Episode #5 Season 2: Nell Herrmann Interview- Be Well to Teach Well

Discover the transformative power of self-care for educators with insights from Dr. Becky, author of Good Inside. Learn how simple practices like deep breathing, staying hydrated, and meditating can significantly reduce stress and enhance your teaching effectiveness. Prioritize your well-being and gain practical tips on how to create a healthier work-life balance, ensuring you have the energy and calm needed both inside and outside the classroom. 

Join us for an enriching conversation with Nell Herrmann, a National Board Certified Teacher whose extraordinary career spans from Blue Hill, Maine to the icy terrains of Greenland and Antarctica, and the tropical waters of Belize and the Bahamas. Nell shares her inspiring journey and the invaluable lessons she learned along the way, offering actionable advice for implementing wellness practices in the demanding world of education. Don’t miss this opportunity to be inspired and motivated by her remarkable story and practical strategies for achieving a balanced, fulfilling life as a dedicated educator.

Thanks for listening!

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:20

This is Wellness for Educators, Episode 5, Wellness, Wednesday, September 4th 2024. You need to be well to teach well. That is the motto, Seeking a healthy balance. You matter and so does your health. There is life beyond the classroom. This is Wednesday and Episode 5 for Wellness for Educators. Dr Becky is the author of Good Inside. This is Wednesday and episode 5 for Wellness for Educators. Dr Becky is the author of Good Inside.

Speaker 1 0:47

This is a parenting book, but it has some helpful tools that can also address teachers as they navigate the ability to prioritize self-care. Remember we cannot pour energy into our students or our own children if we do not have energy to give. We cannot change externally until we have rewired internally. We have talked about deep breathing on previous episodes and I would encourage you to continue this practice. Think of deep breathing as the key to unlock where all coping strategies live. We want to lower stress levels and reduce blood pressure. Did you know that belly breathing stimulates your vagus nerve, which is the longest and most complex cranial nerve in the body? The vagus nerve is a main component of your parasympathetic nervous system or your rest and restore system. The opposite of your fight and flight. Simply, deep breathing activates our body's ability to calm down. Don't we all want to be calm?

Speaker 1 2:02

Self-care involves making and keeping promises to ourselves. Self-prioritize some time for yourself. Take simple steps to put your health at the top of the list. Can you drink a glass of water in the morning to start the hydration process? How about meditating for two minutes to start your day? Can you get up possibly five minutes earlier and actually drink your coffee when it's hot? Or drink your iced coffee before the ice melts?

Speaker 1 2:37

Sometimes, taking care of ourselves will depend on your ability to say no to others. Maybe you can practice this. No, that doesn't work for me. I appreciate you asking, but no, I am not free. It has only two letters. But no is a very powerful word and teachers have a tendency to say yes more often than they say no. If you prioritize your time, you may need to get better at saying no.

Speaker 1 3:14

Today, I have the honor of interviewing Nell Herman. She has a plethora of experiences, as well as so many achievements and accolades. Nell is a National Board Certified Teacher with 24 years of experience, and she currently teaches in Blue Hill, Maine. In 2009, 2016, and 2017, she participated in climate change research in Greenland. In 2012, Nell traveled to Palmer Station Antarctica as part of an NSF-funded program called Polar Trek, where she participated in research about ocean acidification In 2014 and 2015,. Nell was selected to serve as a Nautilus Explorer Science Communication Fellow. The program is run by Dr Robert Ballard, well known for his investigations of the Titanic shipwreck. Nell worked off the coast of Belize alongside marine archaeologists and marine biologists at part of the fellowship. Lastly, during the 2019-2020 academic year, she took a leave of absence from her duties in Maine and taught science to middle school students in Eleuthera.

Speaker 1 4:40

Bahamas. Deep Creek Middle School has a marine science focus. The students were from the Bahamian culture, which is very different from our American culture. Most recently, she was one of the Reader's Digest Teacher of the Year nominees. She has a wealth of experience and it is my privilege to interview Nell today. My hope is that this interview will be inspiring to all. Good morning, Nell. So nice to see you this morning. I'm so glad that we have the opportunity to chat and I think that this will be wonderful for teachers to hear about someone that is teaching presently. I think teachers may not truly understand the impact they may have on their students. They really have the ability to change lives forever. So, first of all, can you share a time or two when you saw how your class had inspired students to pursue science beyond your classroom?

Speaker 2 5:51

Sure, and good morning, it's great to see you too. So I teach in a small town in Blue Hill, maine, and it's very rural and it's kind of isolated on a peninsula, and so I've been really fortunate to have some exciting research opportunities in the summers which I've been really happy to bring to my classes here in a small town in Maine. Those include going to Greenland and Antarctica and working on a research vessel that's operated by Dr Ballard, the gentleman who discovered the Titanic shipwreck. So it's always really fun to bring those things to kids.

Teaching Amidst Adversity and Self-Care

Speaker 2 6:26

And there's one student who pops to my mind right away and her name is Mackenzie, and when I was her teacher in seventh grade science, she was extremely painfully shy, like the type of student that wouldn't even speak in class. And I will always remember, right before the science fair she came to me in tears and she said Ms Herman, I can't do it, I'm too scared, I can't talk to the judges, I can't do it, I'm sorry if you're disappointed, but I just can't do it. And I thought, oh boy, what are we gonna do? So I said to Mackenzie well, you know, honey, you are the expert on this topic because you did the project, and so really you're going to be educating the judges? They don't know this stuff. So do you think you could just go in with that kind of attitude and just try it and do your best? And she said, ok, I'll try. So she did it and she ended up winning the whole science fair, which was just amazing, and I think that was really a turning point for Mackenzie. So she ended up going on to study marine science in college and just last year she came back to be a guest speaker in my classroom and she had a really amazing slideshow.

Speaker 2 7:38

So she's now a master scuba diver and she's done research on octopus in Washington state. So she shared photographs of herself diving with octopus. And she's also done some shark research in Florida. So she had pictures of herself tagging sharks. And it was really moving for me because at the end of her slideshow, which had all my you know students last year on the edge of their seats, she said that she vividly remembered being in that same classroom and sitting there and thinking that she wanted to have science adventures, just like Ms Herman. And I just teared up because I just thought, oh my gosh, I was remembering this shy little seventh grade girl who would hardly speak. And here she is, this amazing, confident young woman telling other students that I had a positive influence on her life, and it just felt really, really good.

Speaker 1 8:29

Wow, that sounds amazing.

Speaker 2 8:33

I'm so proud of her.

Speaker 1 8:34

You should be Okay. So I know that the pandemic was extremely challenging for teachers. Was there anything that you learned during this extremely difficult time?

Speaker 2 8:49

Yeah, I actually learned a lot. So I'll just give you like a little bit of background about how that all played out for me, because it was really kind of interesting. The year that the pandemic began, in 2020, I was on a leave of absence from my school in Maine and I was teaching at a marine science school in the Bahamas, and so on a Friday afternoon, just like any Friday, I said have a nice weekend to my students. And then everything just shut down and I never saw those kids in person again, which still makes me so sad. Expats were encouraged to leave if they could. So I came home to Maine and I finished the school year by teaching those kids on zoom, so at least I was still in touch with them and could see their faces. But you know, it's still I still get a little weepy that I never had a chance to properly say goodbye, and so that was sort of abrupt and hard. And then I was very fortunate to return to my job in Maine the next year, in 2021, 2022.

Speaker 2 9:47

And at my school here we offered kids and families a choice so they could either stay home and learn on Zoom or they could come in and sit behind a plexiglass divider in one seat all day long, and this was a nice model, I think, in a lot of ways, but it was really hard on the teacher, because what we were doing is we were, you know, trying to teach the students who were right in front of us, while we had the kids on Zoom, on an iPad, on a tripod, and it was just, you know, so hard to know where to put your attention. And I've been a science teacher for most of my career and I've always been very focused on hands-on and experiential learning, so my whole strategy of teaching was just totally turned upside down, and so I was spending a lot of time putting materials together to send home for kids or making like little kits that every kid could individually do some kind of experiment, recording videos, posting things on Google Classroom, grading on Google Classroom. I was, I felt like I was on my computer like 12 to 14 hours a day and still I felt like I wasn't doing enough. I knew the kids were struggling and a lot of them weren't showing up to class. If they were doing the Zoom thing, they weren't doing their assignments and it was just so hard and I think what really kept me going is the principal that I had at the time and the team I was working on at the time. So my principal, shelly Shildroth, she was amazing that year and she was always supportive and positive and encouraging and I never once heard her complain about the challenges of that time and that positivity inspired me to stay positive.

Speaker 2 11:29

The team of teachers I was working on was a really strong team and we made a point to share funny stories, to sort of hold on to anything funny that happened and to tell each other. So we laughed about the sort of absurdity of the whole thing when we could and we supported each other, we did the best we could and eventually I kind of learned to give myself some grace and I learned I'm not going to be perfect. I'm not going to teach science like I would in a normal year and I can't spend 14 hours a day on my laptop. That's just ridiculous. So you know, a lot of what helped me were my colleagues, my principal, laughter and just focusing on the hilarity when it would come.

Speaker 2 12:13

I remember a student that I'm really fond of, judson when it would come. I remember a student that I'm really fond of Judson who, with permission, brought a whole set of power tools into school when we were doing a physics unit. So I just pictured Judson behind his plexiglass divider with his mask and a drill making a rubber band car for this physics unit, and it was just so funny. So when I could focus on stuff like that instead of on how hard it all felt, it made things a lot better. I learned to be patient with myself. I learned to remember that even in those darkest, hardest times there are still moments of beauty and humor, and to try my best to focus on those.

Speaker 1 12:52

Well, that's great advice. Humor is very therapeutic. So the first two episodes in the fall for Wellness for Educators, I want teachers to focus on self-care. Could you share about how you prioritize self-care?

Teacher Self-Care and Positivity

Speaker 2 13:13

I will, and I think a lot of it goes back to giving yourself grace. I think teachers have a tendency to give and give, and they sometimes forget to show that same degree of caring toward themselves. So I try to do something for myself every day, and it's never anything really elaborate or expensive or fancy, but I have a couple of things that I really love to do and I prioritize those. So one of them is my coffee routine. In the morning I wake up before anyone else in my house and I leave a little extra time on a school day to drink my coffee slowly so that I'm not rushed. I keep the lights down low, I don't turn on the TV, I don't turn on the radio, I heat up the water in my favorite blue tea kettle and I use my French press and I treat myself to really expensive coffee because I love it, and so I savor that cup of coffee every morning before school. And as I'm drinking it, I always make a point to think about things I'm grateful for, and so sometimes I write them down, I keep a gratitude journal, sometimes I say them out loud and sometimes I just hold them in my mind, and it really impacts my mindset and helps me start the day off positively. So that's one thing I do.

Speaker 2 14:28

Another thing I do is for me, nature is very therapeutic. So I don't always have time to be out in nature a lot during the school year. But very close to my house there's a little spot that I like. It's just a little beach that I walk to with my dog and I just make a point to go there and focus on the sounds and the smells. And my dog loves to chase the seagulls and even though I've seen her do it a hundred times, it's still funny to me. So I get a lot of joy out of that. I look for sand dollars, I look for sea glass. It's very meditative and it's like a reset after school. If I've had a hard or a difficult day, that helps me kind of just reset myself for the evening to be happy and calm.

Speaker 1 15:16

Well, those are great. I actually talked about drinking your coffee when it's hot. So if you had to give advice to a new teacher in regards to self-care, what would you recommend? Is there something specific you would tell a new teacher?

Speaker 2 15:35

Yeah, that's a really good question. I would ask yourself what are some things that you really love to do? So for me it's to drink that cup of coffee quietly and, to you know, take a little walk after school and prioritize those things. And, you know, do something that's just for you, not for anybody else. Prioritize something for yourself every day, for yourself every day.

Speaker 2 16:02

And I also think it's really important to try to eat healthy foods, and I know it's not always easy, but I know that when we're constantly on the go at school and we're tired and there might be like the donuts in the teacher's room, you know if you can try to like keep fresh fruit or nuts around for yourself so that you don't get overly hungry and get tempted to eat that stuff which, at least for me, ends up making me feel worse. When I do, I end up just regretting it. And I also try to drink a lot of water during the school day. So I keep water bottles around and just try to stay hydrated, because that's another thing. When you're constantly helping kids and running around, sometimes you forget to do that. So I just keep water bottles in a few different key spots to help me remember to do those things and those help me have a lot more energy and they also affect how. You know how positive I feel when I feel happy and healthy. Then I'm able to do my job better.

Speaker 1 16:57

That's great. That's great. I think the hydration, with going to the bathroom sometimes, can be an issue.

Speaker 2 17:03

Yeah it is. It's tricky and what I managed to figure out how to do is to have a buddy and we help each other when it's necessary. It's my teaching partner and I will spell each other if it's needed. It's not always easy.

Speaker 1 17:21

It seems like at times, teachers are bombarded with negativity, kind of the opposite of what you're saying with the positivity, and this could be colleagues, parents, administration, challenging students. How do you handle that negativity?

Speaker 2 17:38

Yeah, that's another challenging thing, and I think a lot of that goes back to mindset. So I think it's very easy even to get stuck in a negative loop of self-talk like I'm not doing enough or I'm not as good as that teacher or any of those kinds of things. And I once heard somebody say the phrase comparison is the killer of joy, and I think that's so true. I think comparing yourself to another teacher is dangerous, because every teacher is different and the strengths that you bring to the table might not be the same as the strengths that your teaching partner or your colleague brings, and that's okay. In fact, I think it's great, because if every teacher were the same, that would be really boring and we wouldn't reach nearly as many kids. So I think it's important for teachers to really think of their colleagues and their administrators as members of their team, because we really are all on the same team. Why else would we choose a job that's so mentally and physically demanding that doesn't pay as much as a lot of other jobs? It's because the majority of the teachers I've met in my 24 year career even though they might be different than I am in a lot of ways, for the most part. Most teachers you're going to meet are in it for the reason because they care, and they care about young people, they care about their community, they care about our country, they care about the world, otherwise why would they do it right? So find that commonality of caring among your colleagues, and I think you know schools that create a culture of caring not just for the kids but also for the teachers are the strongest schools and they're the places where people stay. So these are the schools that are healthiest for kids and healthiest for educators.

Speaker 2 19:21

So that's something, and I also think choosing to walk away from negative conversations is really important for self-preservation. So sometimes teachers can get stuck in a narrative about a particular student and that can affect the lens that you might see that student through and that can affect the lens that you might see that student through. So I think it's important to remember that, just like us, students are human and they make mistakes, but they can grow. And so you know, even our most challenging students are difficult, might be difficult, but they're capable of positive change. But that's only true if they have teachers who are supporting them and rooting for them and believing in them. So I think it's important, you know, if you hear that negative conversation around a particular student, to just try to disengage and not let it impact how you see a child.

Speaker 1 20:16

Well, that's wonderful advice. So I guess for my last question, do you have any additional comments that you feel would be helpful for other teachers, especially as you embark on a new school year?

Speaker 2 20:39

saying thank you to all the teachers out there, because I know how hard they work and I know how much they give every day, and I want to remind my colleagues out there that, even though you might not feel like it every day, your work really really does make a difference. Little things matter. If a student gives you a note or a gift, hold on to it. Through my 24 years, I've kept every single note that a kid has given me and I keep them in a special box in a special place, and when I have a really tough day or things are feeling hard, sometimes I actually go back in that box and look at these notes that kids have written to me and it keeps me going. So you know, every day we have a chance to positively impact the lives of kids and it's such important work. So be kind to yourself and have a wonderful year is what I would say.

Prioritizing Self-Care for Teachers

Speaker 1 21:28

Well, that's wonderful, and I think giving yourself grace is really important, and I wish I could be in your class because I think that you inspire so many and I am so grateful for what, um, for what you have done and continue to do. So I want to thank you, and now, for all that you have done and um, you know I appreciate it so much. So I am going to um wish you well for the coming school year, as well as other teachers.

Speaker 2 22:03

Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 22:04

I hope you enjoyed the interview with Nell. I think she had a wealth of great advice. Wise words for sure. I hope you all can apply some of these tips to your own lives.

Speaker 1 22:17

So, as you embark on this new school year, please put self care at the top of your list. Remember we cannot change externally until we have rewired internally. This will directly impact you as well as your students. It is possible to step away from negativity and hopefully you can find humor in your day. I do think kids say the funniest things. Thank you all for being my heroes. Be well and remember your health matters. Start today to take care of yourself. Take three minutes to just breathe, remember it is okay to say no, and never forget tomorrow is a new day and give yourself grace. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please pass this along to an educator that you feel might benefit. Thanks to Ron Coleman for providing the music and thanks to you for being a positive influence to the future generation. You need to be well, to teach well. Find joy in the journey.