155 - SPARK - From Surviving to Thriving: How I’m Finding My Fire

Welcome to the Teachers on Fire podcast. I'm your host, Tim Kavey, and today I want to bring you another edition of what I'm calling Spark. Mini-segments intended to spark your thinking and ignite your practice. These short episodes are based on my written reflections, which you can find on the Teachers on Fire magazine at medium.com. Today's spark is titled From Surviving to Thriving: How I'm Finding My Fire.

May and June are always demanding months for educators. They represent the home stretch, the third period, the fourth quarter of the big game. You're gasping to catch your breath, and the coach is sending you back on the field to finish strong. As June weather warms up and summer calls, it falls on us to complete the last rounds of learning activities, field trips, track meets, band concerts.

graduation activities, year-end events, report cards, IEP meetings, staff meetings, planning sessions, and more. Even in the best of years, our mental and emotional batteries are usually running low by month 10 out of 10. In this year of COVID-19, we went without a lot of the usual end-of-year fanfare, but somehow our energy stores felt every bit as depleted.

We traded conversations for emails, math lessons for screencast tutorials, PE classes for Google Meet workouts, class meetings for Zoom calls, graduations for drive-bys. It was a lot of change, a lot of evolution, and a lot of stress. A lot of growth too, and that growth is worth celebrating. But the net effect of the whole thing is that by the end of the fourth quarter, most educators felt as exhausted as ever.

Moving from surviving to thriving. On Monday, I sat through a professional development session for administrators on the topic of self-care and wellness. The facilitator and my future colleague, Grace Vu, talked about the importance of being intentional as we move collectively from surviving to thriving. It struck me that thought and intentionality have never been more important during this summer season.

We simply cannot afford to address the challenging needs of what awaits us in the fall with depleted battery cells. As a profession, we need to be fully fueled and ready. And that's really my passion and the focus of my work, helping teachers move from burnout to teachers on fire. Finding my fire, 11 summer strategies. To help educators think strategically about next steps, Grace put together a beautiful graphic that illustrates 50 strategies to move from surviving to thriving.

Inspired by her collage, I've decided to share some of the ways that I intend to restore my energy and bring back my fire this summer.

Number one, slowing it down. I'm giving myself permission to slow it down. This might look like lazy mornings. It might look like randomly watching Jim Gaffigan videos on YouTube instead of plowing through emails. It might look like putting my feet up on the couch and having a nap in the sunlight instead of being productive. I'm allowing myself to take it easy, completely guilt-free. Number two, longer sleep. Speaking of lazy mornings, I've decided to make sure I sleep well this summer.

During the school year I can go Monday to Friday on six hours of sleep per night, but I know it's not good for me or my long term health. I refuse to do that to myself now. Instead, I'm aiming for a minimum of eight hours in bed, seven days a week. This is not the time for 5 a.m. productive mornings at Starbucks, as much as I enjoy that routine during the school year.

As I'm reminded in Why We Sleep, good sleep positively affects every single organ in your body, your brain, your skin, your muscles, and major organs. This is a season to heal. Number three, travel. Options are limited by the crisis, but we still have the ability to travel as a family. With the Rockies in view from our home, we don't have to drive more than a day to enjoy beautiful changes of space. without wildlife and spectacular scenery, all good for the mind and heart.

Number four, prayer, meditation, and journaling. Speaking of nature, our indigenous communities are the first to agree that there's no better space to spend time in the presence of the Almighty. Taking time to read, write, pray, and reflect are valuable sacred practices that often get pushed to the side in the chaos of May and June. Summer allows me to take the time to get still, to reflect and pray, and write the words within me that often go unheard during seasons of survival mode.

Number 5. Hiking and paddleboarding. Another nature point I know, but I have to mention two of my favorite summer pastimes out here on the left coast, hiking and paddle boarding. Both offer spectacular sights and moments of serenity that are hard to match anywhere else. six Working Out. Working out at the gym is something that I never regret doing once it's done, but deficits of time, energy, and sleep can make this habit difficult during the school year.

I don't have the same excuses in the summer, so I try to make it to my local anytime fitness as often as possible. I've found that the most effective way to make this happen is to do it before anything else, because the longer I put it off, the harder it is to go. 30 to 40 minutes in the gym is all I need to bring my energy levels up and have my body feeling great. I plan on making this happen often.

Number seven, LAFING. Teachers, we don't do enough laughing when we're in survival mode. Part of restoring my fire means enjoying a bunch of belly laughs with my wife and teenagers every night. With the office firmly in our quarantine wake, we've been turning to modern family on Netflix for our jollies lately. Not surprisingly, the funniest moments come when the dad, mom, or teenagers act or respond in ways that seem oh too familiar.

Calling each other out is half the fun of watching. That's you. Number eight. Quality family times. Whether it's at device-free dinners, ice cream walks at our local beach, or family council times, once all screens are off at 11 p.m., I want to make sure that my family is connecting in meaningful ways each and every day. people and relationships are the stuff of life. Number 9. Drone Flight.

Adults need fun too. The DJI Mavic Air 2 made a recent entrance into my life, and this little toy has brought more fun than I thought possible. Every time I get a chance to fly it, I'm a little boy all over again. Even as I still learn to fly it better, I can't wait to get it out to some truly spectacular scenery this summer. Number 10, reading. I often say that you could put me on a beach for a day with my Kindle and I would be a happy man.

I'm not a fast reader, I like to read slowly, reread when necessary, highlight as I go, and take time to digest. But reading is my learning, my inspiration, the inhale of ideas that I couldn't live without. To see what I'm reading right now, connect with me on Goodreads. Number 11. Writing. If reading is my inhale, writing is my exhale.

It's the place where I learn more about myself. It's where I structure my thoughts and clarify my beliefs. Even on a light piece like this one, the writing process is always cathartic, healing, and illuminating. It leaves me with a deep sense of satisfaction and it helps me move forward with greater intentionality. Final thoughts, rest versus leisure.

In the Techwise Family, author Andy Crouch makes a distinction between rest and leisure. Rest, he writes, is made up of activities that restore our souls and our relationships with others. Leisure activities, in contrast, constitute a sort of fruitless escape from labor. They may not represent work, but they do not restore our souls.

Or, to put it in other terms, they don't bring the fire back. That to me is a challenge to do better than just binging Netflix this summer. Sure, I've done so in the past and will likely do so in the future, but It's not the sort of activity that actually refreshes me in any sort of meaningful way.

Instead, I want to be about the activities of rest that I've listed here. Deep, restorative activities that renew my mind, refresh my body, restore my soul, and bring back the fortitude for a fiery fall. I wish the same for you, teachers on fire. Have a great summer. My name is Tim Cavey, and I'm proud to contribute to the Education Conversation through the Teachers on Fire podcast.

Make sure to connect with me at Teachers On Fire on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to catch more from me and hear from amazing educators who are bringing growth and transformation to K-12 education today. Thanks again for listening to this Spark episode. Take care and stay safe.