If you haven’t seen Hyrox yet, it’s a beast. Eight 1km runs, each separated by a high-intensity functional strength station. There’s no sitting down, no "time-outs." You’re either pushing heavy steel or you’re running. Lately, it struck me: This is exactly what a school day looks like. We don’t just "teach." We are constantly shifting from the high-power …
Continue reading The 8-Station Term: Why Teaching is the Ultimate Hyrox Event
Sean McVay is the youngest Head Coach to win a Super Bowl. He understands a common delusion among high performers – that endurance equals excellence. That working yourself down to a nub somehow equates to success. Reflecting on his early career, he admitted, “I used to like almost think it was cool to be able …
Are you looking forward to the holidays? How about spring break or the summer or simply Fridays? Or how about just coffee? What about retirement? Do you know teachers that have their retirement date worked out to the year, month, week, day and depending on how things are going in a particular movement, they may …
One constant during my 30 years of teaching is that the break from school at the end of the calendar year – winter for me and summer for my Southern Hemisphere friends – comes at just the right time. Leaving for school in the dark, arriving home in the dark, the end of a long …
Continue reading Before the Year Ends: Twelve Months in Reflection
Sometimes, it’s not a massive change that transforms your life — it’s a small shift in how you see yourself, your challenges, and your possibilities. Over time, I’ve learned that adjusting my mindset, even slightly, can open doors and help me to see pathways I did not think I had (Hello--- Imposter Syndrome) or that …
Continue reading No One Talks About These 5 Small Mindset Shifts (But They Change Everything)
Happy Friday, teachers! We've made it through another (long) week, and before you rush (or in my case, wearily stroll) into the weekend, let’s take a few minutes to pause, reflect, and recharge. Fridays can be more than just a countdown to the weekend; they’re a chance to reconnect with ourselves and the people who …
Continue reading Reflect & Recharge: A Friday Ritual for Teachers
With World Mental Health Day upon us, it's a good moment to reflect on how our mental well-being is connected to movement. In a world where stress and anxiety levels are rising, we often look for quick fixes, but one of the most powerful tools to support our mental health is something we already know …
Continue reading World Mental Health Day: Moving for a Healthier Mind
It's another summer of sport, filled with athletes performing to their potential. European soccer teams are in town for their preseason tours, NFL athletes are at training camp, and NBA preseason dates were just released. As summer winds down and the new school year looms, teachers, like athletes, can benefit from a well-structured preseason routine. …
Continue reading Ready to Teach? Your Preseason Training Guide
In the rapidly evolving landscape of education, change is the only constant. From updates to curriculums and advancements in technology to shifts in teaching methodologies, educators are constantly faced with high levels of stress and anxiety as they navigate these transformative times. While change can be daunting, it also presents opportunities for growth and innovation. …
Continue reading 3 Wellness Tips for Educators Navigating a Season of Change
Is this the year in education when things get easier? I have multiple tweets from 2020, 2021, and 2022 stating that these have been the most trying of times in my 25+ years of teaching and if my social media is to be believed, we are seeing a greater number of educators walking away from …
This week's blog post comes from Debbie Woodliffe, an experienced writer currently based in the UK working for Affinity Agency. She works with a range of clients such as Best Price Beds to help others learn and develop through informative content. Everybody gets stressed. It could be work-based, home-based or just feeling overwhelmed in general …
Continue reading Quick Ways You Can Manage Stress and Improve Your Wellbeing
We live in a pandemic and wellness is something that we prioritize at school, building community, supporting each other, students, teachers and staff, and the broader community. During the COVID-19 pandemic, self-care is more essential than ever to help build and maintain a healthy immune system. Research shows that exercise helps boost the brain and …
Running an organization that prioritizes self-care requires a lot. It means walking the walk, talking the talk, and not just posting how others should take care of themselves, but modeling our values in our own actions. Now if I'm being real, to be a mother, a wife, an entrepreneur, and an educator all in one …
After reading the book Beginners by Tom Vanderbilt, which was the slowchathealth book of the month for February of 2021, I started to get an itch to be a beginner again and try something new. When this microblog post opportunity presented itself, I knew it was something new that I had to try, I had …
I've noticed during recent months that co-workers, friends, and neighbors have been more intentional in checking in with each other. We might be seeing less of each other, but the times when we are together seem to be more meaningful. We are all going through the shared experience of the pandemic and although the light …
During these times of stress, the intentional act of protecting one's well-being and happiness is a must-do for educators, and something that I am prioritizing more so than ever before. The additional workload of teaching remotely, while supervising a young family with their virtual learning, has led to a realization that if am not at …
Setting professional and personal goals during the pandemic might require a different focus and frame of mind. As I try and wrap my head around a remote return to school and a switch to a block schedule, it will be necessary to formulate goals that require me to grow in order to best serve my …
There exists a fine line between well-roundedness and attempting the jack-of-all-trades distinction, only to realize stretching oneself too thin oftentimes results in dropping the ball on something important. Part of self-management means stepping back periodically and evaluating, “what are the most important things in my life right now?” An alarming trend consumes too many of …
It’s 8 am and I’m rolling out of bed, listening to the sound of my sons discussing which colour plate is the best. My husband handles goalie duty, while simultaneously making coffee and eating his breakfast standing up. My entrance on the scene is like a well-orchestrated dance where he rolls out and hands me …
Originally when I reached out to Andy about contributing to the mini-blog, I told him I was going to write about the difficulties of starting over as a “veteran” teacher in a new district. Over the past 7 years, I have lived in 3 different states (in and out of New York twice) and have …
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