October at Why Edify: Carrying a Little Less
Four newsletters, two podcast episodes and a 30-day challenge from October, all about how teachers can carry a little less during a hard stretch.
Halloween lands on a Saturday this year, and every middle school teacher I know is quietly grateful. (A room of 8th graders on a sugar high at 2:30 on a Friday is its own weather system.) October's about done. If you missed some of what went out this month, it's all here.
Newsletters
- Slow It All Down + 17 Weeks, On Me. (Oct 7). One minute a day looking at something bigger or older than your to-do list. For the teacher whose week has gotten very small and very loud.
- Teachers Beware - The Drive Home (Oct 14). When you replay a rough moment, talk to yourself by name. Useful if the commute is where you re-teach the worst lesson of the day.
- Dress for the Weather: What Teachers Can Actually Control (Oct 21). A sticky note with a line down the middle, then one thing from your side. For anyone carrying a worry that isn't theirs to fix.
- The Deload Week (Oct 28). Lifters intentionally plan a lighter week. This one is about doing the same thing during a storm week at school: push one task back and ask for help sooner than feels comfortable.
On the podcast
- 108. Why Doing Everything Alone Destroys Great Teachers. A group bike ride, and what it teaches about when to push and when to let someone else take the front.
- 109: 28 Years of Teaching Taught Me This 1 Rule. The control episode: what's actually yours in a hard situation, and what to do with it.
On the site
- The STRONG Teacher 4H Reflection. Four questions at the end of the day. Five minutes, and the day stops following you around.
- Surviving the First Month of School: 7 Reads for Teachers. A short reading list for anyone who started the year at a sprint.
- Why October Is So Hard for Teachers (and What Actually Helps). The mid-fall dip has a name, and it's normal.
- Gemini Notebook for Teachers. Turn written assignment directions into a short video and an infographic students can replay. For every kid who asks "wait, what are we doing?" thirty seconds after you explained it.
- 10 Lessons From 25 Years in the Classroom. Erin Hall's ten lessons from her podcast, with a STRONG tie-in for each. Most of them come back to relationships.
The challenge
The pick-your-own 30-day challenge started October 20 and runs through November 18. Choose something small enough for your worst day. Mine is one song, six words, and a ten-minute walk. Whatever you pick, you can add a feel-good song to the Teacher Commuter Playlist. You can still start this week. Call it Day 1.
Looking back, most of October was about carrying less. Not quitting anything, just setting a few things down for a while, like the replay on the drive home or the bulletin board that can wait until Monday. Episode 108 says the same thing from a bike seat. Nobody rides the whole route at the front, and the people who try usually don't finish. I'm still learning this one, twenty-eight years in.
What did you set down this month, and what are you still hauling around that you could hand off?
If you want more of this, the STRONG Teacher Year Fall Pack is free on my site: https://www.jeremyajorgensen.com/strong-teacher-year-fall-pack-one-small-practice-a-week-free/. It comes with the Wednesday newsletter.
If a friend could use any of this, send it their way. The newsletter comes out every Wednesday: https://www.jeremyajorgensen.com
