Latest / ✨️Aligned and Thriving: For Teachers🌿 / 🎉Term 4 Pep Talk 🥰

Transcript

🎉Term 4 Pep Talk 🥰 · ✨️Aligned and Thriving: For Teachers🌿

• 0:05
  Hey guys, and welcome back to another episode of Aligned and
• 0:08
  Thriving for Teachers. Now.
• 0:12
  I'm so excited. This is actually the most
• 0:14
  exciting thing for me. It's a sad life that you lead
• 0:17
  sometimes as a teacher, but I'm also so excited.
• 0:19
  This episode is called Prep Like a Pro, your joyful organised
• 0:24
  term for pep talk. Oh my goodness, Can you believe
• 0:30
  it? Term 4 is officially here.
• 0:33
  It's the final countdown 'cause you really needed my singing
• 0:37
  voice in there. It's the wrap up, it's the
• 0:40
  whirlwind. It is the episode that is your
• 0:42
  permission slip to prepare with intention and organise the weeks
• 0:47
  like you're a boss and bring back that joy of the season
• 0:50
  instead of drowning in stress. Now you are not just going to
• 0:55
  survive Term 4 this year, you are going to close it out strong
• 0:59
  with sparkle, strategy and of course yourself care.
• 1:03
  So let's plan this out together and laugh through the madness
• 1:07
  and the end of year with pride. Now let's be real, this is a
• 1:13
  Sprint at the end of the marathon we've been going this
• 1:18
  whole year and this is literally the last little snippet.
• 1:21
  Your water bottle's probably empty, the track's on fire, and
• 1:24
  someone's probably handed you a Santa hat and asked you to
• 1:26
  smile. This is legit the last part.
• 1:29
  But there is a way through this with more ease, more joy and
• 1:34
  more support. So this today is your term for
• 1:37
  pep talk packed with journal prompts, planning tips and a
• 1:40
  whole lot of honesty and a reminder that you are on the
• 1:44
  home stretch people. So well done on getting through
• 1:48
  the year to this point. Now we're going to start off
• 1:52
  with part number one, get your head in the game.
• 1:55
  And man, I'm in a singing mood tonight.
• 1:57
  Get your get your head in the game.
• 1:58
  If you watch High School Musical, it's back in your head
• 2:01
  now, isn't it? So let's start here now.
• 2:03
  Term 4 is busy, I'm not going to lie.
• 2:06
  But that does not mean that you have to go into your default
• 2:10
  chaos mode. It is time to get intentional.
• 2:16
  You are not behind. You are not failing.
• 2:19
  You're in a season of wrapping up, releasing and preparing for
• 2:23
  what is next. So this is the term where loose
• 2:28
  ends are tied up. Reports are written again.
• 2:31
  Events take over your entire calendar.
• 2:34
  You say goodbye to some students and you welcome the idea of
• 2:38
  getting new ones. But instead of getting rid of
• 2:43
  them, let's celebrate the ones that we've had.
• 2:47
  Let's honour their growth throughout the year and honour
• 2:50
  yours too. Then you'll get ready to welcome
• 2:53
  the next challenge with open arms and an organised mind.
• 2:57
  And if you are at a school where you are lucky enough to know
• 3:00
  what grade you're teaching next year and get some idea of the
• 3:03
  kids you might be getting, please don't start building
• 3:06
  those preconceived ideas, especially in teacher handovers.
• 3:11
  Take on as much as you need to, but don't create those
• 3:14
  perceptions of kids before you've even had them because
• 3:17
  they might behave completely different for you than what they
• 3:20
  did for the other person before you.
• 3:22
  OK, now part number 2. Plan your term.
• 3:28
  Here's the biggie. Plan your term.
• 3:34
  Don't let term 4 happen to you. Here's how you are going to prep
• 3:38
  like a pro. Now I'm talking from experience
• 3:41
  because I have done this for many years now and this is just
• 3:44
  works for me. But hopefully with some of these
• 3:47
  steps it may help you. So number one, get clear on the
• 3:52
  non negotiables. Now this is the time when you
• 3:56
  really need to look at the calendar and think about the
• 3:59
  things that you have to get done.
• 4:01
  You are going to have to do reports.
• 4:03
  There are going to be excursions that have to be done.
• 4:06
  There are going to be Christmas plays or presentations that will
• 4:10
  have to be done. There will be staff meetings
• 4:12
  that have to be done. There will also be your own
• 4:16
  family events that will have to be done.
• 4:19
  Write it all down, get the big picture.
• 4:24
  You need to plan it out however that looks for you, whether it's
• 4:27
  on your phone, in your actual diary, whatever you do.
• 4:31
  I have handwritten and I have my time Tree app shared with the
• 4:34
  grandparents so we can coordinate everything.
• 4:36
  But you need to get a picture of what this term is going to look
• 4:39
  like because honestly, it's a Sprint.
• 4:42
  At the end of the marathon, it is you heading for that finish
• 4:44
  line and you don't need anything slowing you down.
• 4:47
  So get it all down. Step 2.
• 4:52
  Plan week by week. Now that sounds very
• 4:58
  contradicting of me in some cases, but what I'm saying is
• 5:02
  don't leave things till later. Sit down with a weekly planner
• 5:06
  or a whiteboard and chunk things down.
• 5:09
  So where will you batch your tasks?
• 5:11
  What weeks are lighter so that you could get certain things
• 5:14
  done and you can breathe? What do you need to book on your
• 5:18
  weekends to sort out you and yourself care and what weekends
• 5:23
  you have booked up? Like you need to actually plan
• 5:25
  it out week by week. I'm not saying fly by the seat
• 5:27
  of your pants type of planning. I'm saying have a rough guide of
• 5:31
  what you're going to do each week.
• 5:33
  But then at the start of each week, which I'm thinking for me
• 5:36
  is like a Sunday night, every Sunday night, I'm going to look
• 5:39
  at the week ahead and sort of go, OK, this is what's happening
• 5:42
  this week. These are my non negotiables.
• 5:45
  This is what I need to get done. This is what I'm not, I need to
• 5:48
  start thinking about and planning for.
• 5:50
  And then we go from there. OK, I hope that made sense now
• 5:54
  #3 Createspace foreclosure, This is the term where we are
• 6:00
  wrapping up our projects. We're finalising learning goals
• 6:04
  for learning plans. We're saying goodbye with
• 6:06
  gratitude and we're resetting your space mentally and
• 6:10
  physically ready for a clean slate start in 2026.
• 6:15
  Oh, now that sounds scary. 2026. We are nearing the end of 2025 S
• 6:22
  when you're creating space foreclosure, you need to think
• 6:24
  about all the things you need to get done.
• 6:26
  Please do not for the love of goodness start cleaning out your
• 6:30
  store rooms in the last week of term 4.
• 6:34
  It does not only drive our cleaning, our cleaners like
• 6:37
  absolutely mentally crazy. The bins, the bins are always
• 6:41
  true full. You can't fit all your stuff in
• 6:43
  there. You need to like start doing
• 6:45
  that now. Start going through your
• 6:48
  resources bit by bit after school and go, OK, am I going to
• 6:51
  use that next year? Yes.
• 6:53
  No, maybe you need to start sorting your stuff out from day
• 6:56
  one of term 4. Do not leave it to the last
• 6:59
  minute because when you're doing this whole process of closing
• 7:02
  stuff down, if you leave it to the last minute, it's not going
• 7:05
  to work. Again, talking from experience.
• 7:09
  And if you get lugged with the lovely sentence where they say,
• 7:13
  guess what, you're moving classrooms, you'll have so much
• 7:16
  less to move if you only have a day to move everything, which
• 7:19
  most of the time is the case because you have to wait till
• 7:21
  the kids are gone to actually move all of your stuff.
• 7:24
  So if you're cleaned out and tidy and ready to go, it's so
• 7:26
  much easier. So create your space
• 7:28
  foreclosure. Now the next part is the fun
• 7:33
  part. It's bringing on the fun.
• 7:34
  Let's not pretend that this term isn't bonkers again.
• 7:39
  Some people think I'm bonkers. Do, do, do, do again.
• 7:41
  I'm singing. I love term 4.
• 7:45
  And I'm bonkers. Really.
• 7:46
  Yeah. Anyway, amongst all of this
• 7:48
  madness, make room for joy. Yeah, I said it.
• 7:54
  Make room for joy. Get your kid on, people.
• 7:57
  Wear the Christmas earrings. Dress up for the concert, dance
• 8:01
  in the classroom. Bake the silly cookies.
• 8:04
  Joy is the resistance to burnout, people.
• 8:07
  You are allowed to laugh in staff meetings.
• 8:10
  You are allowed to get into the festive spirit.
• 8:14
  You are allowed to celebrate the winds before the term ends.
• 8:19
  This term I really want you to infuse celebration, not just for
• 8:24
  your students, but for you. Because you have done a whole
• 8:28
  year of teaching, parenting, juggling, wiping tears, managing
• 8:32
  behaviour, writing curriculum. I'm probably forgetting your
• 8:34
  lunch more than once. Or is that just me?
• 8:38
  That's probably more than just me.
• 8:39
  I'm hoping, but gosh, I do that a lot.
• 8:43
  I want you to bring joy. Joy is amazing.
• 8:45
  Joy is part of being grateful to, and gratitude is the highest
• 8:49
  vibration. So if you want to get yourself
• 8:51
  to be high vibe, be grateful and share the joy.
• 8:57
  If you ever come to a school where I am, I will whip out the
• 9:00
  Christmas earrings. I will whip out a Christmas
• 9:02
  shirt, a Christmas dress. I actually have a friend that
• 9:05
  works in a Catholic school and she goes head to toe all out in
• 9:10
  the Christmas spirit and has legit an outfit for every day
• 9:13
  and changes them nearly every year.
• 9:15
  It is amazing. And I'm like hats off to her.
• 9:19
  I'm not that committed. I'm like, I'm a, I'm a sprinkle
• 9:23
  of, of spirit and she'd be like a shower or a downpour of it.
• 9:28
  If that's a comparison, if that. I hope that makes sense.
• 9:30
  I'm trying to make you visualise what this is like.
• 9:32
  But it is amazing. And I think that to me is
• 9:36
  because Christmas brings me joy because I love to give and see
• 9:42
  the joy on people's faces when you're giving stuff.
• 9:45
  I love to spoil people because that's in my nature and that's
• 9:49
  what brings me joy. So I want to share that joy with
• 9:53
  others by giving them a smile and all of those wonderful
• 9:56
  things and just spoiling them because that's what we do.
• 9:59
  So again, a job for you. Get your journal out people
• 10:04
  because again, you've got them by now.
• 10:06
  Gosh, I hope you do. We're going to take a moment to
• 10:09
  journal and reflect as we prep for this final term because
• 10:14
  you're in the final countdown and you might want to press
• 10:18
  pause for some of these and jot them down.
• 10:20
  First of all, I want you to reflect on last term.
• 10:25
  So this is term 3. What felt heavy and why?
• 10:30
  What did I learn about myself in Term 3?
• 10:35
  What am I carrying that I don't need to bring into term 4?
• 10:41
  What routines kept me grounded and what made me feel proud?
• 10:49
  Then I want you to plan for this term.
• 10:52
  So this is term 4. What are your 3 priorities that
• 10:56
  you're focusing on? Where will you intentionally say
• 11:01
  no this term? And unfortunately that does not
• 11:05
  give you permission to say no. My class will not sing in the
• 11:07
  concert at the end of the year, or I will not attend the final
• 11:10
  assembly, or I will not talk in front of everyone.
• 11:13
  Sorry, I don't give you permission to do that.
• 11:15
  Sometimes you just got to do it. So what will you intentionally
• 11:18
  say no to? What support do I need and who
• 11:22
  can I ask? When you're preparing for next
• 11:26
  year and for the end of the year, if you need something, you
• 11:28
  need to ask for it. Use your words, people.
• 11:31
  And lastly, what would make this term feel joyful and spacious?
• 11:37
  OK, so they're your reflections. So make sure you've had your
• 11:40
  journal out and you've done some journaling.
• 11:42
  And if you're driving and listening to me or going for a
• 11:45
  walk and listening to me, make sure you do that when you get
• 11:47
  home to where you have your journal and have space to do it.
• 11:50
  Because reflecting, it's like a brain dump.
• 11:52
  You can get it all out there, sort your thoughts out and get
• 11:55
  stuff done. Then affirmations repeat after
• 12:01
  me. Or just write these ones if they
• 12:03
  apply to you, because you can come back to them later.
• 12:05
  But repeat after me. I close the year with intention
• 12:09
  and pride. I am organised, grounded and
• 12:15
  joyful. I allow myself to celebrate
• 12:19
  small wins. I honour my energy and protect
• 12:25
  my peace. I finish what I started with
• 12:30
  grace, not pressure. I am not behind, I am on my
• 12:35
  path. So there you go, here is what I
• 12:39
  want for you to take away from today's amazing episode.
• 12:44
  As always, you are not here to barely survive your term, for
• 12:49
  you are here to move through it with purpose, joy and support.
• 12:54
  You are on the home stretch, so that means it is time to
• 12:58
  organise your calendar, schedule in some fun, tie up those loose
• 13:03
  ends and most of all, celebrate your growth.
• 13:07
  Because this is the celebration term, not just for the kids.
• 13:12
  Celebrate you. Celebrate your work, your
• 13:16
  resilience, your ability to keep going.
• 13:19
  You are not just finishing strong, you're preparing for
• 13:22
  what's next. And you are absolutely going to
• 13:27
  smash this term out of the park. Because if you've been listening
• 13:30
  to this podcast since I've started this year, you have so
• 13:34
  much knowledge under your belt that you know how to get through
• 13:37
  this term without being burnt out.
• 13:40
  And if you want to go back and refresh your mind about some
• 13:43
  really good episodes, go back to The Burnout and Boundaries.
• 13:48
  Go back through all the self care series to remind yourself
• 13:52
  of some strategies that you can do to look after you, especially
• 13:55
  in this time of the year and how hectic it will be.
• 13:58
  I will be making sure I release some content to do my absolute
• 14:02
  best to support you and walk you through to the end of this year
• 14:06
  to absolutely smash 2025 out of the park and set yourself up for
• 14:10
  the most amazing 2026. A heads up to for 2026.
• 14:16
  I will absolutely. And I've already scheduled some
• 14:19
  episodes throughout the school holidays.
• 14:21
  Not necessarily all about just school and work life, some stuff
• 14:25
  about fun too. But I have scheduled episodes to
• 14:28
  support you throughout this entire term to get you through
• 14:31
  to the end of the year. A celebration, massive
• 14:34
  celebration at the end of the year.
• 14:36
  And then some really good, great mindfulness type of learning
• 14:40
  throughout the school holidays for you to just touch back in
• 14:43
  and make sure that you're enjoying that time for you.
• 14:47
  So look forward to those episodes too because they'll be
• 14:49
  coming. So get prepared now as you have
• 14:54
  finished putting everything into your journal and reflecting like
• 14:57
  I've told you to, you are going to have the most amazing term
• 15:01
  for. And there is our lovely Co host
• 15:03
  Nyla telling you to do the same. So until next time, stay aligned
• 15:08
  and keep driving. And if you haven't been told
• 15:11
  today, both I and Nyla think you're amazing.
• 15:14
  We love you all. And until next time, I'll talk
• 15:18
  to you again soon. Bye, guys.