Healthy Teachers, Healthy Classrooms

The back-to-school supplies have arrived in stores.

Deep breaths, everyone.

If you walked past the notebooks, pencil crayons, glue sticks, and suspiciously cheerful lunch kits and felt your stomach do a little flip, you are not alone. There is something about seeing those displays in July or August that can make a teacher’s brain jump straight to seating plans, routines, bulletin boards, emails, labels, lost indoor shoes, and “where did I put that thing I swore I’d remember?”

Before you fill a cart or mentally plan the entire first week of school while standing beside the markers, pause.

Take ten breaths. Drink your warm water. Remind yourself that school supplies in the store are not an emergency.

They are a signal, yes. The next season is coming. But you still get to enter it with intention instead of panic.

This week, try this:

🌿 Notice what comes up when you see back-to-school displays
🌿 Name what feels exciting, stressful, or unfinished
🌿 Choose one small thing you can do to feel more prepared
🌿 Leave the rest for later, where it belongs

Preparing for the school year starts in your mind before it starts in your classroom. You do not need to rush your nervous system into September. You can gather yourself first.

Calm is a practice. Reasonable is a choice. And no, you do not need 14 new bins unless they are actually part of the plan.

What is one small thing that would help you feel grounded as the new school year gets closer?

What if calm is something you practice?

In Episode 1 of Calm is a Practice, I’m sharing two simple tools to help your nervous system move from stress toward calm: a 10-breath grounding exercise and a gentle hand-compression practice.

You can use them at home, in your classroom, in your car, or between stressful moments. No experience needed. No perfect setup required. Just a few breaths and a willingness to pause.

Watch Episode 1 and begin with one small practice. Link in my profile.

Build your support team before you need it.

During the school year, it can be easy to keep moving, keep answering, keep solving, and keep telling yourself, “I’m fine.” Teachers are really good at holding a lot. Sometimes too much.

Summer gives you a little breathing room to notice who helps you feel grounded, honest, encouraged, and more like yourself.

This week, think about the people you can reach out to when things feel heavy, unclear, or overwhelming. Your support team might include:

🌻 A teacher friend who understands the reality of the classroom
🌻 A mentor who helps you see the bigger picture
🌻 A family member who reminds you to come back to yourself
🌻 A colleague who can laugh with you and tell you the truth
🌻 A coach, counsellor, or professional who can help you sort through what you’re carrying

Support doesn’t have to wait until you’re at your breaking point. Sometimes it begins with a walk, a voice note, a check-in text, or a conversation where you let someone know what’s really going on.

You were never meant to do this alone.

This summer, reach out before the busy season begins. Strengthen the connections that help you feel supported, steady, and seen.

Who is one person on your support team?

Calm is built in the small moments.

The breath you take before responding. The pause between one task and the next. The few minutes you give yourself to move, reflect, or simply be still.

My Calm is a Practice YouTube playlist offers simple, practical ways to bring more steadiness into your day, both in the classroom and beyond. These videos are here for the busy mornings, the full afternoons, and the days when your nervous system could use a little extra care.

You don’t need an hour. Start with one video, one practice, and one small moment for yourself.

Click on my link in my profile to watch.

Which practice will you begin with?

Create a “do not carry forward” list.

Before you start thinking about classroom setup, bulletin boards, first-week plans, or the new pens that somehow always jump into your cart, take a little time to reflect on what you do not want to bring into the next school year.

Not everything from last year needs to come with you.

Maybe you’re ready to leave behind checking emails late at night. Maybe it’s skipping lunch, saying yes too quickly, carrying work home every weekend, or feeling like you have to solve every problem on your own.

Grab a journal, open a note on your phone, or sit outside with a glass of warm water and ask yourself:

🌿 What drained me this past year?
🌿 What habit made my days harder?
🌿 What boundary do I want to honour more clearly?
🌿 What am I ready to release before September?

This isn’t about judging how you handled the year. You did what you could with the energy, support, and information you had.

This is about choosing with more awareness.

Because the new school year will bring its own full calendar, beautiful moments, hard days, and unexpected surprises. You don’t need to carry old patterns into it just because they’ve been familiar.

Let this summer give you space to set a few things down.

What is one thing you do not want to carry into the next school year?

What does it feel like to truly know that you matter?

That question is at the heart of Mattering by Jennifer Breheny Wallace, and it’s one we’ll be exploring together during a free online book club through the Werklund Institute.

We’ll gather over four Wednesday evenings in August to read, reflect, and share meaningful conversation. Come as an educator, a leader, a parent, or simply someone who’s curious about the role mattering plays in our lives, relationships, and communities.

There’s no homework to hand in and no pressure to arrive with the “right” answer. Bring the book, your thoughts, and a willingness to listen and learn alongside others.

I’d love to have you join us. Click the link in my profile to register.

Make your mornings yours again.

During the school year, mornings can feel like a race before the day has even officially started. Summer gives you a chance to slow the pace and notice what helps you feel grounded, clear, and ready for the day ahead.

Your morning rhythm doesn’t need to be long or complicated. It might look like:

☀️ Drinking a glass of warm water
☀️ Stepping outside for a few deep breaths
☀️ Stretching for five minutes
☀️ Sitting quietly before the house wakes up
☀️ Taking a short walk
☀️ Writing down one thing you’re grateful for

Choose one small practice and try it for a week. Keep it simple enough that you’ll actually want to return to it.

The goal isn’t to create the “perfect” morning. It’s to begin your day with something that supports you before the rest of the world starts asking for your attention.

What is one small thing you would love to add to your summer mornings?

I hope summer is treating you well.

I hope you've found a little more time for yourself. Time to slow down, catch your breath, spend time with people you love, and maybe even read a book just because you want to.

One of the things I'm most excited about this summer is a free online book club we're hosting through the Werklund Institute.

We'll be reading Mattering by Jennifer Breheny Wallace over four Wednesday evenings in August. It's a thoughtful book that explores something I believe all of us long for—to know that we matter.

Whether you're an educator, a leader, a parent, or simply someone who enjoys meaningful conversations, I'd love to have you join us. There won't be homework, lectures, or pressure to have all the answers. Just a group of people reading, reflecting, and learning together.

DM me for the link to register.

Reconnect with joy outside of teaching.

You spend so much of the school year caring, guiding, organizing, encouraging, and giving. Summer offers a little more room to notice what brings you back to life.

Joy doesn’t always arrive through big plans or special occasions. Often, it’s tucked into the ordinary moments:

✦ Drinking your warm water while it’s still hot
✦ Walking barefoot through the grass
✦ Playing a favourite song a little louder
✦ Reading something with no lesson plan attached
✦ Sitting in the sunshine for a few extra minutes
✦ Laughing until your cheeks hurt

These moments bring you back to yourself. They remind you that your joy matters too.

This summer, pay attention to what makes you feel lighter, more present, and more like yourself. Then choose a little more of it, on purpose.

Self-love can be found in the small decisions to listen to what you need, make room for what lights you up, and enjoy something simply because it feels good.

What small moment of joy are you choosing this week?

What if your summer had a feeling? ☀️

Maybe you want it to feel spacious. Playful. Restful. Light.

Maybe you want slow mornings, bare feet in the grass, books read just because, warm water that stays hot long enough to enjoy, or evenings where no one is asking you to find a missing permission form.

Choose one word for how you want to feel by the end of summer, then let that word become a gentle guide.

When an invitation comes up, ask: Does this create more of that feeling?

When you’re making plans, ask: Is there room for that feeling here?

When your schedule starts filling up faster than the laundry basket, pause and come back to your word.

You don’t need to plan every moment. Leave a little room for wandering, wondering, and whatever makes you feel most like yourself.

What feeling are you choosing for your summer?