Become a Happy and Healthy Teacher

Many times teachers think about themselves last, they are so busy taking care of their students and families that they don’t take care of themselves. Without a happy and healthy teacher, the students can’t have a happy and good classroom year. That is not just something going around Instagram, it is true.

You have to do a few things each day to make sure that you are taking care of YOURSELF.

Because Happy Teacher = Happy Classroom.

I am going to share some easy to implement ideas and tips with you today for you to have a happy and healthy year. If you want to chat more about your personal situation, email me. I’d love to help.

Morning Routine

I HIGHLY recommend you waking up anywhere form 15 minutes to an hour before you actually need to. Starting your day on a positive note will change your life. Having a routine you do every morning that makes YOU happy is essential.

Ideas for a morning routine:

• Reading
• Quiet Time–Devotionals, etc.
• Yoga or Working Out
• COFFEE in peace and quiet
• Chugging a glass of water (this is how I start everyday)
• Journaling
• Meditations

Exercise

You need to move your body in a way that you like! I make sure that I am doing some kind of exercise each day.

Exercise for me has to be fun, convenient, and easy to complete because I do it each morning before school.

Exercises I love:

• Beachbody workouts. These are 20-30 minute workouts I can put on my T.V. and get done in my living room before school starts. They are easy and fun! If you want to learn more you can head to this website to read about my coach, Ashley.
• Walking/Running. Getting outside in the morning is life changing.
• YouTube- there are so many easy and simple workouts on YouTube. If you want to do just ten minutes they have that! It is so easy to workout!

Healthy Snacks and Lunch

Ya’ll, it is essential that you prepare what you are going to eat. If you just have random stuff around your room you will eat stuff that doesn’t fuel you. It is so easy when teaching to eat all kinds of junk, but when you eat all that junk you feel yucky and when you feel yucky you are not a good teacher.

Follow my healthy teacher lunch Pinterest board here for ideas!

Brain Breaks with the Kids

Do you do GoNoodle with your kids?! If not, you should! A great way to get your energy up is to actually do the brain breaks with your students! If I am feeling low on energy then I pop a brain break on and do it with them! This will help increase the energy of the classroom as well.

Contracted Hours

I am just going to say this here: you can be an AMAZING teacher without working late or coming in crazy early. You can be a GREAT teacher without taking work home.

If you are spending over 40 hours a week at work it is going to be hard for you to be a happy and healthy teacher. Set boundaries, get organized, and have a plan. Your job is not more important than your life.

Gratitude

The practice of gratitude is life changing. I write things I am grateful for down each morning, I try to practice it throughout the day, and as a family we discuss it every night before bed.

I have also been ending the day with having my students say one thing they were grateful for throughout the day. This helps students to have a positive thought before heading home for the day.

Core Values

My husband and I decided to sit down and come up with our families core values; what is important to us. We display this on our fridge so we can be reminded each day about what is important to us and how we want to live out everyday.

Well I have loved the way this was working for us, so I decided to do it for the classroom too. I sat down and brainstormed my three core values as a teacher. What is most important to me when it comes to my teaching. Then, when someone asks me to sit on a committee or do something extra I can look at my values. If it doesn’t line up with my three teaching values it is a big NO for me! 🙂

On the first days of school we will come up with our core values as a class. Each year these values may be different, but the discussions are important.

You can grab my core values freebie here.