Sunday Scaries for Teachers: How to Beat the Anxiety Before a School Week
The episode elucidates the phenomenon commonly referred to as the "Sunday Scaries" among educators, focusing on the pervasive anxiety that often accompanies the onset of a new school week. Mr. Funky Teacher, Nicholas Kleve, articulates a series of strategies designed to facilitate a mental reset that empowers teachers to approach their weekly responsibilities with renewed vigor and diminished apprehension. He emphasizes the significance of recognizing and celebrating small victories within the classroom as a means of fostering a positive educational environment. By shifting the focus from the challenges that lie ahead to the successes already achieved, educators can cultivate a more optimistic and resilient mindset. Ultimately, this episode serves as a guide for teachers seeking to navigate their weekly preparations and alleviate the anxiety that often precedes the school week.
The phenomenon commonly referred to as the 'Sunday Scaries' is particularly prevalent among educators as they transition from the repose of the weekend back into the rigorous demands of the school week. In this discourse, Mr. Nicholas Kleve, known as Mr. Funky Teacher, elucidates strategies designed to mitigate the anxiety that often accompanies this transition. He posits that a systematic approach to weekly preparation can significantly reduce feelings of trepidation and unease. By engaging in reflective practices and establishing a structured routine, educators can cultivate a proactive mindset that empowers them, rather than one that is reactive and fraught with apprehension.
The conversation delves into the importance of recognizing the small victories that occur within the educational environment, as these moments of success serve to bolster morale and foster a sense of accomplishment. Mr. Kleve emphasizes the necessity of celebrating even the most mundane achievements, which can serve as a powerful antidote to the stressors that educators face. By reframing their focus from the exhaustive to-do lists that often plague teachers, to celebrating the incremental victories, educators can shift their mindset towards one of positivity and growth.
Ultimately, the episode encapsulates a call to action for educators to embrace a thoughtful and intentional approach to their weekly preparation. By implementing structured routines, recognizing small wins, and fostering a supportive classroom culture, teachers can effectively combat the Sunday Scaries and enter each week with renewed vigor and enthusiasm. Mr. Kleve's insights provide a valuable framework for educators seeking to enhance their professional satisfaction and efficacy in the classroom, thereby contributing positively to their students' learning experiences.
Takeaways:
- Teachers can alleviate Sunday Scaries by implementing effective weekly preparation strategies and routines.
- Celebrating small wins in the classroom is essential for fostering a positive learning environment.
- Taking moments of rest is crucial for teachers to recharge and maintain their well-being.
- Recognizing and verbalizing student achievements, no matter how minor, strengthens classroom culture and relationships.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Be a Funky Teacher
Transcript
Yeah, he's Mr. Funky.
Speaker A:He's Mr. Funky Teacher.
Speaker A:Mr. Funky Teacher inspires greatness.
Speaker A:Makes you feel good.
Speaker A:Like your favorite playlist.
Speaker A:Keeping that fresh and funky.
Speaker A:Yes he does.
Speaker A:He got some funky cool ideas to share for all you teachers.
Speaker A:He can empower others, students and teachers.
Speaker A:It's all about hard work and creativity.
Speaker A:He brings out the kindness in everyone.
Speaker A:He's got the passion to teach.
Speaker A:You hear it when he speaks.
Speaker A:He knows how to build strong relationships.
Speaker A:If you're seeking the best bunkiest, he is it.
Speaker A:He will empower you to improve.
Speaker A:He'll be helping others and loving it too.
Speaker A:He's Mr. Funky Teacher.
Speaker A:Yeah, he's Mr. Funky Teacher.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:This is Mr. Funky Teacher with Be a Funky Teacher dot com.
Speaker B:I'm coming to you with another Be a Funky Teacher podcast.
Speaker B:Today's podcast episode is going to be focusing on celebrating small wins, building a positive classroom culture.
Speaker B:That's what we're going to be focusing on here.
Speaker B:But before we get into it, let's talk about the three things I'm thankful for.
Speaker B:First thing I'm thankful for is getting the opportunity to celebrate my kids birthdays.
Speaker B:This is kind of a busy time of year with my home front because I have multiple birthdays going on kind of back to back birthday weekends.
Speaker B:It's kind of fun because over the weekend here we celebrated one son's birthday and then we had a kid party for another son.
Speaker B:It was just a whole lot of fun.
Speaker B:And then those opportunities to celebrate with family, pretty powerful experiences.
Speaker B:Next weekend we'll, we'll be having some more some family get togethers and celebrating our, our children with, with family.
Speaker B:But those are opportunities to cherish, to remember.
Speaker B:I just feel like my kids are growing up so fast and so the opportunity to celebrate their birthdays that try to make them a big deal that that's really important to do.
Speaker B:The next thing that I'm thankful for is spreading family or spending family time together.
Speaker B:It recharges me and reminds me of what matters.
Speaker B:It really does.
Speaker B:Family is, is, is truly everything when it comes down to it.
Speaker B:It matters more to me than, than anything else.
Speaker B:And so getting those opportunities just to be together that kind of ties right in with celebrating birthdays.
Speaker B:I'm just so grateful and I'm so thankful for that time with them.
Speaker B:And the third thing is getting some well needed rest there it was some time to rest this weekend.
Speaker B:And our teachers, you all know how rare and valuable that can be getting some of that rest and yet still having how important it is to Take that rest when we can get it, those moments of pause, those moments of rest so we can recharge and kind of get that battery brought back up again so it can fuel us to keep pushing forward to be their best for the next days ahead.
Speaker B:Working directly with students.
Speaker B:So those are the three things I'm thankful for.
Speaker B:So now let's get focused on celebrating the small wins.
Speaker B:So classroom culture, we focus on building classroom culture in a lot of ways.
Speaker B:One of the ways though is building it based on the small wins.
Speaker B:Why celebrate small wins?
Speaker B:Why do the small wins matter?
Speaker B:Well, we know that.
Speaker B:We know that teaching can feel like an endless to do list.
Speaker B:It does.
Speaker B:It just seems like there's one thing after another after another we have to do.
Speaker B:And so the celebrations kind of shift from what's missing to what's working.
Speaker B:Because I think there's a lot of things that are working in our classroom and we got to celebrate those.
Speaker B:So we got to have that celebration shift from what's missing to what's working.
Speaker B:And the small wins can help build momentum for bigger growth.
Speaker B:And so celebrating those small wins matters.
Speaker B:Now you might be saying what counts as a small wind in a classroom.
Speaker B:You might celebrate a small win being maybe there's a student raising their hand for the first time.
Speaker B:You have this student who's just struggles with that and all of a sudden they raise their hand for the first time.
Speaker B:I gotta celebrate that.
Speaker B:Or maybe you're.
Speaker B:There's a certain time of day where there's been a really tough transition so far in the school year, and all of a sudden it's starting to run smoothly.
Speaker B:That small, that transition that's been kind of rough all year long.
Speaker B:If you're a couple weeks in and then it starts running smoothly, that one specific transition where you've been really working on it with the class, celebrate that.
Speaker B:There might be, you might have a student who's more on the quiet side, who all of a sudden shares an idea with the class, unexpectedly, that's a win.
Speaker B:Or you might have a class following a routine, without reminders, without rejecting, without guidance, following that routine.
Speaker B:That's a win.
Speaker B:And we have to celebrate those small wins.
Speaker B:It's so important that we celebrate those small wins.
Speaker B:And you might be saying, well, how do we celebrate those small wins?
Speaker B:Well, verbal praise, that's specific.
Speaker B:I like verbal praise, but I like it when it's specific.
Speaker B:And I think that's so important.
Speaker B:The key word is specific.
Speaker B:Where we, we don't say good job.
Speaker B:I think there's so I Tell my college students this.
Speaker B:When I work with college students, I tell them, hey, you know, we got to do better than just saying good job, good job.
Speaker B:We overdo the good job.
Speaker B:Good job doesn't mean much when you say it 20 times in a row and aren't specific.
Speaker B:We've got to get specific.
Speaker B:Say specific.
Speaker B:If you're praising kids, say specifically say why you're praising them.
Speaker B:Make it a big deal.
Speaker B:Y' all make it a big deal.
Speaker B:Because, I mean, that's not only.
Speaker B:Sometimes if you say good job, kids should know why you're praising them and get very targeted, very specific.
Speaker B:I don't care if you're praising them based on academics or social, like, socially, if they're interacting a certain way in a classroom or if there's a system that's working, whatever it is, we've got to give some specific praise and then do quick class shout outs.
Speaker B:If something's working or if you see, hey, this transition works a lot better, do a quick class shout out that celebrates as a class and that.
Speaker B:That can be fun too.
Speaker B:Just, you know, or like, have a list of shout outs.
Speaker B:Hey, these are some things I noticed this morning went super well for us.
Speaker B:Do those shout outs positive phone calls home.
Speaker B:How if we're starting to make phone calls home or, or mess.
Speaker B:Send messages or emails home where you notice things that are going well about a specific child or specific list.
Speaker B:Groups of students who may have struggled before.
Speaker B:Why not praise them for that?
Speaker B:Or why not reach out for that instead of just focusing on things that are maybe challenging where you have to reach out.
Speaker B:Paris want to hear good stuff their kids are doing too.
Speaker B:Not just the challenging or not so good stuff.
Speaker B:Parents and family members want to hear that good stuff.
Speaker B:So anytime we can celebrate not only with the students, if we can celebrate with the, With.
Speaker B:With the adults that, that are their guardians, that's a win.
Speaker B:Also.
Speaker B:And then I think of also like, maybe like small rituals or small routines like, like Friday win reflections, where maybe we.
Speaker B:We have for the week.
Speaker B:We look at what are some successful wins that have happened over the course of the week.
Speaker B:And you celebrate those with students.
Speaker B:I. I'm just thinking about how much fun that could be or how powerful that could be.
Speaker B:And you're teaching students to reflect through this process.
Speaker B:And if you, hey, all right, let's look at what went well this week, and you kind of go through it and you have that discussion with students.
Speaker B:That could be powerful.
Speaker B:I really like that idea.
Speaker B:I. I kind of wrote that down here as, As a possible idea, because I've done something similar to this, but I might actually start actually doing that.
Speaker B:I, I know some other teachers that have done like, some Friday, Friday wins.
Speaker B:And I'm just thinking about with a group of students I'm working with right now, I, I think they could.
Speaker B:They would.
Speaker B:They would really be into that.
Speaker B:And you ever, you ever start thinking about ideas or think about what other people are doing, and you kind of get excited.
Speaker B:The more you talk about something or talk about what someone else is doing, you kind of get excited when you kind of have a realization that, hey, it might actually work really well.
Speaker B:I could see that the Friday wins with students.
Speaker B:I could see that working really well with my students because I know some others have worked with it.
Speaker B:All right, so there you go.
Speaker B:I think this week I'm going to bring the Friday wins into my classroom.
Speaker B:But, but here's the thing.
Speaker B:I'm thinking how that might look, and I'm going to have to document that over the course of this week, too.
Speaker B:Not only celebrate as the week goes on, but.
Speaker B:But have that list of Friday wins.
Speaker B:Now.
Speaker B:We might have 20 or 30 things on that list where we go through that list of Friday wins.
Speaker B:And I could see doing this in my classroom where we go through this list.
Speaker B:We're applauding those wins and we're celebrating it.
Speaker B:And we just got like five.
Speaker B:Five minutes going through this Friday wins list where we're applauding, we're cheering, we're.
Speaker B:We're just excited for those things that have gone really well this week.
Speaker B:And I, I think I'm gonna do that this week.
Speaker B:Super excited.
Speaker B:Super excited.
Speaker B:Because.
Speaker B:And it's.
Speaker B:That's not exactly how it has looked in some other teachers classrooms who have done it.
Speaker B:But I, I do think that's how it's going to look in my classroom this week, you know, here, just kind of bringing it in and, and trying it.
Speaker B:So, so, so Friday, Friday wins.
Speaker B:Coming to a classroom near Mr. Cleave's classroom this week.
Speaker B:Well, why does it matter for teachers?
Speaker B:Why.
Speaker B:Why it matters for teachers to.
Speaker B:To.
Speaker B:To have to celebrate these small wins?
Speaker B:Well, it prevents burnout by highlighting progress.
Speaker B:It does.
Speaker B:It's so what I get really nervous when it comes to, like, burnout with teachers.
Speaker B:I get really scared, too, because the education profession has lost some really great teachers.
Speaker B:Teachers who have burned out, who have lost a profession because they have burned out or have kind of been pushed out of education because of that burnout.
Speaker B:And I'm not saying Ahab didn't celebrate the small wins.
Speaker B:But this is a tough profession.
Speaker B:And one of the things.
Speaker B:If we can celebrate those small wins, celebrate those small achievements with our students.
Speaker B:And personally, too, if I'm driving home and I'm thinking about those wins, if I'm personally thinking about the wins that I've had with students over the course of a week, not just celebrating with students where I'm building culture by celebrating with them, but in my own mind, too, going home and hit, hey, we had this list of things really wet that went well this week.
Speaker B:That's going to help prevent me from burning out.
Speaker B:It's going to help other teachers from burning out, too.
Speaker B:If we celebrate those, if we flick the nose, those wins over the course of a week, it's.
Speaker B:It's going to help us to see the impact we have on students, even on the tough days.
Speaker B:Because we know there's tough days.
Speaker B:Oh, yes, sir.
Speaker B:Yes, ma'.
Speaker B:Am.
Speaker B:We know there's.
Speaker B:There's good days there, there's tough days, and there's.
Speaker B:There's great days.
Speaker B:And sometimes what.
Speaker B:Sometimes those tough days are the ones that can really feel like you're getting beat down and suck the air out of your.
Speaker B:Out of your sails.
Speaker B:But we have to look through those tough days and celebrate the wins.
Speaker B:Celebrate the small wins, not big wins.
Speaker B:Celebrate the small wins.
Speaker B:And it helps us to see that impact we have on students.
Speaker B:And then by celebrating the small wins in our classroom, it helps to create joy and connections with students.
Speaker B:It helps humanize us with students that we're not just focusing on just, oh, everything that's going wrong.
Speaker B:They want to hear stuff that's going well.
Speaker B:They want to hear celebrations.
Speaker B:And when we can talk through some of those celebrations, talk through some of those wins in a celebratory nature, it's going to contribute to our overall classroom culture and our.
Speaker B:The rapport, connection, relationship building that we're having with students.
Speaker B:So just like celebrating birthdays or family time at home, the classroom needs those same pauses to mark growth and joy in our classroom.
Speaker B:They do.
Speaker B:So I made that connection there.
Speaker B:And as we wrap things up here, celebrating small wins, it doesn't take long, but it makes a huge difference for kids.
Speaker B:It builds confidence for us as teachers.
Speaker B:It keeps us grounded in the good work that's happening every day in our classroom.
Speaker B:Good work that can sometimes be overlooked if we're not paying attention or if we're getting caught up in things that aren't going well because we know there's stuff that's going well in our classroom.
Speaker B:Even if it's those small wins on a daily basis, well, that brings our episode to a close.
Speaker B:I want you to remember to inspire greatness in young people.
Speaker B:And don't forget to be a funky teacher.
Speaker B:Bye, now.
Speaker A:He's Mr. Funky Teacher yeah he's Mr. Funky Teacher yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:Sam.
