Description: In this episode of Self-Care for Educators, Tina Boogren discusses the phase of disillusionment, explaining its causes, signs, and how it often leads to burnout for educators, while offering practical self-care tips to help teachers regain perspective, lighten their load, and rediscover positivity.
Resources: Phases of the First-Year Teacher by Ellen Moir and the New Teacher Center.
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Transcription: Hi, and welcome to Self-Care for Educators. I'm your host, Tina Boogren. This is episode 11 of season five, and here's what I want us to talk about this week. Disillusionment. Wah, wah. I want to talk about it because I want you to know that if you are feeling disillusioned, there's nothing wrong with you. It is very natural. It is normal.
This is a really hard time of year. By the way, this phrase, this term, disillusionment, comes from Ellen Moir out of the New Teacher Center. And it was originally, um, aligned with the dip chart, as I like to call it, where she identified the typical phases that first year teachers go through in their attitudes towards teaching. Uh, we can include a link to that in the show notes, but many of you have seen that. Where we start the year in anticipation, right? We're so excited, everything's great, and then the school year gets started, and whoo! We drop into survival.
And in the survival phase, we're doing okay. This is where we are passionate but overwhelmed. We're still excited. We're doing okay, but man, we're starting to get overwhelmed. And then there can be this sometimes subtle shift between the survival phase and the disillusionment phase. The difference between the survival phase and the disillusionment phase is we kind of start to lose the passion. And I have really been starting to equate the disillusionment phase with burnout.
We know that burnout, there's kind of a spectrum to burnout. It's not a light switch. It's more kind of a slow burn and a slow build. And so as we move from survival into disillusionment, we might start feeling those symptoms of burnout creep in. And we know, just as a reminder, those symptoms, number one, negativity and cynicism. This is where we, I always say, this is where you go to work, someone says hello to you and in your head you say, I hate you. Disillusionment is one of the ways that we can start to, or when we're in disillusionment, I should say, is when we start to feel that negativity and cynicism.
The second indicator that we are moving towards burnout is that decreased sense of efficacy, which is kind of that feeling of like, why bother, right? We are losing our confidence. We just don't feel like we can do it. And think about how that intertwines with that negativity and cynicism. And then that third indicator of burnout is what we know so well in our field, which is that emotional exhaustion.
And so if you're feeling those things, I just want you to know that, again, you're not doing something wrong. It's what happens this time of year. And let's think about the reasons why. You've been in it for a while. And now we have, oh, all sorts of challenges. Now it varies depending on where you live, but for many of us, uh, it's starting to get pretty cold. It's definitely starting to get dark earlier. Um, probably the germs are growing around the sickness. We've got all sorts of holidays, which can be real fun and real hard, especially when we combine that with events at school and the day after those events and the buildup and letdown. And it could be that you're at a place where you feel like you're frustrated because students are not as far along as you'd like them to be. And it feels like things just aren't clicking yet.
All of those. Indicators of being in disillusionment are common. And I know that that doesn't make everything feel better, but man, isn't there some relief in knowing that it's not just us, I think oftentimes we kind of isolate and with the story we tell ourselves is that everyone else is doing fine and it's just us. And I want you to know that it's not,
I always share the story that when I first saw that chart from Ellen Moir and I saw that disillusionment phase, I remember literally thinking, Oh, thank you. Goodness, it is not just me. They made a chart about it. And so if you are, if you're not in this phase, first of all, yay! I don't want to push anyone there.
But here's the deal. Even if you're not in it, I bet a few of your colleagues are. And think about the impact on students, right? If we've got a whole bunch of adults feeling disillusioned, we probably have, um, some behavior that we're seeing show up with students. So even if you're not feeling this way, I bet some of your colleagues are, and I want you to be aware of it because it might creep up on you.
And so I want you to spend a little bit of time this week. Number one, just pause and ask yourself, gosh, am I in disillusionment? When it comes to emotional wellness, we know that there is truth and validity behind the statement, name it to tame it. Maybe we just flat out need to say, this is where I am. And recognize it instead of kind of white knuckling our way through it.
And then if you realize that you are in disillusionment, I want you to make a plan for yourself. And if you're not in disillusionment, maybe you still make a plan for, gosh, if this does start to creep in or maybe you're not, In the depths of disillusionment, but you're kind of standing on the edge of the cliff, looking into it, make a plan for yourself so that we don't have to hit that low quite so low and think about what can we do that can help us feel better.
So I'm just going to give you some ideas. There's no magic bullet here. And as always, we know different strategies work for different people, but when we're really in this place, it can, we can, usually we're feeling pretty overwhelmed, right? So this is where I want to encourage you to turn the dial down.
What are some things that you can let go of? How can you give yourself a little bit of grace? How can you embrace that all or something thinking rather than that all or nothing thinking? How can you, very literally, slow down? What are some things that you just might need to put on the back burner for a little while? How can you commit to getting those essential pieces that you know help you feel better, especially around your physical wellness?
I'm really thinking about sleep. Can you set a bedtime? And think about, okay, if you're wanting, you know, seven to eight hours of sleep and you know what time you have to get up and you back it up, don't set your alarm for when you need to be asleep. Set your alarm for about an hour or so before that so you can wind down and get the things you need done so that you do fall asleep when you need to. Get that phone out of your bedroom.
Maybe you, this is a good time that you reach out to someone and let them know that you're struggling a little bit and you could use some help and I guarantee you that disillusionment can hit teachers educators all of us a little a little harder, I don't think other professions are immune to it. So this is just a hard time for everyone. Maybe you go back to gratitude practice. Maybe you go back to some breathing exercises. Maybe you go back to some things that are a little bit more convenient. You know, getting some groceries delivered. Things that you can do to just make your life a little bit easier.
And then go back and really focus on the positive with your students. Go back and really focus on relationships. Remind yourself of all the good that you see in the classroom. Um, think of all those amazing things that happen every single day with your students and record them so you remember them. Go back to that list that we started earlier this season with the title, Good Things Are Always Happening to Me, and you pick that back up again. Maybe you make a playlist that's going to get you through these next few weeks filled with songs that make you happy or songs that you can dance to or songs that you can scream to or cry to, whatever you need.
I just want you to know that. you're normal, you're okay, and it will get better. And we don't have to just suffer through this phase, that we really can nudge ourselves towards doing some things to help ourselves feel better. We don't want to, that's the hard part, but think of this as your sign, you know what you need to help you right now. Feel all of our hands, especially my hand on your back as you do it. And maybe you think of last week's invitation and you just, Just do a little something that you know you need to do for five minutes. I'm cheering so hard for you.
As always, thank you, Adrienne. Thank you, Solution Tree. Thank you, Marzano Resources. And thank you, my badass self care squad. I know it's hard right now, but we're going to make it through. We always do. We've survived all of our hard days. Know nothing's going to be different this time around. I love you guys. You've got this.
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