Ep 114 — What If The School Day Is Quietly Keeping You Well? with Christine & Tammy

Teaching can drain you and it can also quietly support your well-being. To close out Season 6, we focus on the parts of school life that are genuinely good for us, the benefits we forget when we’re tired, stressed, or deep in the messy middle of the year.

We start with the simplest one: movement. While many jobs keep people sitting all day, educators are up, down, walking, lifting, pivoting, and constantly changing spaces. We talk about why that matters for energy, mental clarity, and long-term health, and how noticing your built-in activity can shift the way you think about teacher wellness and sustainable work.

Then we dig into connection and meaning. Schools are social ecosystems, full of micro-interactions and real relationships with colleagues and students, which can be a powerful counterweight to loneliness. We also explore the multi-generational nature of school communities and how it sharpens communication, boosts mood, and keeps life interesting. Finally, we reflect on purpose, volunteering, adaptability, and the underrated gift of being a lifelong learner in a profession that never stands still.

This episode is sponsored by Plan Z Education Services, supporting educators with forward-thinking professional learning that puts both student impact and teacher wellness at the center. If this conversation resonates, subscribe, share it with a colleague, and leave a review so more educators can find a simpler path to teaching and leading well.

Transcript

A Different Way To End The Season

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Welcome to the Minimalist Educator podcast, where the focus is on a less is more approach to education. Join your hosts, Christine Arnold and Tammy Musiowski, authors of The Minimalist Teacher and your school leadership edit, a minimalist approach to rethinking your school ecosystem, each week as they explore practical ways to simplify your work, sharpen your focus, and amplify what matters most so you can teach and lead with greater clarity, purpose, and joy.

SPEAKER_02 0:45

Welcome back, everybody. On this week's episode of the Minimalist Educator Podcast, we're going to be talking about something that maybe we forget every now and then, and that is the aspects of teaching that is actually really good for us. So we hope you enjoy this episode.

SPEAKER_03 1:03

Hello everyone, and welcome to this week's episode of the Minimalist Educator Podcast. Today, Christine and I are going to be talking about some of the really great things about teaching and what's good for us in our teaching roles. So, hello, Christine. This is a nice one. This is a nice one to wrap up season six for sure. So it is.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

I think, you know, a lot of what we talk about on our podcast with each other and with our guests is about how tough this job can be and what we can do to make it a little bit less tough. And so sometimes the conversation can be like, oh my goodness, we're we're tired, we're exhausted, we're burnt out, you know, we're struggling, we're stressed. So I think it is really nice to have a moment to go. Actually, there are elements of this profession that are really good for us and are actually making us healthy and it improving our well-being. So I think it's it's nice to take that moment to focus

Movement As A Built-In Wellness Tool

SPEAKER_02 2:10

on on that part.

SPEAKER_03 2:12

Yeah, I agree. There's definitely there's several things actually that are that are good for us. One of them would be that we move a lot. So if you're a teacher, especially, or working with kids, well, you know, so many roles. Like you are moving around all the time. So you don't really have the moment of, you know, kind of like we do when we might have a restful weekend where we actually like sit and chill. This is the complete opposite, which is great. It gets keeps the blood flowing, it helps our brains to get the oxygen it needs. I imagine that a lot of teachers get over. I mean, I know there's some new research around the 10,000 step situation per day, because that is a lot of steps. But as a teacher, you can really, or someone who works in a school, you can you can max out that 10,000 steps pretty easily, depending on how much you move in your classroom, how many times you have to move your kids around, all those kinds of things. So, how's that for you?

SPEAKER_02 3:27

Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think we've all heard about the health risks of being super sedentary. And, you know, I was just recently listening to this podcast. It was talking about all the health impacts of a modern life where people work in an office and they sit still all day, they go to a meeting, they're still sitting down, and then they go home and watch a screen or watch a little screen in front of a big screen, as many of us do. And we're just still so often, and it's just not what human bodies are meant to do. So whenever I hear those risks of being still for hours and hours on end, I I do actually feel quite grateful that I have a job where I am literally up and down stairs. I'm getting on the floor, I'm standing up again, I'm moving constantly. I think it it is one of a of a really good pluses to our work is that we we we don't just sit still all day. We are we are moving. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:31

Yeah, same. I remember especially in well, our school in Singapore that we were at together, my New York school, we had stairs. So like that that adds a lot, especially, you know, like you're taking kids outside, you're going to the library, you're going to down to the office, you're stepping out to grab something to eat. Like by the end of the day, your step counts like 12 to 15,000. You're like, okay, and my day is like it's 3 p.m. Like I still gotta get home, I still gotta move around in my own space. And yeah, I do I think that's helpful, especially when there, you know, there's a lot of days when you just arrive and you're already tired just because sometimes you don't get enough sleep or you didn't sleep well or something. And the movement actually helps that, you know, and even now, like when I wake up and I'm kind of like, ugh, kind of feeling a bit tired still, the movement helps. And that's why I like a morning walk because that gets my gets the blood flowing, it gets my brain a little primed for the day, and it just kind of pushes some of that tiredness to the side. So yeah, movement is a really good one. And I think it's we don't think about it honestly, like how much we do move during the day. It's a lot, it's a lot of it.

SPEAKER_02 5:56

It is a lot, yeah. Another really important plus, I think, is the

Loneliness And The Power Of School Community

SPEAKER_02 6:05

social aspect of being in a school environment. So, you know, there's a lot of commentary in the world at the moment about loneliness and how people feel really lonely and their missing connection to others. And I think just by the nature of the school, you have almost non-stop human connection during the day, whether it's with your other teachers or leadership or support staff, parents, but your students as well. And some of these can be little micro interactions where you're just passing someone in the hallway, but others can be really meaningful, lasting connections that you have with your colleagues and with your students as well. And so, you know, we we're not alone in our work and we're not isolated, you know, even if you do just stay in your classroom all day, uh you'll have your little people there in front of you as well. So that is that's another element of of teaching that is really positive for us.

SPEAKER_03 7:14

Yeah, I do think the importance too of socializing with different aged people too. So whether you're teaching like the little ones or high middle or high school age, it's a different kind of interaction or socializing that you have than with your c colleagues or your adult friends. And I I think that's it makes a person a little like more well-rounded because you can adapt to, you know, whoever you're conversing with. Just as we would if, you know, you're talking to like someone who's a doctor versus someone who's an engineer or whatever, you know, you have you have to have like different ways of communicating with people and kind of get get in not to someone's level, but kind of, right? Like, especially if you're like speaking to to little people and they don't have the same vocabulary necessarily, but you don't want to talk like down to them because you they're still people, but just matching where people are at with communications. And I feel like that's kind of a nice dynamic part of the job, too, is that different kinds of interactions with different people at different age groups. Because I mean, if you're around kids all the time, like if you're a stay-at-home parent, let's say, and all you interact with is your kids, you can you get like really tunneled into that sometimes, right? And then the adult interactions are if they're less, you don't have that same level of like cognitive matching almost, right? Where you can have like I'll say a proper conversation that like makes sense and has coherence, or at least we would hope. But we need all of that kind of socializing to to exercise our brains so that you know we don't deteriorate.

SPEAKER_02 9:11

That's so true. I hadn't even thought, I hadn't even thought about that multi-generational part of socializing at all, actually. You know, our school is a is a K-12. So we have four-year-olds on campus, we have 18-year-olds on campus, we have you know, student teachers that are at university still, and then we have teachers all the way through, up to you know, brand new teachers all the way up to about to retire teachers. So we literally can converse with people having completely different life experiences at any point of the day. That's a really good point. I hadn't even thought about that.

SPEAKER_03 9:44

Yeah, and like think of I don't know where else you would experience that. And what other job would you where would that happen? That's true. I don't think there is one. Right? Because everyone else would be an adult in some age range. Like sure, you would have, you know, when you're working with adults, you're gonna have generational differences or age ranges, but you don't go all the way down to your five-year-olds on the same place as someone who's retiring. Yeah, which is kind of interesting. That's pretty cool, actually. It is actually.

SPEAKER_02 10:19

I hadn't thought about that before, but that's true.

SPEAKER_03 10:21

Yeah. And with school or with learning being a social interaction, basically, right? Like learning is a social thing. It it can also be tiring as like someone who's somewhat introverted, but like drawing the energy from the people around you helps bring you out of that, I think, at least for me, right? Because like again, sometimes when you're just kind of like into your own mind before you get somewhere, because getting somewhere is usually the hardest part. But but then when you see the people around you, you feel like, okay, I'm ready to like talk to people and like I'm ready to to socialize with the people around me and I'm looking forward to it. And it does bring such a richness to your day that you would you just don't have when you're working on your own or with a smaller group of people, I think. Right. Because it's just it's ongoing all the time.

SPEAKER_02 11:20

Yeah, for sure. And I think yeah, what you're really tapping into there is is that it can be mood boosting being in school. We can actually have that shot of positivity and and energy that comes from working with others and and hopefully laughter and curiosity that that comes along with that. I know for me for sure, because I work with little people, I mean, the amount of crazy, hilarious things that they say and do in the course of a day, that is for sure a mood booster. So I think that that's another really good element as well, is that you can kind of feed on that positive energy in the school environment as well.

SPEAKER_03 12:06

Yeah, I agree. Yeah, some of the things that kids have said over the years, just like, you know, random things or just silly jokes that they have and silly things they do or the things they bring to school, like it's just so that you can't not laugh at it. And so it does, it does feel nice to be able to like think about those things and know, like, okay, what's gonna happen today that's going to just make me laugh and make me feel happy about being here. And also, like, this kind of ties back to you had mentioned before with the well, with socializing and creating friendships. Like you look forward to going to your school site to see some of those friends that you've created, right? Like your teacher friends. And so, like, yes, you have the friends that you might vent to, but you have the friends that you start socializing with outside of school, which is something that we have done, right? And we have mutual friends that we remain close with. And there's just those certain people that when you you look forward to because you know that they're gonna like you're excited to see them and they're gonna bring your mood up when you get there. If you're not, you know, you're not feeling that day or whatever. But it does help to have the people there that you know, like, oh, I'm excited to see Christine this morning because I, you know, I watched this crazy zombie movie I need to tell her about, or you know, something silly like that. Or just like the morning, the morning rituals that we had as a team too at our school, where we just got together in many times in my classroom in the morning and just sat together and chatted. And that was definitely such a nice uplift to to start the day, to just come in with our coffees and have a little bit of time together before we kind of got into our planning and and time with the kids. So yeah, great moments, lovely, lovely times with good friends and just, you know, sometimes it's that routine that you need.

SPEAKER_02 14:15

It is, it is, but I'm just thinking about all of all the you know research that they have out there about the importance of having friends at work, like literally having besties in the workplace is is gonna make you, you know, a more attentive worker and stay for longer in your position and try harder and things like that. So I think it's you know, we benefit from it, but it it's an all-around benefit, really, having friends at your work. And I definitely know, you know, I would say most, a lot, anyway. A lot of my best friends that I've had over my adult life have been teachers that I've worked with or studied with at uni and things like that. So yeah, yeah, definitely an upside for sure. I think another

Friendship At Work And Daily Mood Boosts

SPEAKER_02 15:05

one that when I talk to the friends of mine who are not teachers is they've reflected back to me that they admire that we have a a job that has such a clear purpose. So sometimes people in other professions they feel like, yeah, okay, I'm trained and I'm doing this job and and I'm capable and I'm earning a salary, but like, what does it all mean? What is the purpose of all of this? Right. And I think I think education is is one of those professions where it, I mean, it's obvious. It's obvious why we're doing the work that we're doing.

SPEAKER_03 15:44

Yeah. Yeah, I agree. That part is a definite because there isn't a person that I've met who's a teacher in a school who, regardless of if they're having a bit of a tough time, they're still like, but I want my kids to do well. I want the kids that I'm teaching to have a good experience. I want them to have fun. I want to have them be engaged in what we're doing. And that is so clear. Which, yeah, that's a such a good point. Like, do other people have, like, they know why they're doing the job they do, obviously. But what is the almost like the greater purpose of it? Right? For sure. Not to minimize other careers or anything like that.

SPEAKER_02 16:30

No, not at all. But I've definitely had conversations with people where they've kind of they've felt an absence of that. Like, yeah, yeah, it's a job, I can do it, I'm capable, and I earn money, but yeah, why? You know, and I think, you know, we've we've talked a b before about the icky guy, right? Where you've got all of these different elements that you need to think about and purpose, knowing what your purpose is, is a huge part of that life meaning. And so we've we've got that built into the work that we do.

SPEAKER_03 17:05

Yeah, and I think that often extends past the the school as well, because like, yes, we spend the time there and do those things, but then it draws us to other things like volunteering for like other organizations where you know, a lot of educators will be like, okay, well, I'm gonna be like our friend Michelle is works has a CASA kid who, you know, he needs like a mentor and someone to work with him and have someone that's a stable adult in his life. And so, you know, she does that, or like I used to volunteer a lot at the food bank in Singapore because that was a connection we had with our school. And then I was like, oh, I just really like, you know, going there and help, helping out in the warehouse, making sure that there's like food stocked up and all of that. Cause one of the things that I'm passionate about is like, well, for one, food waste, like that drives me crazy when we have to waste food, but also that, you know, there's so many families that just don't have money to buy food. And so I was just very drawn to that. And having worked in New York City with a lot of kids who often didn't have enough to eat at home. And so they would eat at school. That was just something that I wanted to spend my time doing. And I recently, though, because I've just been kind of split between places, I have found that that's coming back to me of where I'm like, oh, I haven't like volunteered my time to like help someone else out because I've been doing work, right? Or building the business. But I think I need to like find out how I can help at a food bank

Purpose Beyond The Paycheck

SPEAKER_03 18:50

or something. So like just connecting to that purpose of like, I just want to help other people, which is why we go into education, but just in a different avenue. So yeah, that's something that's been coming up for me actually. Yeah. Yeah. Gotta gotta figure it out. I'll figure it out soon enough. Soon enough. But that also, I guess that kind of leads into one of the other things that's a definite pro of being an educator is our ability to be adaptable. So no day is ever the same. So you can go into your day thinking you have your plan, but then something comes up and you've got to divert your course slightly. But that's a that's a that's a really important skill to be able to have and develop because we can be very inflexible sometimes, like just generally, it's oh generally it's people, you know?

SPEAKER_02 19:51

And I that one just like made me talk about the reaction to that one.

SPEAKER_03 19:56

Yeah. But like just in general, right? Like we can we can kind of resist change sometimes and we can be like, nope, this is just the way things are and this is how I do them. But if that's how we are in in our roles as an educator, we we we're just working against the system, right? Like well, I don't want to say the system as like big picture things, but just like your everyday systems, we have to adapt because we're talking about, you know, children and kids who don't have control of situations a lot of the time. And so it's us that has to be the person to like say, okay, yeah, let's just, you know, make this slight change in the schedule, or okay, that didn't work for you this time, we're gonna try this instead. So that's a that's a huge part of the job.

SPEAKER_02 20:47

Massive. You literally can never start your day knowing exactly what's gonna happen for that whole day. Yeah, which is there's something very cool about knowing that and still turning up and handling it. You know, so I mean when you're out and about in the world, if there's a problem, you do need to be able to, you know, think quickly, adapt, be flexible, solve that problem, you know, and and keep moving. And so I think you know, we we are all so well trained to be like that, you know. If you've got if you've got a project to work on, get a teacher involved. Come on now. You'll that'll get that done. They'll get it done.

SPEAKER_03 21:34

Yes, and have multiple options probably because yeah. But it'd be real cute as well.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:43

Right, yeah. And look, if you pull this tab, this pops out. I color coded it and everything. Yes, yeah, yeah, for sure. Very flexible, very adaptable, problem solving people for sure.

unknown 21:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:00

Which I think we should pride ourselves in because like I said, it's it's a skill that you know we c we can kind of push against in our regular lives. We're like, nope, I'm not about to know that. But you know why work against the grain? Right.

SPEAKER_02 22:19

Absolutely. And I think linked to that, connected to that is you know, we will probably never get bored. It's very difficult to have a boring day when you're working in education because there's always just so much of switching and changing and new ideas and new problems to solve and new things to overcome.

SPEAKER_03 22:48

And yeah, and personalities. And personalities, exactly. Yeah, yeah. It's just not ever boring, and you don't know what kind of thing someone is going to bring to you in the morning, like not physical thing. Well, maybe a physical thing.

Adaptability Keeps Life Interesting

SPEAKER_03 23:05

Yeah, could be a little worm, could be a little date dandelion, but it also could be like some something that happened at home. And you know, it could be a sad thing, a funny thing, something ridiculous. Like who knows? But yeah, there's there's a lot of memorable days from teaching, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 23:28

Yeah. It's one of my favorite things about being a middle leader is very frequently someone someone will come up to me and say, Can I ask you a question? And I have no idea where that question is going. Like anything could come, you know, it is it's really, you know, it's exciting. You don't know what's coming. Yes. Like, please tell me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:55

Exactly. That's fun. That's super fun. And it yeah, it does make your job fun. So if you don't have fun, then you know. I mean, it's not always fun. Yeah, it's not always fun. Let's be real, but it is a lot of fun most of the time.

SPEAKER_02 24:11

Do you know what I was just about to say, Tammy? I was so proud of us for making it through this episode of the benefits of teaching without going yes, but.

SPEAKER_03 24:21

I know, sorry. Delete.

SPEAKER_02 24:25

We almost made it. We almost made it.

SPEAKER_03 24:27

Yeah. Yeah. No, but it is it is a really fun field to be in. There's so much learning to do every day with people. And yeah, I that's probably one of my favorite things too. There's a lot of favorite things, you know, just like being with the people, the the humor that you can have, the jokes that you can make with people, the learning from each other, just getting to know people from different places or different backgrounds and just from different experiences is lots of fun. Just kind of like what we've been doing on the podcast when we have guests on and like just hearing different life experiences from our guests. It's kind of like that too. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, this is a nice little episode, Christine. What would you choose as your pear-down pointer for you know, thinking about the goodness of being an educator?

SPEAKER_02 25:29

Okay. Well, the thing that popped into my head is gonna sound a little treacly. Is that okay? Can I be a bit a bit treacly? I'm sighing, just thinking about what I'm gonna say. I'm sorry, everybody. No, I really, you know, I think being a lifelong learner is a really important and cool thing, and probably also

Pear-Down Pointers And Season Wrap

SPEAKER_02 25:55

really helps our brain as we age as well to keep learning new things. And I think being in education is such a rich profession for that. You know, education itself is always changing. There's always something new, some some new research that's come out, or some some a new way of doing things that that we're taking on board. But that community aspect as well means that you are always learning something as well. So yeah that I know it sounds very treatly, everybody, but yes, that aspect of lifelong learning for many reasons, I think is one of my favorite things. And the pear-down pointer, I think.

SPEAKER_03 26:35

Yeah, that's a good one. That's a really good one. I think mine would be, I mean, obviously I second that, but I think it's the you know, it's um super important to be open-minded so that we can remain adaptable, right? And flexible. Because if you're not, you're just gonna be grouchy pants, right? Like you're you're not gonna have fun, you're it's gonna feel negative. So just have that open mind to know that every day you go in there, it's a different day and things may not go as planned, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, right? Like just be open to adapting to whatever the change is, even though, you know, sometimes it it feels hard, but you just gotta do it and you can do it. So, you know, you've done it before. So just do it again. And yeah, just just stay open to that. So I think that's one of the the things that I would point out too. Thank you so much, Christine. This is a this is a nice way to wrap up our season six, which was a really successful season. We had a lot of milestones come up this season. So we did.

SPEAKER_02 27:48

We did.

SPEAKER_03 27:48

Um yeah, yeah, that's really awesome.

SPEAKER_02 27:50

We still have the highlights episode to officially wrap up the season, but no, it has been a fantastic, fantastic season of the podcast. Can't wait for season seven.

SPEAKER_03 28:01

Yeah, crazy season seven. Woo-hoo! Looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_02 28:07

This episode is sponsored by Plan Z Education Services, supporting educators with forward-thinking professional learning that puts both student impact and teacher wellness at the center. Driven by a vision to teach less, impact more, they help educators find purpose, prioritize what matters, and simplify their practice. Learn more at planzeducation.com.

SPEAKER_00 28:31

Thank you for listening to the Minimalist Educator Podcast. Join Christine and Tammy and guests again next time for more conversations about how to simplify and clarify the responsibilities and tasks in your role. If today's episode helped you rethink, reimagine, reduce, or realign something in your practice, share it in a comment or with a colleague. For resources and updates, visit plan zeducation.com and subscribe to receive weekly emails. Until next time, keep it simple and stay intentional.