July 3, 2025 • 23 mins
Ruth Anna Kuhns shares from her personal experience as an educator who experienced teacher burnout. She shares tools for promoting sustainable teaching and avoiding unnecessary teacher turnover. Thriving teachers have greater opportunities to create engaging educational experiences for children.
Our First Episode with Ruth Anna
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
So we all know what it feels liketo feel overwhelmed or tired.
Okay. So that's not burnout necessarily.
Burnout is like an emotional exhaustionwhere sleeping doesn't take care of it.
Even the hobbies that you doto, you know, re-energize yourself.
You might not even want to do hobbies.
(00:20):
You feel like you have nothing to offeranyone.
Students, parents, community.
Maybe you even actually find yourselfavoiding parents or students.
Kind of like,I don't want to talk to anyone.
Just let me go to bed forever and pullthe covers over my head and never emerge.
(01:27):
Ruth Anna.
So you've worked in educationfor a while, right?
And, you know, youwe've been talking on the phone before.
Kind of.
Okay, what should what should we haveon the podcast and what topics?
And you mentioned you went througha period of prolonged burnout
because, you know, as a teacherand you know how to take a break.
And that made me really startthinking about, well, obviously,
(01:47):
what your story might be with that, butalso issues around teacher sustainability.
Like,it seems like there's a lot of turnover.
And this is something that,
you know, I've heard from a lot of placesthat this is a thing.
And so I'd like to,yeah, maybe start with that and,
see if there's some lessons herefor our audience.
Right.
So if, if it's all right,
(02:07):
let's just start with your experiencewith burnout as a teacher.
Just kind of the rundownwhat happened and what what was that like?
So there's there's, multiple layersto the question of burnout.
And I will talk about my experience.
I know that my experienceisn't necessarily everyone's
experience, but I think there aredefinitely themes throughout.
(02:29):
So as I reflect on my experienceas an educator.
So I taught for five yearsand then I really wanted a broader,
base to pull from.
I was realizingsome of the needs that are out there.
And so I went to Faith buildersfor two years
and did their teacher apprenticeshipprogram, which was very helpful.
After graduation, I came back and,
(02:52):
taught for a period of another nine years
and had a lot of good experiences there.
But during the last year thatI was working there as a homeroom teacher,
that's when the
that's when, as I look back, that's reallywhen the the burnout piece kicked in.
And one piece of itfor me was unresolved trauma.
(03:15):
I come from a really dark past with,
Yeah, lots of abuse and neglect and
I hadn't really had a safe placeto process that.
And so
as it as it started, you know, asI started having flashbacks and nightmares
and all of this, and I just was like,not sure what was going on.
(03:38):
And so toward the end of that year,my principal
said to me, well, Ruth Anna,would you consider taking a year off?
And that was a completely new questionfor me.
I it shows you how much I was survivingbecause I did not even have
the mental space to think, well,is there another option here?
(04:01):
So that one year turnedinto four years off.
And there were a lot of good thingsthat happened during those four years.
It was also really hardbecause, I didn't feel like
I had the emotional energyto continue teaching
and doing, the work of trauma therapy.
(04:21):
And so I did some really intense traumatherapy for a few years.
And that helped to, helpedto resolve, that piece of trauma.
I still deal with PTSD.
PTSD standsfor post-traumatic stress disorder.
I still deal with flashbacksand nightmares, but,
(04:41):
I've learned how to cope with it,
and so there's a really redemptiveending to that story.
So that's that's likeone piece of my story with burnout.
the other piece is,
as I look back and reflect,is everything that was on my plate
as a teacher when I start,when I started listing,
(05:03):
all the things that I was involved
in, I kind of went,
wait, this is making me tiredjust listing it all.
Oh, that's not a good sign.
Exactly.
And I think in the moment,
I don't think I knew that it was okayto ask for help.
I was thinking, okay, well, yeah,I am a teacher.
(05:25):
This is just what teachers do.
They just,you know, do the next thing, and,
you know, teach classesthat they don't enjoy.
But you do itbecause, well you're the one that can.
Yeah.
So I would say just like,like a really heavy workload
(05:46):
also led to finally my body saying
I can't do this anymore.
And so that was really devastatingbecause you know I'm
that kid who was like decided infirst grade that I wanted to be a teacher.
And so this is like my lifelong dream.
And suddenlyat the end of that school year,
(06:06):
I thankfully the school board released mefrom my, commitment
for the for the next year.
I had already committedto teaching for next year.
They released me from my contract,if that could help with
with my healing process.
so that's some of the piecesfrom your own story
and it, let's broaden it out a bit.
What are some of the thingsthat lead to burnout in teachers.
(06:28):
Just in general.
Like I'm sure you've noticedsome common threads here right.
Over the years. Yeah. List some of those.
That is a great question.
Okay, so I think to help us understand,
to help us
understand this, let's think a little bitabout a teacher who is in your,
you know, typical school, small school,maybe 60 to 70 students.
(06:52):
Or it could be smaller schools, 20 to 30
and let's think about some of the thingsthat they might be involved in.
Okay.
So it's very possible that they'reteaching multiple grades All right.
So let's say if youif you're teaching three grades
and onlyyou might have nine students okay.
But that's still three math lessonsto prep for, three language lessons.
(07:17):
You knowand if you're if you're not combining
classes,maybe three science, three history.
Like it just gets to be a lot of prep.
It's possible that they're teachingall of their classes.
So even music, art, Bible,
they might be doing all of the recessstudy with their students.
(07:37):
They might not have a lot of downtimeduring the day.
I know for me, sometimesI just need ten minutes to breathe
so I can actually be presentwith my students.
And on top of that,let's say the school day ends at three.
They might have 2 to 3 hours of grading.
After that,I know I talked to one of my friends,
(08:00):
who said, I sat down at 3:00 and I said,
now my second day starts and,you know, three hours of grading.
Well, when do you have time for prep?
Oh, no, I'm not done yet.
This is only just.
This is just the beginning.
They may be planningall the all of the field
trips for, their classes.
(08:23):
They may be planningall the class parties.
They might be prepping programs.
Both fall and spring.
Perhaps they're even workingsome in administration.
So you have your own homeroom,but then you're.
You're like the elementary educationprincipal.
Yet as well.
So then you're expected to be the expert, in any learning disability.
(08:45):
Okay.
So again,that's a whole subject on its own.
They might be arranging chapelspeakers, answering
phones, communicating about transportationdifferences, car rides, bus rides.
They're teaching childrento read somewhere.
They're supposed to do lesson prep.
And again,
if they have a couple years of experience,they might be training in new teachers
(09:08):
and then you're supposed to have energyto come up
with, like amazing ideasfor like Community week or Missions Week.
Do you get the feeling it'sjust a lot going on?
Fragmentation is the wordthat comes to mind.
Absolutely.
can we just back up a bit?
Define that.
(09:29):
Like, what do we meanwhen we're, you know, we have burnout.
But then again, I'm thinking specificallyfor the teachers themselves, right.
Right. Okay.
So, yeah, let me define that a little bit.
So we all know what it feels liketo feel overwhelmed or tired.
Okay. So that's not burnout necessarily.
Burnout is like an emotional exhaustionwhere sleeping doesn't take care of it.
(09:52):
Even the hobbies that you doto, you know, re-energize yourself.
You might not even want to do hobbies.
Okay. That's that's one example.
You feel like you have nothing to offeranyone.
Students, parents, community.
Maybe you even actually find yourselfavoiding parents or students.
(10:13):
Kind of like,I don't want to talk to anyone.
Just let me go to bed forever and pullthe covers over my head and never emerge.
Okay.
You may have felt like you just kind oflost your vision for teaching.
Like the spark is gone.
There's, like,the joy factor is just is is gone.
(10:34):
And when you encounter a problem, it canfeel like, almost like you're paralyzed.
Like, I can't even troubleshoot this.
I don't know.
I don't know how to think creativelyabout how to solve this.
You see how that is different from fromjust being tired?
Yeah. Yeah.
So yeah, some of these thoughts I am,
(10:57):
I am drawing from a presentationthat I listened to.
Arlin Nisly was presentingto experienced teachers,
and, he talked about burnoutand defined some of these things.
And it really connected with mebecause burnout is real.
And I think I think the key
(11:18):
to burnout is rest.
That doesn't mean that you're inactive.
But it is.
It is a creation principle in Scripture.
You know,and so if you're working seven days
a week, like,that's not what we've been created to do.
So I think we've got to bereally intentional about taking time,
(11:42):
taking time off and, you know, doing,doing self-care types of things.
One of the ways that I think about
avoiding burnoutsometimes is at the end of the week,
I will think, okay, what did I dothis week
that was not absolutely necessaryfor survival?
I like that.
(12:02):
That's good. Yeah.
So there are,
I think, different layers to burnout.
I describeI just described the workload of
perhaps your typical teacherin a typical school.
So I think workload can lead to burnout.
Sometimes it's lack of support.
I know it can. As a homeroom teacher.
(12:25):
It can feel difficultto get the support that you need.
If your principal is also a homeroomteacher or the administration.
They also have a homeroom.
And so if you have an issue,let's say during the day.
You know,
and you go to them for help, Will,then you're disrupting their classroom.
And so, like, there's justwhen when there's not enough of adults
(12:47):
to take care of the children, thatthat lack of support can be pretty key.
And I think also lack of self-care.
Not taking time to
do my hobbies, you know,hunting or hunting is not my hobby.
But, you know, I'm thinking,like hunting, fishing, going on hikes
or trips, travel, volleyball, like,those things are important.
(13:10):
That helps. Sustainability.
And I think another piece to burnoutis when we constantly exceed our limits.
And so those are a few factors, as I wasthinking about the whole issue of burnout.
I think those are some factorsthat, that cause burnout.
(13:31):
So I don't work in the educationspace at all, so, you know.
But just looking from the outsidein, it seems like there's
a lot of teacher turnoverand some issues with sustainability.
Right?
Constant staff turnover.
You know, something's happening there.
So how can our communities
help make this whole situationmore sustainable?
(13:55):
And when I say that, I'm thinkingspecifically for the teachers themselves.
Maybe there's other elements to consider.
But let's let's stay focused on that.
How can our communities get involved? Yes.
Okay.
So one thing I would say initially is
make sure your
teachers have enough help and immediatelythat's going to
what some of you are thinking iswell we don't have the budget for that.
(14:19):
All right folks,we have got to get past the budget.
but okay. Why why is it.
I mean, this is just to the pointwhere it's just pop culture, almost that,
like underpaid, overworked definesthe teachers, like anywhere.
And I'm not just saying
in our Anabaptist schools,that just feels like a universal thing.
I don't really understand that.
(14:40):
I've never understood that,but it becomes just almost assumed.
Yes. Yeah.But anyways. Right. Yeah. Right.
So, you know,make sure they have enough of help.
And I think what I'm going to do here
is I'm going to describemy current school situation.
I feel like at my current school
I've been able to, have lots of spaces
(15:01):
for healing because of some of the thingsthat I've experienced.
So a couple things that
are key for me at,
my current school isI have lots of support from admin.
So we do have a principal,we have a secretary.
We also have an elementarydirector of education.
And so I'm not in homeroom.
(15:23):
But you know I'm in learning support.
But I know there are peoplethat I can go to talk to
throughout the school day,who aren't in homeroom.
And, you know,if I need to just troubleshoot
for ten minutes,there's someone there to talk to.
At my school,they also have we have a person
who does all the art, teaches all the art,a person who teaches all the music.
(15:46):
And so that gives homeroom teachers
some pockets of time throughout their daywhere they can just regroup a little bit.
There are teachers aides
that we have, and that can, they can helpwith, with the grading piece.
I think I mentioned that, you know,grading can take hours for some teachers.
(16:07):
So, you know,why aren't we hiring teachers aides
to help out with the grading
And even if you're, you know,if you're in a small school,
I think we can still think creativelyabout these things.
You know, who can we who can we ask to
to help us out?
Bringing more tangible piecesof support onto the scene.
(16:30):
Is that a way of saying it.
Yes, absolutely, absolutely.
And there's also the financial piece.
Let's face it, you know. Okay.
So I'm obviously going to be advocatingfor single women.
But, you know, let's sayyou have a 25 year old single lady
and you say, well, we're paying her.
(16:52):
Well, she's making 20 grand a year.
Okay.
Well, is she going to be ableto buy a house on that salary?
I mean,would you want to live on that salary?
You know, as a, like, like thinkingabout some of those things,
like, is this is this sustainable for herto do financially?
(17:12):
I mean, it's really a shame when she says,you know, what, if I went to Sheetz,
I could make double what I make here.
Like, dowe care about investing in our teachers?
And if we don't care, it'sno wonder that we we're going
through teachers like water.
You know, with that amount of workload.
We burn them right out. Yeah.
(17:33):
You used a word thereI think that was important.
Invest in the teachers.
Right.
Thinking of it as an investment I guess.
I like that way of framing it.
Right.
So we were talking about okay, how canhow can we make things more sustainable
and avoid some of these thingswith teacher turnover, for example,
as people are listening to this,what is one thing they can do practically
(17:56):
to help support teachers, to help
with this situation,to get involved, and to contribute?
That is such a good question.
So yeah let's just talk aboutsome really practical things.
And I know from an educator perspectivethese things mean so much to me.
So this morning I walked into my classroomand there was an iced
(18:17):
coffee cold brew caramel on my deskready to go.
And I thought, this is the perfect wayto begin my Friday.
And it was our director of elementaryeducation
just, you know, treating the teachersokay.
That can seem like a really small thing,a coffee.
It means so much likeI've had in the past.
I've had parents, you know, stop in and,you know, maybe they'll give me a coffee
(18:41):
or a hot chocolate or something.
It means so much.
It means that we are we're seen.
And, that's that's huge.
So that's a really practical thing. Yeah.
I think, you know, if your school has, an opportunity for moms, like,
where a couple moms can get togetherand let's say they will plan
(19:01):
class parties or be responsible for,you know, planning field trips.
That's a huge load offthe homeroom teacher.
You can ask, you know,your homeroom teachers
like what their favorite food is and,you know, pack their lunch occasionally.
It's these small acts of servicethat just go such a long way.
And, you know, maybe you'reone of those people who says, okay,
(19:25):
what would it mean for me
to show up at school,you know, once a week
and have the teacherstrain me on recess duty,
and then I'll be out, you know,supervising, supervising the children.
And, you know, it's always a perk when,you know,
especially in the younger grades,you know,
their mom shows up and it's just,you know, that connection as well.
And you, they might not realize, like that15 minutes
(19:47):
gave me as a teacher, like,time to regroup.
I can had some time to breathe.
I had some time to, you know,if I was dealing with a difficult student
in the morning,sometime to just, like, focus again on.
Okay, you know, what am I working with?
And, you know, just kind of refocus,regroup, rethink.
Because as educators, we really do wantto be our best selves for our students.
(20:12):
That's that's really neat.
That's like,you know, little tangible ways of
and telling the teachers in your lifethat, hey we see you, we appreciate you.
We like otherwise
I wonder could it bethis sense of I'm here teaching these kids
and I feel really alone and nobody noticesand nobody sees me.
(20:32):
Is there some of that?
It could That can bea very real struggle in teaching.
And that really saddens me as well,because, like,
there's really something that gets lost,like in the school culture,
if we are just in our own classrooms,we're just little kingdoms unto ourselves
doing our own thing.
That, that that hurts the school culture.
(20:53):
But for but as a teacher, that can feelreally, really lonely as well.
And so we
need, we need community, we need support,we need parents, we need school boards,
and we need schoolboards and, administrators
who are passionateabout paying their teachers well so that
(21:14):
they can actually live on what they make.
So as we look back over the materialthat we've covered in this,
kind of bringing it all together, is there anything else you would like
to leave the audiencewith as we wrap this episode up.
So I've given some, some tangible,things there as well.
(21:36):
But never underestimate the powerof praying for your teachers.
Principal secretary, administrators.
That means so muchto have a group of people who are really,
bringing us before the Lord in prayer,because it is education and,
working with students,
(21:57):
it's a big responsibility and it's notsomething that I take lightly.
And so we do need we need you.
We need everyone to,Yeah, help make this successful.
Thanks so
much for coming on and sharingand bringing your own personal experience.
And, yeah,giving us some pieces to work with here.
I think there's gonna be a lot here forlisteners to, they should take note of.
(22:21):
And and maybe this will, causesome changes in ways people can better.
Well, communities can come aroundand support schools and teachers better.
So yeah, I really appreciate this.Thank you for inviting me.
I always love when I'm invited to speakabout things that I'm passionate about.
yeah. Well,thank you so much for sharing today.
Thank you.
Thanks for listening to this episodewith Ruth.
(22:42):
Anna, we did a two part, series with Joel
Yoder on the topic of burnout,which I think you'll find interesting.
You can find that linked downin the description below.
We also publish regular monthly essaysas well as a monthly email newsletter,
and you can subscribe
to both of those on our websiteat Anabaptistperspectives.org.
Thanks againand we'll see you in the next episode.
So we all know what it feels liketo feel overwhelmed or tired.
Okay. So that's not burnout necessarily.
Burnout is like an emotional exhaustionwhere sleeping doesn't take care of it.
Even the hobbies that you doto, you know, re-energize yourself.
You might not even want to do hobbies.
(00:20):
You feel like you have nothing to offeranyone.
Students, parents, community.
Maybe you even actually find yourselfavoiding parents or students.
Kind of like,I don't want to talk to anyone.
Just let me go to bed forever and pullthe covers over my head and never emerge.
(01:27):
Ruth Anna.
So you've worked in educationfor a while, right?
And, you know, youwe've been talking on the phone before.
Kind of.
Okay, what should what should we haveon the podcast and what topics?
And you mentioned you went througha period of prolonged burnout
because, you know, as a teacherand you know how to take a break.
And that made me really startthinking about, well, obviously,
(01:47):
what your story might be with that, butalso issues around teacher sustainability.
Like,it seems like there's a lot of turnover.
And this is something that,
you know, I've heard from a lot of placesthat this is a thing.
And so I'd like to,yeah, maybe start with that and,
see if there's some lessons herefor our audience.
Right.
So if, if it's all right,
(02:07):
let's just start with your experiencewith burnout as a teacher.
Just kind of the rundownwhat happened and what what was that like?
So there's there's, multiple layersto the question of burnout.
And I will talk about my experience.
I know that my experienceisn't necessarily everyone's
experience, but I think there aredefinitely themes throughout.
(02:29):
So as I reflect on my experienceas an educator.
So I taught for five yearsand then I really wanted a broader,
base to pull from.
I was realizingsome of the needs that are out there.
And so I went to Faith buildersfor two years
and did their teacher apprenticeshipprogram, which was very helpful.
After graduation, I came back and,
(02:52):
taught for a period of another nine years
and had a lot of good experiences there.
But during the last year thatI was working there as a homeroom teacher,
that's when the
that's when, as I look back, that's reallywhen the the burnout piece kicked in.
And one piece of itfor me was unresolved trauma.
(03:15):
I come from a really dark past with,
Yeah, lots of abuse and neglect and
I hadn't really had a safe placeto process that.
And so
as it as it started, you know, asI started having flashbacks and nightmares
and all of this, and I just was like,not sure what was going on.
(03:38):
And so toward the end of that year,my principal
said to me, well, Ruth Anna,would you consider taking a year off?
And that was a completely new questionfor me.
I it shows you how much I was survivingbecause I did not even have
the mental space to think, well,is there another option here?
(04:01):
So that one year turnedinto four years off.
And there were a lot of good thingsthat happened during those four years.
It was also really hardbecause, I didn't feel like
I had the emotional energyto continue teaching
and doing, the work of trauma therapy.
(04:21):
And so I did some really intense traumatherapy for a few years.
And that helped to, helpedto resolve, that piece of trauma.
I still deal with PTSD.
PTSD standsfor post-traumatic stress disorder.
I still deal with flashbacksand nightmares, but,
(04:41):
I've learned how to cope with it,
and so there's a really redemptiveending to that story.
So that's that's likeone piece of my story with burnout.
the other piece is,
as I look back and reflect,is everything that was on my plate
as a teacher when I start,when I started listing,
(05:03):
all the things that I was involved
in, I kind of went,
wait, this is making me tiredjust listing it all.
Oh, that's not a good sign.
Exactly.
And I think in the moment,
I don't think I knew that it was okayto ask for help.
I was thinking, okay, well, yeah,I am a teacher.
(05:25):
This is just what teachers do.
They just,you know, do the next thing, and,
you know, teach classesthat they don't enjoy.
But you do itbecause, well you're the one that can.
Yeah.
So I would say just like,like a really heavy workload
(05:46):
also led to finally my body saying
I can't do this anymore.
And so that was really devastatingbecause you know I'm
that kid who was like decided infirst grade that I wanted to be a teacher.
And so this is like my lifelong dream.
And suddenlyat the end of that school year,
(06:06):
I thankfully the school board released mefrom my, commitment
for the for the next year.
I had already committedto teaching for next year.
They released me from my contract,if that could help with
with my healing process.
so that's some of the piecesfrom your own story
and it, let's broaden it out a bit.
What are some of the thingsthat lead to burnout in teachers.
(06:28):
Just in general.
Like I'm sure you've noticedsome common threads here right.
Over the years. Yeah. List some of those.
That is a great question.
Okay, so I think to help us understand,
to help us
understand this, let's think a little bitabout a teacher who is in your,
you know, typical school, small school,maybe 60 to 70 students.
(06:52):
Or it could be smaller schools, 20 to 30
and let's think about some of the thingsthat they might be involved in.
Okay.
So it's very possible that they'reteaching multiple grades All right.
So let's say if youif you're teaching three grades
and onlyyou might have nine students okay.
But that's still three math lessonsto prep for, three language lessons.
(07:17):
You knowand if you're if you're not combining
classes,maybe three science, three history.
Like it just gets to be a lot of prep.
It's possible that they're teachingall of their classes.
So even music, art, Bible,
they might be doing all of the recessstudy with their students.
(07:37):
They might not have a lot of downtimeduring the day.
I know for me, sometimesI just need ten minutes to breathe
so I can actually be presentwith my students.
And on top of that,let's say the school day ends at three.
They might have 2 to 3 hours of grading.
After that,I know I talked to one of my friends,
(08:00):
who said, I sat down at 3:00 and I said,
now my second day starts and,you know, three hours of grading.
Well, when do you have time for prep?
Oh, no, I'm not done yet.
This is only just.
This is just the beginning.
They may be planningall the all of the field
trips for, their classes.
(08:23):
They may be planningall the class parties.
They might be prepping programs.
Both fall and spring.
Perhaps they're even workingsome in administration.
So you have your own homeroom,but then you're.
You're like the elementary educationprincipal.
Yet as well.
So then you're expected to be the expert, in any learning disability.
(08:45):
Okay.
So again,that's a whole subject on its own.
They might be arranging chapelspeakers, answering
phones, communicating about transportationdifferences, car rides, bus rides.
They're teaching childrento read somewhere.
They're supposed to do lesson prep.
And again,
if they have a couple years of experience,they might be training in new teachers
(09:08):
and then you're supposed to have energyto come up
with, like amazing ideasfor like Community week or Missions Week.
Do you get the feeling it'sjust a lot going on?
Fragmentation is the wordthat comes to mind.
Absolutely.
can we just back up a bit?
Define that.
(09:29):
Like, what do we meanwhen we're, you know, we have burnout.
But then again, I'm thinking specificallyfor the teachers themselves, right.
Right. Okay.
So, yeah, let me define that a little bit.
So we all know what it feels liketo feel overwhelmed or tired.
Okay. So that's not burnout necessarily.
Burnout is like an emotional exhaustionwhere sleeping doesn't take care of it.
(09:52):
Even the hobbies that you doto, you know, re-energize yourself.
You might not even want to do hobbies.
Okay. That's that's one example.
You feel like you have nothing to offeranyone.
Students, parents, community.
Maybe you even actually find yourselfavoiding parents or students.
(10:13):
Kind of like,I don't want to talk to anyone.
Just let me go to bed forever and pullthe covers over my head and never emerge.
Okay.
You may have felt like you just kind oflost your vision for teaching.
Like the spark is gone.
There's, like,the joy factor is just is is gone.
(10:34):
And when you encounter a problem, it canfeel like, almost like you're paralyzed.
Like, I can't even troubleshoot this.
I don't know.
I don't know how to think creativelyabout how to solve this.
You see how that is different from fromjust being tired?
Yeah. Yeah.
So yeah, some of these thoughts I am,
(10:57):
I am drawing from a presentationthat I listened to.
Arlin Nisly was presentingto experienced teachers,
and, he talked about burnoutand defined some of these things.
And it really connected with mebecause burnout is real.
And I think I think the key
(11:18):
to burnout is rest.
That doesn't mean that you're inactive.
But it is.
It is a creation principle in Scripture.
You know,and so if you're working seven days
a week, like,that's not what we've been created to do.
So I think we've got to bereally intentional about taking time,
(11:42):
taking time off and, you know, doing,doing self-care types of things.
One of the ways that I think about
avoiding burnoutsometimes is at the end of the week,
I will think, okay, what did I dothis week
that was not absolutely necessaryfor survival?
I like that.
(12:02):
That's good. Yeah.
So there are,
I think, different layers to burnout.
I describeI just described the workload of
perhaps your typical teacherin a typical school.
So I think workload can lead to burnout.
Sometimes it's lack of support.
I know it can. As a homeroom teacher.
(12:25):
It can feel difficultto get the support that you need.
If your principal is also a homeroomteacher or the administration.
They also have a homeroom.
And so if you have an issue,let's say during the day.
You know,
and you go to them for help, Will,then you're disrupting their classroom.
And so, like, there's justwhen when there's not enough of adults
(12:47):
to take care of the children, thatthat lack of support can be pretty key.
And I think also lack of self-care.
Not taking time to
do my hobbies, you know,hunting or hunting is not my hobby.
But, you know, I'm thinking,like hunting, fishing, going on hikes
or trips, travel, volleyball, like,those things are important.
(13:10):
That helps. Sustainability.
And I think another piece to burnoutis when we constantly exceed our limits.
And so those are a few factors, as I wasthinking about the whole issue of burnout.
I think those are some factorsthat, that cause burnout.
(13:31):
So I don't work in the educationspace at all, so, you know.
But just looking from the outsidein, it seems like there's
a lot of teacher turnoverand some issues with sustainability.
Right?
Constant staff turnover.
You know, something's happening there.
So how can our communities
help make this whole situationmore sustainable?
(13:55):
And when I say that, I'm thinkingspecifically for the teachers themselves.
Maybe there's other elements to consider.
But let's let's stay focused on that.
How can our communities get involved? Yes.
Okay.
So one thing I would say initially is
make sure your
teachers have enough help and immediatelythat's going to
what some of you are thinking iswell we don't have the budget for that.
(14:19):
All right folks,we have got to get past the budget.
but okay. Why why is it.
I mean, this is just to the pointwhere it's just pop culture, almost that,
like underpaid, overworked definesthe teachers, like anywhere.
And I'm not just saying
in our Anabaptist schools,that just feels like a universal thing.
I don't really understand that.
(14:40):
I've never understood that,but it becomes just almost assumed.
Yes. Yeah.But anyways. Right. Yeah. Right.
So, you know,make sure they have enough of help.
And I think what I'm going to do here
is I'm going to describemy current school situation.
I feel like at my current school
I've been able to, have lots of spaces
(15:01):
for healing because of some of the thingsthat I've experienced.
So a couple things that
are key for me at,
my current school isI have lots of support from admin.
So we do have a principal,we have a secretary.
We also have an elementarydirector of education.
And so I'm not in homeroom.
(15:23):
But you know I'm in learning support.
But I know there are peoplethat I can go to talk to
throughout the school day,who aren't in homeroom.
And, you know,if I need to just troubleshoot
for ten minutes,there's someone there to talk to.
At my school,they also have we have a person
who does all the art, teaches all the art,a person who teaches all the music.
(15:46):
And so that gives homeroom teachers
some pockets of time throughout their daywhere they can just regroup a little bit.
There are teachers aides
that we have, and that can, they can helpwith, with the grading piece.
I think I mentioned that, you know,grading can take hours for some teachers.
(16:07):
So, you know,why aren't we hiring teachers aides
to help out with the grading
And even if you're, you know,if you're in a small school,
I think we can still think creativelyabout these things.
You know, who can we who can we ask to
to help us out?
Bringing more tangible piecesof support onto the scene.
(16:30):
Is that a way of saying it.
Yes, absolutely, absolutely.
And there's also the financial piece.
Let's face it, you know. Okay.
So I'm obviously going to be advocatingfor single women.
But, you know, let's sayyou have a 25 year old single lady
and you say, well, we're paying her.
(16:52):
Well, she's making 20 grand a year.
Okay.
Well, is she going to be ableto buy a house on that salary?
I mean,would you want to live on that salary?
You know, as a, like, like thinkingabout some of those things,
like, is this is this sustainable for herto do financially?
(17:12):
I mean, it's really a shame when she says,you know, what, if I went to Sheetz,
I could make double what I make here.
Like, dowe care about investing in our teachers?
And if we don't care, it'sno wonder that we we're going
through teachers like water.
You know, with that amount of workload.
We burn them right out. Yeah.
(17:33):
You used a word thereI think that was important.
Invest in the teachers.
Right.
Thinking of it as an investment I guess.
I like that way of framing it.
Right.
So we were talking about okay, how canhow can we make things more sustainable
and avoid some of these thingswith teacher turnover, for example,
as people are listening to this,what is one thing they can do practically
(17:56):
to help support teachers, to help
with this situation,to get involved, and to contribute?
That is such a good question.
So yeah let's just talk aboutsome really practical things.
And I know from an educator perspectivethese things mean so much to me.
So this morning I walked into my classroomand there was an iced
(18:17):
coffee cold brew caramel on my deskready to go.
And I thought, this is the perfect wayto begin my Friday.
And it was our director of elementaryeducation
just, you know, treating the teachersokay.
That can seem like a really small thing,a coffee.
It means so much likeI've had in the past.
I've had parents, you know, stop in and,you know, maybe they'll give me a coffee
(18:41):
or a hot chocolate or something.
It means so much.
It means that we are we're seen.
And, that's that's huge.
So that's a really practical thing. Yeah.
I think, you know, if your school has, an opportunity for moms, like,
where a couple moms can get togetherand let's say they will plan
(19:01):
class parties or be responsible for,you know, planning field trips.
That's a huge load offthe homeroom teacher.
You can ask, you know,your homeroom teachers
like what their favorite food is and,you know, pack their lunch occasionally.
It's these small acts of servicethat just go such a long way.
And, you know, maybe you'reone of those people who says, okay,
(19:25):
what would it mean for me
to show up at school,you know, once a week
and have the teacherstrain me on recess duty,
and then I'll be out, you know,supervising, supervising the children.
And, you know, it's always a perk when,you know,
especially in the younger grades,you know,
their mom shows up and it's just,you know, that connection as well.
And you, they might not realize, like that15 minutes
(19:47):
gave me as a teacher, like,time to regroup.
I can had some time to breathe.
I had some time to, you know,if I was dealing with a difficult student
in the morning,sometime to just, like, focus again on.
Okay, you know, what am I working with?
And, you know, just kind of refocus,regroup, rethink.
Because as educators, we really do wantto be our best selves for our students.
(20:12):
That's that's really neat.
That's like,you know, little tangible ways of
and telling the teachers in your lifethat, hey we see you, we appreciate you.
We like otherwise
I wonder could it bethis sense of I'm here teaching these kids
and I feel really alone and nobody noticesand nobody sees me.
(20:32):
Is there some of that?
It could That can bea very real struggle in teaching.
And that really saddens me as well,because, like,
there's really something that gets lost,like in the school culture,
if we are just in our own classrooms,we're just little kingdoms unto ourselves
doing our own thing.
That, that that hurts the school culture.
(20:53):
But for but as a teacher, that can feelreally, really lonely as well.
And so we
need, we need community, we need support,we need parents, we need school boards,
and we need schoolboards and, administrators
who are passionateabout paying their teachers well so that
(21:14):
they can actually live on what they make.
So as we look back over the materialthat we've covered in this,
kind of bringing it all together, is there anything else you would like
to leave the audiencewith as we wrap this episode up.
So I've given some, some tangible,things there as well.
(21:36):
But never underestimate the powerof praying for your teachers.
Principal secretary, administrators.
That means so muchto have a group of people who are really,
bringing us before the Lord in prayer,because it is education and,
working with students,
(21:57):
it's a big responsibility and it's notsomething that I take lightly.
And so we do need we need you.
We need everyone to,Yeah, help make this successful.
Thanks so
much for coming on and sharingand bringing your own personal experience.
And, yeah,giving us some pieces to work with here.
I think there's gonna be a lot here forlisteners to, they should take note of.
(22:21):
And and maybe this will, causesome changes in ways people can better.
Well, communities can come aroundand support schools and teachers better.
So yeah, I really appreciate this.Thank you for inviting me.
I always love when I'm invited to speakabout things that I'm passionate about.
yeah. Well,thank you so much for sharing today.
Thank you.
Thanks for listening to this episodewith Ruth.
(22:42):
Anna, we did a two part, series with Joel
Yoder on the topic of burnout,which I think you'll find interesting.
You can find that linked downin the description below.
We also publish regular monthly essaysas well as a monthly email newsletter,
and you can subscribe
to both of those on our websiteat Anabaptistperspectives.org.
Thanks againand we'll see you in the next episode.
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