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A Teacher's Best Friend

Life Coaching for Teachers | Resilience Coaching for Teachers

First a Person, Then a Teacher

Do you ever feel like you put yourself last? That you get the “leftover” energy and time? You are last on your to-do list and forget that you are first a person, then a teacher?

Being a teacher can often feel all-consuming. It can take all the time and energy (emotional, mental and physical) that you have. In fact, there is always more that can be done, improved, reworked etc. And when teaching takes up all the oxygen in our life, teaching becomes more than a job. It becomes an identity.

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Stop Taking Things Personally

It’s been a rough day. The lesson didn’t go well. The students didn’t respond how you wanted them to. They didn’t learn. They misbehaved. They were disengaged.

What’s the next thought that runs through your mind? 

> I failed 

or

> I’m a failure

It’s a subtle difference. But it’s important. Read more for tips for teachers on how to stop taking things personally and create emotional space between you and the work.

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10 Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Renew Your Teaching Contract

10 Questions to ask yourself before renewing your teaching contract | A Teacher's Best Friend | Life Coaching for Teachers

“I’m so exhausted,” she said through tears, “I just don’t know if I can do it another year.” This came from one of the teachers I coach this week in our session. She is fried crispy, overwhelmed, and just ‘done’. And she is also trying to decide whether or not to sign her teaching contract for next year. So – want to know what I asked her? I’m going to share with you 10 questions that you can consider if you find yourself in this predicament.

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How to Have More Time and Money as a Teacher

How to Have More Time and Money as a Teacher

“Abundance” isn’t a word used a lot by teachers. In fact, the opposite phrase “not enough” is used by all of us probably a dozen or more times a day.

Not enough time.
Not enough money.
Not enough support.
Not enough resources.
Not enough sleep.
Not enough of me to go around.

And for 2020…Not enough PPE/space/ventilation/masks…you name it!

But here is the crazy thing: You will never have more time, money, support, resources etc. if you continue to tell yourself there isn’t enough. [Read more…]

Teaching with Authenticity

Teaching with Authenticity Habits of Wholehearted Teachers A Teacher's Best Friend

A wholehearted teacher knows who she is. She acknowledges her flaws and her strengths. She is kind to herself and uses failures as a sign that she needs to adjust her practice – not that she herself is a failure. She seeks out opportunities for growth, and believes she can make a difference in all of her student’s lives. She understands her power, and embraces it. She doesn’t bring her own areas of inauthenticity or insecurity into work nor does she try to get unmet needs met by her peers, leaders, or students.

This picture represents the ideal – what I call…teaching with authenticity. [Read more…]

Encouraging the Hearts of Students

Encouraging the hearts of students from A Teacher's Best FriendAs teachers, we create the climate in our classrooms. If we are negative, our students will react. If we are positive, our students will react. Students react to the energy we bring and the climate we set. Through our actions as their teacher – the leader of the classroom, we set the tone for learning, encouragement, and mutual respect…or something else.

The day to day pattern of the climate we set becomes the culture of our classroom. We know that the classroom culture can help kids thrive, or tear them down. There is tremendous power in this – and tremendous responsibility.  [Read more…]

Stay out of Survival Mode in 2016

Stay out of Survival Mode in 2016 A Teacher's Best Friend

Teaching seems to always be synonymous with Busy. And Busy’s crazy cousins Stressed and Overwhelmed seem to never be too far behind either.

Enter Survival Mode where Busy, Stress, and Overwhelmed climb into the driver’s seat of life and we’re left hanging on to the bumper for dear life.

So – how do you get OUT of survival mode? Better yet – how do you stay out of survival mode by never going into survival mode?

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Taking Full Advantage of Your School Break

Taking Full Advantage of Your School Break from A Teacher's Best FriendAs teachers, we run ourselves ragged. We rarely take time for ourselves. We pour and pour and pour our heart and souls into our teaching, our students, our craft, our passion. But what do we do to fill ourselves back up?

School breaks are supposed to give us that chance, but my question to you is – are you taking full advantage of your school break? [Read more…]

Reframing Negative Thoughts as a Teacher

Reframing Negative Thoughts as a Teacher - A Teacher's Best Friend

Life with a three-year-old is never dull – to say the least. She is always watching and thus I’m always “on”. She is learning from me and those around her about what is acceptable and not acceptable. She is learning about the big things in life like fairness, justice, integrity and consequences.

Like every other parent out there, I worry that in the process of learning right from wrong and good from bad, that she will lose her spark and devalue her uniqueness. In the process of training her to be conscious of her actions and their consequences (conscious of her “self”), I am afraid of her becoming self-conscious.

In this world, we each have to learn to walk that tightrope – and for many of us it’s a constant struggle.  [Read more…]