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One Tired Teacher: Teaching Without Burnout is a podcast for tired teachers who want to keep teaching without burning out. If you’re exhausted by constant pressure, shifting expectations, and the feeling that you’re never doing enough, this show offers grounded support and a practical perspective to help you teach sustainably.
Each episode explores teaching without burnout—from navigating evaluations and testing season to simplifying instruction, setting boundaries, and choosing classroom practices that are calm, humane, and actually work. We talk honestly about what teaching feels like right now, and how to protect your energy, your values, and your students’ learning without performative extras.
This is real talk for educators who love kids but are done sacrificing themselves for the job. You’ll find encouragement, classroom-rooted insight, and permission to trust what you already know—because sustainable teaching isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing what matters.
If you’re a burned-out teacher looking for clarity, calm, and a way forward that doesn’t cost your well-being, you’re in the right place.
270 Episodes
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Send us a text Looking for a simple way to teach growth mindset, productive struggle, and the engineering design process—especially during testing season? This episode shares a real classroom STEM challenge that shows how failure becomes feedback when students feel safe to try. What if the word failure stopped feeling like a verdict and started sounding like a clue? A chaotic testing schedule pushed us to improvise, and a simple Piggy and Elephant story turned into a full-on design challenge ...
Send us a text February burnout hits hard for teachers—testing pressure, evaluations, and the constant push to do more can make even experienced educators question their worth. In this episode, we talk honestly about staying grounded, protecting your values, and teaching authentically during the hardest stretch of the school year. February can feel like a pressure cooker—testing talk, evaluation season, and the quiet drumbeat of “do more” echoing through the halls. We get real about that wei...
Send us a text Teacher observations can trigger stress, self-doubt, and overperforming—especially during evaluation season. In this episode, we talk honestly about how to stay grounded, protect your confidence, and remember what actually matters when you’re being observed. If evaluation season ties your stomach in knots, you’re not alone—and you’re not a score. We take a clear-eyed look at how to stay grounded when someone with a clipboard walks in, and we share a toolkit that turns everyday ...
Send us a text Looking for Super Bowl reading activities that actually build skills—not just hype? This episode shares practical, low-prep ways to use football culture to strengthen informational text comprehension, media literacy, and engagement for elementary readers. Big-game buzz is already in the air, and we’re turning that energy into real reading growth. Rather than fighting for attention, we tap into what students are already hearing at home and seeing on TV—Super Bowl storylines, hal...
Send us a text The school year restarts, the weather turns wild, and our schedules fill faster than a radar screen during a storm. We’re leaning into a smarter way to teach: integrating reading and science through a focused study on severe weather so every minute pulls double duty. From thunderstorms to hurricanes, we use clear, kid-friendly texts to teach main idea, text features, vocabulary in context, and questioning—while giving students concrete safety steps that lessen anxiety and build...
Send us a text The first days back after break don’t need to feel like a sprint through fog. We map out a gentle re-entry that keeps your class connected, your planning sane, and your energy intact. Instead of diving headfirst into new content, we focus on three anchors that make the day feel calm and productive: a purposeful morning meeting, a cozy read-aloud that sets tone and focus, and a respectful reset of routines and procedures. We start by rebuilding community with short shares and s...
Send us a text The holidays are done, the calendar is rolling toward a new year, and your energy tank is somewhere between low and blinking. Let’s make winter break feel like it actually refills you. We pull back the curtain on what a real teacher reset looks like when you set aside perfect plans and choose small, human rituals that restore your mind, body, and heart. We start with the quiet stuff that matters: not setting an alarm, finishing the book that’s been waiting on your nightstand, ...
Send us a text If January has ever felt like educational whiplash, this conversation is your warm landing pad. We walk through a practical plan to protect your peace after winter break, built on a few high-impact moves you can set up before you unplug: print-ready sub plans, a back-from-break packet that rebuilds community, and plug-and-play units that spark engagement without draining your energy. We start by naming why the return feels so jarring—students arrive in holiday mode while new s...
Send us a text December doesn’t have to be a stress test. We unpack five blissful, low-prep strategies that keep kids learning and let you breathe, so you can walk into winter break proud, present, and not wiped out. We start with Elf Diaries, a creative writing approach that turns classroom elf hype into voice, perspective, and narrative skills without the daily setup grind. From there, we pivot to Holiday Would You Rather—fast, funny prompts that spark movement, debate, and opinion writing,...
Send us a text December doesn’t have to be glitter storms and lost learning. We share a practical, story-driven way to turn holiday energy into real science with a Christmas-themed matter unit that keeps kids focused, curious, and proud of their work. Think stockings and balloons for inferring solids, liquids, and gases. Think hot cocoa tests that make temperature, dissolving, and fair experiment design click. The result is joyful rigor: standards met, mess managed, and students begging for “...
Send us a text December doesn’t have to be survival mode. We’re sharing ten Christmas read‑alouds that bring the room to a cozy hush while still nailing essential skills like character analysis, sequencing, vocabulary, point of view, and fluency. Each pick comes with a clear teaching angle and simple prompts you can use tomorrow, so you can steer into the season’s energy without losing rigor. We break down why holiday books work so well during the chaotic weeks before break and pair every ti...
Send us a text The week before Thanksgiving can feel like a carnival on wheels—school-wide feasts, cupcake drop-offs, half the class rehearsing for a turkey play, and attention spans migrating toward grandma’s pie. We lean into that reality with a grounded plan that keeps learning meaningful without draining your last nerve. Instead of cramming a full unit or launching new systems, we focus on survival with purpose: low-prep, high-engagement activities that create calm structure, protect your...
Send us a text What if the most meaningful lesson in a noisy month is the quietest one? I share the story of a short read-aloud—Molly’s Pilgrim—that shifted my classroom from scattered to centered, and why one complete book can spark more empathy and insight than a week of themed activities. November often pushes teachers into survival mode: short weeks, sugar crashes, and last‑minute crafts that fill time but not hearts. I walk through how a single, well-chosen chapter book reframed Th...
Send us a text The pre‑Thanksgiving stretch can feel like a sprint you didn’t sign up for, and we’re done pretending it’s fine. This candid bonus drop is for every tired teacher who needs permission to step off the hamster wheel, set healthier boundaries, and protect hard‑won peace. We name the pressure points—grading through the parade, last‑minute bulletin boards, “extra PD” masquerading as team building—and swap them for choices grounded in truth and sustainability. We walk through a Nove...
Send us a text Tired of being told to “just be grateful” while you’re juggling a crowded class, endless testing, and a to-do list that never ends? I open up about gratitude without the guilt—how to honor real exhaustion and real care at the same time—so you can model emotional health without faking it. Instead of platitudes, I break down the difference between a scarcity mindset and actual scarcity in schools, and why empathy—not forced positivity—is the thing that helps. I share classroom-r...
Send us a text The quiet snap of November hits hard: the adrenaline fades, the sinuses throb, and suddenly “powering through” isn’t noble—it’s costly. We open up about the annual crash so many teachers face and lay out a calm, practical path to protect your peace without sacrificing your students’ progress. No fluff. Just a clear system for calling out with confidence, and a reminder that rest is part of the job, not a privilege you have to earn. We walk through how to build reliable emergen...
Send us a text The birth of "The We Do Not Care Club: Teacher Chapter" might be the most honest conversation about educator burnout you'll hear this year. After discovering a hilarious TikTok creator who gave women permission to stop caring about societal expectations during menopause, I realized teachers desperately needed the same liberation. What started as a few casual videos quickly erupted into a movement. Teachers everywhere began contributing their own "we do not care" statements—pow...
Send us a text Feeling the October teaching slump? When attention spans dwindle and classroom routines grow heavy, fairy tales, folk tales, and fables offer the perfect remedy. These timeless genres breathe fresh life into your curriculum while delivering powerful standards-based instruction wrapped in enchanting narratives. Traditional tales work magic in the classroom because they naturally teach moral lessons through engaging stories. "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" demonstrates the value of hon...
Send us a text Ever found yourself torn between Halloween excitement and curriculum demands? You're not alone. That tension between creativity and standards alignment represents a false choice we don't need to make. Remember that administrator who once told me schools shouldn't have crayons and children should practice sight words during recess? That mindset risks creating environments where children learn to hate learning. The truth is, creativity isn't expendable—it's essential. Crafts dev...
Send us a text Feeling that mid-fall classroom fatigue? You're not alone. The back-to-school adrenaline has faded, student behaviors are surfacing, and those carefully crafted routines are starting to fray at the edges. It's the perfect storm of teacher exhaustion that hits just as the calendar turns to October. This episode tackles the very real phenomenon of "teacher fog" – that overwhelming fatigue that creeps in when the novelty of the new year wears off but the holidays still feel dista...
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