Teacher Burnout, Reinvention, and Resilience: How to Survive Emotional Dodgeball

What does a ridiculous comedy bout dodgeball have in common with the emotional rollercoaster of being a burned-out teacher? More than you think.

In this episode of Teachers in Transition, Vanessa uses Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story to explore the hidden truth behind teacher burnout, resilience, and identity loss. From flying wrenches and Globo Gym gaslighting to career pivots and Average Joe’s community, this metaphor-rich episode will help you name your exhaustion, reclaim your worth, and start your exit strategy with clarity.

Whether you're flinching at every new initiative, grieving your former self, or finally whispering, “I can’t do this anymore,”—you’re not broken. You’re rebuilding.

Keywords: teacher burnout, teacher career change, teacher transition, emotional exhaustion, resilience, career pivot, leaving teaching, post-teaching jobs, mid-career reinvention

Listen now and remember: you've given enough. It’s time to build a future that gives back.
 

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Please share this podcast with someone that you think might like what it has to say – many teachers are aching to find a way to a new career.  You can help them. People find new podcasts mostly because they’ve been recommended by someone they know.   

The transcript to this podcast is found on the episode’s homepage at Buzzspout

Transcript

Are you a teacher who is feeling stressed out and overwhelmed? Do you worry that you're feeling symptoms of burnout - or are you sure you've already gotten there? Have you started to dream of doing something different or a new job or perhaps pursuing an entirely different career - but you don't know what else you're qualified to do? You don't know how to start a job search, and you just feel stuck. If that sounds like you, I promise you are not alone. My name is Vanessa Jackson; and I am a career transition and job search coach, and I specialize in helping burnt out teachers just like you deal with the overwhelmingly stressful nature of your day-to-day job and to consider what other careers might be out there waiting for you. You might ask yourself, what tools do I need to find a new career?  Are my skills valuable outside the classroom?  How and where do I even get started?  These are all questions you deserve answers to, and I can help you find them.  I’m Vanessa Jackson. Come and join me for Teachers in Transition.  

Hi! Welcome back – I’m Vanessa Jackson – I taught middle school for 25 years, left teaching and worked for a Fortune 500 company, and now I work for teachers. I help teachers figure out their options in tough, toxic situations. I helped stressed, overwhelmed and burned-out teachers translate their considerable skills to leave the classroom – you know, career transition and job search. I have a tendency to say the quiet parts out loud - and help burned-out educators rediscover what lights them up.  Today on the podcast we are continuing with the summer movie series. I know many teachers are back in school, but I’m having so much fun with this movie series that I am continuing a couple more weeks to finish out August. I’m going to show you how the movie Dodgeball can help us navigate past burnout and gaslighting. 

Dodgeball is ridiculous, chaotic, a little crass... and yet? Weirdly profound.

Yes, I’m talking about Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story. You heard that right. The 2004 dodgeball comedy starring Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller, and a grown man who genuinely thinks he’s a pirate.

Now before you side-eye me for this pick - hear me out. Dodgeball is secretly a masterclass in emotional survival, career reinvention, and the trauma-informed teacher transition journey.

So get your red rubber ball, get your metaphorical kneepads, and let’s dive in.  Pun intended! There may be a lot of those today!

First let’s break the movie down in case you’ve never seen or  you have forgotten it. We start with Peter LaFleur.  Nice guy and utter slacker. He owns the Average Joe’s Gym. His extreme apathy has created a situation where the owner of the shiny Globo Gym gym across the street, White Goodman has bought the foreclosure note from the bank and will soon own Average Joe’s Gym. In an effort to stop the foreclosure, Peter needs $50,000.  This is not helped by the fact that he has not collected membership fees in over a year.  One of the regulars at the gym discovers that they can win, magically, the exact amount of money they need if they win a dodgeball tournament. The rest of the movie involves them working their way through this dodgeball tournament tackling ridiculous obstacles as they appear. There’s a fun little twist at the end, but there’s 

Remember the infamous scene where Rip Torn’s character, Patches O’Houlighan chucks a wrench at someone and yells, “If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball”? Wild. And also... somehow a perfect analogy for teacher life.

You’ve dodged angry parent emails, duck impossible curriculum mandates, dip budget cuts, and dive from spontaneous admin walkthroughs, and dodge all an angry society on social media that has no clue what happens in a school. You’ve taught fractions during fire drills and written IEPs at midnight. You have more skills than you know. 
 
 

If you have survived the emotional equivalent of flying wrenches, you’re already prepared for life outside the classroom. The skills are there. The trick is naming them, framing them, and using them. I hear from teachers all the time that they don’t know how to translate their skills or that they’ve been told that it doesn’t matter if they translate them or not.
 
I can tell you what I’ve seen. Yes, it can be hard to break into a position. That’s why it’s so important to network. Depending on the statistics you find, it’s 80-85% of jobs are found through networking. Take a second and ponder how many times you’ve hunted for teachers jobs and you gotten those interviews because someone spoke up for you.  Simply put, your network is everyone you know and everyone they know.  It’s based in community.  Kinda like the gym. 

In the movie, Average Joe’s Gym is a run-down, underdog space where nobody’s perfect, but everyone’s trying. And more importantly? Everyone belongs.

That’s what I’m building with Teachers in Transition. A little corner of the internet where you don’t have to have it all figured out. A place where being exhausted, unsure, or even a little cynical doesn’t disqualify you from community.

You just need to show up.

If you’re tired of trying to figure this out alone, come sign up for one of the Discovery Sessions I offer . Average Joe’s might not have had clean towels—but it had real people who had each other’s backs.

Contrast that to Globo Gym. Ben Stiller is a caricature of….something. His character reminds me of every gaslighting, data-obsessed, optics-driven leader rolled into one. All charm (what HE thinks is charm!) All charm and catchphrases on the outside. All pressure and toxicity underneath.
 
 I recently traded comments with someone on TikTok with a handle indicating they were an elementary school principal who claimed that 90% of classroom problems could be solved simply by being by the door and greeting kids.  I pushed back on that.  Classroom discipline is just too nuanced for such a flippant response. When someone makes a pronouncement “90% of classroom problems can be solved by….” it makes a lot of younger teachers (newer teachers) feel they’re missing something.  The 90% is quantitative – it’s a percentage.  It’s an A. What teacher doesn’t wanna get an A?  And when they fall short – because they can do the math – they feel like a failure. They’re not a failure, they were just given an impossible metric to achieve. There’s no way that 0-% was grounded in any quantitative research. 

Sound familiar?

Many of you are working under a Globo Gym regime right now. You’re told to smile more, data more, care more—while being resourced less. The solution isn’t to become a Globo Gym version of yourself. It’s to remember you don’t have to play by those rules anymore. 

You get to walk away. You get to rebuild. You get to say, “That’s not my gym.”  You can find community elsewhere.  

In dodgeball, they drill the "5 Ds": Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive, and Dodge.

Let’s adjust that so that it works for US. 

• Dodge burnout.
• Duck those old beliefs that say you’re “just a teacher.”
• Dip into your untapped strengths and passions.
• Dive into clarity through action.
• And yes—Dodge the pressure to stay stuck just because it’s familiar.

The 5 Ds aren’t a joke, they can be a survival strategy.

Segment 5: "Flinching Anyway" – Bravery in Burnout

Here’s a fun bit of trivia: the cast said the hardest part of filming the dodgeball scenes wasn’t getting hit - it was not flinching when they knew a hit was coming. That’s such a visceral image, isn’t it? You see the ball leave someone’s hand. You know it’s going to smack you. Your body’s instincts scream, “Brace! Flinch! Duck!” And yet, the actors had to stand there, eyes wide open, pretending not to see it coming.

Tell me that’s not the teacher experience in a nutshell.

You know the ball’s coming. You know it when you see the email subject line pop up at 7:43 AM with “URGENT” in all caps. You know it when the principal says, “Can I see you for just a minute?” or when there’s a surprise added to your already packed week. You know there’s another ask, another shift, another push, another initiative, another standard, another meeting, another thing that no one trained you for but expects you to handle flawlessly.

And yet—you show up.

You flinch, but you don’t quit. You answer anyway. You adapt, again. You carry on with half a plan, a dried-out marker, and a fire drill scheduled smack in the middle of your only prep period.

When you have that urge to flinch, you have to know that it’s not fear. It’s awareness. It means your nervous system works. But the fact that you stay, that you keep standing in the path of these  flying metaphorical rubber balls and shifting goalposts—that is something else entirely.

That’s resilience. It’s persistence. That’s a nervous system that’s been stretched beyond reason and is still trying to do the job. That’s grit. That’s survival wisdom.

And it’s exactly why you would be just fine outside the classroom.

Because when you’ve trained yourself not to flinch at chaos, you’ve already mastered what most people struggle with in high-pressure environments. Your superpower isn’t just “handling it.” It’s how much you’ve absorbed without losing your humanity.

Let’s be honest: no one should have to live in flinch-mode forever. That’s not sustainable. But while you’re here? Know this: you’re stronger than you think, and you’ve already been practicing courage daily.

Humor break! 

When the team is learning these rules of Dodgeball, they watch a 1950s-era black and white explainer film – complete with a little blond boy named Timmy.  

I laugh too much every time I watch it and he says – “You scared the jeepers out of me!"

Because honestly? That too, is teaching. That’s life. That’s career transition.

Surprise evaluations. Job rejections. Epiphanies at stoplights. Those “jeepers” moments come out of nowhere.

Humor is what gets us through. And if you’re not laughing yet, that’s okay. But it’ll come. And when it comes - it’ll feel like exhaling for the first time in months.

There’s a moment when Peter, the gym owner, says:

“I found that if you have a goal, that you might not reach it. But if you don't have one, then you are never disappointed. And I gotta tell ya, it feels phenomenal!”

I talk to so many teachers who are afraid to set the actual goal to leave the classroom. Not because they don’t care - but because hope comes at too high of a cost.

The thing is: avoiding goals is a trauma response. It’s not laziness. It’s a nervous system saying, “Please don’t hurt me again.”

So start small. Set a micro-goal. One resume. One discovery call. One new job alert. You can build from there.

So let’s talk for a second about Owen and Fran,  Owen is the team’s manager who gets thrown into the last game and Fran is the Globo Gym Ringer. Remember the moment when Owen sees Fran and that cheesy “Lady in Red” music plays?

It’s absurd. And adorable. And a reminder that when you see something - or someone - that just feels right, it’s okay to go for it. Fran’s appearance is played for laughs, and Owen seems like he is going to be alone for life, but they find each other.  It’s this beautiful little metaphor that the perfect job is out there for you .  

Don’t settle. Not in relationships. Not in jobs. Not in how you narrate your story.

Your dream role is out there. Don’t ghost yourself before you even apply. When it’s right – it’s *right*

And Steve – I want to talk about Steve. You remember—Steve the Pirate. Of course you remember him – you’re not Owen from the movie “We had a guy on the team dressed as a pirate??)  Played brilliantly by Alan Tudyk. An Average Joe who walks like a pirate, talks like a pirate, dresses like a pirate...because in his heart? He is a pirate.

And yes, this is somehow the second podcast in a row where I’ve brought up pirates. We’re just going to roll with it. Maybe it’s a theme.

But here’s what gets me: Steve’s pirate identity isn’t a joke to him. It’s not a gimmick. It’s who he is. It’s how he shows up in the world. He is confident, proud, and—up until one pivotal moment—completely sure of himself.

Then Peter, stressed and frustrated, snaps at him and says, “You’re not a pirate.” And just like that, Steve unravels. He walks away, heartbroken. Lost. You can see him questioning everything. Because when someone challenges who we believe we are - it hurts. Deep.

Sound familiar?

How many of you have had your identity stripped or questioned once you started thinking about leaving the classroom?

How many times have you heard:

• “But you’re such a good teacher.”
• “You’re really going to give up your license and your pension?”
• “Don’t you care about the kids anymore?”

Suddenly, you’re not just someone exploring new opportunities. You’re being told, implicitly or explicitly, that you’re not who you thought you were. That you’re no longer a “real” teacher. That you’re not passionate. Not committed. Not enough.

But let’s go back to Steve.

Even without the costume, Steve is still Steve. He is part of the team. He matters. He’s more than a hat, some glorious long red hair, and an arrrrrr

And so are you.

You are still you, whether or not you stand in front of a whiteboard. Your identity is not confined to a classroom badge or a teacher planner. Who you are - the empathy, the creativity, the grit, the wisdom - that goes with you, no matter where you go next.

You’re not broken. You’re not abandoning anything. You’re evolving.

And like Steve, you might need a minute to wander off and figure out who you are outside the costume. That’s okay. That’s part of it.

But when you come back? You’ll be more you than ever.  Aarrrr.

et’s have a little fun. Here are 10 things we’ve all heard in education that make about as much sense as dodging wrenches:

1. “You’ll be fine with 35 kids in that room.”
2. “Professional  Development will fix everything.”
3. “We’re cutting your planning time...to improve student outcomes.”
4. “We just need you to do one more thing. It’s only five minutes”
5. “Try yoga.”
6. “90% of your classroom management issues go away if you just greet people at the door”
7. “You get summers off.”
8. “This new curriculum will change everything.”
9. “We don’t have any money for that, but here’s a donut.”
10. “It’s for the kids.”

Whew. Laugh or cry, right?

I have spoiler alerts ahead… You’ve been warned.  (3…2…1..) White bribes Peter to leave and forfeit so the Purple Cobras can win. It almost works.  Peter checks out early and heads to the airport. Lance Armstrong shows up and guilts Peter into thinking it is something more. Peter does show up to play, Chuck Norris makes it possible for them to play and there’s that final mano-y-mano moment.  Peter even blindfolds himself for dramatic effect. And…They win. Yaaaaay.  
 
 White tells them it doesn’t matter. Peter comes in with the au-contraire-mon-frere twist.  He has placed a bet at 50 to 1 and turned that 50,000 into $5 million giving him enough money to purchase an ownership stake in Globo Gym.  The treasure chest is literally labeled “Deus Ex Machina.”

It’s the movie’s way of saying: “Yeah, we know this ending is ridiculous.”

But in real life? No magical treasure chest is coming.

There is no perfect admin, perfect policy, perfect time.

You have to make your own plot twist. You make the decisions and the bold plot twist.  

Let’s take a quick moment to talk about the Emotional Whiplash

There’s a spot in one of the dodgeball games where Justin Long’s character hears a shouted “I love you!” from the cheerleader he adores. He lights up. It’s a genuine moment. He shouts back, “I love you t—” and then BAM. Dodgeball. Straight to the face.

Been there?

Just when things finally feel like they’re going well - an enthusiastic interview, a glowing evaluatio, a small victory in your classroom - you get smacked. A new initiative. A snide comment. A policy change that nullifies months of your work. Sometimes it’s not even personal, it’s just poorly timed, but it still feels like betrayal.

That’s emotional whiplash.

It’s when your nervous system shifts gears so fast it can’t keep up. One moment you’re hopeful and maybe even excited. The next, you’re spiraling. And because teachers are trained to regulate and recover quickly, we often don’t even realize how much it’s wearing us out.

You think:

• “Why am I so tired?”
• “I should be grateful for the win.”
• “Why can’t I bounce back faster?”

Your system was never meant to function under constant extremes. You’re not really weak, you’re worn down.

Emotional whiplash in teaching looks like hope followed by humiliation. Success followed by a setback. Joy followed by judgment.  Having a lesson you were proud of getting ripped to shreds by an administrator who walked in for five minutes and doesn’t even understand your subject area. 

And it’s not just hard—it’s disorienting. It means your brain and body are trying to navigate chaos with no consistent safety net.  It’s a sign. You’re trying to heal in a system that doesn’t pause for breath. Of course it’s hard.

But it won’t always feel this way. With the right tools and support, your nervous system can recalibrate. And you’ll learn you can live life without flinching.

That’s what we’re working toward. A career and a life where joy doesn’t come with a dodgeball to the face right afterwards.

In the end, Peter rebrands Average Joe’s. In the commercial, he says:

“You’re perfect just the way you are...but if you feel like losing a few pounds, getting healthier, and making some friends, come on down.”

That’s what I want this space - Teachers in Transition - to be for you.

You don’t need fixing. You’re not broken.

We’re just here to help you get a little clearer, a little stronger, and a whole lot more joyful.

So that’s it. Dodgeball as teacher transition metaphor. Who knew?

I hope this episode gave you some laughs, some insight, and maybe a few “jeepers!” moments of your own.

And if you’re ready to dodge burnout and dive into something new (pun intended!), I’d love to help.

You can sign up for a Discovery Session. Follow on Threads or Instagram. And remember: You’ve given enough. It’s time to build a future that gives back.

“Dodging burnout is one thing - but clarity is another. If you’ve been whispering ‘just one more year,’ and you’re getting a little tired of that, this upcoming workshop is for you. Join me on September 1 or 27 for DECIDE, where we’ll explore whether staying, shifting, or leaving makes sense for you.  There is a link in the show notes, but you can also go to the homepage of Teachersintransition.com and it will have a link right up front.  Same workshop, two different date for convenience. 

Until next time—keep dodging the nonsense and standing in your truth.

You’ve got this.

That’s the podcast for today! If you liked this podcast, tell a friend, and don’t forget to rate and review wherever you listen to your podcasts. Tune in weekly to Teachers in Transition where we discuss Job Search strategies as well as stress management techniques.  And I want to hear from you!  Please reach out and leave me a message at Vanessa@Teachersintransition.com  You can also leave a voicemail or text at 512-640-9099. 

I’ll see you here again next week and remember – YOU are amazing!