Welcome to Season 4 of Teaching through Emotions! We are excited to drop the first episode just a few days before World Teachers Day. October 5th is the day devoted every year to honoring educators the world over, specifically to draw attention to

* Teachers’ rights and responsibilities

* Standards for teacher education

* Expectations for teacher recruitment and employment

* Requirements for teaching and learning conditions

Consider Teaching through Emotions our paean to teachers and our regular commemoration of World Teachers Day!

Teaching through Emotions is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode, you will meet some of the members of TTE’s High School TSG: Ann, Kim, Elizabeth, and Jane. Just one week into the school year,

they talk about

* Catastrophizing: What it is, why teachers spiral into worst-case thinking, and what to do about anxious thoughts and negative self-talk

* Body Snatching: Noticing and fighting against other people’s unwelcome emotions like stress, frustration, and impatience

* Self-Regulating: Sharing ways to calm down even in the heat of the moment, with practical emotional regulation and stress management strategies for teachers

* Stop Over-optimizing!: Or, to put it positively, Under-optimize! Let go of perfectionism to lower the pressure and prevent early-year teacher burnout

* First Week of School: How the first week back can be difficult even for veteran teachers

These are experienced teachers who are being honest about the tough emotions and experiences they had in the first week of school and share ways to combat them. With care and humor.

I think you’ll relate.

Connect & Share

Got a story to share? How was your first week (or month) of school this year? How do you deal with overwhelm and panic? I’d love to hear! Leave me a voicemail at (413) 239-4158 and we might feature your perspective in a future episode!

Or send me an email! betsy@teachingthroughemotions.com.

Support the Show: If this conversation resonated, please consider leaving a rating or review on your podcast app. Your feedback helps others find us.

Get full access to the community: www.teachingthroughemotions.com/subscribe

Credits

Founder and Host: Betsy Burris

Producer: Jullian Androkae of PodVision

Audience Development: Andreea Coscai of PodVision

Podcast Editor: Jasper Chua

Theme Music: Tom Burris/Jabbering Trout

Interstitial Music: Brad Wells

Teaching through Emotions is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Season 4 of Teaching through Emotions is about to drop (on October 1st)! And it’s different. Really different.

In past seasons, I’ve shared teacher stories, many with my wonderful co-host, Joe Johnson. Here’s the most popular one from Season 3, btw: Handling Teacher Guilt: Are you being too judgmental of yourself?

All of these teacher stories came from Teacher Support Groups or work I did with individual teachers. All of them were told by me.

This season, we’re taking you right to the heart of TTE’s work. We’re cutting me out as the storyteller. Instead, we’re letting actual teachers tell their stories! That is, we’re recording TSGs and bringing teachers’ experiences to you fresh from their TSG meetings.

Speaking of which, looking to join a TSG? Contact me. I’ll put together a group of teachers from all over the world (if need be) to meet regularly online to talk about — and change — the realities of teaching.

Listen to the trailer and share it with your colleagues! your teacher friends! your other friends! The stuff we talk about is specific to teaching but valuable to anyone who’s in a relationship. Stuff like

* Becoming overwhelmed even at the very beginning of the school year

* Handling Gen Z device-enhanced rudeness

* Dealing with AI

* Setting crucial boundaries with students, colleagues, and parents — and surviving “boundary hangover”

and so much more.

Credits

Founder and Host: Betsy Burris

Producer: Jullian Androkae of PodVision

Audience Development: Andreea Coscai of PodVision

Podcast Editor: Jasper Chua of PodVision

Music: Tom Burris/Jabbering Trout

Listeners! Ande Lyons, a wonderful, sparkling woman, recently interviewed me on her podcast Don’t Be Caged by Your Age. Ande asked me some great questions about how I got where I am, what advice I have for people over 65 (might be relevant to you even if you aren’t lucky enough to have yet reached 65), and why I care so danged much about my work. It’s a fun interview with lots of laughter!

Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Teaching through Emotions is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

We discuss

* Learning from Pain: How some awful professional experiences forced me to reckon with the role emotions play in teaching

* Negative Emotions: Why I love and embrace them in myself and others

* Psychic Health: How to, as Ande puts it, “reframe our wounds as our brilliance”

It’s nice to be on the receiving end of the questions! And Ande is a thoughtful and lively host. I hope you check it out!

Connect & Share

Got a story to share? How friendly are you with your negative emotions? How friendly are you willing to get? I’d love to hear! Leave me a voicemail at (413) 239-4158 and we might feature your perspective in a future episode!

Or send me an email! betsy@teachingthroughemotions.com

Support the Show: If this conversation resonated, please consider leaving a rating or review on your podcast app. Your feedback helps others find us.

Get full access to the community: www.teachingthroughemotions.com/subscribe

External links

Don’t Be Caged by Your Age

YouTube clip from the interview

Instagram clip from the interview

Credits

Founder and Host: Betsy Burris

Co-Host: Joe Johnson

Producer: Jullian Androkae of PodVision

Audience Development: Andreea Coscai of PodVision

Music: Tom Burris/Jabbering Trout

Teaching through Emotions is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

My friend Sarah is a bad ass. She is an incredibly good teacher and is assiduously responsible. In our initial episode about the difficulties of having a Teaching Assistant (TA), she promised to follow up with me about her take-aways from her conversation with me and Joe.

Which she did.

And this is the conversation she and I just had about that follow-up.

Teaching through Emotions is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Here’s the thing about TAs: They are supposed to be helpful. Just like paraprofessionals and parent volunteers and co-teachers are supposed to be helpful. Very often they are! And very often they are not. Why? Because they are sentient adults. And most sentient adults have their own ways of doing things. They are used to being in charge. And, sometimes, they think their undermining or self-aggrandizing behaviors are good for you. When they’re not. They’re good for them.

So you might think the topic of working with TAs is boring or irrelevant. But Sarah and I (and, in the first episode, Joe) are actually talking about collaborating with anyone who is not you. Not necessarily easy.

Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

For example, we discuss

* The Impact of Stress: Sarah owns her busy-ness (“My poor TAs!”) and thinks about how to lower her standards to a range that is more easily reachable.

* Cultural Differences: Sarah’s TAs are from many different countries and cultures. But every adult has their culture. How to bridge the differences?

* Sorting Expectations: Sarah comes up with an approach to determining her TAs’ strengths and weaknesses and assigning them to the proper teaching tier.

Thanks for tuning in! We at TTE hope you’ve had a restful summer and are rarin’ to head back into school!

Connect & Share

Got a story to share? What’s the worst experience you’ve ever had with another adult in your classroom? What’s the best? I’d love to hear! Leave me a voicemail at (413) 239-4158 and I’ll get in touch. Maybe we can feature your story in a future episode!

Or send me an email: betsy@teachingthroughemotions.com

Support the Show: If anything about the Teaching through Emotions podcast resonates, please leave a rating or review on your podcast app. Your feedback helps others find us.

Get full access to the community: www.teachingthroughemotions.com/subscribe

Credits

Founder and Host: Betsy Burris

Co-Host: Joe Johnson

Producer: Jullian Androkae of PodVision

Audience Development: Andreea Coscai of PodVision

Music: Tom Burris/Jabbering Trout

Teaching through Emotions is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

I tend to ask of my clients the question “Where’s the anxiety?” It’s a useful question because anxiety can be at the root of all kinds of bad experiences that need to be unpacked. But “Where’s your joy?” is super important and useful, too. In the Joy Lab podcast, co-hosts Henry Emmons and Aimee Prasek talk about all aspects of joy and wellness in short, 30ish-minute episodes that are calm, friendly, informative, and often themed.

Teaching through Emotions is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

The episode I’m sharing while my team and I are on hiatus is from the podcast’s “month of gratitude.” It’s called “The Power of Good-Enough Parenting and Calling Out Our Moms.” I chose this episode because, well, they had me at “good-enough parenting.” It’s a term that my main man D.W. Winnicott coined and a concept I love. If you don’t already know what it means, the co-hosts define it beautifully. Take a listen!

Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

You’ll hear

* Passing It On: how important parental mental health is

* Fear of Women: Where it comes from

* Fear of Domination: How it actually leads to authoritarianism

* The Power of Gratitude: How it affects the future

A couple bonuses in case this topic really interests you: a blog post I wrote 11 years ago called Invisible Work that is right up this topic’s alley.

And a delicious quote from Winnicott (mentioned in the Joy Lab episode): “Every happy person is in infinite debt to a woman.”

Connect & Share

Got a story to share? Where do you find joy? How do you cultivate it in the classroom? I’d love to hear! Leave me a voicemail at (413) 239-4158 and we might feature your perspective in a future episode!

Or send me an email! betsy@teachingthroughemotions.com

Support the Show: If anything about the Teaching through Emotions podcast resonates, please leave a rating or review on your podcast app. Your feedback helps others find us.

Get full access to the community: www.teachingthroughemotions.com/subscribe

Credits

Founder and Host: Betsy Burris

Co-Host: Joe Johnson

Producer: Jullian Androkae of PodVision

Audience Development: Andreea Coscai of PodVision

Music: Tom Burris/Jabbering Trout

Teaching through Emotions is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

So something happens that irritates you and you berate yourself for being too judgmental, eh? It might be time to rethink that judgment.

Teaching through Emotions is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

In this episode, which is the one you, dear listeners, listened to the most this season, Joe and I talk about a simple, probably all-too-common story of a teacher who condemns herself for having negative feelings in school. You might be surprised by our conclusions!

Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

We discuss

* Psychology of Boundaries: Why personal space in a busy classroom isn’t just a preference, it’s a psychological need.

* Reframing “Judgment”: Why we mislabel valid annoyance as a character flaw.

* Failure: How to view conflict as data instead of a disaster.

* Overcoming Self-blame: The power of asking for what you need rather than internalizing the problem.

Beyond the classroom? You don’t have to be a teacher to enjoy this episode! Too many of us turn our legitimate annoyance against ourselves. Hearing how someone (who happens to be a teacher) reframed her negative experience into open-hearted understanding is good for everyone!

Connect & Share

Got a story to share? Ever had a moment when you might have misunderstood your feelings? Leave me a voicemail at (413) 239-4158. Joe and I can unpack it confidentially in one of our episodes and maybe, maybe offer a different and helpful perspective!

Support the Show: If this conversation resonated, please consider leaving a rating or review on your podcast app. Your feedback helps others find us.

Get full access to the community: [www.teachingthroughemotions.com/subscribe]

It’s summer summer summertime! I hope you’ve already begun relaxing. If you’re looking for ways to reflect on your year, consider re-listening to other TTE podcast episodes. There’s lots of food for thought here just waiting for you!

Credits

Founder and Host: Betsy Burris

Co-Host: Joe Johnson

Producer: Jullian Androkae of PodVision

Audience Development: Andreea Coscai of PodVision

Music: Tom Burris/Jabbering Trout

Teaching through Emotions is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.