Teachers, Your Are Building More Than A Classroom in August

August isn't preparation. It's construction. 

You walk back into your building and realize something: you inherited this year. The calendar is locked. The initiatives are decided. But here's the thing—you inherited the system. You didn't inherit your response to it. 

So what are you actually building in August? And more importantly—is there room for you in it? 

In this episode: 

• What you're actually building in August (hint: it's not just your classroom)
• How small decisions become the framework of your entire year
• Why the blueprint that matters most is the one that starts with you

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

Okay, teachers. Hey guys, it is August. Can you believe it? Where did the summer go? And some of you probably walked into your school buildings, especially if you're in the south. You've got kiddos coming to your classroom. Where I am in the South Deep, Georgia, today is the first day of school. Where did the summer go? Guys, the energy is completely different in the school buildings than it was in May. You walk around, you're chatting with your old friends, sometimes, you know, kind of going slow, trying to wake up. Your body's not used to this. You're walking around, you're catching up on old things. How was your summer? What did you do? Types of things. And as you move through your days, you start noticing a familiar pattern. Everything around you, guys, has been decided. The calendar locked and loaded. The district has already chosen your initiatives along with your principals. The principal has created professional learning plans that match those districts that that's on that calendar, right? The pacing guys are done. Maybe the instructional learning team came in and got a little work done on that. It's been made clear to you that the school year has already been designed and decided. The traditions are there, the unspoken rules are there. The pace everyone moves at. 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 and I left. 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 After the Bells Beyond the Box, a moment made just for teachers, even on the moon. And everything we talk about here is built around one idea. Hey teacher, you can stay in teaching without losing yourself in the process. Nothing here is about fixing you. We're just here to see things more clearly so that you can make better choices inside your days. Hey guys, this month we are talking about something that happens in August that most teachers never think about. We're talking about construction. Yeah, construction. Not that construction of the hallways, but construction. Not decorations, not preparations, but construction. And this month's theme is build with room to breathe. And here's what I mean by that, teachers. You're going to construct a school year. Absolutely happening. You're going to inherit the system, the calendar, the initiatives. And those things are not changing. You're getting that. It was already ready for you when you got to school. But inside that system, you get to build your life. And the questions we're asking all month is this are you going to build a year that has space in it for you? Or are you going to build a year that's completely full, full of stuff you don't even want in your life? See, here's what I think most teachers believe about August. They think they're getting ready, okay? Getting prepared, setting things up, checking things off. A checklist makes me so happy. I know. And yes, all of that, all that is happening. You've got to do all of that. We're not taking any of that off. You've got to get prepared. You've got to set things up, and you have to use that most amazing checklist and check things off. But that's not what August actually is. August is when you start building the school year. You're going to live inside. The routines you establish in those first few weeks, those become your normal by October. The pace you set, teachers, guys, that's your pace for the entire year. The decisions you make about your time and your energy and what you say yes to, those decisions stack into the structure of your daily life. Teachers, by October, you're not making those choices anymore. You are living inside of them. So what you decide in August matters. Not because you get to redo the whole system. You don't. That's already decided. But because you still get to decide how you actually live inside it. You still get to decide if there's room for you to breathe. And today we're going to break this down. We're going to look at this construction piece by piece. And I'm going to stop you at certain times to kind of talk about those shifts that I want you to really remember. They're the difference between walking into an inherited system and designing a life inside of it for you. So listen for those moments, okay? Let me be clear about something. When I say August is construction, I don't mean you're building a classroom from scratch, obviously, right? Because you're not. We talked about the calendar being set, the district deciding things, and how your roles are defined for you. That's your inheritance, okay? And we're talking about that a little bit more in a minute. But here's what's happening while you're doing all that August stuff, while you're setting up bulletin boards and writing lesson plans and going to meetings and learning about the new initiatives and our favorite part because you know teachers love supplies, organizing our beautiful supplies. Here's what's actually happening underneath all of that. You teacher, you're establishing the routines that are going to be your normal, and you're determined determining whether or not those routines are going to leave room for you or they're going to fill every space. You're communicating expectations to yourself. Teachers, you are used to setting expectations for your students about the year, all year long. You're used to that. That's your job. But in August, you're also communicating expectations to yourself, about your time, about what is possible for you, about how hard you're going to work, about how much you're going to give, about what whether or not you're going to protect anything or leave everything unprotected. Teachers, you're creating habits in those first few weeks that will still be there in May. You're deciding what you're going to say yes to and what you'll protect. You're setting a pace for your entire year. And guys, all of that together, those small decisions, those routines, that pace, they become the structure of your daily life. So, guys, by October, you're not thinking about those choices anymore. You're living inside of them, inside the room you built for yourself, or inside a year that's completely full. One of them. So I want you as part of this shift to see that stop looking at August as a preparation time, guys. I want you to start seeing August really as construction. August is where you're constructing your normal, your routines, your rituals for your entire school year. And yes, I'm gonna repeat it. I'm not talking about for your students, I'm talking about for you. Okay. So when I think about teachers in August, this is what I notice. Teachers think of things in August as being big things and big decision makings that shape everything. Teachers think the big decisions that they make in that month will really shape their year. Okay. And the curriculum choice they make, the classroom setup they make, the way they organize the day, and maybe, you know, some of that really does matter. But honestly, guys, it's so strange. It's usually the small decisions that really build your reality. So yeah, you're gonna that curriculum choice is important and the classroom setup is important. How you organize your day is important, but those small decisions, they really do the work behind the scenes. Think about the decisions you make in August without even thinking about them. The small choices that just kind of happen, like I'll answer emails after dinner every night, or I'm gonna start staying every day, you know, one or two more hours, or I'm gonna take this committee, or I'm gonna make one more thing, or I'll just handle this all by myself. I don't need any help. Any one of those doesn't feel like much. It doesn't feel like a big deal, but add them all together, let them happen day after day, week after week, year after year, and they become the framework that you work in. This is how you build your framework for the year. They become how you move through your days, how you spend your energy. And oh my goodness, they become what's left over of you at the end, for you at the end. Teachers, you're designing your normal for the entire school year, one seemingly innocent decision at a time. Okay, I want you to understand something really important. The small decisions you repeat, they become habits. Those habits become your routine, and your routine becomes your life. So the real question is does your routine that you've just created or that you create leave room for you? Or does it consume everything? So, what you decide in August, how you're gonna work, how you're gonna move through your day, what you're gonna say yes to, what you're gonna protect, all those small decisions in August are actually building the entire year, all the way to those little babies. Walk out that door and you wave at their bus. And it also decides if there's gonna be any space for you in it. So the shift here, guys, is you're not making decisions. This is not just one decision at a time kind of stuff. You're designing your normal. You're saying this is what my normal is gonna be with every small decision. And what I notice about the beginning of school years is that professional development in August, guys, it we we talk a lot about building classroom culture. There's a lot of conversations about building relationships with your students, creating a space where kids feel safe. And you know, like I know, that that's all important. I'm not gonna say that it's not, but here's what no one asks you. And I want you to think about these things. What kind of life are you building? Not what kind of classroom are you building, but what kind of life? What do you want your evenings to look like? What about your weekends? What kind of energy do you want to have when you walk in your front door at dinner time? What kind of relationships do you want to protect? What kind of teacher do you want to be in October? Your classroom is only one part of what you're constructing in August. You're also building a version of yourself, a teacher who has to live through this year, a version of you that either has breathing room or a version of you that doesn't. A version of you, teacher, that has boundaries or a version of you that doesn't, one that has energy left over, or one who is always running on empty. This matters. Not because your classroom doesn't matter, but because a classroom benefits, guys, from a teacher who has room to breathe. A classroom built by someone who's still standing, who's still thinking, a classroom built by someone who's still present. So the shift here, guys, is a classroom isn't the only thing under construction in August. So are you? I want to tell you something that might sound simple, but it changes everything in August. Before you build anything, teachers, you need a blueprint, right? I mean, that's how that works. We can really build something. There's a blueprint. There's something saying how that's going to be done. No one builds a house by starting with the decor. Okay, they don't buy pictures for walls before they pour the foundation. They start with a blueprint, a plan, a picture of what they're trying to actually create. Teachers, well, we do the opposite. You walk in August and you just start filling. You fill the calendar, you fill your to-do list, you fill every space because guess what? It is there. There's space there. Let me fill it. And by the time you step back, your year is completely full and you're not sure how in the world it happened. Here's what I want you to do differently in August. This is your moment. You're planning for the year, okay? So before you fill everything, before you say yes to everything, before you build all your systems and routines, slow down. I want you to build a blueprint first. A picture of what you're trying to create. I'm not talking about that perfect classroom. I'm talking about a sustainable year, a picture of what you want to create. How is your school year going to be sustainable? A year that has room to breathe, a year where you're included in the design from the very beginning, a year built with space, not just stuff. That's what August is for. Not just filling the spaces, but deciding, guys, what actually matters. What you want to protect. I can't say that enough. What you want to protect, what kind of year you're building, one with room for you to exist in. And guys, that matters. So the shift here is don't start with your classroom, guys. Don't buy decor for walls that don't exist. Don't choose lighting packages for ceilings that haven't been built yet. Start with your blueprint. The blueprint that you create that starts with you. And I want to know, you know, I want you to know something, you know, kind of on the personal side that I've had to learn this myself the hard way. I've been in this 28 years. I can't count how many schools I've been at, new schools, new districts. Um, but once I was at a new school, and you know, when you're new, you inherit everything, not just the calendar that the school has, both the culture, the way things get done, the invisible rules, all the traditions that everyone acts like they're like ridden in stone or something. But we always do it this way, and here we do it that way, and this is the way it's always been done. You know, Kim, the last person in your role handled it like this. You inherit all that. When you're new, all of that hits a little different for you, okay? You're new. It feels like fact, and it felt like that for me. Like there's no other option, like I'm walking into someone else's school year, and I just have to live inside of it exactly as it was. And I remember thinking, okay, no, this is the school. This is how that how the school works. Got it. This is my role, got it. I just need to figure out how to fit into this. But somewhere in those first few weeks of August, I started realizing something. I had inherited the structure, the structure of the school. I got that. Yes, the system was set, but I hadn't inherited the belief that I had no authority to decide how Kim was going to move through it. Okay. There was a culture there of, you know, we're going to stay late. I had never seen that before, but there was kind of a culture of we stay late. That's just what we do here. You finish your work, you stay until it's all done. And anyone who knows me knows that's not my goal. It's not what I do. And it still wasn't at that point either. That's not how I wanted to live. So I started working differently. I didn't fight the system. I just worked within it differently. And I figured out how to get everything I needed to get done. My work, my part of the team, my responsibilities, while also protecting something that mattered, you know, to me. So what mattered to me and what has mattered to me for several years now is Friday evening through Sunday. It's kind of a time for me, my protected time. It's at least Friday evening until Sunday at 5 p.m., okay, in case there's something you need to share. And for me, that means zero contact with anyone at school, at least about school stuff. That was mine. Friday evening to Sunday at 5 p.m. That wasn't negotiable. That was my room to breathe. And there's lots of times where there was no room, but that was my room to breathe. And you know what happened? I got the work done. You know, the school still ran, no one fell apart, but I also got to protect a little part of my space. I got to have evenings and weekends that belonged to me, not to work. I built a year with some space, some designated space in it just for me. And then something even more interesting happened at that point. Okay. And it happened with my team. They started doing it too. Not because I forced it, I didn't have that kind of power, or because I mandated it, but because they saw through me that it was possible. They realized that you could do your job really well and also protect your time. You could be part of the team and also have some boundaries. You could inherit the year and still design your life inside of it. That's what changed everything for me. Not the system changing because we know, right? That's not changing. It's the system. Okay, I can't do anything to change the system. It was me changing how I moved through the system. So here's what I want you to know as you step into August. That's where we are, August. You're walking into inheritance. Teachers, that's real. Yes, the calendar is set. Yes, the things you're gonna do, programs you're gonna follow, those have been chosen. Yes, the we have always done it this way, we've always done it that way. Those statements are there, ready to rock and roll. That's not something you're building, that's just something you're inheriting. Okay, but you're not just stepping into someone else's year and living it exactly as it's been lived before. Okay, you're building your life inside that year, and this month is about building with room to breathe. Every small decision you make in August about your time, your energy, your pace, what you say yes to, what you protect, those decisions are constructing whether there's space for you or whether the year consumes everything. I'm gonna say it again. Think back to May. Teachers, this matters. August matters. So the question for this month isn't how do I fit into the inheritance system? That's not the right question. The real question is, what kind of life do I want to build inside this inherited system? What kind of person do I want to be by the end of this year inside this inherited system? And is there room for me to breathe inside this inherited system? And if there isn't, how do I get it? Those guys are blueprint questions. Those are the ones worth asking before you let your calendar get completely full, before August is over, and you're living inside decisions you didn't even know you were making. This month, we're talking about building, real building, the kind where you're not just inheriting a system, but designing a life inside of it for with room to breathe for you. So things I want you to remember about today and what you heard today. First stop seeing August as preparation, start seeing August as constructing. You're constructing your normal, your routines, your rituals, not for the students. I'm not talking about them, but for you. That's how you build a build a school year for you. From there, I want you to remember you're not just making decisions, you're designing your normal, one seemingly innocent decision at a time. Teachers, every small choice either create space or fills it. Every one of them either creates space or fills it. Every time you make one, ask which one is doing. Also remember the classroom isn't the only thing under construction. You are too. And a teacher with room to breathe builds a different kind of classroom. And finally, teachers, don't start with the classroom. Start with your blueprint, start with you. That blueprint that starts with you. That's your foundation for a year with room to breathe. And when you know who you want to be, when you've got your blueprint, when you also, you know, you decide uh what's when you're gonna be available, when you're not gonna be available, all the stress, the overwhelm, the rush, that won't be a part of your world because you will make it clear that you're unavailable for that and you will put things and rules and things around that so that you're not as available for that as you've been in the past years. Guys, the stress that doesn't belong in a sustainable year, we don't need it. Build a blueprint that goes against stress. Will there be a stressless year? No, there won't. It's TG. Not gonna happen. Could there be less stress? Absolutely. You can build things around it to make it less trustful. These shifts, guys, they all matter and they all point to the same thing. Building August in a way that leaves room for you. Hold on to these shifts because next week, guys, we're gonna talk about what belongs in your foundation and what doesn't, what you intentionally choose not to build. Uh-huh. Because inheritance is real. So is your authority to design your life inside the space that you create. So until then, guys, give yourself the same care you give everyone else.