Welcome to the Classroom Narratives Healing and Education Podcast, the space where education meets resilience.
I'm Dr. Joey Weisler, and in each episode, we dive deep into the personal stories of educators, students,
leaders, and frontline advocates who are navigating the complexities within modern education.
Whether you're just starting your teaching journey or are a seasoned professional looking for inspiration,
we'll explore how to foster meaningful change, prevent burnout, and build trauma-informed communities within our schools.
Now, let's take a seat at the front of the classroom as we get started.
How's it going, everyone? I'm so glad you're here to join us today for our incredible guest, Erin Shook,
a high school Advanced Placement psychology teacher with extensive training in Social and Emotional Learning,
otherwise known as SEL. Erin has dedicated herself to personal development, recognizing that self-care is the missing link
for many educators navigating the challenges of our demanding profession.
She's here to share her insights on burnout, balance, and how teachers can sustain their passion for education without sacrificing themselves.
So Erin, welcome to the podcast, and we are looking forward to your insights today.
Thank you.
Tell us about your experiences in terms of where you are, what you teach, and just like a day into life with your classroom, with AP Psychology.
So we have a school of about 700, so it's like a medium-sized school, much smaller.
Again, I came from teaching at a school of 4,000, so that was pretty wild for me.
It's a rural-ish community. We're close enough to St. Louis that it's not totally rural.
So I teach an intro to psychology class, and then I teach AP Psychology.
So I started both those classes at my school about three years ago.
That's basically, I knew when I took AP Psych as a senior, I'm like, I want to teach this class someday.
So it's pretty cool to be kind of at the place where I saw myself at as a senior in high school.
So I have a lot of flexibility with my curriculum minus the AP because I have to teach to a college board.
says I need to teach, but I have a lot of flexibility.
And again, I have a lot of student engagement because the topics are really interesting.
So that's definitely a bonus for me.
A day in my classroom is I'm always trying to like check in with students that kind of.
This is something probably most teachers know or use.
It was introduced to me last year, that "First to Five", it's called.
It's like a daily email that you get that has like fun graphics and little check-ins.
And that's really cool because I use that a lot.
And yeah, just like that, I pretty much build something like that into my class every day.
And then obviously, whatever content we're talking about right now, we're in the development unit and AP Psych.
So, of course, there's like lecture and stuff, but I like to break it up.
And this is one of the things I think that has changed so much about me as a beginning teacher is like I share way more about my life now than ever before, which I think the students like.
Like I show them videos of my own kids, like showing the developmental milestones.
And I think I'm just like so much more flexible.
Like yesterday, it was 60 degrees and a kid was like, "you're going to take us outside today, right?"
And I'm like, "well, you know, we can't go outside for the whole period, but we can do a quick lap around the building and then we'll start our lesson."
And it's like because that's what's good for kids, like we're going to move, we're going to get outside.
And then they're going to give me so much more for the rest of the 40 minutes just because they got to go outside.
And that's where I think back to my beginning years of teaching, it was so rigid.
And I'm just way more about like what's best for kids, like whole overall well-being now.
It's not so much about the content. It is, but it isn't, if that makes sense.
So I think that's it, just flexibility and constantly going back to what did we learn the previous day and just like check-ins with students.
And psychology is so awesome because obviously they can make so many connections outside of just the classroom with the concepts to their own lives.
I'm constantly trying new things. And that's what I think is keeping me passionate about the work that I'm doing is that I don't have it all figured out yet.
And whenever I learn something new, I'm just, I'm so much more apt to like try something and make a total fool of myself.
I could care less, but like that's our job is to be a role model for kids.
And the more that we can show them that I'm human, I make mistakes that doesn't defeat me, I can learn from them.
And they can kind of see that in real time. Like that's the goal, in my opinion. That's what education is for.
First to five. Tell me more about that because I haven't heard about that.
And especially as a college professor, I'm so tired when I meet my classes once a week to come in on Tuesday and saying, "so! Talk about that weekend, huh?
60 degrees outside. It's almost spring!" It's like I'm so over the small talk.
Yeah. Let's know there's other ways to check in with my classes and build relationships.
It's a daily email. You can just google First to Five. It's a daily email and it comes to your inbox each day.
And there's like a whole bunch of different choices. There's elementary, there's high school.
I think the high school would be very relevant to you could use in college too.
And it's just they're different either like there's a mindfulness thing and they're just graphics.
So you can just like copy paste them onto like your beginning slide. There's questions.
There's different check-ins. So like the one I did yesterday, which I was kind of surprised this was one since they did not win the Super Bowl was like, what's your Patrick Mahomes today?
And it's basically like a Likert scale and it's like different pictures of Patrick Mahomes.
So like one is like tired, two is happy. And so it's goofy stuff, but like it gets the kids talking and that's really what it's about.
And it's establishing that connection that like, hey, I care how you are.
And I always tell them like my rating too and to go back to it like I'm honest, you know, like, yeah, you know what?
This morning when I got here, I was kind of like not feeling it today, but now that I'm a couple periods in, I'm feeling good.
And, you know, so I think that like it's another talking point and learning point for kids that not every day we're happy, not every day.
I'm like, yes, I'm excited to be here, but I'm still here. And that's important.
And if you look at mental health trends, and again, I talk about this all the time in my classes, that needs to be talked about.
Like, we need to have kids understand there are a wide range of emotions. All emotions are valid and good.
And just because you're feeling sad one day doesn't mean you have major depressive disorder.
And I think especially when you're talking like high school kids, I find myself saying that phrase quite a bit.
And when you're working with SEL in the classroom, first of all, SEL is such a buzzword throughout our industry.
But for those that are also maybe listening from the outside, tell us what exactly SEL is and what has worked best in your classroom and what you take on this approach with what we would call to be putting Maslow before Bloom,
which is trying to put the students needs over the actual curriculum and standards. How does that work the best in your classroom?
So SEL stands for social emotional learning. I don't know when it first came out, but I just know post COVID, again, and looking at mental health trends and statistics, like this is an area that we need help with kids.
So that, again, is closely aligned with the content I teach. So I find this a little easier probably to incorporate maybe than a math teacher or something.
Again, it doesn't have to be a lesson on something. It can just be working on communication skills, like getting kids to talk with somebody else, getting kids up and moving around, getting kids to take a moment and like take some deep breaths and calm themselves.
And this is the sort of stuff that if you would have told me I would do this as a beginning teacher, I would have laughed. But like, I was at a conference this summer and I got these like yoga in the classroom cards and I'm pretty sure they're for elementary school kids.
But high school kids love elementary stuff. And that's another thing.
They won't admit it. They eat it up.
Yes, like stamps, stickers, all that stuff. If I'm lecturing or something, like having a kid pull a yoga card and we're going to do like this silly like yoga movement and have everyone stand up because obviously like movement gets you awake and it's good for your brain and stuff.
And just like the act of like doing a silly yoga pose and me doing it with them, like people are up, they're laughing, it's a little bit of a break. It seems so simple, but like that's SEL.
Like I guess SEL is more about not being touchy-feely, but rather thinking and feeling.
I kind of just look at it as like relationship building and interaction amongst students and it's worked out really, really well.
Erin, much of our conversation so far has been on social and emotional learning.
And what a crucial starting point that we are a part of a profession in which the bureaucracy of it celebrates our burnout.
Now you've been speaking out about this for a little bit of time now and I wanted to know if you could tell us a little bit more about what you're learning.
Yeah, I mean, I think that's my whole goal in speaking out about this is changing that narrative.
And in recent years, I've really started to reflect more and nothing is taught in teacher education programs about teachers taking care of themselves.
At least it wasn't 20 years ago when I went through it. I mean, I've asked around more recently and I'm finding that nothing's really changed there.
And I think that's a huge place that we need to focus on.
Like we spend so much time and going back to your first point about classroom management, you know, like we hammer that into first year teachers, which don't get me wrong, that is super important.
But like that's not the end all be all if you're going to be in this career long term.
And there needs to be something to focus in on well-being for teachers and taking care of yourself, setting boundaries, all that stuff that I think I can say, you know, 16 years into this profession that I'm not burnt out from that.
When I think back to my beginning advice, yeah, it was all classroom management based.
But I do remember, and this has been something that has stuck with me.
What my cooperating teacher told me, like, no teenager should ever ruin your day.
I teach high school and to be honest, I've went back on that numerous times over the course of my teaching experience that that is true.
Like, obviously, like teachers are people and we're going to be affected by what our students say and behaviors and all of that.
But ultimately, like, that's not my identity. That should not be at the forefront of my life affecting how I feel.
And I think that comes back to again, I've been able to set these pretty clear boundaries as my life has really changed and evolved over the last 16 years.
I'm busier now than I ever was when I first started teaching.
I'm a mom of four kids ranging in ages from three to ten. And I teach full time.
And I feel like I'm doing more now giving back to my school and starting programs and initiatives for students.
And I'm a better teacher in the classroom because I've taken this time to develop myself and to pour into who I am,
finding out what lights my fire ignites me. And because of that, I can give back then to students.
So I think that's where we've like gotten the narrative all wrong. We teach teachers like it's all about the students.
But I think if you flip the script and if we can focus on teachers taking care of themselves,
there's a trickle down effect there that's going to make the school and the students like far, far better.
Let me give a different scenario of a first year teacher, single, no kids, no well, when I say no family,
I mean, like no like new family just trying to get their way into the feelings of the profession.
And the classroom is all that they know, it's all that they have, it's all that they're committed to.
And they have no, to put it very bluntly, they don't have a life.
How do you help advise that new teacher that what happens in the classroom can be disassociated when they come home?
They don't have to take to heart everything that happens that day.
There's a transition period, right? Like you are learning classroom management, you're learning your content that you're teaching,
which as you're more experienced, that stuff comes more naturally.
I think I heard this analogy before and I think it was really, really good about the disassociation.
Somebody compared it to a box.
And it's like during the workday, you know, from eight to three, whatever your school schedule is,
like that box is open and what's in the box is your time to give to the school and students.
But then, like at the end of the day, your box doesn't totally close like the lid on the box,
rather like it's open a little bit because you do still care, right?
Like you're still a human and you care about your students and that.
But like the lid isn't totally open because now it's time for you to focus in on what fills your cup in other ways.
It's easy to fall into that trap of thinking like I need to constantly be working, I need to stay late,
I need to get early.
And I think like starting to establish those boundaries or teaching newer teachers those boundaries early on
when they do have major life changes and events like the birth of your first child or getting married or like
having to deal with maybe like a sick loved one or something,
it's easier than to like be able to focus on those things because you've kind of taken baby steps along the way.
I remember my first year teaching that I would celebrate myself with the badge of courage to be that last car out at 9 p.m.
And admin thought it was inappropriate and very, very discomforting to know that there was somebody still in the building that way.
And even my students would be like, you know, Mr. Weiser, why or like why?
Like what can you possibly still have to do in that classroom that late?
And I was like, well, my job's never done.
And then I used to have what I would call the sleep counter on the board where every day I would come in the next day
and update how much sleep I got the night before and share it with the students.
And it was roughly between three and a half if it was a really bad day to four and a half.
And if it was like a good night's sleep, it was five.
And again, I tried to show the superhero part of myself by saying, "hey, kids, I got four and a half hours of sleep.
And I still showed up to work today to be here for you!"
And I would really try and own that.
And yeah, my students, they were like, "what's the matter with this guy? Who does he think he is?"
Well, that's the other piece, too, that like I keep coming back to is as a teacher,
our job is to be like role models and examples for students.
And it's like, well, what are you teaching kids by saying that your job and like their well-being is like more important than yours?
I think that's also important, like if we're good models of taking care of ourselves, the students can see that.
And then that's also teaching them something that I'd argue is far greater life skill than some piece of content.
So what would you say is the biggest change that you've seen in education in the past couple of years?
And how are you dealing with it?
And what would you advise for other teachers who are dealing with similar struggles?
Obviously, covid education changed a lot.
And I feel like coming out of online and it was so different everywhere.
It really took I'd say probably last year was the first year that I started to kind of see students acting more normal in terms of like socialization.
I think that's been the biggest thing.
And that's something that I work so, so hard on in my classroom.
Obviously, it pertains a lot to like psychology content, but like the ability for students to just like talk and interact with one another, they need help with that.
That's something that I don't remember ever really thinking about in like discussions or, you know, like, think, pair, share, like that sort of stuff in education prior to 2020.
And that's something that I just think for so many kids, and obviously, there's so much research on all of that.
I'm a huge proponent of The Anxious Generation, that book.
I just think that is like mind blowing, especially when you teach teenagers, like you can see it all played out every day.
But I think that was the piece that really changed.
I'd say like, yeah, the communication piece is what I've noticed and what I've really tried to work the most on is just kind of social skills.
When students are talking, just being able to look at somebody in the eye.
Again, I work mostly with juniors and seniors, but like they want to be heard.
And I wonder how many students go through their 12 plus years hating school because they walk in with this idea in their head, which is very valid to many,
that it's just going to be a day of being focused on to their brain and overstimulatingly so.
Yeah. How can schools work to involve the whole child and get that whole person to fall in love with the process of learning?
Just like going back to that idea of like checking in with students, like that we got a Google form every two weeks that were just kind of like,
how are you doing? Is there anything going on in your life that like you want to talk about?
And many of them were like, it's not that I want to see a social worker or counselor, I just want to have like somewhere that I can put that.
And I'm just I don't know, I guess that's the sort of stuff that I'm just like, it's so simple.
What they're asking for, they're not asking for these like crazy, crazy things that we can build time into the school day to give them a little more flexibility and choice and freedom.
But I think just like students feeling heard and feeling that they have somewhat of a voice in the school community goes such a long way.
The last few years as a teacher has been so, so cool for me because.
I stopped being so strict about every single, like I have to do this and content and like all of that and just kind of like, listen to kids more.
And it's awesome, like they have awesome ideas, and I think we need to have more time in schools to hear what kids are saying.
So for my last question, in terms of continuing to focus on hearing out our students, what would you say that positive psychology has taught us as people in education?
So I have to say my favorite thing first with positive psychology that I always point out to my students is that like positive psychology is not about being happy.
Positive psychology is about becoming happier, and that's a really, really key distinction.
And I think that's the big question in education is how can you be happier?
And it's not going to be the same for every person, but how can you build something into your day that increases your overall happiness?
And the same thing for students, too.
I think that's huge and again, like we know physical movement, we know being outside, we know social connection.
Those are all such huge pieces of the puzzle.
And I guess I'd say if we know that and we know it's good for kids and we know it's good for adults, then why aren't we doing that in schools?
And in the classrooms, too, right?
Our lessons. Yeah, exactly.
So if you wanted our listeners to leave with just one takeaway from today's conversation, what would that be and why?
Focus on yourself, like which again is counterintuitive.
It's not what you're taught.
But I think that's been what has been so kind of life changing for me.
I really started this process of like personal growth and development, like after I had my fourth son, like three and a half years ago.
And it's just made everything so much better.
And I think that's what I would say, which, again, would not be what you're going to hear in any teacher education class.
It's focus on you, pour into yourself, find something, like I said, that's going to make you happier each day.
And it's going to be like a natural ripple effect down to your students.
And I would say model what you're doing to your students, talk them through what you're doing, share with them what you're working on,
because by default, they're going to learn from you. And that's what our job is as teachers.
Erin, thank you again for such an insightful conversation for our listeners on focusing on self-care,
sustainability and positive psychology in the classroom and the work you're doing in your growing presence on social media
is making a difference in us as educators with how we can continue to think about ourselves and our well-being with students and schools around us.
Thank you for joining us on the Classroom Narratives Healing and Education podcast.
If today's episode inspired you or made you think differently, I'd love to hear from you.
Drop a comment or review wherever you listen to podcasts and stay connected with us on the classroom narratives podcast over Instagram and Facebook.
Remember, together we can transform our scars into stars in education, one conversation at a time.