Teachers, Stop Letting School Creep Back In Unplanned

 You made it to July. And if you are honest — school has already found its way back in. 

Not through an official meeting. Not through a contract date. Through a text. An errand. A guilty thought on a Tuesday morning while you were just trying to have coffee. 

That is what this episode is about. 

The pull back to school is quiet. It does not announce itself. It comes through side doors — the group chat that starts moving, the quick trip to the building that turns into two hours, the thought your own mind sends before the school year has even asked anything of you yet. 

And each one feels harmless on its own. 

Until you look up at the end of the week and realize you never actually had a day that felt like summer. 

This is a NOTICE episode. We are not changing anything yet. We are just learning to see which doors school is using to get back in — because when you can see it, you start to realize you have more say than you thought. 

School does not need all of July.
 It just needs unlimited access to it. 

Not sure where you are in your teaching journey right now? Take the Stage Finder and find out exactly where you are in the process of teaching without losing yourself. 

👉 afterthebells.org/pages/find-my-stage 

Ready to protect this space in a tangible way? The After the Bells subscription box is designed just for teachers — a monthly reminder that your time, your peace, and your life outside the classroom matter. 

👉 afterthebells.org/pages/box 

🎙️ Teaching Without Losing Yourself — The Podcast
 After the Bells | Kim Lester 

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 0:00

Hey teachers. So this week school showed up somewhere it wasn't invited. I'm certain of it. I'm certain of it because I know that my southern teachers out here in the south, you guys are heading on back in. It's so close to pre-planning. There may be one or two of you already in pre-planning, but you're going that direction. And my northern teachers, well, you're probably coming down off that leisure sickness and getting to the place where you're almost able to relax a little bit. But no matter what, no matter which place you live in, school showed up and you didn't invite it. Maybe it was a text from your team, or maybe it was a thought that came out of nowhere while you were doing something completely unrelated to school. Maybe it was a group chat that started moving and you found yourself reading every single message. And in that moment, you didn't think. School just showed up, right? You weren't thinking about that. You thought I should probably respond to this, or I should probably think about that, or I should probably go ahead and handle that now. And just like that, school was in the room. Not because you invited it, not because the building called you back, because the pull back to the school, guys, is so quiet. And most teachers never even notice it happening. That is what this episode is all about. Welcome back to Teaching Without Losing Yourself, the podcast. I'm Kim. I spent 28 years in education and I realized at some point that I couldn't fix what was wrong from the inside. So I made the hardest decision of my career in life. Because if I couldn't protect teachers from within the system, I could support them in protecting themselves from outside of it. That's why this podcast exists. This is the After Bell series, a moment made just for teachers, even on the moon. And everything we talk about here is built around one idea. You can stay in teaching without losing yourself in the process. Nothing here is about fixing you guys. Just here to see things more clearly with you so you can make better choices inside the day. Guys, previously we opened up July with one idea, and that was the mental return. The mental return happens before the physical one. We talked about the pull, that quiet drift back to the school that starts in your mind long before you ever walk back into the building. And I asked you to do one thing. Just notice when school enters. Not to stop it, not to feel guilty, guys, just to pay attention. So this week I want to ask you, did you notice? Because if you did, here is what I want you to understand about what you saw. The pool, guys, it is not random. No ma'am. It's not. It comes through specific doors. It has little sneaky ways in, ways that it knows it can get to you. And this week, we are going to look at exactly which ones. Because this is where protecting this space, guys, gets real. Not in theory, in the actual moments in your actual week. Here's what I want you to understand about the pullback to school. It almost never comes through the front door. Okay, that's where we'd be looking for it, right? It doesn't show up as school is officially starting. You need to return now. There's no sign, there's no note. It comes through the side doors, the back doors, the ones that didn't look like school at all. Let me show you what that means, guys. How about that side door of the group chat? It starts with one message, maybe a teammate checking in on something small, and then someone else responds, and then another person, and before you know it, the chat is moving. And there are 12 messages about back to school plans and what the schedule is going to look like. And did you hear about the new initiative coming in August? And you didn't go looking for that, guys. It found you on a Tuesday barefoot morning in July while you were having your coffee. What about the errand? That sometimes that's another little sneaky door. You need something from the building, like a little personal item. We have all our little trinkets there, a book you left behind, something so simple. So you go in for 20 minutes. And by the way, 20 minutes is too long, but the building has a way of expanding 20 minutes. You run into a colleague or a teammate, right? Someone mentions a concern about next year. You walk past your room and notice something that needs to be done before students arrive, and you think, goodness, I'm already here. And the 20 minutes become an hour or two. And the day that was yours is now half a school day. There's another little sneaky door. I call it the guilt thought. The guilt thought. You know, that one is the quietest, guys. Guilt is so strong. The guilt thought is the quietest, and it is the most powerful. You're doing something completely unrelated to school. You are resting, traveling, spending time with someone you love, and a thought comes in. I probably should already be planning, right? I mean, my teammates are probably all ahead of me. I don't want to feel unprepared in August. Nobody texted you that. Okay. Nobody called you. Your own mind sent that to you. That's that guilt. And that thought costs you something because once, guys, once guilt enters the room, guilt is strong. Once it comes in the door, once it enters the room, you better believe that rest will become harder. I want to stay here for a minute because this is a part teachers miss, okay? So each of these moments, they kind of feel small all on their own. And I think if we're talking about a chit-chatting, we would agree. Not so bad. It's just 12 people on a text message chatting about the school year, 12 friends, but they're talking about school. So we think it's pretty small, right? One text, one little errand, one little guilty thought. And you think it's fine, right? It's just a few minutes. It's not a big deal. But here's what I want you to know from 28 years, guys are doing this work beside great teachers. It's not the one text. Guys, it's not that one guilty thought. It is what happens when all three of them happen on the same day. And then they have it again the next day and the day after that. Do you know that feeling when you look up at the end of the week and realize you never actually had a full day that felt like summer? That is what this is. Not one big moment that stole July. Guys, not one big moment. Stop looking for the one big thing. You're good at finding that. It's those dozens of small ones that each take a little piece. Just a little tiny piece of your great barefoot summer. And the reason teachers don't catch it is because each piece looks so harmless. The text was from your team. Of course you responded. It was necessary. You needed that thing. The thought, guys, that thought was responsible. You care about being prepared. None of those things are wrong. But together without any awareness, without any limits, they quietly hand July to school before July is even over. And that is exactly what protecting this space is about. Not preventing all of that, just noticing how it gets in. So here is where I want to leave you this week. Previously, I asked you guys to notice when school entered. This week I want you to go one layer deeper. When school shows up, notice which door it came through. Was it in the group chat? Wasn't an errand? Was it your own mind sending guilt before the building even asked for anything? Because awareness is not just knowing that school entered, it is knowing how. Guys, we're going to go a little bit further. It's going to be a couple of days because I took some time off myself because I practice what I preach. And I do want to get the other July uh podcast in. So uh in a couple days, I am gonna go a little bit further with you because once you start noticing the call, and once you start seeing which doors it uses to get in, the next question becomes supernatural, guys. Which of these things actually need my attention right now? And which ones can wait? That is where we're headed. Not a big action plan, just with a little discernment. Until then, guys, give yourself the same care you give everyone else.