TeacherGoals Podcast Episode 27
How to Tackle Teacher Guilt without Quietly Quitting with Caitlin Smith
"You have to care for your wellness now, or you'll be taking care of your illness later."
Founder, How to Get Away with Teaching
Learn to be so graceful and compassionate with yourself, just the same way that you're with everybody else. In this episode, Caitlin Smith breaks down amazing strategies for removing guilt and stress from the teaching process. She encourages educators to talk about their mental health struggles with others to normalize the conversation and destigmatize professional help. Caitlin shares tips to identify all the stressors that are piling up and how to work on them to prioritize your own wellness and self-care. Let's dive in!
Caitlin is a former teacher with over ten years of experience in North Carolina. She is the owner of How To Get Away With Teaching, LLC, a self-care brand that disrupts society’s expectations of teachers by prioritizing teacher mental health and wellness. How To Get Away With Teaching also provides mental health resources, mood-boosting wellness goodies, speaking engagements, and a subscription box curated as a reminder for teachers to prioritize themselves.
3 TeacherGoal Tips
1
Tip 1:
It is important to establish priorities and adhere to them
2
Tip 2:
Putting oneself first, gathering community, and challenging the teacher narrative is key
3
Tip 3:
To combat teacher guilt, start by journaling and reframing the source of the guilt
This Episode Features...
Caitlin Smith
Caitlin Peay Smith is a former teacher with over ten years of experience in North Carolina. She has a Master’s Degree in Curriculum & Instruction and another in Teaching English as a Second Language. She is the owner of How To Get Away With Teaching, LLC, a self-care brand that disrupts society’s expectations of teachers by prioritizing teacher mental health and wellness. How To Get Away With Teaching also provides mental health resources, mood-boosting wellness goodies, speaking engagements, and a subscription box curated as a reminder for teachers to prioritize themselves. After having her daughter in 2019, Caitlin suffered from post-partum depression. With the added stress from teaching, she struggled with finding the balance between being a wife, mom, and teacher. She discovered that she could not be fully present in the three roles with the same level of intensity and dedication. It was unfair to her family, students, and most of all, herself. Her experience in education struggles with mental health, and research in self-care fuel her passion for collaborating with educators who suffer from burnout. Caitlin enjoys encouraging teachers and moms to be their best selves through radical self-care and intentional wellness practices.
Erica Terry, Host
Erica Terry is a 20-year educator and co-author of the Eva the Diva Girl rhyming picture book series written with her daughter, to empower young girls to build confidence and grow in self-love. She is also the founder of Healthy Wealthy Educators, where she equips teachers with actionable tools and resources to start a profitable online business and build generational wealth without stress.
You can find her hanging out on Instagram @ericanterry_