The imposter syndrome episode every teacher needs.
You’re in the classroom, trying your best, showing up with good intentions… but there it is. That sneaky voice that whispers:
“Maybe I’m not cut out for this.”
Sound familiar? Yeah. Me too.
In this episode, I’m walking you through four of the biggest ways imposter syndrome has crept into my teaching life — from crying over curriculum codes to having students find me on Tinder (yes, really). Because if you’ve ever felt like the only teacher in the building who doesn’t have it together, this is your reminder: you’re not alone.
More importantly, this isn’t a “rah rah you’ve got this” fluff pep talk. This is real-talk about the systems that set you up to feel like a fraud, why your self-doubt makes total sense, and how to reframe those fears into fuel.
If you’ve been feeling like a walking imposter in your own classroom — this one’s for you. Let’s roll the tape.
What You’ll Learn:
- The four most common (and painful) ways imposter syndrome shows up in teaching
- Why feeling confused by curriculum or acronyms doesn’t make you incompetent
- How a group of Year 12s and Tinder nearly sent me into hiding (true story)
- Why behaviour challenges aren’t proof that you’re failing — just that you need better tools
- The difference between good and crap leadership when you’re struggling
- How to stop measuring your worth by how quiet your classroom looks
Resources Mentioned:
- The Pedagogy of Poverty episode
- Join The Behaviour Club: https://www.the-unteachables.com/tbc
Have a question, comment, or just want to say hello? Drop us a text!
RESOURCES AND MORE SUPPORT:
- Shop all resources
- Join The Behaviour Club
- My book! It’s Never Just About the Behaviour: A holistic approach to classroom behaviour management
- The Low-Level Behaviour Bootcamp
- Free guide: 'Chats that Create Change'
Connect with me:
- Follow on Instagram @the.unteachables
- Check out my website
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Claire English (00:01):
Oh, hi there, teachers, welcome to the
Unteachables podcast.
I'm your host, claire English,and I am just a fellow teacher,
a toddler mama and a big oldbehavior nerd on a mission to
demystify and simplify thatlittle thing called classroom
management.
The way we've all been taughtto manage behavior and classroom
manage has left us playingcrowd control, which is not
(00:22):
something I subscribe to,because we're not dancers, we're
teachers.
So listen in as I walk youthrough the game, changing
strategies and I mean the thingsthat we can actually do and
action in our classrooms thatwill allow you to lean into your
beautiful values as acompassionate educator and feel
empowered to run your room witha little more calm and, dare I
(00:43):
say it, a lot less chaos.
I will see you in the episode.
Hello friend, how are you?
I hope that your week is goingwell.
Whether you are listening tothis on the way to work, I am
sending all of my strength andcoffee and all of the things for
(01:03):
the day ahead.
I hope it's a brilliant one.
If you're on your way home fromwork, I hope that it was all
okay, that you were treated well, that you felt some success.
You know like you had a goodday.
Those days are so good, aren'tthey, when you walk out of a
class, those lessons where youwalk out of a class and you're
like, oh my gosh, that was agood one.
(01:24):
The kids were engaged, I feltlike I was like on point with
things and my energy was there.
I used to always feel like thatafter English classes with
juniors that were always alittle bit oh, but then we'd
have lessons where they used toget like really involved in
debates and be really excitedand it was just like this
beautiful kind of like energy inthe room.
(01:46):
Actually, like I have just soobviously, I've just moved to
Australia and I had that reallyweird in between part between
London and Sydney where I was inNew Zealand and I wasn't able
to teach there because I had todo all the paperwork and it
wasn't worth it for a year, so Ijust focused on the
unteachables.
But now that I'm back inAustralia, I am just and I've
been here and I've settled down.
Now I've still got to do somebureaucratic stuff to be able to
(02:08):
go back into the classroom,like my working with children's
check, and I've got to like re.
I'm still technically on leavefrom NESA, which is like the
education board here.
So I've got to do some stuff toreactivate my teaching.
But lately, I'm telling you, myheart has been yearning to be
back in the classroom.
So I will be going back intoteach casually.
(02:29):
Obviously it's like a catch 22,because for me to be talking to
you about classroom management,I really need to be honing
those skills because you lose it.
You know that even over theChristmas break or like the
summer break, wherever you arein the world, like that six
weeks it makes you feel likeyou've forgotten to teach.
And I don't want to feel likean imposter, a fraud, because I
(02:54):
haven't been in the classroomfor two years.
It's been a year now.
But I don't want to go longlike any longer and feel like
I'm an imposter.
I know what I know, I know that, I know what I'm talking about,
but I want to be able to livethat in the everyday.
So catch 22, instead of going infull-time teaching, because
then I would just have to throwthe unteachables in the bin and
the work that I do here mattersand I'm so passionate about the
(03:16):
work I do here and it's soneeded.
So instead of going backfull-time, I am going to be
going in and teaching, casualdays here and there when they
pop up.
My goal would be one a week,but you never know, I might just
go in more, I might go in oncea fortnight.
But, honestly, like my heart'sjust been yearning to be in the
classroom in any capacity, to bearound a table with teachers,
(03:39):
to have chats, to yeah, to justbe in the room and to have that
like that energy, that vibeagain, like with the kids.
Like that's why I do this workand that's why I I just love
teaching, you know.
Anyway, speaking of impostersyndrome, I still get it all the
time.
I get it doing this work, I getit in the classroom still, and
(03:59):
I've been here for 15 years andI've been doing this work for
three years.
I have been a senior leader,I've been in so many positions
and still, to this day, thatimposter syndrome creeps in,
which is what I want to talk toyou about today.
I would like to talk to youabout four ways that imposter
syndrome has shown up for me inthe classroom and I want to kind
(04:22):
of just guide you through that,because I am certain that you
are out there listening and youmight have felt this way, one
way or another and I just wantto kind of debunk a few things
and just it's kind of avalidation episode of you
feeling a little bit betterabout yourself in the classroom.
Okay, first up, when we talkabout imposter syndrome as
teachers, it really is thatvoice that I had in my head that
(04:45):
was like you're just not cutout for this, whether you're a
brand new grad or a few yearsdeep or even more, a decade or
so deep, imposter syndrome canhit so hard for us, that
immediate feedback from so manybodies in the room, whether it's
their behaviors or the way theyspeak to us, or the fact that
(05:08):
in teaching there's quite a lotof like everything's on the
table.
It's not like you're sitting ata desk in an office and the
only person that thinks that youcan't do it is the person who's
seeing the data or the personthat's sitting across the table
from you In teaching, if you arein a classroom and you aren't
all over behavior, it just is solike there, it's so visible to
(05:31):
everybody, so it can.
Just it's so easy to feel likea fraud in teaching, so it like
when it comes to impostersyndrome, you might not be
thinking I'm not cut out forthis.
But you might be thinkingsomething like oh, what if my
principal walks in right now andrealizes that I don't have
control over my class or I stilldon't understand the curriculum
, or what the hell is thisacronym Like?
(05:53):
Is it just me?
Am I just dumb?
Like I just don't get it?
I can't understand that.
These are all things I'vethought.
By the way, my students don'ttake me seriously.
How could they possibly take meseriously?
How can I teach anyone when Ican't even manage the behaviors
in the room?
I've got these students sittingup the front and they're not
able to learn.
I can't even learn.
Sorry, I can't even teach them.
They're in this classroom and Ican't even teach them.
These aren't just doubts thatcreep in.
(06:15):
This is the shape that impostersyndrome takes when you care
deeply about your work andyou're navigating a system that
rarely gives you enough tools,training or time.
So I'm going to unpack thosecommon ways that imposter
syndrome shows up in teachingand why none of them mean that
you are failing and talk throughmy experiences a little bit.
The first one was I don'tunderstand the curriculum.
(06:37):
What the hell is this?
Am I the only one that'sconfused?
There's another acronym therethat I just don't understand.
Maybe someone's sitting in ameeting, like you're sitting in
a meeting with the whole staffteam and your principal says an
acronym and you're like, oh myGod, what the hell is that?
And you don't want to say whatis that.
So you jot it down in your bookand you try to Google it later.
It's so hard to understand whatis going on.
(06:58):
There are so many things.
The biggest gift that I've beengiven in teaching was my friend
Kerry, who I worked with in myfirst school.
She was a teacher.
I've spoken about perfect Kerrybefore.
My friend Carly called herperfect Kerry, um, and I think
the head teacher of Englishcalled her perfect Kerry as well
as a bit of a joke in the staffroom because she was the one
that looked like she had it alltogether.
(07:18):
But then I had a planning daywith her and I don't think she'd
ever listened to this podcast.
I might actually reach out toher now that I'm back in
Australia, but and maybe showher this.
But she, um.
I did a planning day with herand we were in this room
together and the planning daywas for the new English
curriculum, probably like I wasonly in my second year or first
year of teaching and it was likethe fifth update probably, that
(07:38):
I'd already seen the Englishcurriculum Anyway.
So I sat with her and I go,kerry, I've got something to ask
you like something to say, andI please don't judge me for it.
But like I was looking at thecurriculum and the language of
the curriculum and I said Iactually don't understand this.
I was really, I really struggledat university and I don't know
if I've said this before on thepodcast, but so because of the
(08:01):
trauma that I was kind ofprocessing during my time at
university, I had a period oftime where I was living out of
my car.
Things were just not good forme at all when I was at
university.
I've actually blocked out a lotof the work that I did during
that time.
I was at university for fiveyears and I have very little
recollection of a lot of thethings that I learned at
(08:22):
university, of a lot of thethings that I learned at
university.
So when I got into theclassroom it felt like I was
almost kind of like chewed upand spat out and I just had no
idea what was going on.
So for me to be able to sit in.
I trusted her for me to be ableto sit in front of her and say,
kerry, I just really don'tunderstand this.
I thought maybe it wassomething that I was taught at
university that I just didn'tremember and maybe that I was
(08:43):
the problem and that there waslike it wasn't, like, maybe I
wasn't ready to be a teacher,maybe I needed to go back and do
my degree, maybe I needed to goand do extra study or something
like that.
That was the thought that I hadin my head.
But the truth who can rememberall of those acronyms?
Who can immediately get theirhead around the kind of language
(09:04):
that is in the curriculum?
The English curriculum is veryconvoluted.
It's not black and white, it'snot.
Students are learning this,especially like I know about
other parts of the world.
I know that the UK Englishcurriculum is very similar as
well, but the English curriculumis very convoluted and very
confusing.
But here's the truth, right.
Most systems are vague, mostsystems are acronym heavy,
(09:25):
they're underexplained and thelearning curve is vertical in
your first few years.
And, as I said, every country,every you know every place and
even every state in Australiahas different acronyms for
different things.
Even now, with my work in theunteachables, I'll have people
ask me a question like hey, doyou follow the FCCDB model?
And I'm like what the hell isthat?
And it's like people expect meto understand what everything is
(09:48):
now.
But I don't.
I don't understand all theacronyms.
So guess what I do?
I get onto Google and I Googleit.
I'm like, oh okay, that must bewhat it means.
But usually when I Google anacronym, 10 different you know
things, for that acronym come upin different industries as well
.
So feeling confused is not proofthat you are not good at this
or you're not ready.
It is just proof that theonboarding process for teachers
(10:10):
leaves just a few gaps.
So what I need to say to youabout this stuff is you don't
need to know every curriculumcode to be a credible teacher.
Ask the damn questions,nobody's going to judge you.
Okay, that is that one.
Point.
Two my students aren't going totake me seriously.
This one hit me hard in thefirst year of teaching because I
was only about four years olderthan my year 12 students that I
(10:32):
taught.
I was thrust into a year 12class.
They were the best, they wereamazing.
Like it was such a great classto teach.
But some of them were taller,they were louder than me, they
were way more confident than Iwas in that space.
I mean, they had their mates inthe class, they knew the school
.
They'd been there for six years, longer than me.
I'd just come into this schooland I just felt like I was
(10:54):
shrinking into myself at thefront of the room, thinking how
the hell am I going to be takenseriously here?
What will I do when I need totalk to them about their
behavior?
I'm in no place to talk to themabout their behavior.
And to make matters worse, oneday three of the boys that I
taught they hung back.
Remember I was 22 at the time.
They hung back at the end ofthe lesson and I'm like you
(11:17):
three, okay, like what's goingon?
And they were nudging eachother and one of them was like
just tell her, man, just tellher.
And then one of the boys said oh, miss, we found you on Tinder.
And I nearly died.
I nearly died and I just saidlike oh, I just don't know what
to say.
I said but you're young.
(11:37):
Like, how did you find me?
My age range isn't down thatlow.
And they're like oh, we, we lieabout our age.
So that was how they found meand because we're in close
proximity at the high school,they um, I was obviously someone
that popped up and I rememberthinking like there's just no
way I'll ever have authorityhere.
They're going to walk all overme.
I mean, they know I'm on Tinder, how am I going to?
(12:00):
How am I going to do this?
But here is what I learned realfast Respect doesn't come with
age or experience or volume ornot being on Tinder.
It comes with consistency andpresence and calm leadership.
And things really shifted forme when I started to let go of
those feelings and started tofocus on building a credible
(12:21):
teaching persona, but also kindof just acknowledging like, yeah
, I am a young teacher and yes,these are the challenges that
I'm going to face and yes, Imight need support with this.
And I really think that youngteachers need a lot more support
in the classroom when it comesto building their credible
teacher presence, because it isvery hard, especially when
(12:42):
you're a secondary teacher andthe students that you're
teaching are not that muchyounger than you Like it can be
really really challenging tonavigate.
Okay, so point three what ifsomeone sees me struggling?
You know what if my, what if myprincipal walks in right now?
Oh my gosh, like the class ischaotic right now.
Of course the principal alwayswalks in when my class is
(13:03):
chaotic right now.
Of course the principal alwayswalks in.
When my class is chaotic, younever see, she never sees it
when it's, you know, nice andsettled Imposter syndrome.
It just thrives in that secrecyand that you know.
Worry about somebody being ableto see.
You know the reality of yourclassroom.
Imposter syndrome will say youbetter hide this chaos or
(13:25):
they'll realize that you're notcut out for this job.
This is true.
It's true in year one and it'strue in year 20 of your career.
So what you start to do is youstart to know why I started to
do anyway, over prep, just panic, 24, seven.
The leadership was going to walkin.
I was measuring my worth by howin control my class looked, no
matter what was happening.
(13:46):
So maybe I would put up slidesfor them to copy.
If I knew that, you know,people were roaming around the
building, if I knew that therewas something happening that day
, I would just put things up onthe board for them to copy.
Because when we're talkingabout the pedagogy of poverty,
things like that.
Kids reward you with low effortwork.
They will reward you with theirbehavior.
(14:06):
So they will sit there and copydown three pages of notes,
because it doesn't mean theydon't have to think, it means
they don't have to put anythingon the line, they don't have to
risk anything.
There's a whole episode onimposter syndrome of the
pedagogy of poverty.
If you'd like to listen to that, I can tag tag it down below
for you to go immediately.
(14:26):
But here's what I want you toknow Good leadership and I say
good leadership is not expectingperfection.
They want to see growth, theywant to see reflection, they
want to see strategy.
Good leadership will seestruggle and they'll want to
support.
They won't want to make youfeel like crap about it.
They won't want to say, ofcourse, like, good leadership is
not going to walk into a firstyear teacher's classroom and go
(14:49):
off, you're not cut out for this.
Good leadership will say, okay,let's put some supports in
place, let's go and get ClaireEnglish in here to you know, to
give you some mentoring.
And if it's not good leadership, you can't control what they
think anyway and, to be honest,they're probably going to think
some other crappy, narrow-mindedthing.
Anyway, they're probably goingto go away.
(15:09):
If they're going to thinksomething crappy about you,
they're going to find a reasonto think something crappy about
you.
Bad leadership will always putpeople in two categories hero or
zero.
And I've seen it happen in somany schools where they've got
their core group of people thatthey think are brilliant and
they can't do any wrong untilthey do something wrong and then
they're put in the bad category.
(15:29):
Like it doesn't take much for abad leader to put something
like label a staff member as badand then start to push them out
.
So, hero or zero, and if you'rea zero, it doesn't matter what
you do.
They're going to think crappythoughts about you anyway.
Challenging behavior in theclassroom also does not mean
that you are flawed or you'renot cut out for it.
(15:49):
It really is just so hard.
Your struggle in the classroomis not a reflection on whether
or not you should be a teacher.
You just need more support.
You need the right support andI know that that is such a huge
source of imposter syndrome forso many of us.
And that leads me onto the lastthing that I have thought
before, and I know other peoplethink, is I can't manage
(16:10):
behavior, so how can I possiblyteach Like?
What can I do if I can't evenmanage the behavior?
If I can't get through thecontent, then what am I supposed
to do here?
And it's one of the most painfulways imposter syndrome shows up
, because it makes you feel likeyou're in survival mode all day
long because your quality worldand your real world are
completely out of sync.
You want to feel you knowmastery in the classroom.
(16:34):
That's one of your five basicneeds and if you're not able to
fill that mastery cup at yourworkplace, you will start to
feel like you're in survivalmode constantly and you will act
in ways and you will respond tobehavior in ways that maybe you
are misaligned with your valuesbecause you're desperately
trying to get back to a place ofsafety and control is safety.
But here's the truth, right,you weren't given real training
(16:57):
in behavior.
You were handed vague advicelike build the relationships and
be consistent and don't take itpersonally, without anything to
support you to do that, withoutany scripts or strategies or
support for what that actuallylooks like, especially what that
looks like under pressure.
And so when you have a class of30 and low level, disruptions
are happening and two studentsare up the front, desperate for
(17:18):
you to teach them something, ofcourse you start to think see,
I'm not cut out for this.
I can't even get them to listen.
I can't even teach the twostudents in my room that are
wanting to listen and wanting tolearn.
I'm doing my students adisservice.
It's not fair on those twostudents.
Maybe somebody else would bebetter placed in front of that
room.
They're not.
You are so well placed in frontof that room for your students.
(17:38):
You just need the tools.
You won't give the tools.
That's not your fault.
Caring deeply does not meanyou'll magically know how to
manage a room.
It just means you're ready tolearn how to manage a room.
And this is a skill set.
It's not an instinct, it's notsomething that comes via osmosis
.
It's something that is a skilland it can be learned and that
(17:59):
is brilliant to know and that'sempowering to know that you are
not stuck in the situation thatyou are in right now.
So just wrapping up impostersyndrome isn't something that is
always loud.
Sometimes it hides quietlybehind those really insidious
thoughts that we have like whydoes everybody else get this but
me?
Am I that dumb Students are notgoing to take me seriously.
(18:22):
If I'm seen struggling, itmeans that I've failed or people
are going to think a certainthing of me.
Maybe you think I suck atbehavior, so I suck at teaching.
It doesn't mean you're not outfor you know, cut out for
teaching.
It means that you care.
It means you're still growingand I'm still growing.
Everybody here is still growing.
I would never trust a teacherwho has nothing to learn.
(18:42):
You know, like we're alwayslearning, we always have
something to adapt, which is why, at the start of the episode, I
said that I need to be in theclassroom because I need to
continue honing those skills tofeel comfortable being able to
teach people.
At the moment I'm okay, ithasn't been that long, but give
it another two years.
My gosh, it is tough.
After maternity leave I was, Iwent back in the classroom and
(19:03):
I'm like, oh my gosh, like itjust feels so long.
Anyway, you're showing up.
You're not a fraud, you aretrying, you're incredible and I
just wanted to give you thatlittle pep talk around imposter
syndrome today, because I knowthat it can show up in big, big
ways for a lot of you.
So if you have felt any ofthose things.
(19:25):
If this resonated with you, feelfree, as always, to pop in and
let me know, and let me know ifthis podcast episode was helpful
.
If it was helpful, by the way,one of the most brilliant things
that you could do for me,honestly, is go and leave me a
review, because that means thatI am able and make sure you're
following, so you get all of theother episodes just
automatically in your um, inyour inbox.
Sometimes I love a podcast andI forget to follow it and then,
(19:48):
all of a sudden, it disappearsand I don't remember the name of
it.
But go and follow the show andgo and leave me a review.
It would mean so much to me and, yeah, it would help me to
reach other teachers as well.
Okay, lovely teacher, have abrilliant week and take care.
I shall speak to you nextepisode.
Oh, hi there, teachers, welcome to the
Unteachables podcast.
I'm your host, claire English,and I am just a fellow teacher,
a toddler mama and a big oldbehavior nerd on a mission to
demystify and simplify thatlittle thing called classroom
management.
The way we've all been taughtto manage behavior and classroom
manage has left us playingcrowd control, which is not
(00:22):
something I subscribe to,because we're not dancers, we're
teachers.
So listen in as I walk youthrough the game, changing
strategies and I mean the thingsthat we can actually do and
action in our classrooms thatwill allow you to lean into your
beautiful values as acompassionate educator and feel
empowered to run your room witha little more calm and, dare I
(00:43):
say it, a lot less chaos.
I will see you in the episode.
Hello friend, how are you?
I hope that your week is goingwell.
Whether you are listening tothis on the way to work, I am
sending all of my strength andcoffee and all of the things for
(01:03):
the day ahead.
I hope it's a brilliant one.
If you're on your way home fromwork, I hope that it was all
okay, that you were treated well, that you felt some success.
You know like you had a goodday.
Those days are so good, aren'tthey, when you walk out of a
class, those lessons where youwalk out of a class and you're
like, oh my gosh, that was agood one.
(01:24):
The kids were engaged, I feltlike I was like on point with
things and my energy was there.
I used to always feel like thatafter English classes with
juniors that were always alittle bit oh, but then we'd
have lessons where they used toget like really involved in
debates and be really excitedand it was just like this
beautiful kind of like energy inthe room.
(01:46):
Actually, like I have just soobviously, I've just moved to
Australia and I had that reallyweird in between part between
London and Sydney where I was inNew Zealand and I wasn't able
to teach there because I had todo all the paperwork and it
wasn't worth it for a year, so Ijust focused on the
unteachables.
But now that I'm back inAustralia, I am just and I've
been here and I've settled down.
Now I've still got to do somebureaucratic stuff to be able to
(02:08):
go back into the classroom,like my working with children's
check, and I've got to like re.
I'm still technically on leavefrom NESA, which is like the
education board here.
So I've got to do some stuff toreactivate my teaching.
But lately, I'm telling you, myheart has been yearning to be
back in the classroom.
So I will be going back intoteach casually.
(02:29):
Obviously it's like a catch 22,because for me to be talking to
you about classroom management,I really need to be honing
those skills because you lose it.
You know that even over theChristmas break or like the
summer break, wherever you arein the world, like that six
weeks it makes you feel likeyou've forgotten to teach.
And I don't want to feel likean imposter, a fraud, because I
(02:54):
haven't been in the classroomfor two years.
It's been a year now.
But I don't want to go longlike any longer and feel like
I'm an imposter.
I know what I know, I know that, I know what I'm talking about,
but I want to be able to livethat in the everyday.
So catch 22, instead of going infull-time teaching, because
then I would just have to throwthe unteachables in the bin and
the work that I do here mattersand I'm so passionate about the
(03:16):
work I do here and it's soneeded.
So instead of going backfull-time, I am going to be
going in and teaching, casualdays here and there when they
pop up.
My goal would be one a week,but you never know, I might just
go in more, I might go in oncea fortnight.
But, honestly, like my heart'sjust been yearning to be in the
classroom in any capacity, to bearound a table with teachers,
(03:39):
to have chats, to yeah, to justbe in the room and to have that
like that energy, that vibeagain, like with the kids.
Like that's why I do this workand that's why I I just love
teaching, you know.
Anyway, speaking of impostersyndrome, I still get it all the
time.
I get it doing this work, I getit in the classroom still, and
(03:59):
I've been here for 15 years andI've been doing this work for
three years.
I have been a senior leader,I've been in so many positions
and still, to this day, thatimposter syndrome creeps in,
which is what I want to talk toyou about today.
I would like to talk to youabout four ways that imposter
syndrome has shown up for me inthe classroom and I want to kind
(04:22):
of just guide you through that,because I am certain that you
are out there listening and youmight have felt this way, one
way or another and I just wantto kind of debunk a few things
and just it's kind of avalidation episode of you
feeling a little bit betterabout yourself in the classroom.
Okay, first up, when we talkabout imposter syndrome as
teachers, it really is thatvoice that I had in my head that
(04:45):
was like you're just not cutout for this, whether you're a
brand new grad or a few yearsdeep or even more, a decade or
so deep, imposter syndrome canhit so hard for us, that
immediate feedback from so manybodies in the room, whether it's
their behaviors or the way theyspeak to us, or the fact that
(05:08):
in teaching there's quite a lotof like everything's on the
table.
It's not like you're sitting ata desk in an office and the
only person that thinks that youcan't do it is the person who's
seeing the data or the personthat's sitting across the table
from you In teaching, if you arein a classroom and you aren't
all over behavior, it just is solike there, it's so visible to
(05:31):
everybody, so it can.
Just it's so easy to feel likea fraud in teaching, so it like
when it comes to impostersyndrome, you might not be
thinking I'm not cut out forthis.
But you might be thinkingsomething like oh, what if my
principal walks in right now andrealizes that I don't have
control over my class or I stilldon't understand the curriculum
, or what the hell is thisacronym Like?
(05:53):
Is it just me?
Am I just dumb?
Like I just don't get it?
I can't understand that.
These are all things I'vethought.
By the way, my students don'ttake me seriously.
How could they possibly take meseriously?
How can I teach anyone when Ican't even manage the behaviors
in the room?
I've got these students sittingup the front and they're not
able to learn.
I can't even learn.
Sorry, I can't even teach them.
They're in this classroom and Ican't even teach them.
These aren't just doubts thatcreep in.
(06:15):
This is the shape that impostersyndrome takes when you care
deeply about your work andyou're navigating a system that
rarely gives you enough tools,training or time.
So I'm going to unpack thosecommon ways that imposter
syndrome shows up in teachingand why none of them mean that
you are failing and talk throughmy experiences a little bit.
The first one was I don'tunderstand the curriculum.
(06:37):
What the hell is this?
Am I the only one that'sconfused?
There's another acronym therethat I just don't understand.
Maybe someone's sitting in ameeting, like you're sitting in
a meeting with the whole staffteam and your principal says an
acronym and you're like, oh myGod, what the hell is that?
And you don't want to say whatis that.
So you jot it down in your bookand you try to Google it later.
It's so hard to understand whatis going on.
(06:58):
There are so many things.
The biggest gift that I've beengiven in teaching was my friend
Kerry, who I worked with in myfirst school.
She was a teacher.
I've spoken about perfect Kerrybefore.
My friend Carly called herperfect Kerry, um, and I think
the head teacher of Englishcalled her perfect Kerry as well
as a bit of a joke in the staffroom because she was the one
that looked like she had it alltogether.
(07:18):
But then I had a planning daywith her and I don't think she'd
ever listened to this podcast.
I might actually reach out toher now that I'm back in
Australia, but and maybe showher this.
But she, um.
I did a planning day with herand we were in this room
together and the planning daywas for the new English
curriculum, probably like I wasonly in my second year or first
year of teaching and it was likethe fifth update probably, that
(07:38):
I'd already seen the Englishcurriculum Anyway.
So I sat with her and I go,kerry, I've got something to ask
you like something to say, andI please don't judge me for it.
But like I was looking at thecurriculum and the language of
the curriculum and I said Iactually don't understand this.
I was really, I really struggledat university and I don't know
if I've said this before on thepodcast, but so because of the
(08:01):
trauma that I was kind ofprocessing during my time at
university, I had a period oftime where I was living out of
my car.
Things were just not good forme at all when I was at
university.
I've actually blocked out a lotof the work that I did during
that time.
I was at university for fiveyears and I have very little
recollection of a lot of thethings that I learned at
(08:22):
university, of a lot of thethings that I learned at
university.
So when I got into theclassroom it felt like I was
almost kind of like chewed upand spat out and I just had no
idea what was going on.
So for me to be able to sit in.
I trusted her for me to be ableto sit in front of her and say,
kerry, I just really don'tunderstand this.
I thought maybe it wassomething that I was taught at
university that I just didn'tremember and maybe that I was
(08:43):
the problem and that there waslike it wasn't, like, maybe I
wasn't ready to be a teacher,maybe I needed to go back and do
my degree, maybe I needed to goand do extra study or something
like that.
That was the thought that I hadin my head.
But the truth who can rememberall of those acronyms?
Who can immediately get theirhead around the kind of language
(09:04):
that is in the curriculum?
The English curriculum is veryconvoluted.
It's not black and white, it'snot.
Students are learning this,especially like I know about
other parts of the world.
I know that the UK Englishcurriculum is very similar as
well, but the English curriculumis very convoluted and very
confusing.
But here's the truth, right.
Most systems are vague, mostsystems are acronym heavy,
(09:25):
they're underexplained and thelearning curve is vertical in
your first few years.
And, as I said, every country,every you know every place and
even every state in Australiahas different acronyms for
different things.
Even now, with my work in theunteachables, I'll have people
ask me a question like hey, doyou follow the FCCDB model?
And I'm like what the hell isthat?
And it's like people expect meto understand what everything is
(09:48):
now.
But I don't.
I don't understand all theacronyms.
So guess what I do?
I get onto Google and I Googleit.
I'm like, oh okay, that must bewhat it means.
But usually when I Google anacronym, 10 different you know
things, for that acronym come upin different industries as well
.
So feeling confused is not proofthat you are not good at this
or you're not ready.
It is just proof that theonboarding process for teachers
(10:10):
leaves just a few gaps.
So what I need to say to youabout this stuff is you don't
need to know every curriculumcode to be a credible teacher.
Ask the damn questions,nobody's going to judge you.
Okay, that is that one.
Point.
Two my students aren't going totake me seriously.
This one hit me hard in thefirst year of teaching because I
was only about four years olderthan my year 12 students that I
(10:32):
taught.
I was thrust into a year 12class.
They were the best, they wereamazing.
Like it was such a great classto teach.
But some of them were taller,they were louder than me, they
were way more confident than Iwas in that space.
I mean, they had their mates inthe class, they knew the school
.
They'd been there for six years, longer than me.
I'd just come into this schooland I just felt like I was
(10:54):
shrinking into myself at thefront of the room, thinking how
the hell am I going to be takenseriously here?
What will I do when I need totalk to them about their
behavior?
I'm in no place to talk to themabout their behavior.
And to make matters worse, oneday three of the boys that I
taught they hung back.
Remember I was 22 at the time.
They hung back at the end ofthe lesson and I'm like you
(11:17):
three, okay, like what's goingon?
And they were nudging eachother and one of them was like
just tell her, man, just tellher.
And then one of the boys said oh, miss, we found you on Tinder.
And I nearly died.
I nearly died and I just saidlike oh, I just don't know what
to say.
I said but you're young.
(11:37):
Like, how did you find me?
My age range isn't down thatlow.
And they're like oh, we, we lieabout our age.
So that was how they found meand because we're in close
proximity at the high school,they um, I was obviously someone
that popped up and I rememberthinking like there's just no
way I'll ever have authorityhere.
They're going to walk all overme.
I mean, they know I'm on Tinder, how am I going to?
(12:00):
How am I going to do this?
But here is what I learned realfast Respect doesn't come with
age or experience or volume ornot being on Tinder.
It comes with consistency andpresence and calm leadership.
And things really shifted forme when I started to let go of
those feelings and started tofocus on building a credible
(12:21):
teaching persona, but also kindof just acknowledging like, yeah
, I am a young teacher and yes,these are the challenges that
I'm going to face and yes, Imight need support with this.
And I really think that youngteachers need a lot more support
in the classroom when it comesto building their credible
teacher presence, because it isvery hard, especially when
(12:42):
you're a secondary teacher andthe students that you're
teaching are not that muchyounger than you Like it can be
really really challenging tonavigate.
Okay, so point three what ifsomeone sees me struggling?
You know what if my, what if myprincipal walks in right now?
Oh my gosh, like the class ischaotic right now.
Of course the principal alwayswalks in when my class is
(13:03):
chaotic right now.
Of course the principal alwayswalks in.
When my class is chaotic, younever see, she never sees it
when it's, you know, nice andsettled Imposter syndrome.
It just thrives in that secrecyand that you know.
Worry about somebody being ableto see.
You know the reality of yourclassroom.
Imposter syndrome will say youbetter hide this chaos or
(13:25):
they'll realize that you're notcut out for this job.
This is true.
It's true in year one and it'strue in year 20 of your career.
So what you start to do is youstart to know why I started to
do anyway, over prep, just panic, 24, seven.
The leadership was going to walkin.
I was measuring my worth by howin control my class looked, no
matter what was happening.
(13:46):
So maybe I would put up slidesfor them to copy.
If I knew that, you know,people were roaming around the
building, if I knew that therewas something happening that day
, I would just put things up onthe board for them to copy.
Because when we're talkingabout the pedagogy of poverty,
things like that.
Kids reward you with low effortwork.
They will reward you with theirbehavior.
(14:06):
So they will sit there and copydown three pages of notes,
because it doesn't mean theydon't have to think, it means
they don't have to put anythingon the line, they don't have to
risk anything.
There's a whole episode onimposter syndrome of the
pedagogy of poverty.
If you'd like to listen to that, I can tag tag it down below
for you to go immediately.
(14:26):
But here's what I want you toknow Good leadership and I say
good leadership is not expectingperfection.
They want to see growth, theywant to see reflection, they
want to see strategy.
Good leadership will seestruggle and they'll want to
support.
They won't want to make youfeel like crap about it.
They won't want to say, ofcourse, like, good leadership is
not going to walk into a firstyear teacher's classroom and go
(14:49):
off, you're not cut out for this.
Good leadership will say, okay,let's put some supports in
place, let's go and get ClaireEnglish in here to you know, to
give you some mentoring.
And if it's not good leadership, you can't control what they
think anyway and, to be honest,they're probably going to think
some other crappy, narrow-mindedthing.
Anyway, they're probably goingto go away.
(15:09):
If they're going to thinksomething crappy about you,
they're going to find a reasonto think something crappy about
you.
Bad leadership will always putpeople in two categories hero or
zero.
And I've seen it happen in somany schools where they've got
their core group of people thatthey think are brilliant and
they can't do any wrong untilthey do something wrong and then
they're put in the bad category.
(15:29):
Like it doesn't take much for abad leader to put something
like label a staff member as badand then start to push them out
.
So, hero or zero, and if you'rea zero, it doesn't matter what
you do.
They're going to think crappythoughts about you anyway.
Challenging behavior in theclassroom also does not mean
that you are flawed or you'renot cut out for it.
(15:49):
It really is just so hard.
Your struggle in the classroomis not a reflection on whether
or not you should be a teacher.
You just need more support.
You need the right support andI know that that is such a huge
source of imposter syndrome forso many of us.
And that leads me onto the lastthing that I have thought
before, and I know other peoplethink, is I can't manage
(16:10):
behavior, so how can I possiblyteach Like?
What can I do if I can't evenmanage the behavior?
If I can't get through thecontent, then what am I supposed
to do here?
And it's one of the most painfulways imposter syndrome shows up
, because it makes you feel likeyou're in survival mode all day
long because your quality worldand your real world are
completely out of sync.
You want to feel you knowmastery in the classroom.
(16:34):
That's one of your five basicneeds and if you're not able to
fill that mastery cup at yourworkplace, you will start to
feel like you're in survivalmode constantly and you will act
in ways and you will respond tobehavior in ways that maybe you
are misaligned with your valuesbecause you're desperately
trying to get back to a place ofsafety and control is safety.
But here's the truth, right,you weren't given real training
(16:57):
in behavior.
You were handed vague advicelike build the relationships and
be consistent and don't take itpersonally, without anything to
support you to do that, withoutany scripts or strategies or
support for what that actuallylooks like, especially what that
looks like under pressure.
And so when you have a class of30 and low level, disruptions
are happening and two studentsare up the front, desperate for
(17:18):
you to teach them something, ofcourse you start to think see,
I'm not cut out for this.
I can't even get them to listen.
I can't even teach the twostudents in my room that are
wanting to listen and wanting tolearn.
I'm doing my students adisservice.
It's not fair on those twostudents.
Maybe somebody else would bebetter placed in front of that
room.
They're not.
You are so well placed in frontof that room for your students.
(17:38):
You just need the tools.
You won't give the tools.
That's not your fault.
Caring deeply does not meanyou'll magically know how to
manage a room.
It just means you're ready tolearn how to manage a room.
And this is a skill set.
It's not an instinct, it's notsomething that comes via osmosis
.
It's something that is a skilland it can be learned and that
(17:59):
is brilliant to know and that'sempowering to know that you are
not stuck in the situation thatyou are in right now.
So just wrapping up impostersyndrome isn't something that is
always loud.
Sometimes it hides quietlybehind those really insidious
thoughts that we have like whydoes everybody else get this but
me?
Am I that dumb Students are notgoing to take me seriously.
(18:22):
If I'm seen struggling, itmeans that I've failed or people
are going to think a certainthing of me.
Maybe you think I suck atbehavior, so I suck at teaching.
It doesn't mean you're not outfor you know, cut out for
teaching.
It means that you care.
It means you're still growingand I'm still growing.
Everybody here is still growing.
I would never trust a teacherwho has nothing to learn.
(18:42):
You know, like we're alwayslearning, we always have
something to adapt, which is why, at the start of the episode, I
said that I need to be in theclassroom because I need to
continue honing those skills tofeel comfortable being able to
teach people.
At the moment I'm okay, ithasn't been that long, but give
it another two years.
My gosh, it is tough.
After maternity leave I was, Iwent back in the classroom and
(19:03):
I'm like, oh my gosh, like itjust feels so long.
Anyway, you're showing up.
You're not a fraud, you aretrying, you're incredible and I
just wanted to give you thatlittle pep talk around imposter
syndrome today, because I knowthat it can show up in big, big
ways for a lot of you.
So if you have felt any ofthose things.
(19:25):
If this resonated with you, feelfree, as always, to pop in and
let me know, and let me know ifthis podcast episode was helpful
.
If it was helpful, by the way,one of the most brilliant things
that you could do for me,honestly, is go and leave me a
review, because that means thatI am able and make sure you're
following, so you get all of theother episodes just
automatically in your um, inyour inbox.
Sometimes I love a podcast andI forget to follow it and then,
(19:48):
all of a sudden, it disappearsand I don't remember the name of
it.
But go and follow the show andgo and leave me a review.
It would mean so much to me and, yeah, it would help me to
reach other teachers as well.
Okay, lovely teacher, have abrilliant week and take care.
I shall speak to you nextepisode.
Popular Podcasts
Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club
Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club — the podcast where great stories, bold women, and irresistible conversations collide! Hosted by award-winning journalist Danielle Robay, each week new episodes balance thoughtful literary insight with the fervor of buzzy book trends, pop culture and more. Bookmarked brings together celebrities, tastemakers, influencers and authors from Reese's Book Club and beyond to share stories that transcend the page. Pull up a chair. You’re not just listening — you’re part of the conversation.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!