Teachers, You are doing more than the job actually requires.

 You've probably said it — or heard it — more than once: there's not enough time. But part of what's happening isn't the job itself. It's what you've been adding to it. This episode breaks down exactly where that extra time is going and why it feels like the right thing to do in the moment. One small shift this week can start changing that. 

We’re not here to fix.
We’re here to notice. 

If this helped, pass it to another teacher who might need it. 

Until next time… 

give yourself the same care you give everyone else.

 ~Kim 🌿 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Teacher, you're doing more than the job actually requires. Not in a big, obvious way, you know, but in small ways, all day long, every single day. You're adding one more step, one more explanation, one more adjustment, and most of the time, you're not even thinking about it as something that's extra. As a teacher, you just feel like this is what I'm supposed to do. And those small additions, over and over again, guys, that's where the time is going. Welcome back to Teaching Without Losing Yourself the podcast. I'm Kim, and this is the After the Bells Beyond the Box series, a moment made just for teachers, even on the mood. And everything we talk about here is built about around one idea. You can stay in teaching without losing yourself in the process. Nothing we do here is about fixing you. We are increasing awareness so that you can make better decisions inside your day. Guys, this month we are looking at perfection is not required. That is our theme within our After the Bell system, the theme for our box, the theme for our podcasts, and all the things that we do. Last week we talked about the fact that you all, we all, we're not trying to be perfect. We're just trying to avoid being wrong. And we really wanted to make sure that we hit on that and understood the differences, okay? We're not trying to be perfect, but we're definitely trying not to be wrong. And the way that that showed up for us is in rechecking things over and over again that we're fine. And second guessing, second guessing the way we did something, second guessing like a conversation we had with someone. We even talked about a conversation that you second guessed all night long. You can't go back to that conversation, it's over, but we're still second guessing that. And then going back, going back and trying to fix things just to make sure they weren't wrong. That was about this question. All of that was about, is this right? Because we don't want to be wrong. So we go back, we rechecked, we second guessed, we fixed things because we wanted to answer the question correctly. Is this right? Well, guys, this week is a bit different. This week is not about going back. This week is about what you're adding. I like to call it layering in there, layering a little good stuff. This week sounds more like let me add one more thing to make this better. Let me layer on a little more goodness just to make it better. It's okay, but I'm gonna do one more thing just to make it better. So last week you're going back to things that were already done. This week we're talking about adding more to things that were already complete and ready. Okay? Like they were already good enough. And both of these things do the same thing, they're both evil in the same way. They're both taking your time, and that's the connection with them, okay? From rechecking to adding and layering. And if you don't separate those two, it all kind of sounds like I'm working all day and I still don't have enough time. That's really all you see, all you hear. I know it is for me. And sometimes when I sit back, especially because I do this work and I think about it, I'm like, oh God, you did that. You didn't have to do that. For us, it looks like I just don't have enough time. And I know time is at a premium with education. Don't get me wrong, but there are places we can capture more. Your time is getting taken away from you in multiple ways. This is the second one I want to talk about. So before we dive deep into it, let's talk about why this is happening, okay? Because you're not like randomly doing extra things, there's a reason behind it. And I know I'm a teacher. I work with teachers. It's 28 years in teaching. I know these people, I know you. You are my people. You want your students to understand things. You want things to go smoothly. You want to think ahead and avoid problems later on. And teachers, ooh, teachers love to feel prepared. All that, I think all that is considered like super good intentions. I want my kids to understand. I want everything to go smoothly. I want to avoid anything that might happen. It hasn't happened. Now, I'll tell you that. No one even said it was gonna happen. But you want to avoid things that might happen later. And you want to be prepared because guess what? Teachers are prepared. So your mind goes, let me add one more example. You know, let me just take some time and do that. Let me explain that one more way. One more way. Wait, wait, wait. Let me fix this. This is how this now. Let me fix this now, okay? And now it's gonna be done. Because once I fix it again, even though I've already fixed it, sometimes more than once, now it's gonna be done because I'm gonna layer on that special goodness, right? In the moment that feels to you like you're doing the right thing, it feels like it's the right thing to do. I mean, who doesn't want all those wonderful things? It feels like you're being thorough, it feels like you are being prepared. And guys, yes, overall, it just feels like you're being a good teacher. But here's the shift here, okay? You're trying to make everything go right. You're trying to make sure there's no pitfalls, there are no issues, you know, the ones that don't exist. You're trying to make sure none of those things happen, and you're doing that by adding more, adding more to you. And there's always more you can add. It's never gonna be enough. There's another example you can give. You could give your teacher, your kids, seven examples. There's another one you could give. There's another explanation you could share. There's another tweak, another adjustment, another let me make this thing right. There's another thing you could finish. There's always gonna be that. That's always gonna be there. You will never, ever, ever be ahead of it. 28 years in, it hasn't happened yet. So I really feel like that's correct. I'm never gonna be ahead. I've accepted it. So if you don't catch that, guys, you just keep going and you keep going, not because it's required, because you just, you know, you know that's gonna make it better. And all teachers want to make things better. Let me let me talk about a few examples because I like to give examples because I really want to make sure it's clear. Because I want you to be able to see yourself in it. Because I honestly, these examples are mine. So I see myself in them, and I'm hoping I'm not alone and some of you see yourselves in them too. But let's just say you teach something. Here we go. It's a good teaching day. I'm doing that reading, I'm doing that phonics, whatever I'm doing. I'm teaching something and I have explained it clearly. You know, I planned it, right? So I've explained it super clearly, and I'm looking around the room and I'm listening to my small groups and my partners. And guys, most of the students are getting it. Yeah, they're getting it. I'm hearing the conversation, they're repeating what I want them to repeat, they're asking good questions. I've explained it clearly, and they're getting it. But guess what? This is where you step in as a teacher who wants to be prepared, who wants it to be better. You explain it again. You give another example. You explain it one more way. I mean, it's just gotta be better, right? You can always make it better. Last week, we would have been something like, or would have been something like, did I explain that right? Did I get it right? This week we're saying, let me add on more, just in case. Just in case that one child in the corner who got it right a moment ago. Well, just in case they didn't get it for real, for real. I'm gonna explain it one more time. That's extra. That's extra explaining, that's extra minutes. And guys, you do it over and over again. Sometimes when we're helping a student, it's our favorite thing to do. We love to sit one-on-one, we love to sit one-on-five, and we love to be right there in with the kids, right? And we start guiding them and they start understanding, and the smile inside our teacher's heart is big. But instead of letting them try at that point, because you can hear them, you can see them, they're getting it. We like to be right there. We want to keep helping, we want to keep holding their hand instead of releasing that student as we should, and we know we should, we want to stay. We want to guide them to the next step, we want to help them finish. So we're gonna take more time with a kid who's already starting to understand sometimes, instead of just releasing them to do it, because it feels like I want to make sure that they get it. I want to make sure. I know they've done it five times in front of me. I just want to make sure. So I'm gonna stay right here. I'm gonna guide him through the next step. If he slows down just a bit, I'm gonna catch him and make sure he doesn't fall. I'm gonna keep helping him. And I want to make sure that you understand this isn't about doing less for kids. I am the last person to say that. If you're gonna go overboard on anything, this is probably the place I'd probably want you to. Um, but so it's not about doing less for kids, it's about trusting. Trusting when the kids are ready, trusting when you've done the work for kids to go on on their own, for you to watch how they move, and for you to only come in when needed. Let them try. Release them. Gradually release them. They can get it. They were at a point where they could try, but instead, you just stayed longer. And I'm not saying this wrong, but you gotta know, guys, that's extra. Sometimes you're planning a lesson, the lesson is ready, it meets the goals. You know, your students will understand it. You've done this work, you know what it takes. And then you add something extra. Then you tweak a word, then you adjust the slide. Maybe I need to put one more thing in this slide just to help them understand. Maybe I need to add another piece, another this, another that. Last week you would have said, is this right? Because you didn't want to be wrong. But this week you're saying, Let me make this better. Remember, guys, it can always be better. And what's the cost? Oh, planning a lesson? That could be another 20 to 30 minutes if I start working on another slide easily. And most of the time, guys, all that tweaking we do to those lessons, it doesn't really change what students actually experience in your class. You've done the work, you had it right, you just kept going. And my favorite when which we're gonna really hit a lot on the last week of the month, is at the end of the day. I am so guilty, guys. This is me. This is me today, tomorrow, and forever. So I'm really talking to me. Y'all are just here for the ride. But the end of the day, you know, when you're ready to leave, your main work is done. But instead of walking out the door, you fix something small. I'm just gonna fix this. I mean, what could it hurt? It's the end of the day. I'm just gonna fix this. Or you organize something. I'm gonna get this together, get my desk all set up for you know tomorrow, and this and that. Next week I have this, I already have it right here. I'm gonna get this together. Or you start prepping something early. You want to finish one more thing. You are ready. The workday is done. It is time to go, but you pause and you make up other things for you to do. You say to yourself, I'll just do this now. I'll just do this now. I mean, I'm not gonna wait till later. I know it's time to go. I know I can be with my family shortly, but I'm I'm just gonna do this now and I'm gonna feel better in the end if I do it now. But that may add on another 10, 15 minutes, time all day long. Not required. That wasn't required. It was just something added, and we've talked about it and talked about it. What is it costing you? It's costing you something, right? This is the line I want you to hear. This is not the job. I know it sometimes feels like it is, and I I'm a witness, but it's not. If you've done the work, you need to move forward. We need to stop going back and adding and layering and adding and layering when it's done. If it's not done, that's something different. We're talking about when it's done. And the cost that comes with that, you know it. You say it to yourself. It's your time, it's the extra minutes you're you spent like explaining something again and again. It's the extra time staying with students a little bit longer. And these are students, again, this is my place if you needed to stay somewhere to stay. But we're talking about students who are showing that, you know, I kind of get it. Let me try. No, we want to be right there. We want to hold your hands. I want to watch you step by step, and I want to jump in to save you. It's the extra time staying with those students longer. It's the time spent improving something that was already, guys, ready to go. And it never feels big. It never feels big in a moment. This just feels like what teachers do. It's really how we were we were bred, I think, from day one to believe this. It doesn't feel big, but guys, it adds up. And if you're taking time doing things you don't need to do, what about the things you need to do? Well, those are things you end up taking home with you. Because now you you gotta do this, it may be days later. Our time. When teachers say there's not enough time, I'm gonna say they're right because there's not enough time. I just think there's so much that that needs to be done. But I am also gonna say there are places where teachers, administrators, all of us, can capture some more of our time. And this is one of them. Okay. So here's what I want you to try this week. Gotta try something. And you know, I'm never asking you guys to go and do it for everything because I can't. I can't stay on point all day long looking for the moments where I'm robbing myself of time. But I do want to make sure that I'm being very intentional about looking for at least one moment. That's how we learn and we grow. So, what I want you to try this week is just to look for that one moment. Look for a moment when you're about to add something, you're about to stay after, you're about to do something that takes you your time away, and you're gonna do it to something that's already ready. So it's already done, it's already good. You're getting ready to take some time away from yourself. And I want you to not, I want you to pause, I want you to ask, ask yourself this. Is this actually required? Or am I adding this? Is this actually required? Like it must be done because we know there are things that must be done. Or am I adding this? Because guess what? Done is done. And sometimes done is enough. I just want you to ask yourself that. If it's required, guys, you'll do it. That's what we do. If this is something is required, you'll do it. But if it's added, you get to decide. That's your decision-making moment. And maybe sometimes you'll you'll still choose to add it, and and so will I sometimes. But now it's a choice, and it's a choice that you're making with intentionality, and you're doing so because you slowed down to pay attention, you're doing so knowing this is taken away from my time. This is not necessity for me. I do not have to do this. It is taken away from the time, you know. The time I have very little of you'll be doing it knowing that you made a decision, a conscious decision to do so. This is a choice at that point, not something that's happening all day without you noticing. And that's different. If there's something you choose to do, you choose to do it. But you need to know that it's a choice. So this week is about seeing what's actually part of the job and what you've been layering in on top of that job. Because when you stop adding stuff, layering stuff that isn't required, you're gonna get back some of that time. Not by doing your job differently, not by lowering your expectations, just by not doing what was never required in the first place. And that's part of what it looks like. Whenever I talk to you guys about making teaching sustainable. Because when you get time back in your day, the job starts feeling more manageable, and that's what we want. Okay. Notice what's extra. Notice those extra things, one thing at a time. And deciding decisions, making a choice about what matters and what you need to do next. As always, guys, we're doing this slowly, one layer at a time together. Until next time, give yourself the same care you give everyone else.