Heidi: This is episode 260 of Teacher Approved.
You're listening to Teacher Approved, the podcast helping
educators elevate what matters and simplify the rest. I'm
Heidi.
Emily: And I'm Emily. We're the creators behind Second Story
Window, where we give research-based and
teacher-approved strategies that make teaching less stressful and
more effective. You can check out the show notes and resources
from each episode at secondstorywindow.net.
Heidi: We're so glad you're tuning in today. Let's get to
the show.
Emily: Hey there, thanks for joining us today. In today's
episode, we are talking about the first week of summer and how
to actually decompress, plus we've got a teacher-approved tip
for soaking up the full sensory experience of summer.
Heidi: But first, let's start with a try it tomorrow, where we
share a quick one that you can try in your classroom right
away. Emily, what is our suggestion this week?
Emily: This week, we've got a couch task for you. You know we
love a couch task. Spend five minutes decluttering your
teaching Pinterest boards, or your saved TikToks, or those
Instagram posts that you've been hoarding all year. Just go
through and delete the ideas that now you realize you are
never actually going to use, and that way you can easily find the
good ideas when you need them.
Heidi: Right. This is such an important step if you're going
to save ideas, because you got to look for that one anchor
chart idea, and then you have to scroll through 400 activities
that seem awesome, but you know you, you're never actually going
to use these. So just trim the dead weight, keep what's
exciting but still feels reasonable, and then just delete
what isn't serving you anymore. It makes your saved content way
more useful.
Emily: Plus, it is also weirdly satisfying, because it's like
cleaning out your purse. You don't realize how much clutter
you're carrying around until you take some of it out, and then
when you do, it's like such a big win.
Heidi: Yes, it's like a whole new system.
Emily: Yes.
Heidi: Well, if you like this idea, or anything else we share
here on the podcast, would you take a second and give us a
five-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify?
Ratings and reviews help new listeners find us, so every one
really helps.
Okay, everyone, happy June 1. We know some of you lucky souls are
starting your second, or maybe your third week of summer break.
Emily: But some of you still have three or more weeks to the
finish line.
Heidi: Oh, that's rough.
Emily: But they will still be at the beach when the early out
crowd is heading back in July, so it all kind of evens out.
Heidi: Yeah, I guess there's trade offs, but whether you are
in those first golden days of break or your golden days are
still just a distant bright spot on the calendar, summer is a
gift.
Emily: The problem with this gift, though, is that it doesn't
come with any assembly instructions.
Heidi: Yeah, you have been counting down for months, you've
been telling yourself, if I can just make it to summer,
everything will be fine. And then summer arrives, and you
wake up on day one, and you have absolutely no idea what to do
with yourself.
Emily: So you do what any rational person would do, and
you scroll your phone for a while, maybe you take a nap, you
feel weirdly unsettled about something you can't quite name,
and you wonder if you should be doing something more.
Heidi: Or maybe you go the complete other direction. You
decide that since you finally have time, you're going to clean
out the garage, repaint the bathroom, and start lesson
planning for next year. By day four, you're exhausted, your
house is half torn apart, and you still haven't done a single
thing that feels like summer.
Emily: Yeah, those are the two failure modes we're calling them
guilty rest and the productivity trap, and it's easy to fall into
one or the other.
Heidi: Or both. Honestly, both. You start with guilty rest, and
then you panic about wasting your summer, and you swing hard
into the productivity trap, and then you crash again. It's a
whole cycle.
Emily: Yeah, we know that cycle well. When we were both still
teaching, we had plenty of summers where we came home from
the last day of school, and collapsed on the couch for, you
know, two weeks, and not in a restful way. In the I literally
cannot make a decision about what to do with myself way, and
you just kind of become a vegetable on the couch.
Heidi: Yes, become part of the couch.
Emily: Yep.
Heidi: It was a combination of being so depleted that we
couldn't function and not knowing what to do that was
productive, but still gentle. So we just defaulted to zoning out
until we could stand the thought of starting to think about the
next school year.
Emily: And then we dove in with fire. We had a whole system
where we spent mornings working in Heidi's room, and then
switched to my room after lunch, because I had a swamp cooler on
my room, and Heidi had no air conditioner.
Heidi: Yeah, and calling it a cooler is a stretch. The word
cool. Of course, you know, the front office had AC, but the
rest of the building was just, we're just at the mercy of that
humidifying swamp cooler.
Emily: I can feel the stickiness now.
Heidi: Yeah.
Emily: Don't miss that. But no matter your default approach to
summer, having a plan helps, so we are offering a third option
today. No guilty rest, no productive overhaul. We're going
to do something in between.
Heidi: Now, before you feel any pressure set in, let us reassure
you that this is not about getting stuff done. To borrow
one of Phoebe's great quotes from Friends, this isn't a plan,
this isn't even a pluh, it's just a way to give the first
week of summer some intentional handholds, so you don't lose it
to drift or guilt.
Emily: And if you're already on your break, that's fine, just
start where you are, we are totally flexible here.
Heidi: And if you've got a while to go to your break, just save
this for later, it will come in handy.
Okay, day one of your break, the prompt is to close in style.
Your nervous system needs a signal that something has
actually changed. You've spent the last 180 days walking into
the same building and doing the same things. If you close out
that last day of school the exact same way you closed out
yesterday, your brain doesn't really clock that anything is
different.
Emily: So, let's mark the occasion. If you're low in
energy, do the action hero version. Drop your teacher bag
in the hall closet, then shut the door and walk away like
you're an action hero walking away from an explosion. Do not
look back, the bag is dead to you now.
Heidi: Just take out any dirty dishes first, because I know I
would make that mistake.
Emily: Yeah, don't leave your lunchbox in there, that'll be
sad.
Heidi: Yeah, please avoid that. But if you really want to
celebrate your moment of freedom, you could even turn on
an epic song as your personal soundtrack. I checked, and I
found a playlist on Spotify called Songs to Walk Away from
an Explosion in Slow Motion, and I am partial to Seven Nation
Army, but I think this playlist has convinced me to try some
Fleetwood Mac. It kind of has a good pep to it.
Emily: Okay, well, of course, there is a playlist. I love it.
So, I guess we'll link to that in the show notes, but do be
aware that some of the songs are not kid-friendly, so be careful
if your epic moment will have an audience. Maybe put your
headphones in. This is just for you.
Heidi: And if you have some energy left after your dramatic
walk away, round up some teacher friends, hit the pool, or go out
to dinner, whatever marking the occasion looks like to you.
Emily: But you really don't have to do anything big. It just has
to feel like a signal. The point is to put a period on the year,
to end the day differently than every other day has ended for
the last nine months.
Heidi: And that's our whole goal for day one. On day two, it's
time to write your I can finally list.
Emily: I love this, because making a list makes me feel like
I'm doing something productive, but this list, the stakes could
not be lower on this list. You sit down and you make a list of
everything you can do now. You can finally drink your coffee
while it's still hot. You can finally go to the bathroom
whenever you want to. You can finally meet a friend for lunch
on a Tuesday.
Heidi: And it's okay if they sound really small. That's the
point. The list isn't supposed to be impressive. It's just
supposed to name all of the tiny things that you have been
deferring for months, because when you put them on paper, you
realize how many of them there are, and that makes that shift
from school year mode to summer mode feel real.
Emily: And if you're in the teacher-approved club this
month, we have a printable I can finally list waiting for you in
your member resources as part of our tired teacher summer
planner. So, if writing it out on a fresh piece of paper feels
nicer than scrolling it on the back of an envelope, we got you.
We will have the link in the show notes if you want to check
it out in the club.
Heidi: Now, day three's task is to close the loops, and this one
sounds slightly less fun, but stick with us, because it pays
off.
Emily: This is when you do a brain dump of every open school
task that's floating around in your head. The thing you forgot
to email the office about, the kid you wanted to follow up
with, the supplies you need to reorder for next year. Just get
it out of your brain and onto paper.
Heidi: We're calling this the loose ends list, and you don't
have to do any of it. You just have to decide when you're going
to deal with it. Urgent things can go in the do now column,
less urgent stuff goes in the do later column, and then anything
you decide that really isn't that important can go in the let
go column.
Emily: The reason this matters is that those open loops are
what nag at you while you're trying to relax. Your brain
keeps pulling them up, like, hey, remember this, hey, what
about this one? Once they have a home, your brain can let them
rest. It is a small step, but it makes a huge difference in how
restful the rest of summer feels.
Heidi: And club members, we have a sortable list for this in your
member resources too. It's in the same place as the I can
finally list.
Emily: Day four's task is to reconnect with fun, plan
something fun for this day, whatever fun means to you.
Heidi: If that seems like a tough ask, because you have
forgotten what fun feels like, that's okay. Pick something that
used to be fun, or something that sounds fun in theory, and
try it. Maybe that's rounding up friends for a hike, or maybe an
afternoon of jigsaw puzzling with snacks is more your speed.
Whatever is enjoyable for you is the right answer.
Emily: Jigsaw puzzling is definitely more my speed than
hiking, but just remember, fun is not a luxury, it's actually
how you recover. So, you're not being self-indulgent by planning
a fun day, you're helping your system recuperate after being in
high gear for so many months.
Heidi: On day five, it's time for a creative nudge. This is
about waking up the parts of your brain that get turned off
during the school year. When you're teaching, you are
constantly managing logistics and putting out fires. The
creative, playful parts of your brain don't get a lot of air
time, so they get a little rusty.
Emily: Let's turn one of those channels back on. Is there an
old hobby you keep meaning to get back to, or a new thing
you've been curious about? Maybe you want to pull out the
watercolors you bought three years ago, try that recipe
you've been saving, or buy a fresh notebook and just doodle
in it.
Heidi: And again, this is not supposed to be ambitious. If you
spend an hour doing it and decide it's not for you, that is
fine. The point is the trying, not the outcome.
Emily: Okay. Day six, and it's our favorite. Your very
important job for this day is to give yourself one indulgence.
Pick something that you would normally feel guilty for
enjoying, and lean all the way in.
Heidi: If you're not sure where to start, you can try borrowing
a tradition from Iceland and plan an Isbiltur. I think that's
how you say it, and that is an ice cream road trip. I love that
they have a culture around this. Pick the best ice cream shops
within driving distance and visit one, or you know, go big,
hit three of them in one afternoon, but if you're gonna
do that, maybe just skip the double scoops.
Emily: Yeah, I would need to remember the lactaid.
Heidi: Oh, definitely.
Emily: Or spend the whole day catching up on The Real
Housewives in your pajamas, maybe with a charcuterie board.
Heidi: Or read a romance novel cover to cover, or stay up way
too late watching movies, or get a really nice coffee and drive
around with the music up.
Emily: And here's why this matters. The thing that makes
most of these activities not feel restful is the guilt. You
watch four hours of TV, and you feel terrible because you should
have been doing something productive. You eat the ice
cream, and you feel bad about it later.
Heidi: But making a planned exception to your normal
standards just takes the guilt off the table. If you wake up on
day six and you've already decided today, I have permission
to enjoy this thing I love, no judgment allowed, it transforms
the experience. The same activity that would have left
you feeling gross now feels restorative.
Emily: Okay, we've made it to the end of our first week. It's
day seven, and today's task is to peek ahead at the rest of the
summer and start thinking about what you want to get out of it.
Heidi: But we're not going to talk about making a bucket list.
Instead, we are going to make a joy list. Dee Michelle Perry
posted about this on Instagram, and we think she nailed it. So
I'm just going to read what she said. "Bucket lists can start to
feel like to do lists, and I don't need any more to do lists.
They can be overly aspirational too. I want my seasons to be
about where my attention is placed, not what I have
achieved. Social media comparisonitis is a real thing.
That's why I'm creating a monthly joy list that's
accessible, adaptable, affordable, and creates
anticipation for things to look forward to each month."
Emily: Yes, and that's the goal, right? Bucket lists, man, they
can turn into to-do lists, and then we feel like we failed if
we didn't check off enough of them by Labor Day, which is why
I always refuse to make a summer bucket list with my kids,
because I just know it will hang over me all summer, but a joy
list is different.
Heidi: Yeah, a joy list is, what would I love to pay attention to
this summer, not, what would I love to accomplish. Just think
about the things you want to notice and do, and taste, and
spend time on.
Emily: And those four words from her post are so useful:
accessible, adaptable, affordable, and creates
anticipation. Your summer doesn't have to look like the
summer you see online.
Heidi: Yeah, there's no summer police. You're not failing if
you don't go on a trip or host a backyard party or do whatever
else the algorithm is currently telling you summer's supposed to
be. Make the right summer for you.
Emily: And we're going to be coming back to this idea of
designing your summer in our next few episodes, so stay tuned
for that. But first, let's recap our summer decompression plan.
Day one, close in style. Day two, write your I can finally
list. Day three, close the loops. Day four, reconnect with
fun. Day five, revisit creativity. Day six, do one
indulgent thing, and day seven, peek ahead and make a joylist.
Heidi: You don't have to do these in order, and you don't
have to do all of them. If you are already into summer break,
start with whatever makes the most sense for where you are.
Emily: And if you still have a few weeks until the end, use
this episode to get your wheels turning. What do you want the
start of your break to look like? Give yourself something to
look forward to as you calm overhyper children and inventory
all your cupboards.
Heidi: If this idea resonates with you, you might already be
thinking about how to bring more intention to every season, not
just summer. And that's the heart of our upcoming book,
Structure and Spark. It's the framework for letting each
season of the school year work for you, not against you. And
it's available for pre-order now. The link is in the show
notes, if you want to take a look.
Emily: Now for our teacher-approved tip of the
week, where we share an actionable tip to help you
elevate what matters and simplify the rest. This week's
teacher-approved tip is to make a summer sensorium. Tell us
about it, Heidi.
Heidi: Well, we have talked about this before, back in
episodes 134 and 199. But since it happens to be summer again,
how is it summer again? I'm so confused, but it is summer, says
the calendar and the weather outside, and my allergies, but
that makes this the perfect time to revisit this idea. So, a
quick refresher on what a sensorium is. Your sensorium is
your different sensory perceptions taken as a whole. So
your brain takes the inputs from each of your senses and
assembles them into your perceived experiences of a
moment, or you know, a day, or the whole season. So, if you
want a summer that actually feels like summer and not just
three months that happened, you have to intentionally include
the sensory inputs that make it feel that way.
Emily: And that's actually a really fun exercise, because you
just need to take a minute to think about your favorite summer
sights and sounds and textures, tastes and smells, then decide
how to include them in your plans.
Heidi: Yeah, think about how enriched you'll feel after a
summer of sweet, drippy watermelon and chlorine-scented
kids and twinkling fireflies and backyard dance parties and
walking in the grass.
Emily: This is the magic of summer, and none of those things
require a big expense or a big plan. They're all just sensory
experiences that you can fold into a regular Tuesday, and it
ensures that you're really savoring the full scope of what
the season has to offer. So, make yourself a summer
sensorium. You can jot it down on a piece of paper, or Teacher
Approved Club members, you can use the sensorium page in our
summer planner.
Heidi: All right, to wrap up the show, we are showing what we're
giving extra credit to. Emily, what gets your extra credit this
week?
Emily: Okay, I'm giving extra credit to a foldable silicone
sink topper. So, I have a broken sink. I have two sinks in my
bathroom, and one of them has a crack, and I need to deal with
that, but I haven't. So, the water is turned off to it, so
it's not being used for anything. And one of my
daughters has also decided that that's where she likes to get
ready, is in my bathroom, where there's room, but she was
dropping things in the sink all the time, and just making a
mess, and I was like, ah, more counter space would actually be
more helpful. So this sink topper, it has holes in it, but
they're not big enough for, like, your stuff to fall
through, and you just put, you just put it out over the sink,
and they come in a couple different sizes, depending what
size your sink is, and you suddenly have all this extra
counter space, and it even has enough room that if you wanted
to turn your sink on, you could.
Heidi: Is it flat like a tray?
Emily: It's flat like a tray. Yes,
Heidi: I've been like picturing something that you curve that
you like set in the sink.
Emily: No, no, no, no, it's flat, and it goes far enough out
from the side of this sink that it's sturdy enough that it can
go across.
Heidi: Oh, that's cool.
Emily: You know, and stay sturdy. So, I think this would
be helpful any place you need more counter space, especially
if you only have one sink and a small counter, and you need a
little extra space, or like in a half bathroom that just has one
little sink, but someone needs to get ready in there, you just
pop this out, and it's really easy to fold up and put it away,
too.
Heidi: Well, that's handy.
Emily: It is handy. What are you giving extra credit to, Heidi?
Heidi: Okay, well, this is much less handy, but I'm giving extra
credit to the trend of romanticizing your life. It's in
my algorithm, it's all over Instagram recently, and the idea
is to just take your regular life, but make it feel like an
event we're showing up for. And I love that thought, but you
know, I'm busy, and it doesn't seem super practical. But I
happened to see some mugs on sale at the store, and they had
a cute one that was shaped like a teacup and decorated with
tulips, so I grabbed it, and I use it to take my nighttime
pills, and it really is just been the most fun little change
up. It's like having a tea party with my melatonin. I even got,
oh my gosh, I even got a fancy teaspoon, so now I stir glycine
into my pill water, like I'm in Downton Abbey or something.
Emily: I love it.
Heidi: I could have, like, I could have got a teacup, teacup,
but I'm storing this in my bin with my pills, so I needed some,
I swear a teacup wouldn't be sturdy enough, so the mug works
perfectly, and it's just been just a little smile at the end
of the day. I love it.
Emily: If you're really trying to feel like you're going back
in time, you can pretend that you're stirring laudanum into
your dream.
Heidi: Oh, man, I would sleep so good after that. Way better than
glycine and melatonin. Well, put that on the list, that'll be our
next extra credit.
Emily: No, it will not.
Heidi: Okay, well, DM me for that one.
That is it for today's episode. Get started on your
decompression plan, or save this for whenever your summer
actually starts.
Emily: And don't forget about our book, Structure and Spark,
that is available for pre-order. The link for that is in the show
notes, and it is a great way to support us if we've ever helped
you with the things that we share.
Heidi: We hope you enjoyed this episode of Teacher Approved. I'm
Heidi.
Emily: And I'm Emily. Thank you for listening. Be sure to follow
or subscribe in your podcast app so that you never miss an
episode.
Heidi: You can connect with us and other teachers in the
Teacher Approved Facebook group. We'll see you here next week.
Bye for now.
Emily: Bye.