Teacher Wellbeing

This episode is a personal update, an update on what Self-Care for Teachers has going on at the moment, and an invitation to the Teaching Career Crossroads free class this Saturday.Sign up for the Teaching Career Crossroads webinar here.Join the waitlist to coach with me here.Sign up for the Self-Care for Teachers newsletter here.

Happy 6th Birthday to the Teacher Wellbeing Podcast! It sure has been an amazing ride since I began the podcast in 2017. I could not have predicted where things would end up but I’m so proud of the 9 seasons that have been produced so far. In the time since I began the show, the teacher wellbeing industry has matured so much and is now mainstream in schools across Australia. And of course 6 years in and my personal and professional life look extremely different than when I started the show. In this episode I share a litte update! Links: Email me about being a guest on Season 10 or about Asynchronous Wellbeing & Career Coaching hello@selfcareforteachers.com.au How to Work in Wellbeing Training https://selfcareforteachers.thinkific.com/courses/how-to-work-in-wellbeing Before You Leave Teaching Course https://selfcareforteachers.thinkific.com/courses/before-you-leave-teaching Sign up for the Self-Care for Teachers newsletter here.

This is the last episode in Season 9 but we will be back for Season 10 sometime later in the year. In the meantime make sure you’re following me on Instagram @selfcareforteachers and get on the newsletter list so you stay up to date. And if you really resonated with this conversation about school wellbeing that Lisa and I had at the end, and if you’re the wellbeing person in your school, or you want to be, come and join me and other wellbeing champions at a virtual networking event on the 22nd March. Check out selfcareforteachers.com.au/wellbeingchampion for more resources in this area including a new freebie about common mistakes to avoid.As always remember that you are a person first and a teacher second and you are so worthy of your own care!Sign up for the Self-Care for Teachers newsletter here.

This is a brilliant conversation with Katrina Bourke, a good friend to the podcast who has been on the show several times before. We discuss leadership sacred ground, what it is, why you need it and how we find it. Katrina also shares the power of deep self-awareness and why it’s also important that we understand and accept our shadow sides. Plus, we talk about what gets in the way of showing up as the best leaders we can be and advice for new and emerging leaders too.The Authentic LeaderDeputy Principals, this one’s for you! Have you heard of The Authentic Leader?It's an online community of learning and connection exclusively for female deputy principals who want to lead well and live well. The Authentic Leader is a safe space to connect with other women who really understand what you do. It's a network full of wisdom and warmth where you can get help with managing workload, feeling confident, and the day-to-day highs and lows of school leadership.https://www.katrinabourkecoaching.com.au/workwithkatrina/Sign up for the Self-Care for Teachers newsletter here.

In this episode I am sharing with you a clip from the Resilient Teacher Roadmap online course, and it’s really the metaphor that underpins the roadmap, about approaching our resilience and wellbeing the way an engineer builds a bridge: knowing and planning for it to flood and designing the bridge accordingly, not building a flimsy bridge and praying it doesn’t rain.You can find the Resilient Teacher Roadmap course in my online shop at anytime https://selfcareforteachers.thinkific.com/courses/roadmapBut I also want to invite you to join the Resilient Teacher Group Coaching Program, which starts on 29th January or 1st February, depending which cohort you join. It’s a 6 month group coaching program for teachers wanting support, encouragement and community in building their resilience and wellbeing in 2022.Enrolment is open now, head to selfcareforteachers.com.au/resilientteacherYou heard Emma share in the previous episode how being a part of the Resilient Teacher Group Coaching Program helped her make some changes in her life and improve her wellbeing as a person and as a teacher. And I’d love to support you this year to do the same.So here’s a little snippet of my approach and my clients have found it a really valuable metaphor to help them reflect on their resilience and wellbeing, set goals and seek support when needed.Sign up for the Self-Care for Teachers newsletter here.

In this episode of the Teacher Wellbeing Podcast I have a really interesting conversation with Gail Swift from Plans to Prosper Coaching. Gail is an educational guide and Kolbe Index Consultant who works with schools and teachers in the United States on bringing out their best when everybody is free to be themselves.Gail shares with us about something called conation, which the dictionary says is ‘the mental faculty of purpose, desire, or will to perform an action’. Gail explains how conation is different to cognition and also personality, but how all three are needed for success. We talk about how this plays out in classrooms and staffroom, and how understanding our ways of working can help us get along better. Gail shares some advice for school leaders trying to motivated disengaged staff, and we have a great chat about rethinking the way we approach staff meetings to make them more effective, efficient and engaging, which I’m sure is something we all want. Ultimately this episode is about closing the distances between us and building understanding, and learning to get along better in our families, teams and communities and I hope you enjoy this conversation with Gail!Reminder: now is a great time to put your name down on the waiting list to work with me when I come back from Maternity Leave in 2022. I’ll only be back part time so it will definitely be a case of first in best dressed and the waiting list for my 1:1 coaching or for the Resilient Teacher Group Coaching Program will be notified first when spots open up in my calendar: https://mailchi.mp/33f69a083043/work-with-ellen-waiting-listThere is also a waiting list for School Wellbeing Champions too. In 2020 and 2021 I’ve run a number of meetups and workshops for School Wellbeing Champions, who are the amazing educators and staff members who are driving wellbeing initiatives from the ground up in schools. And in 2022 I plan to run some more of these, with options for both PD relating to wellbeing initiatives you can run in your school, and opportunities for networking, connecting and learning from Wellbeing Champions around Australia. So if that sounds like you, pop your name on the interest list at selfcareforteachers.com.au/wellbeingchampions and of course the link will be in the show notes and the description of your podcast app!Sign up for the Self-Care for Teachers newsletter here.

In this episode we hear from a guest host, Ellie Huth, whose story you heard back in episode 2 of this season. If you haven’t yet listened to that I recommend you do so but Ellie does give a brief overview of her background here too. This episode is all about the power of knowing and using our character strengths for wellbeing. Ellie first tells us about her experience with her Employee Advisory Program, or EAP, which is where she was first introduced to the concept of Character Strengths, and then she went on to study them further as part of her Masters in Wellbeing. Ellie tells us what the character strengths are, the science behind using them for wellbeing and how we can find out about our strengths.This episode of the Teacher Wellbeing Podcast is brought to you by the30 Days of Self-Care Challenge private podcast audio course: https://selfcareforteachers.com.au/challengeSign up for the Self-Care for Teachers newsletter here.

This episode of the Teacher Wellbeing podcast is a fantastic interview with Meg Durham from Open Mind Education. Depending how long you’ve been listening, you may remember Meg from way back in Season 3, Episode 7 and I’m so thrilled to have her back on the podcast. Meg also has just launched a podcast of her own called School of Wellbeing, so do a search for that in your favourite podcast app and get listening to it too.In this episode Meg tells us about her journey over the last few years integrating wellbeing into her life, coming from a place of knowing a lot but having to learn to apply it in new and very challenging circumstances. We talk about the reality of the process of change being messy, how wellbeing plays out with teachers and schools, the importance of buy in from staff when you’re implementing school wellbeing programs and how long they really take to embed, plus the two approaches of proactiveness and learned helplessness that Meg and I have both observed. Meg then shares a framework that I’ve found so helpful and I hope you will too: she tells us about the 5 Ps that hold us back and the 5 Cs that help us change. It’s a brilliant conversation and I’m so excited to bring it to you.Connect with Meg on Instagram @megdurham__ or on her website https://openmindeducation.com or find her new podcast ‘School of Wellbeing’ in your podcast app now!This episode of the Teacher Wellbeing Podcast is brought to you by the30 Days of Self-Care Challenge private podcast audio course: https://selfcareforteachers.com.au/challengeSign up for the Self-Care for Teachers newsletter here.

Welcome to Season 9 of the Teacher Wellbeing Podcast! Self-care is so often sold to us by Instagram influencers and companies that want to sell us goop to put on our faces as some lovely indulgence. But that's rarely been my experience. It's also not the kind of self-care that I advocate for, or that underpins my work here at Self-Care for Teachers. My experience of self-care, the kind that I've found most revolutionary in my life, that I teach my clients and that I see making a difference for them is the kind of self-care that is a bit of a chore.By the time you hear this, I will be on maternity leave, but this season of the Teacher Wellbeing podcast will be going out fortnightly while I’m in my baby bubble. I’ve recorded some great interviews for this season so I hope you enjoy them.Resilient Teacher Roadmap self-paced eourse: https://selfcareforteachers.com.au/roadmapMy online shop: https://selfcareforteachers.thinkific.com/collectionsWaiting list for working with me in 2022: https://mailchi.mp/33f69a083043/work-with-ellen-waiting-listSign up for the Self-Care for Teachers newsletter here.

7 strategies for looking after your wellbeing in lockdownThe challenges of lockdown and remote learning have been a common topic of discussion in my coaching sessions with teachers in recent weeks.Here are some of the things they've shared that have been helpful for them:1. Keep to a routine2. Plan something to look forward to daily3. Take a break from social media4. Get outside/get fresh air5. Express the mix of feelings that come up6. Help others7. Give yourself self-compassionHave you tried any of these?What have you found helpful to support your wellbeing in lockdown and during remote learning?Find the show notes at www.selfcareforteachers.com.au/podcastSign up for the Self-Care for Teachers newsletter here.

Announcement: I’m pregnant and taking some maternity leave from mid September 2021!Therefore, not sure if I’m doing another regular season of the podcast this year. For now I’m going to do an occasional bonus livestream series and rebroadcast it on the pod. It’s not ideal but it’s all I’ve got in me atm. So every few weeks expect a bonus pod ep with the audio of FB or IG live session. Follow the podcast in your favourite pod app: https://pod.link/teacherwellbeingIt also means there are only 3 months left to sign up to coaching with me as I will be closing my books a couple months before I take maternity leave. Since my coaching is always in a series and you can’t do one off session sunless you’re a previous client, I’ll need to start the last coaching series group in term 3 so make sure if you have been thinking about signing up for coaching do so or wait until this time next year! Also I’m changing things up with the discovery calls due to an unfortunate run of no shows and so it’s one free appointment only, if you miss it without communicating then it will be a fee before you can rebook. Webinars are free and there is a recording so you don’t have to be there live but discovery call not so much. Read more about my coaching and sign up for a free Discovery call at https://selfcareforteachers.com.au/coachingAlso, the resilient teacher coaching program will not be running again this year because I’ll be on maternity leave in term 4 but I am going to do something special in term 3 on the topic of resilient teachers so stay tuned and make sure you’re on the waiting list to hear about that! Sign up for the waiting list at https://selfcareforteachers.com.au/resilientteaacherThe plan is to run the full program again in Term 1 2022 with it being the only way to work with me in person in first part of next year but no promises, I will see how things go with Bub! Get on the waiting list anyway and you’ll get updates about it.School Wellbeing Champions: I haven’t been able to progress that as much as I’d hoped because I’ve been so unwell but I haven’t forgotten and I am definitely planning on doing something with that later this term or in term 3 so make sure you’re on the regular newsletter list for that too if you’re interested in being a school wellbeing champions.Also, I’m keen to make my School Wellbeing Sessions PD options as accessible as possible to Rural, Regional and Remote schools because I know there are extra challenges there with accessing PD compared with those of you in metro schools. So I’d love to hear about your challenges with accessing PD in RRR areas, keen to help address some of those in my trainings, so let me know at hello@selfcareforteachers.com.au if that’s you!Also you can always sign up for the Freebies Library and take the Teacher Wellbeing Personal Quiz, both are free.Freebies Library: https://selfcareforteachers.com.au/libraryQuiz: https://selfcareforteachers.com.au/quizSign up for the Self-Care for Teachers newsletter here.

Hi everyone and welcome back to the Teacher Wellbeing Podcast, which is now 4 years old!In celebration of this milestone, I’m sharing a replay of S04 E10 from 2018, about the Three Thinking Traps that Sabotage Your Wellbeing As a Teacher.Last week I shared my favourite episode, but this week I’m sharing your favourite episode, or at least, the most downloaded episode of the last 4 years.It’s about the three thinking traps that sabotage your wellbeing as a teacher and what to do instead. I see these thinking traps all the time and I experience them myself, so don’t feel like you’re alone in it. Of course it’s not an exhaustive list, but these are the top three that I see and I think it’s useful to identify them so that we can get out of the trap. I’ve heard Katrina Bourke say that we have to "name it to tame it" when talking about emotions, and I think it applies here too. Once we’re aware of these thinking traps, we can catch ourselves in the act and redirect our thoughts to be more conducive to supporting our self-care and our wellbeing and resilience, instead of sabotaging and undermining it.What's your #teacherwellbeing persona? Take this FREE four-minute quiz to reveal your teacher wellbeing strengths and weaknesses.Take Quiz Here: https://selfcareforteachers.com.au/quizSign up for the Self-Care for Teachers newsletter here.