Hey friends, before we dive into today's episode,
I just want to give you a little heads up that
this episode is going to be brutally honest.
It's the end of my last school year as a teacher.
So it's not sugar coated. It's pretty real. After
29 years in the classroom, I am in the final
days, the last week of my teaching career at
the time this podcast releases. And in this episode,
I'm taking you behind the curtain, into the heart
of what I built, what I loved, what I'm letting
go of, and who I'm becoming on the other side
of it all. This is for anyone who's ever poured
themselves into something until it became a part
of their identity and then found the courage
to walk away. I'll share the quirky, sacred,
and straight up exhausting parts of the job from
missing SD cards, an axe body spray to student
poetry that moved me to tears. I'll talk about
the invisible weight teachers carry, the grief
of not reaching every student, and the guilt
that lingers when you realize you just can't
do it all anymore. I'll also explore the quiet,
unfamiliar space of rediscovering who I am without
the title, without bells, without the classroom.
So, take a deep breath with me, whether you're
a fellow educator, someone in the messy middle
of a life transition, or just here to listen.
I'm grateful you're here. Let's turn the next
page together. Thank you for joining me for another
episode of Life's Next Lesson Plan. I'm Rachel
and I started this podcast during my 29th and
last year as a high school teacher. The goal
of my work with Life's Next Lesson Plan as well
as my Live and Learn Patreon is to create a connection
where we are all teachers. We all have lessons
and stories to share that can help others. I'm
so fortunate to be able to extend the four walls
of my previous classroom to an unlimited audience.
where we can all learn from each other. And my
guests are some of the most inspirational people
with the best stories and lessons I know, which
is why I want to share them with you. Their words
are something everyone should hear. It is my
hope that you are able to take away something
from each episode to apply to your own life,
whether that be a career search, path to a more
fulfilling life, or new ideas on current topics.
All right, for today's episode, like any good
English teacher, I'm going to organize this in
a little three -part story arc. So part one is
going to be things from my 29 years of teaching
that I'm taking with me. Part two is going to
be things I'm going to be leaving behind. And
then part three is going to be the becoming me
again. All right, so let's get into it. Things
I'm taking with me, what I learned as a teacher,
my ability to read the room and adapt in real
time. So whether this meant, you know, reading
the room to see that some young couple in my
classroom is in a fight or maybe some friends
are not getting along to, you know, Maybe two
scholars who I see maybe would be better off
together. Did I ever play matchmaker in my classes?
Maybe a little bit. Did it work out? Yeah. So
more so though, as a teacher, you just know when
something is not working or when you need to
change up your intended plan. Isn't that just
like life? Isn't that kind of like what I've
decided to do? Exactly. So I guess teaching can
be a metaphor for life. I am taking with me some
deep listening skills from years of mentoring
teens. Oh boy, this can be a blessing and a curse.
So yeah, I got to hear a lot of light bulb moments
of true learning. And I got to overhear some
conversations I wish I never heard just this
past week. I overheard students playing Smash
or Pass with the yearbooks. That's a new one.
Anybody who has middle school children or high
school children or college age children or teachers,
the first three colleagues I told this story
to, none of them knew what Smash or Pass was.
You need to look it up. I'm also taking with
me a lot of compelling stories, whether the ones
we told in journalism or the ones we read in
our literature classes and the discussions that
I heard and took part in, the proud moment of
my little freshman journalist this year reaching
out to interview a pro baseball player and a
professional umpire, and an article on being
able to compile the stories of our school. and
being circled up, as we called it, in AP Lit
for great expectations discussions, where I sat
in genuine awe at the inferences of the students.
And this was before CHAT GPT. I always learned
something from those students. I'm also taking
with me an ability to build community. Countless
fun Fridays of Battle of the Sexes, BuzzFeed
quizzes, Minute to Win It games, where apparently
I learned how cringe I am by posting the videos
of the students on Instagram. Apparently that
is very mortifying, Ms. Rauch. Lesson learned.
I'm also taking with me a fire for helping others
learn to think for themselves. I will be forever
grateful for having attended summer trainings
for classes like AP Seminar, AP Research, AP
Literature, and Journalism where the structure
of the class puts students in the driver's seat
and empowers them to know they can be in control
of their learning. And also, these are the students
who actually don't line up at the door before
the bell. Teachers, am I right? If you know,
you know. I'm also bringing with me the genuine
joy of being allowed into the deepest thoughts
of my students in creative writing, from their
journals and their poetry, watching them bravely
step up to the open mic to share their writing
with others. Their writing and their sharing
encouraged me to take risks and step out of my
comfort zone. I wrote with them. I shared with
them. And now look, I'm still stepping out of
my comfort zone. And lastly, I'm bringing with
me inspiration from brilliant and passionate
colleagues. There are still some there who get
it, who were there when things were good, and
who still believe in high expectations and actually
holding students to them. Probably best if I
keep that short. I'll miss our deep conversations
at lunch. or at plays that we attended at APT,
or gathering around a dinner table. It's not
goodbye, it's just see you in the next chapter.
Keep up the good fight. Part two, things I am
leaving behind. Staff meeting icebreakers. Again,
teachers, if you know, you know. the smell of
Teenage X body spray or not being able to tell
the difference between a fruity smelling vape
or body spray in the bathroom. And I'll never
forget the day I walked into the bathroom with
my teacher shoes clinking and my classroom keys
around my neck jingling and I saw four feet,
two sets of feet jump up onto the toilet. Still
not 100 % sure what that was about. Not sure
I want to know. I'm leaving behind all the missing
SD cards, all the missing camera cords, all the
missing lens caps, the disorganization of the
camera cabinet and publications in general. I'm
leaving behind grading 117 essays in a weekend
or on the last day of a break. or the night before
grades are due. Never again. Leaving behind questions
like, how many points is this worth? Or is this
for a grade? Can I go to the bathroom? What are
we supposed to be doing? Three seconds after
you just explained it, and not to mention it's
on the screen in front of the room. This is just
as good as, did we do anything while I was gone?
No, Jimmy. We all just sat and stared at the
wall. And lastly, I'm leaving behind people trying
to submit their yearbook photos months and months
and months after the due date. Or yeah, even
after the yearbooks have been distributed. And
I'm also going to swallow the criticism of students'
work in the yearbook. You know, perhaps... All
homework assignments or projects for all classes
should be shared with the whole school for feedback.
I'm just gonna stop there. Oh wait, that wasn't
it. I'm also gonna leave behind the invisible
emotional mental load that no one sees. This
is actually going to be the most interesting
to me. How I feel on a Friday at the end of a
week of work in a new job compared to teaching.
Because, again, I don't know. A lot of teachers
I know are in their pajamas after happy hour
on Friday. I'm also leaving behind the guilt
and growing impossibility of not being able to
reach every student. I don't know. how this is
going to work with the rise in student needs
that I have seen and know for a fact is coming
and just going to get worse. I'm also going to
leave behind burnout culture where you're expected
to do it all and then we'll just keep adding
more every single year. We don't really understand
what you're already doing. So we'll just stop
there. I'm also going to leave behind the way
education has switched so far to focusing on
supporting students that we've forgotten that
we still need to support the teachers teaching
them and maybe not undermine them, maybe not
go over their heads, maybe have a conversation
with them, and maybe stop enabling students.
and instead empowering them and believing them
in them and holding them to the expectations
we know that they can reach with proper support.
Now lastly, I'm leaving behind the teacher martyr
narrative. Eating and using the restroom when
a bell tells me to. Having adults or students
interrupt my short lunch or Come into my room
and interrupt my colleagues, lunch, read the
room. This is our decompression time. We get
20 minutes to take a breath, go to the bathroom.
I don't know, maybe make an important phone call.
You feeling that you are more important than
our well -being in our hectic day simply amazes
me. All right. Let's take a little break. 100
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health. To share with you everything I did throughout
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on your way to non -toxic living. There's our
bell. So we are ready for ask the teacher anything.
And first question is, what are some of my favorite
podcasts? What do I listen to? I'm often sharing
some of my favorites on My Instagram, if I think
there's something worthy of sharing. I have kind
of an eclectic mix, definitely. It goes by my
mood for when I'm in the car or going for a walk
or cleaning the house. One of my favorites for
sure. Yes, I know we're very excited, Elliot.
One of my favorites for sure is my girl Shailene
Johnson. She has the Shailene show. She also
has a Patreon. She has two levels of Patreon.
I'm so far just at the between friends level.
That's awesome. I love, and I'm not listening
to it much lately, but it definitely helped me
when I was starting this podcast. Jenna Kutcher's
The Goal Digger podcast. I actually took one
of her online courses, the podcast lab, and that
is what helped me start my podcast. Used to listen
to a lot of Jay Shetty. on purpose and a lot
of motivation with Brendan Bouchard. Haven't
listened to that as much lately. A little bit
of Tony Robbins, a little bit of Ed Milett, a
little bit of Mel Robbins. Used to listen to
We Can Do Hard Things a lot during the pandemic
and during my divorce. I listened to the Model
Health Show a lot during the pandemic. Now I'm
kind of into more lighter, more lighthearted
things. So I listened to smartless every Monday.
Love, love, love that show. My daughter turned
me on to Brittany broski and she's all over the
place, but she cracks me up. And yes, I'm a Swiftie.
So I listened to New Heights and I also listened
to Kylie Kelsey's not gonna lie. I have listened
to call her daddy from time to time. I have listened
to the skinny confidential, which is now called
him and her. I've listened to armchair expert
if there's someone on there that I enjoy. And
then I just saw someone last night actually recommend
Chloe Kardashian's podcast and I'm like, No,
I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it. But she said
it's not what you would expect. so I think I'm
going to try that one as well so there's still
more there's some podcasts of people I know people
I've had on the show whose podcasts that I listen
to but I don't need to go over that again but
yeah it varies and I'm constantly changing it
up in my car a lot so I typically need a variety
question two How was your first camping trip
in the new camper? Yeah, yeah, so we took the
Luna Rover on its first voyage for Memorial Day
weekend and we were only an hour and 15 minutes
from home in Green Lake and we purposely kind
of scheduled all close Wisconsin trips for the
summer just because we're Feeling out the new
camper. We learned a lot from the first trip.
We did have electric and water For this trip.
We discovered that the fireplace which is the
heating source for the camper After the first
night of waking up every time you were cold and
turning on the fireplace Brett realized that
you can set it like a thermostat So you set it
at the temperature you want it to be at and it
will turn in turn on on its own. So that was
really nice. We slept a little bit better after
the first night. The mattresses are a little
uncomfortable so we're looking into trying a
mattress topper that we have or ordering additional
cushions for that. We learned that you're not
going to want to pack how you traditionally pack
for a vacation and so I'm going to buy Three
totes three Rubbermaid totes we already were
using some but that's how I'm going to pack my
clothes and shoes so we're going to have a tote
for shoes and that can just slide right under
the camper and then I'll have a tote for my clothes
and he'll have a tote for his clothes and That
will also slide on either side. We have two doors
one on each side of our beds of the camper And
that will be much easier because there's not
much room in our camper. So we were having to
put our suitcases or duffel bags in the truck
every night and then getting our clothes out
for the day. And we have a bathroom in the camper
for emergency number one only, but we do have
to shower at the campground. And so, you know,
it's just easier to have everything in a tote
that you can just pull out of. We didn't cook
a ton on this trip So we haven't we we used the
microwave for heating up water The sink was great
for doing dishes Everything else I would say
went pretty well sleep masks were very helpful.
I did have my weighted blanket So, I mean I just
sleep so well when I'm in the outdoors and so
much better than in a tent as well. So all in
all success. We're going to go again in June.
So thank you for asking. But we learned a lot
on that first trip. Okay, so let's finish out
this three part story arc with who I'm going
to become now after taking with me what I'd like
to take with me and leaving behind what no longer
serves me. This is going to be my identity shift
outside the role of teacher. So part of my Rachel
2 .0 is going to be learning to not define my
worth by productivity, awards, favoritism. other
people's opinions, students' opinions of me.
That will be nice. I'm going to learn what off
the clock feels like. Pretty much every day off
and weekends and summers and holidays definitely
had to do something for publications or the yearbook.
So... or grade or lesson plan or respond to emails
until I took email off my phone. Highly recommend
doing that. I'm going to learn who I am when
I'm not Ms. Rauch, the teacher. So I'm excited
to see what that looks like starting in July.
I'm going to explore the space that this closure,
this ending is going to create for me to grow
into something new in this new position. I mean,
ah! It's getting a lot more real now, so just...
Yeah, I don't know what to expect. And I'm just
holding a lot of positive hope for my new role.
I'm going to use my current skills and learn
so many more skills. I think that'll be so fun.
A lot of things that I've been wanting to learn
more about, photography being one of them, like
I'm going to do a whole training. learning from
the best photographers out there, paid professional
photographers. So cool. I love taking pictures
as it is. So we'll see, you know, if I could
upgrade my social media pictures a little bit.
And just, you know, being valued for my knowledge,
being valued for having high expectations. Yeah,
that will be refreshing. So there it is. My official
lasts as a teacher. No more rubrics, no more
late work accepted, no more is this for a grade?
Questions allowed. I'm going to walk out this
week with my head held high, my sarcasm probably
still intact, and the idea that sometimes the
most important lesson isn't what we teach others.
but how we ourselves learn and grow and change
along the way. So to everyone still in the classroom
trenches, I see you. Oh, I respect you. Oh, good
luck. To those thinking about making a bold move,
you're not crazy. You can do it. And to anyone
trying to find themselves again after a long
chapter, difficult chapter. I've been there with
you. I'm here. You're gonna be okay. I'll catch
you next time on Life's Next Lesson Plan where
I'll be the one ringing the bell.