CEO. He just looked down his nose at me like, I could tell that he thought, who is this woman and why is she here? Right? Because he didn't know who I was yet. So I did exactly what I always do. Hey, would you like blueberry peppermint or popcorn? And he goes, they smell. Yes, they do. He goes, I don't want one. And I'm like, okay, that's totally fine. Now, I can truly count on one hand the number of times that somebody has said, no, thank you.
Like, truly, middle school kids kind of struggle every once in a while because I think they're too cool for school. But in the adult spectrum, literally one hand number of times. So I didn't get offended by it. I went on about my business, and I'm in the middle of doing my session, and in my session, I talk about safe, logical, fun, and memorable, and I'm giving out stickers if people contribute to anything. So I said, oh, we've switched to orange scented stickers, sticker, sticker, sticker, sticker, sticker. I'm done with my session, and I'm out in the hallway, and I watch this giant CEO gentleman run to me, like, what is happening right now?
I'm like hi. And he said, you said something about an orange scented sticker? And I said yes. He said, I want one of those.
Dr. Lisa Hassler
Okay.
Dr. Christie McMullen
So it was a couple of things he hadn't bought into me yet, right? And that goes all the way back to safe. If as administrators, we don't make it safe for somebody to ask for something or to give somebody something, and they know it's just to give them something and there's nothing expected in return, then people, especially adults, are going to kind of I'm not sure about you, right? Because by nature, we need to know why before we can fully commit to whatever it is. Which is another key to being a great administrator, is if your teachers understand why you are expecting them to do certain things, they'll be okay.
If they don't understand why, forget it. So this guy didn't know why he should get a sticker from me. He also didn't fully know that he wasn't going to feel silly, stupid, whatever by having. This sticker until he realized, oh, no, wait, I want one of those. So the thing that I would make sure that administrators here, if they're listening to this, is really thinking about how can I create an environment where people know that I'm in it for them and that I'm going to take care of them and I'm not here to harm them and everything I do is for their good.
They'll do anything for you until that happens. They will struggle to buy into you, but once it happens, it'll be hard to get rid of them.
Dr. Lisa Hassler
And I think it goes into your work at AIM to improve employee satisfaction, productivity, engagement, accountability, and retention and how others can do it. And so can you talk a little bit about what you're doing at AIM?
Dr. Christie McMullen
Yeah, so educator, 24 years. Right? But what I realized is that what I do transcends other industries. So I created AIM as an organization to help companies figure out how to better get their point across and keep their employees. Because if employees feel equipped to do their jobs, they'll stick around, especially if they feel like they're contributing to the greater good. So the way that AIM works is we come in and we first analyze your current systems. What are you doing well, and where could you use some work? Right? Because the number one thing, when you aim, you have to be aiming at something, right?
So you're trying to hit a target. But so frequently we don't set targets. We just say, I want to do this thing, and this thing is arbitrary. I want to be good at my job. Okay, great, but what does good look like and how do you define it and what are your measurables on that? So once you've set your target, then you can aim, and that's where the analyze what are you doing well? What are you doing not well starts then the improve is really looking at those human interactions and thinking about are they safe, logical, fun and memorable?
Like, I can come in and do a psychological safety analysis of your team and say, where are you crushing it and where is it crushing you? And how can you use the bright spots over here to shine light on the stuff that's not going so well? So the improve is where safe, logical, fun, and memorable takes shape and people change practice. But here's the problem. In any industry, I don't care what the industry is. You can analyze things to death, you can talk about how to improve them, but if you don't move towards doing something different, if you don't change practice, nothing shifts.
And the number one reason why you would analyze and improve is to make positive change. So the move part is where I come alongside you. We work together and we say, okay, in a month, I'm going to check in. I just did this for Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina, and I met with all of their sales team, and we talked about how to change their presentations so that they're safe, logical, fun, and memorable. But if I had stopped there, nothing would have changed. Instead, I'm meeting with them six weeks after the original experience to say, what did you do?
How does it look different? Show me your presentations. What happened since we spent this time together? Because if you don't move and practice the move, you will go back to whatever you had done before. Because by nature, we just get stuck. We do what feels comfortable, even though we know it's not effective. So that's how aim works. And we just help organizations make work fun so people don't quit.
Dr. Lisa Hassler
So that follow up, that's important. But also that's your sprinkle, sprinkle, sprinkle.
Dr. Christie McMullen
Right.
Dr. Lisa Hassler
It's like you're coming back.
Dr. Christie McMullen
Absolutely, yes.
Dr. Lisa Hassler
Okay, so what is teacher burnout, and then how can teachers avoid or heal from it?
Dr. Christie McMullen
So I think burnout, period, teacher or otherwise, is repeatedly feeling unvalued and ill equipped. Right. So I think teachers get burnout when they, A, don't feel like anybody sees the hard work that they're putting in, and B, they don't feel like their hard work is fruitful. So nobody wakes up in the morning and says, I'm going to be terrible at my job. Today's the day. I think a lot of people feel that way on the regular because they don't have the right tools in their tool belt. So if you have ever tried to do something that requires an Allen wrench without an Allen wrench, you know how frustrating it is to not have the right tool.
Dr. Lisa Hassler
Right.
Dr. Christie McMullen
But I think teachers frequently are hammering a nail with a shoe because it's all they have, and eventually the nail will go into the wall, but it's going to be scuffed and messed up and bent. It's going to get there, but you probably broke the shoe in the process. And yet we desperately need the hammer. We've got to hand people the hammer, show them how to use it, and then check to see that they're using it. Teachers get burned out and say things don't work because they tried them once with their first period, and it didn't work because that was the first time they'd ever done it.
And they said, forget it. I'm never doing it again. It takes 18 times of doing something in front of others to master it. So you have to do it first period and second period and third period all the way through the day for several days in a row before you've mastered it. Now, we have all experienced any teacher who's taught for more than a minute and a half knows that your first period lesson and your six period lesson look totally different. They do. They're easily 15 minutes faster and efficient and wonderful and great. And so first to six period, six times, you've improved dramatically.
But by 18, you're a master. So I think what happens for teachers, your question was how do you avoid the burnout? Or what happens when they burn out is they don't give themselves enough grace to try something, enough times to be good at it. And the things that they have given themselves grace on, they're pretty excellent at, but they don't think about those things because they're feeling ineffective at these things. And if administrators don't know that it's supposed to take 18 times, then they might be the reason that the teachers are discouraged because they watch them do it the first time and go, what was that?
Don't do that. That was terrible. So I think the reason teachers are burnout is they are underappreciated, period. Right? And I guess what I mean by that is until you've done it, you don't know the level of stress, intensity and measure you have to put into a great lesson. But I like to say you have to choose your hard. So it is really hard to have no discipline in your classroom. It is really hard to have discipline in your classroom. You have to choose your hard. So as an administrator, it is hard to be in classrooms and do walk throughs on a regular basis.
It is hard not to know what's going on in your classrooms. So choose your hard. And I think, again, if we're talking about burnout, it's about choosing your hard and then finding the fruits of your labor. When you choose the hard, that is going to be fruitful. Does that make sense, Lisa?
Dr. Lisa Hassler
Yes, it does. It's excellent advice. As we wrap up, can you leave our listeners with any parting advice?
Dr. Christie McMullen
I think my latest phrase that I think every educator, regardless of level, whether you're a leader, teacher, leader, leader by title, leader by trade, or leader in your classroom, is you have to trust the process so things don't happen overnight. And like I just said, 18 times, you have to do something. So if you think it's going to go perfectly the first time, you're unfortunately being just a little delusional. It might be okay the first time, but it's going to be fantastic soon. So trust the process. That's my parting advice is to trust the process.
Dr. Lisa Hassler
Well, I just want to comment on that. You are my 18th episode
Dr. Christie McMullen
and you crushed it!
Dr. Lisa Hassler
So, Look at this. 18 times!
Dr. Christie McMullen
18 times of doing something means that you've mastered it and you have been masterful. You were so thoughtful during beforehand, like just all the way through. Well done, Lisa.
Dr. Lisa Hassler
I think that's pretty special. So I'm always going to remember that, connected with you, and with this. It's kind of amazing. So there's always a reason why things happen the way they do. And so look at that. You were brought to me for my 18th episode to let me know that 18 is when the master comes,
Dr. Christie McMullen
When the magic happens.
Dr. Lisa Hassler
Fantastic.
Dr. Christie McMullen
I love it.
Dr. Lisa Hassler
Thank you. Well, thank you for joining me today to discuss ways to improve teacher retention by boosting morale and creating positive work environments. To learn more about Dr. McMullen and AIM, you can go to www.aimwithus.com and subscribe to her weekly newsletter. I did and it's wonderful, by the way.It's really good.
Dr. Christie McMullen
Thank you!
Dr. Lisa Hassler
The call to action is to get serious about teacher burnout and shortages. Districts need to make significant changes to reduce stress, improve morale, and create positive work environments in schools. If you have a story about what's working in your schools that you'd like to share, you can email me at drlisarichardsonhassler@gmail.com or visit my website at www.drlisarhassler.com and send me a message. If you like this podcast, subscribe and tell a friend. The more people that know, the bigger impact it will have. If you find value to the content in this podcast, consider becoming a supporter by clicking on the supporter link in the show.
Notes. It is the mission of this podcast to shine light on the good in education so that it spreads affecting positive change. So let's keep working together to find solutions that focus on our children's success.