Recommendations for Preventing Burnout in Education (Part 4)

Building off the previous episode on depression, suicide, and CS education, this episode is a supercut of guests responding to how they take care of themselves and stave off burnout. If you have not done so yet, I highly recommend listening to part 1, part 2, and part 3 to hear perspectives from other guests.

  • For the past three years I've released a

    podcast every single year it is a super

    cut of interviews with multiple guests

    where I ask them how they try and

    prevent burnout in education considering

    I've done interviews with more than 70

    guests on this podcast I highly

    recommend going back and listening to

    those episodes as this year's episode is

    relatively short I've only interviewed

    five people since last year because I've

    actively been working on trying to

    improve the podcast solo episodes in

    this set of excerpts from interviews

    with various guests over the last year

    not only have I asked them about how

    they try and prevent burnout in

    education but I've also focused some of

    those questions around how you try and

    prevent burnout when you're working on

    Equity work in relation to education so

    many of the guests are going to talk

    specifically about how they handle that

    and we're going to start with episode

    education through SEL and pbl with

    matinga regats one of the things that's

    cathartic is to learn empathy by

    listening to the other side it really

    has brought me to my knees I have family

    members who are polarity values and

    political religious thinking yet

    listening to them I've understood that

    sometimes especially when you have a

    liberal point of view you tend to be a

    colonizer yeah one of the things that I

    do in my work I go into places in the

    United States where you know like I'll

    go to Rural America where some of these

    things are not traditionally in other

    words one of the things that I've the

    places that I've really polished my

    journey is understanding that myself

    when I bring my knowledge or my wisdom

    or my thinking I too can be doing the

    same thing what I am saying

    project-based learning the idea of

    allowing autonomy is against the norm

    the culture there I am bringing them

    things that are no different than a

    missionary going to Africa and telling

    them that this is the only way that you

    can have a happy life imagine going into

    the Amish with ideas about you know some

    of our ideas that we have and then

    somehow judging them because oh my gosh

    they don't get it so it's brought me to

    my knees in all of these things that I

    am constantly thinking about in

    researching about what's the goal what's

    the end game where's the plot going

    right because if I'm talking Equity I'm

    talking equity and if I can go to a

    different culture in a country and

    respect that culture for it is I better

    be going to places in America where

    people are polar opposite and respect

    that culture for what it is that has

    been something that's blown my mind like

    looking at for example red versus blue

    those are two cultures and if we can go

    into each other's territory

    understanding that you're going to

    somebody's culture values and thinking

    man I was like I thought I was right

    this whole time but my opinion is a

    grain of sand the next excerpt is from

    episode 156 which is titled see what had

    happened with Andre Dowdy I'm still

    working on that

    I think a lot of educators are still

    working on that one thing that I did do

    in Kobe kind of helped me realize it was

    covet allowed so many people just to

    slow down and stop and breathe and kind

    of reset what things were because at one

    time it for me it was I want to help the

    school help that school help the school

    go to this conference help the school

    keynote over here help this help and I

    was such on the go I was starting to

    miss some of the things that were

    important so it kind of helped me slow

    down just a little and I appreciate it

    now every Friday I try my best to have a

    self-care day and for me that could be

    something as simple as watching YouTube

    videos on all of my watch lists that you

    know oh that looks interesting going

    down the rabbit hole of this that or the

    other on Tick Tock or playing

    PlayStation I don't get to play it very

    often but when I do I have a good time

    and so just trying to find those moments

    to pull away get away from Tech get away

    from work and just re-centering myself

    in whatever way another thing that I do

    every morning I exercise weekends I take

    off weekends are like my eight weekends

    but Monday through Friday man I'm

    hitting that gym I'm hitting it hard

    just to ground myself like you said it's

    a lot of heavy work and sometimes you

    find that you can't shift perspective

    you see some of your friends some of

    your family who are just racist and it

    hurts your heart because you've known

    them for x amount of years and they've

    never ever said or felt that way and now

    they say and they feel that way and once

    when you confront them they stand firm

    on that feeling and you say to yourself

    well

    I can no longer be with you I can no

    longer hang around you I I can no longer

    support your thinking in that way and

    that's heavy that's hurtful that that's

    emotionally it puts a drain on you so

    being able to pull away and just to

    reset to rest to relax some of my

    teacher friends the way that they do it

    they go shopping

    I've seen a lot of people on Amazon and

    seeing a lot of Amazon packages in this

    house my wife is one of them who does

    that I've seen them also like try new

    hobbies you know pickleball never heard

    of it it was never played in the hood

    but all of a sudden there's a pickleball

    court maybe about 10-15 minutes away and

    I've heard a lot of my teacher friends

    saying they want to try pickleball just

    once again given the opportunity to pull

    away from that how do you deal with it

    man so many of what you just said like I

    yesterday I I did like a drum stream so

    myself practicing like trying to just

    help people here's how I practice here's

    how you might practice but before that I

    did an Elden ring stream so it was like

    me trying to show hey look you can have

    fun playing video games and not like

    rage quit and throw your controller

    through the window kind of a thing like

    so I do a lot of that I also do work out

    like I I have a tie bag downstairs so I

    do Muay Thai I do I built a stall bar

    with my dad so I can like work on

    gymnastics strength training stuff like

    I try my best to be as healthy as I can

    because especially reading and writing

    and engaging in like Equity related work

    like there's a lot of things to unpack

    like I worked on a curriculum for the

    win River Reservation in Wyoming which

    has the northern Arapahoe and Eastern

    Shoshone tribes and when you actually go

    through the history of like what

    happened to them in that reservation

    like it's so disheartening like it's

    it's saddening to see like this is how

    we treated other people like as a

    country as the government like so yeah I

    trying to have many different things

    that I can do to just help center myself

    and focus on things that I can control

    while still engaging in the difficult

    work yeah and one of the best things

    best piece of devices I got from it was

    a student student was on Twitter and you

    know how you go through this the Twitter

    threads and something's viral and you

    want to read the comments because the

    comments is the best part of the you

    know the buyer or whatever and this one

    student was like you and I are both way

    too smart on this subject I'm not going

    to waste my time with you and that was

    it and then the other person perhaps the

    troll kept attacking and the student

    kept replying you and I are way too

    smart for this I'm not going to waste my

    time with this it hit me because

    oftentimes I'm really you know on social

    media social justice Warrior I'm like

    but here's researcher his stats you know

    here's the website and here's a video

    here's a tick tock hear somebody what

    they said the entire time I'm like they

    just want to argue so let me just keep

    scrolling it's not worth the fight

    locally right here in Oklahoma right now

    a lot of Online Social Media stuff has

    been minerals versus Lincoln Riley you

    know was Lincoln Riley wrong why did

    Lincoln Riley leave Oklahoma Lincoln

    Lincoln and you can just see the common

    threads and it's not worth it he chose

    what he chose it was a business decision

    he got a free personal jet that's what

    he wanted to do it's no longer worth

    people commenting it's not working the

    people who are baiting and trolling

    perhaps this is what they're doing so

    for me one of the best stress reliefs

    ever is to not comment and just say okay

    that's what they want to believe all

    right and it's like you said it's a fine

    balance of it because there are some

    times that you do need to step in and

    speak up and say before this becomes

    more misinformation and More Lies here's

    the resource I like for you to read

    here's the thing yeah yeah it's hard

    being somebody who like identifies

    through and through as an educator like

    somebody who wants to help people learn

    things like when it comes to problematic

    Behavior it's hard to sometimes be like

    to not say hey here's a resource that

    can help you when the people are just

    not willing to engage in a discussion

    like if it's more of a monologue that

    I'm trying to have a dialogue like at

    some point it's just like okay I

    provided some resources I hope

    eventually you get to a place where you

    are able to dive deeper into it yeah and

    I'll give them too I'll give them two

    chances we'll dialogue two rounds and if

    the needle is not shifting or if you're

    not not even open to the needle shifting

    all right it's been great having a

    conversation with you I look forward to

    more because you're not you're just

    putting more weight and pressure on you

    and some people are doing it just to

    troll other people they just want to

    read and so you're speaking your truth

    and you're speaking your voice and

    you're giving opportunities for learning

    they're just gonna have to pick it up on

    their own time and the next excerpt is

    from episode 165 which is titled

    intersections of equity making and

    computer science with Roxanna Haddad I

    do think there's little wins that I can

    focus on and that could be just a

    discussion with a school leader it could

    be it could just be you know one an

    uptick on one data point or something

    you really have to celebrate the tiny

    wins because they're tiny and they will

    be Tiny But like they are big for some

    kids somewhere so those are the things

    that you really have to focus on in

    addition like I make sure to work out

    like every day and I try to work out as

    hard as possible to get all the stress

    and anxiety out I meditate I play with

    my kids I try to go on Hikes it is

    draining work you know one of the

    concerns I had is like what I see

    happening to school leaders is that they

    feel like they don't have agency that

    you know they're just a cog in the

    machine kind of thing sometimes because

    they are part of a system that can

    perpetuate oppression and they sort of

    don't feel like they have the ability to

    make changes that is what happens when

    you focus on the bigger picture only and

    like oh my God we're not making big

    gains but you know I specifically

    remember like this one kid in my maker

    space saying like oh I know I want to go

    to college and I know I want to do

    computer science now like that kid was

    maybe 15 years ago but I still remember

    him because I'm like that was a

    difference for that one kid that was

    like that one kid it like you have to

    find your meaning and for me that was

    like meaning and it's not like because I

    feel like all kids should major in

    computer science and go to college it's

    more that I helped that kid find his

    path and you know he's a Latino he was

    somebody who wasn't one of the

    represented students so really focusing

    on you know those tiny little wins are

    the only way that I think we're going to

    survive doing this Equity work

    constantly yeah I appreciate that I am

    privileged in that like the content that

    I create that's really available like

    whether it's the lesson plans of boot up

    or this podcast or whatever like it can

    spread to a lot of people and have

    potential impact but I don't see that

    impact because I'm not in the classroom

    and I don't hear teachers respond it

    wasn't until csta National this summer

    where like people were like hey I

    recognize your voice like I listen to

    your podcast I'm like whoa people listen

    like I just I don't know because it

    doesn't feel like I get that immediate

    responses like when I worked in the

    classroom when I was working one-on-one

    with a kid you could see that like

    engagement and whatnot so it's a

    different kind of yeah I feel bad Jared

    like I was in your podcast and I don't

    ever like

    I think maybe once and it was because it

    was a paper that like we had written but

    like I mean they're all so good so I'll

    be sure to remember to like call you out

    on Twitter so you get that little win

    that little bit of endorphin somebody

    listened

    nobody listened yeah it's I don't know

    it's been a weird like this last year I

    started like sharing gaming and drumming

    stuff like on my YouTube channel and

    whatnot that has been weird as well

    because like I'm at almost a million

    views now and it's like it doesn't feel

    like there's hundreds of thousands of

    people who have engaged with my content

    but there has been which is neat I mean

    can I ask you a question yeah so that is

    something I want to learn more from you

    about so I talked about the ways that

    like you know I work out I hike you know

    I have my art background but it has been

    so hard for me to really get back into

    that like my life has really been just

    really like computer science work and

    family and I've just been so impressed

    with how you do the drumming the gaming

    the Cs educations like stuff and you

    still read research how do you do that

    well part of it is not having children

    so that makes it so I have a lot more

    time than my peers sure that's like a

    huge like one of the number one things

    my wife is also a very busy type a

    individual and I mean that in the best

    way possible so because we're both so

    busy like we do schedule in time for

    each other and then outside of that I

    schedule in I'm planning on gaming on

    like Monday Wednesday and Saturday

    evenings with one of my friends who's

    across the country like I try and make

    sure I do that and like with the music

    side of things it's the same thing like

    on Saturdays and Sundays I try and

    stream in the morning and it holds me

    accountable because now I'm going to

    practice publicly like it's making it so

    that I'm almost being like forced to do

    that like with the podcast when I do the

    unpacking scholarship episodes one of

    the reasons why I do that is because if

    I don't have a guest lined up cool I can

    just release an episode on my own it's

    not reliant on anyone don't have to put

    pressure Etc but the other reason why is

    it forces me to stay on top of like

    Recent research and to just keep

    learning and reading because otherwise

    I'll find something else to do because

    there's always a billion things to do

    but when it comes down to it like one of

    the things that I really learned in the

    last two years in particular like during

    covet is I need to have a clearer

    separation between what I do in my 40

    hour work week and what I do in my

    leisure and so I'm trying to have very

    distinct start and end points for that

    and so like in the mornings like I'll do

    workouts like you were saying but then

    like I say I start at eight o'clock

    working eight hour a day I will then do

    cardio at the end of the day to kind of

    put like a cap on that and say now I'm

    done for the day now I'm going to focus

    on doing other stuff like video editing

    for the gaming content or like playing

    video games or hanging out with my wife

    or whatever so having that separation

    has helped because I am the kind of

    person who won't stop working I'm

    technically even though it's like

    Leisure I'm working on gaming and

    drumming stuff and putting out social

    media content like a lot but I

    previously would only do computer

    science stuff non-stop but because now

    I'm doing multiple things it keeps it

    fresh so when I come back to the Cs

    stuff like I'm like oh this is something

    different and new that I wasn't doing on

    the weekend and then when it's on the

    weekend or the weeknight I'm like oh now

    I get to work on this other thing some

    of the challenges like now I love

    working from home but I do think it's

    making it challenging for me to like

    make hard stops as to when work time is

    and when not work time is yeah one of

    the things that I also did was I

    actually had the office in a separate

    location from my leisure and so when I'd

    go into that office this is privilege of

    having the space for that then I it was

    work mode and when I exited the office I

    would shut the door and I'm done for the

    day or the weekend or whatever and I

    would not focus on that now I've kind of

    put myself into a little bit of a pickle

    and that like there's two drum sets in

    here and a marimba and like this is

    where I like I make music and have fun

    this is also where I game but it's also

    where I work so I try and like do my

    best to make sure that like I am still

    mentally separating those and I'm not

    thinking about work outside of it and

    I'm not thinking about like drumming and

    gaming when I'm working Etc but

    sometimes easier said than done oh for

    sure for sure I don't know if I can do

    that but I can try yeah I mean like you

    mentioned though with working out but

    also the meditation side of things like

    that has helped to try and refocus

    thoughts whether it's like I'm gonna do

    a gratitude meditation so for 20 minutes

    I'm just going to focus on things I'm

    grateful for or focus on an object like

    my dog and just like petting her or just

    like even just sitting outside and

    looking at the birds who are like eating

    from the bird feeder like that kind of

    attention training almost has been

    really helpful for being able to focus

    my mind on work or Focus my mind on

    Leisure and be intentional in that

    moment yeah I wonder I mean I am such an

    advent

    later I wonder what a mess I would be

    without it like has this like because

    it's I feel like my mind is chaos like

    with it so maybe I don't know it

    probably has helped me in ways that I

    don't see yeah I mean I didn't do any of

    it until I went to a therapist because I

    was like ours on the edge of suicidality

    and in like high school and undergrad I

    was suicidal for the majority of that

    period of time and when I went to a

    therapist she had me start doing yoga

    and I did it an hour in the morning an

    hour in the evening and I did that every

    single day for weeks and like just to

    feel the change in my body and whatnot

    like I know what the before and the

    after is like and so I am I try to be

    very intentional about working out about

    getting my sleep about eating healthy

    about meditating because I know where it

    will take me when I don't do that kind

    of stuff and so I'm extremely grateful

    even though like you're saying like even

    though I do all these things like I

    still get stressed out Etc but I know

    I'd be in a much worse place if I didn't

    do all these things yeah totally no it's

    it's so important for me to do every day

    and it's a really it's not a good day

    when I don't do those things yep the

    next excerpt is from episode 173 which

    is titled empathetic listening and

    computer science with Josh Sheldon so

    I'm not always great at it you know one

    of my symptoms is depression and that

    can be exacerbated by or at least

    correlated with observations on where

    the world I feel like the world is going

    that said I believe in the richness of

    humanity and the enlivening capabilities

    of just shared effort and shared Joy you

    know just doing things together as a

    team with other people is very very

    important to me and contributes to my

    well-being being around other people

    frequently and to reduce my well-being

    things like singing together you know

    just intentionally making opportunities

    to be joyful together even in hard times

    and you know I can't even pretend to

    understand the African-American

    experience you know the black experience

    in this country but I can see the power

    in you know song and enjoy in their

    communities that I have to think you

    know can provide some solace in hard

    times and a final excerpt is from

    episode 189 which is titled

    computational literacies with Michael

    Horn I mean I think it's just really

    hard I see this you know happening like

    people just throw themselves into work

    like there's no other you know there's

    nothing else that's important in life

    it's really hard because you can like if

    you're not actively trying to prevent it

    like avoid it like our culture is just

    geared and it's not just Academia like I

    think it's any you know any number of

    different kinds of jobs that are just

    sort of geared up to burn you out as

    quickly as possible unless you are

    active simply working to prevent it and

    so like part of me is like kind of

    figuring out like there are things I

    really really love about my job I love

    teaching I love working with students I

    love going into fifth grade classrooms I

    really like writing when I can you know

    like and so just recognizing the things

    that like really bring you Joy making

    sure that you have time to do those

    things which and but it's hard it's

    really hard to avoid burnout and yeah I

    don't know how do you avoid burnout oh

    so many different approaches it's one of

    the reasons why I ask like is each guest

    is because I want to learn from them so

    I can figure it out like you're

    mentioning the the thinking time while

    walking so I use the Pomodoro method

    where I'll work for 50 minutes five zero

    minutes and then I'll take a 10 minute

    walking break where like I'll just be on

    my treadmill and I might listen to a

    podcast or listen to music or like play

    a video game um because I have like a TV

    mounted on it things like that just to

    give me that time to move because I'm

    the kind of person where if I don't set

    an alarm I won't stop working and then

    I'll be like oh wow I haven't eaten in a

    few hours and it's like dark outside and

    I didn't even realize that right so

    there's that there's just like setting

    very clear boundaries with like at this

    time of day I'm going to stop working on

    this thing and like focus on like

    hanging out with my wife Etc yeah yeah I

    have to be very structured like you'll

    notice while I was like in this

    conversation I was drinking a liquid

    salad like that makes it so that I don't

    have to sit down and eat I can just like

    drink my lunch while having a

    conversation like things like this just

    little things that make us so it saved

    me five ten minutes here or there it all

    adds up in the end so that I can be more

    intentional with my time my energy my

    attention Etc throughout the day I don't

    think this is right but I think that

    that the burden of avoiding burnout is

    is on the individuals who are you know

    that it's rare that you find a job

    that's structurally supports you in life

    not getting burnt out and the social

    problem was like if I just did what I

    was contractually obligated to do I

    don't think I would feel burnt out but I

    love doing all of these other things and

    I myself into projects and like and I

    think that that's the danger also being

    a creative person is that you know we

    get excited about building things and

    doing things and creating things and

    then like and that's all on top of

    everything else and I think I don't I

    don't have good solutions for you and

    that concludes all the excerpts from

    last year's interviews as a friendly

    reminder in the show notes you can find

    excerpts from more than 70 other podcast

    interviews where we specifically talk

    about how to prevent burnout in computer

    science education also in the shout outs

    I'll include a link to a presentation

    that I did with Jen Manley that

    specifically talks about some more

    suggestions for preventing burnout in

    education so make sure you check that

    out in the show notes at Jared

    o'leary.com if you enjoyed this episode

    consider listening to the full

    interviews or sharing this or the other

    burnout episodes with somebody else that

    you know just trying to help the field

    out because it's a difficult profession

    stay tuned next week for another episode

    until then I hope you're all staying

    safe and are having a wonderful week

Resources/Links Relevant to This Episode

  • Listen to prior supercuts on preventing burnout

  • Listen to the full episodes of each excerpt

    • How to Get Started with Computer Science Education

      • In this episode I provide a framework for how districts and educators can get started with computer science education for free.

    • 154 Decolonizing Education through SEL and PBL with Matinga Ragatz

      • In this interview with Matinga Ragatz, we discuss Matinga’s journey into education, creating environments where kids can learn through struggle, the importance of social and emotional learning (SEL), how schools promote individualism and exceptionalism, the intersections of project-based learning and SEL, decolonizing education, the importance of shared values in education, and so much more.

    • 156 See, What Had Happened with Andre Daughty

      • In this interview with Andre Daughty, we discuss how an educator in Andre’s life sparked a passion that led to a career in education, representation in education, thoughts on what’s holding back the field of education, setting boundaries when communicating with people who are being disrespectful, taking care of yourself to prevent burnout, the Mamba mentality, Andre’s intentionality with improving as a public speaker, the importance of play in learning, growing a podcast audience, and so much more.

    • 165 Intersections of Equity, Making, and Computer Science with Roxana Hadad

      • In this interview with Roxana Hadad, we discuss the blurring of formal and informal learning within makerspaces and culture, how Roxana’s understanding of education evolved over time, feeling lost when having too much choice with one’s learning, the intersections of makerspaces and equity, problematizing discourse and definitions around computational thinking and computer science, preventing burnout while working on many different projects, feeling a lack of agency in education, the future of communication for academics, and so much more.

    • 173 Empathetic Listening in Computer Science with Josh Sheldon

      • In this interview with Josh Sheldon, we discuss computational action, designing exploratory professional development experiences, learning how to listen to and empathize with students, applying SEL with teachers, the future of teaching and learning, the problems with external influences on CS education, and so much more.

    • 189 Computational Literacies with Michael Horn

      • In this interview with Michael Horn, we discuss computational literacies vs computational thinking, power in literacy, cultural imperialism, the impact of programming language on identity, the intersections of music and CS, and so much more.

    • All other episodes

  • Even more resources on preventing burnout in education

  • Find other CS educators and resources by using the #CSK8 hashtag on Twitter



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