Episode 18: Teacher Life Hacks You'll Actually Use | The Edu20/20 Podcast

Welcome to the Edu20/20 After Hours Podcast, where we’re not solving education today, we’re just trying to survive it. This episode is all about teacher life hacks.

We’re talking about:
• The tiny changes that save your sanity during the week
• How to create routines that work for your brain
• Why your people at work matter more than anything
• Systems, boundaries, and protecting your time
• And the things you do outside of school that keep you going

Chapters:
0:00 Why we’re talking survival, not strategy
1:41 The small habits that set your week up right
3:13 Managing stress (without losing your mind)
5:25 Finding your people (your real support system)
10:03 Systems that actually save you time
13:24 Boundaries, routines, and protecting your energy
15:03 Why perspective (and getting out) matters

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

You see my bra. Easy. Oh, it's after hours. It's fine. Welcome everybody to the Edu 2020 After Hours podcast where we do not talk about things that are very serious, such as if you can see something through my shirt or not. Right, Shannon? Uh you never know what you're gonna get on this um uh level of the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

I guess that um your hair looks a little fancier today, Shannon. Well, you know, we're gonna go into a topic on after hours, and it's called life hacks because being a teacher is really hard. And this is one of my new life hacks. When it is hot and rainy outside, you buy your hair and you clip it in. Okay. No one, there is no judgment on that. You just ratted me out.

SPEAKER_00 0:59

If you're listening on Spotify or Apple, please go to the YouTube Long Form and check out the video of Shannon's new and improved humidity hair. Can you get it all on one side? There we go. All right. Just a little clip in ponytail. Shannon's mane is looking very fluffy. If you want to know about it, I'll drop the link. Yeah, please do. Was it Amazon? I gotta Amazon. Amazon's special. Okay, sorry. And welcome to the Edge of 2020 After Hours podcast. Today we're gonna be talking about life hacks, like Shannon said. Not just Amazon life hacks, but teaching life hacks. Yeah. So I guess I'll I'll have you start us off. I made a list, so um, I'm gonna have you start us off. What do you think were, and we'll just go back and forth, we'll do like four or five life hacks for what made your life a little bit easier as a teacher. And it obviously is nothing serious because this is an after hours version. So if it was something like putting your whiskey in your coffee, no one's gonna tell on you.

unknown 1:51

Really?

SPEAKER_00 1:52

I'm joking. That would that didn't happen.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

Okay, absolutely not. Um no, so uh if I think about to all of the life hacks that I went through, um probably some of the best ones would be setting this is gonna sound so basic, but just setting my week up for success with small things. Like I would have those weekends, the Sunday uh scaries, especially. We're just like, oh my gosh, so much going on this week. But I just started finding little things that would help me out during the week or bring me joy. And one of them is I finally just broke down and and paid for, uh bought a little mini fridge from a friend. Oh, you wild. Right. I know this is so crazy. But you keep in that mini fridge, Shannon. Well, I started keeping my diet Dr. Pepper before wild. Before there was Dr. Pepper Zero. Um, but I was spending so much money in the vending machine every week, just staying caffeinated and trying to, you know, keep my wits about me. And I know that sounds so basic, but just figuring out what I needed for the week and bringing it with me one day during the week, like on a Monday or Tuesday, sounds so basic, but it saved my life.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

So if you need some research-based studies to tell your spouse or whoever you live with that you need to purchase a mini fridge, you can cite this podcast, the Edu2020 After Hours Podcast. Absolutely a mini fridge. Um, one of my hacks was working out before school. How did you work out as a teacher? I got up at the butt crack, I'm not even gonna lie, but it helped me to not punch people. And so it's very frowned upon if you were to put your hands on a student or an adult. And so if you work out before school, you don't have the energy. No, I I really do feel like um working out before school helped me to not feel as like my life was out of control. I feel like I started my day in control and I was less likely to go to the vending machine if I worked out because I had already worked too hard to put weight on eating junk during the day. So that was one of my life hacks.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

So I it was really hard for me um to work out in the mornings. We had a really early school start and the humidity and hair and and doing my hair and shower. See, yeah, we didn't have clipping hair back then. We didn't have Amazon back then. Um What were the reviews on that hair? What? What were the reviews though? So this one has four and a half stars. That's why I went with this one. All right, sorry. Um, but I would find ways to work out in the afternoon. But if I got I knew so here, this is kind of my hack. It's figure out what works for your brain and your body because once I got home, it was over. Workout wasn't happening unless I had set myself up to do it. So I either found a friend and walk, I would take my walking shoes with me or comfy clothes, and we would work out right after school. I walk, I tried running a little bit, you know, back in the day wasn't that successful at it. But um that helped me the most. And then I signed myself up for a yoga class twice a week and I would find somebody to go with me. And then I got to where I went on my own. But it was really hard to do it, but I had to make that commitment because teaching is really hard on your brain and body. So it's just really finding what works for you, your brain, and like I didn't trust myself once I went home, and jewelry and certain other articles of clothing coming came off. Nothing was going back on.

SPEAKER_00 5:13

Once the pants came off, Shannon was not going back out. End of the story. I feel you on that. Um, for another life hack for me was basically the people that I work with finding your people. And I'm not talking about finding your people that help you plan lessons, I'm not talking about finding your people that help you vent about school. It is finding your people that you can actually go do something outside of school with that keep you sane. So, like we had a group of people every Thursday night where we went to a certain bar, and when I tell you everyone there knew us, and anytime a band played, we took over the band and sang, and it was a good time. And that was like our therapy.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

But I know you had, I know you had a group of friends that y'all got into some trouble with every Thursday night. Didn't you? It was fun.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Oh my gosh, it was so fun. We would meet each other Thursday night. A lot of times we would meet at my house, and sometimes we would play like um what was that old PlayStation game? Rock band or guitar hero. Yeah, guitar hero. We would play video games and it was so fun. Um, or we would just all hang out and have a drink or two.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

One of our after hours, one of our after hours gatherings was at one of our friends' house, and we did Guitar Hero. And one day, I don't know if we were drunk or what, but we decided to rewrite um a like Don't Stop Believin by Journey. Yeah. And we formed and we accidentally formed a rock band for literacy. Stop it. So we took like our drunken night of debauchery and turned it into something positive for children. And we named it Twisted Ruler. Yes, the videos are still on YouTube. So if you want to see Twisted Ruler, it's a shameless plug, just look up Twisted Ruler instead of you know Twisted Sister. And um we performed live for everyone at one of the testing pep rallies. We were legit, okay. The local newspaper posted about um Twisted Ruler. We did like rewrote all of the Miley Cyrus like party in the USA. It was it's cringe, but it's very creative. We had a good time.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

Now, for anybody listening who might feel judgy, um, don't.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

I mean, everybody has like if you're listening to the after hours podcast, yeah. If you've listened to the after hours podcast, there is no room for judgment here. We listen and we don't judge. So if you don't like this, you need to go to the regular Edu2020 podcast because we're actually smart and educated on that one. This is where we get real.

SPEAKER_01 7:30

Yeah. Um, I found it's wonderful. Yeah, there is a little statistic um that I took a screenshot of. Such a nerd. Even the after hours podcast turns into a research. That's so cool. I was listening to another podcast and I screenshot where a lady on there said, When one person on your team has one person they would call a work best friend, both of those employees experience a seven times increase in their sense of productivity.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

This is why we're so productive. Because we would literally bury the body bodies with each other if anything were to happen. I mean, because we've been through so much. You know what? That's a story for another day.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

We're living the dream. You know, we really are. But and we're actually doing the work. Shout out to the screenshot ministry for bringing us closer. Thank you, screenshot ministry. But um, I think that you are right. It is it's finding your people and finding that sense of belonging because it's really like you're going through things together because working as an educator is not for the faint of heart.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

No, and I mean you've known, like everybody's seen that study, the the five people you surround yourself with are like who you become. And so if you don't put yourself around good people, see me? Look, I got statistics too. I do a little math every now and then. Uh, but the who you surround yourself with, like, think about, and we we've talked about this with keynote speeches sometimes when we get asked to speak places. Um, we've talked about like watching your algorithm, who you put yourself around controls your mindset. It's like I think that the people you surround yourself with at your like when you're teaching or at your place of work, like that is a game changer. That is the biggest hack you can have. You're that is so true. So prophetic. I'm so profound today.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

You've got the hair, but I've got the nugs. Those nuggets of wisdom. Um, I think that it's really true right now with where we're at in social media. Like we were talking making fun of doom scrolling, like we both do it sometimes, right? It's therapy. It is kind of like therapy.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

But I hope you see us right now when you're doom scrolling.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

I hope so too. I always throw out the wings at the camera.

SPEAKER_00 9:26

I like to make sure they're paying attention to my wings. I'll change. I'll do left eye, right eye, you know.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

Um, but you can it's so easy to go down that rabbit hole of negativity in education because like you can pull up right now, any you start going down the educator rabbit hole in your social media, and the algorithm gets negative and real dark real fast, and then you just walk away angry.

SPEAKER_00 9:47

This is why you should listen to the after hours podcast where we talk about edible underwear or we just make fun of underwear, right?

SPEAKER_01 9:53

Um, because you gotta find the humor in what you're doing too. Absolutely. Um, but I think that that goes back into finding the life hacks and things that would do work and do set you up for success. And I know again, this is gonna sound so nerdy and so basic, but I tried to systematize as much as I could. And I'll give you in this this wouldn't work for everybody. System aside, sis, sis, systematize. Systematize. Um, I tried to have a system and a routine. That's when I felt the most productive. Um, so for example, I would block off time on my calendar to enter grades. It was a reminder to me to get things graded and done, but I would time block it and say, okay, like during my planning period on Wednesday at least twice a month. And I would go ahead and set a reminder on my calendar to enter grades. And if I didn't have any, that was my cue. Hey, gotta get some, you know, gotta get some grades. That whole conversation is for another day, too. The whole grading thing. But I was the exact opposite.

SPEAKER_00 10:53

It was when, Miss Doomas, you haven't entered your grades in a few weeks. It was, oh, it's time to enter my grades. Because I was one of those people that had to, it was, I'm gonna date and age myself right now, but it was back when like you had to put it in the grade book and then they started getting the online thing. So you had to do it in two places just in case the online thing crashed. Right. So I would get it in my grade book, but I wouldn't put it online. So then I get a call. I was I I was that you had it, you just hadn't entered it. I was that teacher. I got the call every time. Do your attendance, do your grades. So I'm glad that you had your life together and had things system systematized, system systematized, but I was terrible at that. So that is a good hack.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

It took a while, but I also I I think I mentioned on the podcast before, like I tried to have my lesson plans done by Thursday, but also I found when I was starting a new unit, once I would get in a flow state, like I would just start riffing on my lesson plans and I would try to batch lesson plans. So you had your life together, Shannon. Well, I also didn't have kids, so disclaimer there. You know, I didn't that that does make a difference. But I would batch lesson plans because I got really tired of I was going into like I was allowed to go to my school on a Saturday or Sunday. I couldn't do that either. Right. Um, but I was tired of going into school. I'd have to go there to get my brain into the process. But I started batch lesson planning, and even if I had to shift uh a couple of days, I would try to plan for two weeks and then shift out if I could. It was like lucky if I plan for 24 hours.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

So nerdy. No, it's good. I mean, because there are teachers out there that want to stay on top of things for me. Like we talked about in our regular Edu2020 podcast, the big four of lesson planning. We kind of talked about, we talked through that. That was a hack for me is eventually because you know, we go to college or even altered programs now, they give you this extensive lesson planning process. So much. And once I just figured out look for these four things, that was my hack.

unknown 12:38

Right.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

It made my life a lot easier, especially as not so. I say I was not so type A. I might be a little type A, type A now. There's a debate on our team about that, but um, I was definitely not then. So just finding those four things. And again, if you don't know what the four thing is, it's hard. No, if you don't know what the four things are, go check out our other podcast.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

The world needs a balance of both, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:56

Yeah, I guess a little balance of both. Absolutely. Um, but another thing that I did, I'm checking out my list here, was I always got there early. I felt like my life was together. And my room, I know yours was like this too. My room was like Grand Central Station. Like as soon as people, I got there early, the janitor would sometimes have to let me in. But as soon as people started coming, they would come in my room. I wonder why. We just like to talk, okay? The tea was exceptionally hot on some days, so we had a little a little bit more people, but like we had a lot of people that would come in. And so I had to get my work done before they got there. So I had to get there super early. You were mean though. Tell them about what you did. What was your life hack on how to protect your time in your room?

SPEAKER_01 13:36

No, I know this does sound mean, but I was so tired of taking home that that bottomless tote bag that you take home full of things to graze. It's one I had like some paper. But um, like I would take it back and forth and it wouldn't get done. And I was like, I don't want to work on the weekends. So I would set aside one day of the week and uh during my planning time, I put a sign on my door and said, unless it's an emergency or you have chocolate, like I'm planning and put a little humor in there, right? But it was it was a boundary for myself. I wasn't trying to be mean to anybody else, but I'm a talker and I'm gonna talk and waste my planning time. And I'm like, I've got to quit doing this to myself. I tried to just have a system because the more systems that I had in place, the less stress I felt. And we know what teaching stress does to a body. It's terrible.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

I don't know what you're talking about. Well, um, one more life hack that I had was travel. Like that was my biggest thing. It went, I know our time is not our own and we're constantly working more than we should be because there's always more you can do as an educator. But anytime I got a chance to travel in that extensive, you know, salary we got as teachers, I made it a point to travel. I don't know if you did that. That was like my thing. Um, on because we do get quote unquote summers off. You at least get a week.

SPEAKER_01 14:56

I was a nerd who worked in the summers before she worked.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

No, I did summer school, but even when I wasn't doing summers, I would use the summer school check to go. Why was that important for you? To see outside of my room, like to make sure I was reminded that the world was bigger than just my school or my classroom, because sometimes things feel massive until you get out of them. You're like, this was not like that's not, you have to change your perspective. And that's another thing that was a hack too, um, besides traveling, was perception and perspective of what happens in your classroom. And we've seen this happen time and again. If you don't tell people what's going on in your classroom, a lot of times parents or members of the community will build a narrative. You know, we've seen that happen in life. Um, with people, they all have their own perceptions that are not always reality, and they will make up things. We saw this with the school district we work with. You know, if you don't ever put out any positive PR or even tell people what you're doing in your schools or in your classroom, a lot of times there will be a narrative about it. So I figured out in my first year of teaching, I started a blog, and that's again dates me majorly. People still blog. Telling, like sharing with the people, um, like the parents or the students, like what did we do that day? And we didn't do it every day, it was like once a week. But I would put pictures of like different projects or different assignments. And I mean, some people do this with newsletters, but just putting it out there, telling people what's going on, so you control your own narrative and it keeps you sane. That way, other stories don't circulate and and you have the ability to be like, these are the great things that are happening. You might be hearing about some other things because I feel like the media does that. They will put out stories about teachers and you always see the bad stuff. Right. The only way you can control that is if you put out the good stuff. So that was another hack was put out the good stuff.

SPEAKER_01 16:33

But I think that that is a hack in and of itself to remind you sometimes when you are in the work and it's so hard and there's so much negativity going on, it feels overwhelming. Like, is this worth it? You question yourself, am I making a difference? But if you stay focused on it's a reminder, sometimes we forget to shout out the good. Yeah. And it's a reminder, here's the are the good things that we're doing. Here are the ways I'm celebrating my kids this week. Um, I do look back in the 2010s and I cringe at some of my old posts, but I would post funny things that my students.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

You tell them one more thing because we gotta we gotta wrap this one up, but can you tell them what you Shannon has a distinct honor that I've never had placed upon my life, and I feel like many teachers haven't. So although Shannon was Middle Tennessee teach state teacher of the year, um, I do need her to share with you her most distinct honor that she's ever received.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

Tell the people one of my students brought a picture to school. Um, uh her family, they were farmers, and she named her pet goat, Miss Shannon, after me. So there was a pet goat in the world. So the goat after me.

SPEAKER_00 17:37

The goat had a goat named after her. So that's set, we're setting the bar real high. I don't care if you've won Teacher of the Year. If you haven't had a goat named after you, you ain't it. Okay, you are not it. That's my disclaimer. All right. Well, I think we've covered a lot of life hacks. This one was kind of a tame after hours.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

It was it was very tame, but I think it was needed. It was needed.

SPEAKER_00 17:56

So if you have other life hacks that you've done for teaching that have made your life easier or just comical, um, share it with us in the comments. And of course, as always, stay tuned, like, subscribe, follow us because you never know what we're gonna say on the After Hours 20 Edu 2020 podcast. We'll see y'all next time.