Feeling torn between resting and being productive over summer break? In this episode, we’re diving into the power of teacher summer boundaries...the key to enjoying your time off without guilt! We explore three essential types of boundaries—time, technology, and task—that help you protect your peace, be intentional with your time, and avoid burnout. Tune in to learn how to reset, recharge, and make this summer one that truly serves you!

Prefer to read? Grab the episode transcript and resources in the show notes here: https://www.secondstorywindow.net/podcast/teacher-summer-boundaries/

Resources:

• Freebie: End of Year Roadmap
• Resource: Back to School Pattern Block Activities
• Resource: Back to School Lego Activities 
• Podcast: Happier with Gretchen Rubin
• Join the Teacher Approved Club!
• Connect with us on Instagram @2ndstorywindow.
• Shop our teacher-approved resources.
• Join our Facebook group, Teacher Approved
• Leave your review on Apple Podcasts!

Related Episodes to Enjoy:

• Episode 131, To-Do List Magic - How to Prioritize Your Teacher Tasks This Summer
• Episode 134, The 10 Stages of Teacher Summer Break
• Episode 196, The 3 Step Plan to Park Those School Thoughts and Enjoy Your Summer Break
• Episode 197, A Teacher Summer Self Care and Recovery Plan That Doesn’t Feel Like Work

Mentioned in this episode:

Is your class acting like spring break erased every expectation you've ever taught? Try the Teacher Approved Club free for 10 days and get this month's training on keeping expectations alive — plus last month's Quiet Your Chatty Class Challenge. Join at https://secondstorywindow.net/trial

This is episode 199 of Teacher Approved.

You're listening to Teacher Approved, the podcast helping

educators elevate what matters and simplify the rest. I'm

Heidi.

And I'm Emily. We're the creators behind Second Story

Sindow, where we give research based and teacher approved

strategies that make teaching less stressful and more

effective. You can check out the show notes and resources from

each episode at secondstorywindow.net.

We're so glad you're tuning in today. Let's get to

the show.

Hey there. Thanks for joining us today. In today's

episode, we're talking about why boundaries are the secret

ingredient for summer fun and back to school readiness, and

sharing a teacher approved tip for making summer memory magic.

But first, it is time for Try It Tomorrow, a favorite

quick win that you can try in your life right away. Tell us

about this week's try it tomorrow, Emily.

This week I want you to make a to don't list. It's so

simple. Just write down five things you're giving yourself

permission to skip this summer. Maybe it's checking your school

email daily. Maybe it's redoing your class decor from scratch

again.

Put that list somewhere visible, like, you know, on the

fridge or in your planner, somewhere where you will see it

and think of it as your summer permission slip.

If you like this idea or anything else we share here on

the podcast, would you take a second and give us a five star

rating and review on Apple podcasts?

Over the years, Emily and I have created an extensive

library of back to school products to help you find the

tools that will make the start of your new year easier. Today

we are spotlighting our pattern blocks activity set.

Now you're probably not ready to think about the first

day of school yet, but we have got some great tools to help you

check off one of your most important first day tasks with

basically no prep. So this one's not too painful to think about.

So on the very first morning, your students need something to

do when they arrive immediately when they walk in the door.

And this can be so tricky to plan because you haven't

taught these students where to get the supplies, or your

expectations for managing supplies. On the first day, kids

are probably going to be arriving at different times.

They often come in really early. And of course, everyone's

anxiety is super high.

So for that first day activity, you need something

calming, open ended, and easy to engage with. Enter the pattern

blocks. You can print off some of our super cute school themed

pattern block mats. You put a couple on each desk along with

some blocks, and kids can stay happily engaged for 20 or even

30 minutes.

We also have a similar set of activities that use

Legos. You get all the same benefits of using the pattern

blocks, but it really might be easier to round up a tub of

loose Legos than it is to get a class set of pattern blocks.

Plus you might feel like the older kids will have more

buy in to the activity when they see Legos instead of pattern

blocks, although, in our experience, even the older kids

love a pattern block. You can check out the show notes for

links to both of these products, and give yourself the relief of

knowing that your first activity of the first day is already

planned, prepped and ready to go.

So here we are in June, which means that many of you are

either done with school or you can see the finish line so close

ahead. And if you're anything like we were during our teaching

years, you might have some conflicted feelings right about

now.

Oh yeah, there's this weird teacher thing that happens

in summer. You're exhausted and ready for a break, but you also

feel guilty about how excited you are to be done, and then

there's this pressure to immediately start being

productive.

Oh yes. I remember sitting on my couch the first

week of summer break, still in my pajamas at noon or probably

three, let's be honest, and feeling just overwhelming guilt.

Like, shouldn't I be organizing my classroom library right now?

Or shouldn't I be planning next year's reading units?

Instead of watching Doctor Who marathons, right? Or

if it's not the heaviness of productivity, guilt weighing you

down, it's that niggling sense of panic that you can't quite

escape. It's like being circled by a school of sharks, or, are

sharks in schools? What do they call those?

Pods, collections, gathering? Whatever sharks do,

there is a lot of them, and it feels like they are circling a

little bit closer every day. It takes a monumental amount of

work to get ready for the new school year, and as much as we

just want to relax in our summer, there's always the sense

that something is just off to the side waiting to pounce.

It makes me picture those little goblin guys from Disney's

Hercules. I think they're called pain and panic, but I think for

a teacher, they could easily be called guilt and panic.

Oh definitely. Just picturing them right now, that's

perfect. And they are persistent and ruthless, and one of them

sounds like Bobcat Goldplate, and that is an extra bummer for

sure.

I'm impressed that you knew that guy's name. I know who

it is, but I did not know that was that guy's name.

I did live through the 80s, so, you know.

So did I! Most of the 80s.

Only half of them.

60%.

Now this may be a controversial opinion, but we believe teachers

deserve to enjoy their summer without constant jabs from

cartoon imps.

You can never say that we shy away from the hot takes

around here.

It's true. If it, if it needs to be said, we're gonna

say it. Teachers deserve a break. So we're going to give

you the secret weapon for taming teacher guilt and panic, and

that weapon is boundaries.

Wah, wah. Very anticlimactic. Boundaries are

not the most thrilling content to be talking about, but they

are oh so summer saving. That's because teaching doesn't stop,

just because our contract does, and if we're not careful, summer

just becomes a quieter form of burnout.

But with the right boundaries, you can actually

recover and still feel ready by August. Boundaries are the

invisible fences that protect your peace, your time, and they

let you enjoy your life and still start the year feeling

prepared.

Imagine how you might spend a typical summer. You're

on call for your family's every need. You end up planning three

vacations, organizing the pantry, attending 12 PD

webinars, overhauling your math centers, and when back to school

season rolls around, guess what? You feel anything but rested.

And that's where boundaries come in, not as

another thing to do, but really as a way to protect the season

that you're in.

So today, we are walking you through three kinds of

boundaries that every teacher should consider this summer:

time, tech and task load. We love a list, especially if it

can start with the same letter. Now these aren't rigid rules.

We're offering you some flexible frameworks that you can adapt to

your own life and your own needs.

When you set clear boundaries around your time,

your technology use, and your task load, you create space for

the kind of recovery that actually prepares you to be the

teacher you want to be.

Our teacher approved summer plan, I feel like we

should have like a little trademark, copyright or

something.

Tmtm.

It has two parts, recovery and readiness. Last

week, in Episode 197 we talked all about the four different

types of recovery and suggested ways for how you might want to

include them in your summer plans.

Summer recovery is the best kind of recovery, so

definitely check out that episode if you missed it. But

the second part of our summer plan is readiness. We need

recovery to refuel after a draining school year, but we

need readiness so we don't find ourselves completely burned out

by September 15 from trying to get the new year up and running.

The first step to our readiness plan is to imagine how

you want to feel as you head into the new school year. If you

want to start the school year feeling more prepared than ever,

what tasks do you need to accomplish to give you that

feeling?

Then the next step is to identify the specific goals that

will help you get there. You will probably have some school

related goals in there, like reading a couple teaching books,

or finally figuring out how to fit more social studies into

your day.

And, of course, joining us for the Teacher Summer Talk

Summit and the Back to School Success Course, right?

Yes, you definitely want to grab your spots for those in

June. But also think about personal goals that can help you

get ready for school. Maybe you want to start going to the gym

every day now, so that it's already a habit when school

rolls around.

Or maybe you want to spend some time this summer

trying out easy meal prep ideas so that meal times during the

school year are way less frantic.

If you want some help working through these readiness

goals, there's a page for this in, you guessed it, our free end

of your roadmap that we've been talking about nonstop. If you

don't have it yet, what are you doing? There's so much good

stuff in there, so go grab that from the link in the show notes

if you don't have it.

Once you have an idea of what back to school readiness

looks like for you, it's time to put some boundaries around those

goals. I know our people pleasers and our perfectionists,

they don't love the idea of setting boundaries.

But you need to shove guilt and panic way back down

into the underworld by reframing your thinking. Boundaries aren't

secretly going to turn you selfish or mean or lazy. They're

about being strategic with your resources.

time boundaries. This is about being intentional with

when you work on school stuff, and probably more importantly,

when you don't.

And I know what some of you are thinking. Emily, I have

so much to do. I can't just not work on school things.

We are not suggesting that you don't work on school

things ever.

We would be the most hypocritical people ever if we

told you not to do school stuff during the summer, since that's

the main thing we usually used to do during the summer.

Yep, every summer. But learn from our mistakes and be

strategic about when you work on school stuff and how much you're

going to do.

So instead of working too much, some teachers don't want

to think about it at all. And I know some of you are out there.

It's easy to assume summer means we have all the time in the

world, but unfortunately, the whole I'll just do school stuff

when I feel like it plan often means that we never feel like it

until that lovely, motivating sense of panic sets in.

Now it might seem like working too much and not working

enough are opposite problems, but they really are two sides of

the same coin.

Yeah, it's like guilt and panic had a horrible baby, and

that baby is named anxiety.

Babies do cause anxiety. Let's be honest. If we feel

anxious, we might cope by throwing ourselves into

unrealistic to do lists, or we might cope by ignoring that to

do list altogether. Either way, we end up stressed out and

really not feeling any more ready.

So let's not do that. Instead, try carving out

designated blocks of time for working on school tasks. Those

time blocks will look different for everyone, and they'll likely

change over the course of the summer.

Yeah, you may decide that you're going to work on school

tasks for 30 minutes every morning, and then you can just

enjoy the rest of the day. Or you may decide that you're going

to work in your classroom every Wednesday. Even just one hour a

week for intentional prep can work wonders.

I love this approach because it gives you both

structure and freedom. You know you have dedicated work time so

you really can relax during your off time without that nagging

feeling that you should be doing something productive. You can

tell that feeling, hey, I have a plan. Back off.

Another option for managing your time is the

monthly approach. Maybe in June you're not going to do any work.

Except, of course, to join us in the Teacher Summer

Talk Summit. But don't worry, that's going to be so fun, it

won't even feel like work.

That does feel like the perfect thing for June. And then

in July, you might do light prep work, and then in August, you

can really dive into more focused preparation.

Whatever you decide, the key is making a decision and

sticking to it, because when you don't have boundaries, you end

up in this weird space where you're not really relaxing but

you're not really being productive either.

Yeah, you're not getting the benefits of rest, and you're

not doing your best work. It's kind of the worst of both

worlds. But when you have clear time boundaries, you can be

fully present in whatever you happen to be doing.

So the second type of boundary is around technology,

and this one might be the hardest for some of us, many of

us, most of us.

Oh, yeah, definitely. We are supposed to be connected all

the time, checking email, scrolling Instagram for

classroom inspiration, we're just feeding on it constantly.

One simple tech boundary is taking your school email off

your phone for the summer. You can still check it on a computer

or reinstall it briefly if you really need to, but this makes

sure you're not just opening it out of habit and accidentally

ruining your summer peace, and who hasn't been there.

Or if that feels too scary, maybe try putting

boundaries around when you check it. Maybe you only check your

school email once a day, or, even better, once a week.

You could also try being more intentional about which

teacher related social media accounts you follow.

Pay attention to how you feel after looking at certain

accounts. Hold on to those accounts that make you excited

to teach, and then just unsubscribe from the ones that

trigger your comparison brain.

Yes, because social media can be such a double edged sword

for anyone, but especially teachers, because it can be so

inspiring. And hopefully our account is super inspiring for

you, but it can also make you feel like everyone else has it

more together than you do. We don't want that.

And while we're talking about social media, just a

warning to be careful about Pinterest during the summer

break. I know we all love Pinterest, but it can quickly

turn from inspiration to overwhelm.

If you're going to venture into Pinterest land, try

setting a timer. Give yourself 20 minutes to browse, save what

you love, and then close the app. Don't let yourself fall

into that Pinterest rabbit hole where suddenly it's 2am and

you've pinned 47 different bulletin board ideas.

Yeah, nobody needs 47 bulletin board ideas. The goal

of tech boundaries isn't to completely disconnect from the

teaching world. It's to be intentional about how and when

you engage with it.

The internet is so full of quote unquote inspiration,

but also full of comparison traps and decision fatigue. So

don't let the tech bros steal your summer, because they are

designing their apps to be so dang addictive.

Those dang tech bros.

Our third type of boundary is around task load. We want to be

strategic about what we take on and what we let go.

This one is huge, because teachers are natural

overachievers for the most part. We see all the things we could

do to improve our classrooms, and we want to do all the

things, all of them.

All the things, all the time. But as we have learned the

hard way, time and again, trying to do everything usually means

you don't do anything particularly well. It's better

to focus on a few high impact tasks than to spread yourself

thin across dozens of small projects.

Time boundaries and technology boundaries work

really well with task boundaries. Once you schedule

your productive work time, you want to make sure that that time

really is productive, and that means having a clear vision for

what needs to be done during that time.

If you're going to go to the trouble of hiring a

babysitter for two hours so that you can work in a coffee shop,

you don't want to waste 45 minutes of that time just

figuring out where to get started. Or what would be even

worse, spending 45 minutes in some kind of Tiktok rabbit hole.

Yes. So having a list of tasks is important, but knowing

where to start on that list is vital. Back in episode 131 we

talked about how to prioritize your summer to do list. Go

revisit that episode if you want to deep dive. But the first step

is to imagine how you want to feel as you head into the new

school year, and then identify specific goals you can set for

the summer that will help you get there.

With that to do list in hand, ask yourself, which tasks

will help you move closer to feeling prepared, and then you

start there. Yes, printing vinyl cubby labels would be super

cute, but is that more useful than having your copies made for

meet the teacher night?

It's probably definitely not as impactful on your mental

load, for sure. We also recommend setting boundaries

around other people's expectations. Maybe your

principal sends an email in July suggesting everyone update their

bulletin boards. You can politely acknowledge it and add

it to your to do list for August, or decide it's not a

priority this year.

Now, during the summer, you may also find that other

people in your life expect you to be at their beck and call

because you are on a break. Your neighbor might think that you

should be happy to watch her kids because now you have all

this time off, or your parents might expect you to come help

stain their deck, because, I mean, what else are you doing

all day?

When other people think you owe them their time, I've

found it often comes from a place of jealousy, even if they

aren't aware of it. They wish they had summers off too, while

completely ignoring that you still have professional

development and planning responsibilities and everything

else that comes with being a teacher. Oh, and you're not

getting paid for all of that either. Let's not forget that

part.

So when this happens, try to assume that people who are

claiming your time aren't really aware that they're overstepping.

Let's be honest, that might not be true, but at least you'll

feel better if you don't jump to the worst conclusions.

And then just say no if you need to, or offer a limited

role. Maybe you can watch your neighbor's kid from nine to noon

one day a week, or you can help your parents with the deck one

afternoon. But you can't take on the whole project.

But, you know, still say no. You can say no, and I know

it is so hard to do, but it does get better with practice, and

you are not unreasonable to decline an assignment that you

didn't ask for. The goal isn't to be rebellious or difficult.

The goal is to protect your energy for the things that truly

matter in your life.

So as you're making your summer plans, remember these

three kinds of boundaries. Time boundaries to help you be

strategic about when you work and when you rest. Technology

boundaries to create space from the constant input of teacher

demands. And task load boundaries to focus on what

truly matters instead of trying to do everything.

When you have clear boundaries, you can be fully

present in whatever you're doing. When it's work time, you

can focus completely on the task at hand, and when it's rest

time, you can truly rest without guilt. We're saying no to

teacher guilt.

Again, you can count on us to stand up and say the

unpopular things. No to teacher guilt. Plus boundaries help

prevent the end of summer panic. When you have boundaries and

stick to them, you end up with a much more realistic sense of

what you can accomplish. No more over promising to yourself and

then feeling disappointed.

If saying no is a struggle for you, like it is for

so many people, try thinking of everything you get to say yes to

because you're not taking on too much. You get to say yes to

enjoying your unpaid time off. You get to say yes to

reconnecting with loved ones. You get to say yes to

rediscovering the parts of your life that just kind of get

buried during the school year.

And most importantly, you get to say yes to showing up in

August well rested and excited about teaching, even if your

bulletin boards aren't Pinterest perfect. And whose are, really?

Teacher well-being directly impacts student

outcomes. When you take care of yourself, you are taking care of

your students too. Your future students deserve a teacher who's

rested, excited and ready to give them their best, and

boundaries are what make that possible.

We would love to hear what you are saying no to this

summer. Come join the conversation in our teacher

approved Facebook group.

Now for our teacher approved Tip of the Week, where we share an

actionable tip to help you elevate what matters and

simplify the rest. This week's teacher approved tip is make a

summer sensorium. Tell us about it, Heidi.

So we talked about this back in episode 134, but since

it happens to be summer again, it seems like a good time to

revisit this topic. So I learned about this from Gretchen Rubin

on her podcast, Happier?

Yeah.

Somehow that didn't seem right.

Your sensorium is your different sensory perception taken as a

whole. Our brain takes the different inputs from each of

our senses and then assembles them into what our perceived

experience of a moment is. So in this episode, we have talked a

lot about what to say no to, but it is also important to

prioritize the things that we want to say yes to.

And hopefully one of the things you want to say yes to is

really experiencing your summer break. Take a minute to think of

your favorite summer sights, sounds, touches, tastes and

smells, and then make a plan for how to include them in your

summer activities. This will help ensure that you're really

savoring the full scope of what this season has to offer. And I

feel like we're good at doing this at the holidays, if you're

someone who really loves Christmas, but I don't know that

it's ever occurred to me to do this in the summer, so it

probably hasn't occurred to a lot of you either.

Yeah, and summer's, summer's great. We really need

to soak this in. Think how enriched and rejuvenated you'll

feel after a summer of sweet, drippy watermelon and those

chlorine scented kids and twinkling fireflies and living

room dance parties and walking barefoot in the grass.

Summer has some really great sensory opportunities, so

do what you can to soak them all up.

To wrap up the show we are sharing what we're giving

extra credit to this week. Emily, what gets your extra

credit?

Well, my extra credit is something that I think all of us

can appreciate and connect to, which is turning off almost all

of my many daily alarms for summer.

Ah, the best feeling.

Giving so much extra credit to that. Having three

kids at three different schools has meant a lot of running

around to get everyone where they needed to be last year, and

it was just the best treat the other day to turn all of those

off, and I get to enjoy sleeping in pretty much every day, which

is my ultimate joy in life.

I love that so much for you, that is such a treat.

Thank you. What are you giving extra credit to, Heidi?

Well, I'm giving extra credit to Resident Alien season

four, since it finally started. My favorite kind of TV show, if

you've been here for a while, you probably heard me talking

about this, but I love a TV show that is quirky with a big heart.

So things like Ghosts, what are some other favorites?

Ted Lasso.

Ted Lasso! Oh, yeah, Community, Office, obviously.

And this show gets five stars for both quirkiness and big

heartedness. So if you are unfamiliar, Harry is an alien

who crash lands on Earth, and so to fit in, he kind of has to

cosplay as the town doctor. And as he does so, he learns all the

ups and downs of being human along the way. He's obsessed

with Law and Order and pie and his mortal enemy is a nine year

old boy, and the insults that they sling back and forth at

each other are hilarious. So if you need a summer show, this is

perfect. It's funny and it's heartfelt and it's not too

heavy. And if you're not into sci fi, I promise the sci fi is

more just like comedy than it is like heavy space travel stuff.

So I love the show. I've, I think I've re watched it three

times. I still, I laugh every time.

Well, you've harassed me about it for years now, so I am,

I am committing that I will finally watch this, because I'm

out of all my other shows, so I'm gonna watch this one.

Well, I'm glad you got to the bottom of the bucket, and as

Sheriff Mike would say, Ladies love their buckets.

I'm excited to know what that means.

And it is streaming on like three different things. So

I think it's on Sci Fi, it's on USA, and it's on Peacock, and it

might even be on Netflix. So it's easy to find these days.

Sweet.

That is it for today's episode. Boundaries are the

secret ingredient for a summer that is both joyful and

successful.

And don't forget our teacher approved tip to create

your own summer sensorium list.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Teacher Approved. I'm

Heidi.

And I'm Emily. Thank you for listening. Be sure to follow

or subscribe in your podcast app so that you never miss an

episode.

You can connect with us and other teachers in the

Teacher Approved Facebook group. We'll see you here next week.

Bye for now.

Bye.