Teaching through Emotions: how to feel better and teach better

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 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.teachingthroughemotions.com/subscribe

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! [email protected] 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. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.teachingthroughemotions.com/subscribe

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: [email protected] 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. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.teachingthroughemotions.com/subscribe

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! [email protected] 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. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.teachingthroughemotions.com/subscribe

My producer, Jullian Androkae, did something unusual and remarkable when he was 19 years old: He opened a library in Bekitro, his ancestral village in southern Madagascar. Teaching through Emotions is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. That was in 2018. The library is alive and well today. Which you’ll hear about, because this episode is all about Jullian’s Vahombey Project, which built the library, furnished it, stocked it with books, and hired (and still pays) two prodigious librarians, Mme Raissa and Mme Hary, who not only serve hundreds of children a day but have turned the library into a community center. I call the librarians prodigious because these women are anchors in a somewhat chaotic educational sea. The educational context they work in is quite different from that of the U.S. But the individual situations they deal with are similar — and damn! Raissa and Hary are ON IT! Their voices, which you’ll hear in the episode, inspire me from 10,000 miles away. Jullian and I discuss * Giving Back: How he came up with the idea for the project * Eating Crow: How the village school handled the parents of a disruptive student * Living on Air: Some pretty incomprehensible differences between teaching in the US and in Madagascar * Holding the Line: The value of being a “harsh” librarian Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Call to Action I love this special bonus episode, and I love the Vahombey project. So I hope you listen and enjoy. But I also hope you click on this link to make a donation to the library. Much is needed there. More books. Dictionaries (you’ll hear that I’m obsessed with this for some reason). A TV to play English- and French-language shows so students can learn these two languages (in addition to Malagasy). Salaries. Support for wildly popular spelling bees! The smallest donation can make a huge difference in the lives of the kids, teachers, and librarians associated with Vahombey. Check out the list of urgent needs here. Click here to see pictures of the library, some of the kids it serves, and Jullian! Please share this episode far and wide! The more people we reach, the better the chances that the library gets the funding it needs. Thank you. So much. External links Vahombey project Chuffed campaign Connect & Share Got a story to share? Have you taught outside the US? Wanna compare and contrast? 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! [email protected] 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. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.teachingthroughemotions.com/subscribe