Toss Out the Assumption That Your First Years of Teaching Will Be Miserable with Jeanne Wolz

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Lindsay Lyons: In this episode, you'll be hearing from Jeanne Wolz. For reference, this episode was recorded on November 10th, 2021. So let me tell you a little bit about Jeanne. She's a former middle school teacher, department chair, school leader and college instructor and is the founder of the New Teacher Masterminds, a transformational virtual PLC network that connects and powers and provides wraparound support for new teachers across the country. As a new teacher herself, she won the Outstanding Beginning Teacher Award from the Illinois Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. Jeanne's Mission is to help new teachers thrive during their first years of teaching so they feel they can stay and grow in the profession for years to come. I'm so excited for you to hear from Jeanne, Let's dive into the episode.
Hi, I'm Lindsay Lyons and I love helping school communities envision bold possibilities, take brave action to make those dreams a reality, and sustain an inclusive, anti racist culture where all students thrive. I'm a former teacher leader turned instructional coach, educational consultant and leadership scholar.

00:01:12
If you are a leader in the education world, whether you're a principal, superintendent, instructional coach or a classroom teacher, excited about school wide change like I was, you are a leader. And if you enjoy nerding out about the latest educational books and podcasts, if you're committed to a lifelong journey of learning and growth and being the best version of yourself, you're going to love the Time for Teachership podcast. Let's dive in.
Jeanne Wolz, welcome to the Time for Teachership podcast.
Jeanne Wolz: Thank you so much for having me. I'm so happy to be here.
Lindsay Lyons: I'm so excited that you're here and I'd love to just get your thoughts on, you know, I just read your professional bio but I think sometimes there's like this element of professionalism to bios that you kind of missed the personal aspect or you know, you want to ground yourself in something other than like the list of things that we have accomplished. So, I love asking the question of, you know, how do you want to add to that formal intro and introduce yourself to our listeners?
Jeanne Wolz: Yeah, I love that you're asking this question because I also agree, I'm the biggest creature than you are more than a teacher and more than your accomplishments.

00:02:20
So I think just some more personal things about me. I love to travel. We're actually gonna go on this RV adventure this winter for a few months. And also that I am a mom of an almost two year old, which is crazy to think, but that takes up a lot of my brain most of the time as well,
Lindsay Lyons: Awesome. Thank you so much for sharing. And as a fellow traveler, I feel like that is an important distinction to make. Like there's something about travelers who are like, let's go do stuff, awesome. So as we think about, kind of your dream for education and we kind of laid the foundation for the episode around what education would look like, you know, if you could kind of create it. I love Dr. Bettina Loves' quote about freedom dreaming and she says there are dreams grounded in the critique of injustice. And so through that lens, thinking about the big dream you hold for the field of education, how would you describe that for our listeners?
Jeanne Wolz: Yeah. I think my dream for education is for every new teacher to experience their first few years as a cherished and important role in person and agent in education and equity and education.

00:03:38
And in order for that to happen for all schools to have induction programs for new teachers that are designed and sober to the challenges that all new teachers face, and are designed to keep their vision and their passion intact, which is so important and I just feel so often overlooked, but it doesn't need to be.
Lindsay Lyons: Yeah. That idea of keeping your vision and passion intact is, I think what is often the cause of people leaving the profession after 3-5 years, right? Like that almost happened to me just being in these different school systems that were not what I envisioned teaching to be, and did not give me the level of autonomy and support that I needed. And I almost quit teaching after three years and just completely tried to do professions.
Jeanne Wolz: Yeah, and that could have been solved very easily. Well, maybe not very easily, but it could have been solved and it's something I think we need to pay attention to if we want teachers to be staying in the profession.
Lindsay Lyons: Absolutely, and so I'm curious to know because oftentimes we don't solve that right? We don't do those things.

00:04:40
So what are the ways that educational leaders maybe need to be thinking a little bit differently or even teachers need to be thinking a little bit differently and really shift their mindset around, you know, what those first few years of teaching look like and what supports for those teachers and their initial years look like?
Jeanne Wolz: Yeah, so the first one and the biggest one, I think the most foundational one, and this is something that I say, to new teachers all the time, but now I'm really speaking to veteran teachers and building leaders, and that is tossing out this assumption that your first few years of teaching have to be miserable. Like if we're assuming that then what supports, like, what's the point of supporting new teachers? So instead of that, the mindset shift, I really want to challenge everyone listening to make, is how can we create the first few years or make the first few years of teaching the best years of a teacher's career, like how can we aim for that and just think about how much that shifts the conversation,

00:05:43
and the kinds of supports that we need to enact and the kinds of experiences we want to give our first, 2nd, 3rd year teachers in our buildings. So that's the biggest one and I have another one, but I don't know if you wanted to.
Lindsay Lyons: Absolutely, let's hear it.
Jeanne Wolz: So the second one, and it's kind of building off of this, is that teachers support needs to go beyond just best practice. We know with students if they are not in an emotionally stable state or if they're not getting their basic needs met that they can't learn. And it's the same thing with teachers and especially with new teachers. Your first few years teaching, you're going through challenges that are not just professionally challenging, but they are emotionally taxing and they are also, you're also going through a huge identity shift and I think if you've been a teacher, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's a huge identity shift. It's almost, I actually think now being a new parent, it's very similar to becoming a new parent, like it's just a giant shift and you're coming up against a lot of challenges and so we need to be designing programs that take that into account, predict it and then provide some for teachers.


00:07:01
Lindsay Lyons: I love that. Oh my gosh, not only the assumption the first one around assuming that the years are going to be miserable. I think that's really a powerful thing to shift away from, but also that idea that that identity shift is so real, whether you're new to the career as your first career or like a career changer or whatever it is. Seeing yourself as a teacher is a really interesting shift and I love that you likened it to parenthood as well. I think people appreciate that shift a bit more than they do that of a teacher and what it means to be a teacher.
Jeanne Wolz: Yeah, yeah. I mean, so many people, usually teachers very often when they become a teacher, this is something they've been dreaming about or thinking about for a really long time. And so when they're starting teaching, they're trying to figure out, okay, when am I going to be a good teacher? Am I going to be good at this thing that I've dreamt of doing? Am I going to be this teacher that I've always wanted to be? And then two, is this for me? Like this is kind of their trial run. And so, yeah, I think it's just really important to think about it and I think to, when I'm thinking about identity shift, I'm also thinking about, like just speaking from my own experience, when I, when I became a teacher, I have been used to being a high achiever, good at things, organized, prepared. And now for the first time in my career, essentially had just been a student before that, but in my career I wasn't feeling organized. I was feeling chaos all the time, no matter how hard I worked. I was feeling like a failure.

00:08:28
I was feeling all these things, even if we're thinking about the equity piece, I had always thought of myself as a very accepting person. Of course not a racist. And all of a sudden I had students telling me I was a racist. I never ever experienced that before. And that happens many, many times for teachers. And so I mean across the board for new teachers. And so these are things that we all kind of know, I think are very common for new teachers to be going through. And since we all know them, I think we need to be, you know, thinking about them and how we're supporting new teachers.
Lindsay Lyons: So powerful that you just shared all of that. Thank you for speaking to your experience because I think so many people just resonated with all the things that you shared because it is real. And to avoid thinking about those things that we do know happened, right? It's just not a good way to support teachers. And so if people are listening thinking, okay, yeah, like I want to create the conditions for someone to feel really supported and like they're thriving at work and they know how to navigate that identity shift, what does that look like in terms of, you know, brave actions for educational leaders to take or even teachers themselves to take to really live into that dream you were describing.
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00:09:44
Jeanne Wolz: Yeah, so I'm gonna really highly paraphrase some research in teacher retention by Ingersoll. I think it's Richard Ingersoll, so I'm pretty sure that's, his, ingersoll definitely his last name. And he's done extensive research, I think over the last 30 years in what keeps teachers and buildings, what keeps them in the profession. And the things that he notices in terms of teacher induction programs, is the more elements of kind of best practice for induction programs that are, that exists in a program, the more likely teachers are to stay. So those elements are things like a mentor program, things like having professional development workshops, maybe having and forgetting the other one, there's one other one, professional development workshops, so instruction strong and structural coaching and the mentorship program. But the one thing that I always think about that really stands out to me that he lists that I very seldom see in schools and would have been amazing for myself as a new teacher and I know for so many new teachers that I work with that is a lightened workload.


00:10:51
I mean, again, this makes sense. Like when we say it a lot, it's like, well duh? We have new teachers that are expected to do everything a veteran teacher is doing and yet they are also learning the ropes, they're learning how to do this. I mean anytime you're learning anything, it's going to take longer. So like it makes sense why lightened workloads can be so powerful for new teachers in terms of keeping them in buildings and keeping them in the profession. So that's the first one, and I really, and I say that also right away because I know that's probably one that feels lofty because it messes with the magical master schedule. But I think it's something a conversation that needs to be had. And even if you are not a principal in your building, you, if you are working with the new teachers, I'm challenging you to talk to your administration, talked to higher administration about how can you make this happen for the new positions that you're hiring for, so that new teachers have the space to grow, to process all these things, to learn their skills to get all this support.


00:11:56
And I think also I'm spending so much time on this first one too, because in order to add the other things, I'm going to suggest teachers need to carve out and have space for those support programs. I've worked with amazing, amazing, supportive districts for new teachers that give them more things to do, more things to do, more things to do, but they don't take anything off those plates. So they're meeting with a mentor every single week, awesome! They're meeting with masterminds every single week, awesome! Like it's all these things, but teachers are super overwhelmed because they don't have any time to do their jobs. So you want to have the both worlds, you want the lightened workload, so they could still be getting, you know, doing the rubber hits the road and learning how to do this job as they go, but you also want to carve out that space for them to get the support that they need.
And then thinking about the kinds of support that I have seen that new teachers really, really benefit from. One is access to a safe space to ask for help from veterans and peer teachers. That veteran piece because they have a lot of expertise and wisdom to bring to the table, but also appears other first year teachers, second year, third year teachers who can empathize with them and say, hey, it's totally normal that what you're going through, I'm going through that too.

00:13:11
And having that camaraderie and feeling like they're not the only one feeling like a failure. There are not the only one feeling like, this is just a lot more than I thought it was gonna be or something like that.
And then the other piece to that, access to a safe space. The mastermind groups I run, I really wanted to create a space for teachers where connecting across building and even across districts and the reason I wanted to create those spaces, these mastermind groups where teachers were talking to people outside their building is because even if you have the safest political culture in your building, a new teacher may not even know that. So like, best case scenario, nobody gossips, nobody's gonna go behind the new teachers back. But the new teacher, if they're smart, knows not to trust that that's the case in the building, so they may not feel comfortable to open up with their mentor teacher, with the teacher next to them, that could help them or even with their instructional coach. So the more that you can connect new teachers outside of your building, I think the better so that they have a safe space to feel like they can be vulnerable to get help on the things that they are actually struggling with.


00:14:20
And that's personally why I think mastermind groups are so awesome because you can create these safe family environments where you're working to create a safe space throughout the year that people feel more and more comfortable being vulnerable. And I think that's what's really, really needed to help new teachers so comfortable to open up. And then even if it's not a mastermind group, just a space, it's specifically designed to be safe for new teachers.
And then the next one, so lightened loads, access to a safe space, ask for help, and then the third one would be workshops and coaching that helps to help, that works to help new teachers process these high emotional challenges, these identity shifts. On top of course, like basic skills and things like that, but workshops that also address this more affective aspect of teaching,
I think it would be awesome if all teachers had a therapist. I am a big proponent of therapy, I think it would be great. But I think there are a lot of other ways to support teachers on that kind of emotional and identity journey than therapy that schools can provide their teachers. So workshops that help teachers become aware of their biases and to process those. I know that I would have so benefited from that as a new teacher rather than struggling with this on my own when I knew that so many other teachers were also struggling with this, but it was just kind of a taboo thing to talk about.


00:15:48
And then the second thing for workshops and coaching, I think is helping teachers process these all of the shoulds that they brought to teaching. My kids should be listening to me while I'm talking. I should be able to get through my grading stack, you know, when I get home at night and I feel tired. I should be designing these lessons that are super engaging every single day and then confronting what's actually happening on classroom, maybe they're tired and they didn't get an awesome lesson plan that day, or maybe they're they have a class that is a little bit chatty right now and they have to be working through that and like that's a very normal thing. But a lot of new teachers don't realize it's a very normal thing to be working through during the year. So, or maybe even something that they can harness and use to their as an asset in their classroom when they're, as they're teaching.
So workshops that work with those sheds, like confronting what it is that how they can work with, what reality really is in front of them. And then I think another, another piece on helping teachers confront their vision versus what they are perceiving as reality in their classroom,

00:17:01
and in the contrast between those. I think this is a really key place and a really pivotal moment for teachers in their journey to become anti bias, anti racist educators because so often this is the moment where teachers fork, they say, okay, students are not being X, y and Z, that I expect them to be. Either I need to learn how to do this in a different way or it's just these kids, like these kids can't do this or this school isn't like this. I need to go to a different school or something like that. So I think this is a key part of equity and education is coaching new teachers through that dissidents that they're going to experience their first year and their expectations and what's actually happening.
Okay, so the final thing I would say, the concrete thing, I think the new teachers need and lots and lots and lots of, is targeted instruction and culture for making the job sustainable. So my first institute day, when I was a student teacher, I'm so lucky that this was my first, it was the first seminar and my first institute day. It was led by this amazing teacher who I actually worked down the hall from when I was student teaching, and it was a workshop on how to save time grading.

00:18:17
And she started the workshop by saying, Okay, let's think about like how many students you have 120. Let's think about if you sent five minutes grading every single one of those papers, how many hours would you spend grading? And I think that's something I can't remember, 10 hours, I'm not gonna do that math like that. Something really crazy. And so she said every minute that you add onto your grading for every single paper is going to be another two hours of your life. So let's think about like what is the highest power move that we can make as teachers rather than spending 10 hours grading this paper, that students may not look at, What, how could we spend those 10 hours in a different way or how can I spend those 10 hours to rejuvenate myself?
And so that institute day, I mean there was gold advice, but it also framed the way that I thought about teaching from then on, because this was my first impression of like, okay teacher community, this is what we're talking about with each other. But I have yet to like go to another workshop like that, it was just a really awesome workshop this first time. And so I think we need so much more of that for new teachers.

00:19:20
And again it goes along with this fucking this assumption that your first few years have to be miserable. Because again, I think a lot of times we don't give new teachers these things because we're like, oh you know your first year, it's gonna suck, you're gonna be here until eight at night. I remember those days kind of thing. Again, a lot of similarities to new parenthood, what you hear. And so having a culture where no, this is not how it's gonna be for you, not even your new teacher and we're gonna help you learn how to do this job more efficiently, more powerfully and more meaningfully.
I was listening to a one of your podcast episodes, it was Dr. Sweet, I don't remember her first name, but I loved what she was talking about. An encouraging joy and passion outside of your teacher day and then also challenging the workaholic building culture. I think just, if you haven't listened to that episode, go listen to it. I'm just going to echo it. I think it's super important and I think it's especially important for our new teachers who are forming the impression of what teaching is and if it's for them.

00:20:26
Yeah, those are the things I would recommend. That was a lot,
Lindsay Lyons: Wow, that was a lot. But it was so good. I mean I just, I was nodding my head the entire time you were speaking. So I just think about, you know, lightened loads. I constantly am trying to talk to leaders about how do we take something off of people's plates right? We can't just keep adding and I love that you center that around new teachers, but particularly new teachers reflecting on what I taught. Like I taught seven completely different classes as a first year teacher. Like that's nuts. That's nuts. Even for a veteran teacher and often it's because I mean, for me, I was jumping at the first job that I was offered because I was just like, yeah, well otherwise I'm not teaching and then I'm kicked out of my program and then I don't have anywhere to live and you know, there's this spiral of, I don't even know how to interview.
So I think thinking about how do we make sure that that is sustainable because ultimately if we're investing all of this time and energy and resources into building up new teachers who are going to stay with us for a while because we have great culture and we have that space for coaching and we have all the workshops you've been talking about, you know, that's going to pay off for us as a school as well as for the students in those classes, right?


00:21:38
A lot of times I think teachers who are new, get the the students who need the most support and probably would benefit from a veteran teacher who has all this experience. And so we're constantly challenging new teachers in ways that, you know, don't don't need to be the case, right? And so I love your first institute day just thinking about that framing of, how else can we spend our time versus spending 10 minutes, you know, a paper or whatever on grading and giving feedback that might not even be looked at. And so thinking about ways to make the work sustainable. I just want to echo is so critical because if we burn teachers out, we are not going to get anywhere and we're just going to be spinning our wheels and that culture building process just kind of stagnates when we have people running out the door constantly. And I just I want to say that this list is brilliant and I hope people like replay that section of the episode because it is so, so good.
Jeanne Wolz: Yeah. I just want to like, I empathize with what you're saying as a first year teacher having seven classes, I was given four class, four preps, three different grade levels of writing. It was a core class, but somehow I was like the cog that fit in, you know, like all the empty gaps in the master schedule kind of thing and I got the job probably,

00:22:53
why are they? My position was open probably for the same reason yours was because nobody, no other veteran teacher wanted it with reason. I don't blame them. But I would argue that that needs to go back to reworking the master schedule. How can we make a humane schedule for everybody? But it's not okay if one of our team members is getting this totally unreasonable load. And it's especially not okay if it's going to be one of our new teachers and I think it's especially especially not okay if it's one of our new teachers that we think very highly of. I think a lot of times that's justification. It's like, well, she's awesome, so she'll be able to handle it, it's fine. And then that's the teacher that gets burned out and leaves the profession. So I think these are kinds of conversations that we need to be having and thinking about when we're creating master schedules, when we're opening positions and when we're talking to our veteran teachers about who is going to get what position and things like that.
Lindsay Lyons: Wow, yes. Oh my gosh, as you were describing that the kind of equity of distribution of classes, I was thinking the other teachers particularly

00:23:54
so I was a special education teacher. So the other special education teachers had similar workloads to me, but the general education teachers taught maybe two different preps and so it's just like the discrepancy there between seven and two is nuts. And I never thought that yeah, we should be having this conversation with those teachers, you know, as a school, so smart.
So as you've worked for so long with new teachers, I'm curious to know what has surprised you the most in working with that population of teachers.
Jeanne Wolz: Yeah, I have a few things. First of all I love, obviously I love working with new teachers as I work with them, but I think some of the things that has really surprised me, it has to do with preparation and how we structure it. And so one of them is how much step by step support new teachers need, especially that summer, you know. I was going to see that summer before their first year teaching. But I think it's actually 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th year teaching. I have this, I have an online course for new teachers that walks them step by step through preparing for their first day and for the year and I have teachers taking that class, sometimes with zero years of experience and sometimes with, like 15 years of experience. and I am,

00:25:14
so what I'm saying is what surprises me is how much step by step support. I mean like, okay, we know best practice is to backwards design grades. We know that we need, we need to start with the assessment in mind, great. But what does that look like? Like literally what do you write on the piece of paper? You know, like when we're thinking about scaffolding for students, I think many times teacher prep programs talk about big ideas, which is great, theory, which is great, equity, fantastic. But we need, when are we going to get into the nitty gritty of like, okay, we're gonna sit down, this is how you lesson plan, this is where you put this, these are the kinds of notes I do. Let's model that for a teacher in a sustainable way too.
So that's the first thing. And then the second thing is kind of in conversation with that first one, and that is, what was so striking to me, was this one time I was giving a workshop. I'm used to giving workshops to, like, 1st, 2nd, 3rd year teachers. I was giving a workshop that I thought it was at a conference and I thought it was, I was gonna get first or third year teachers and as I was going, I realized something was off and just in terms of the engagement and what I was seeing in the teacher's spaces, and somehow, at some point during that workshop, I discovered that almost everybody in the room was a pre service teacher. And it was just this kind of big realization about when teachers, when is the right time for new teachers to receive different kinds of information.


00:26:51
So, yes, new teacher prep programs a lot of times they may, and I'm not sure, but it seems to me that it, many times they lack enough step by step support in creating lesson plans, those kinds of things. But at the same time, I have found that first through third year teachers are total sponges because they're so desperate to solve the problems that they're dealing with day in and day out. And pre service teachers understandably are overloaded with information and they don't know what they're gonna need. It's just like, okay, here's all this advice and then they don't know what they're gonna need when they teach.
And so I think to me, what it suggests is that we need to be incorporating more hands on, more, more experiences where teachers have pre service teachers have autonomy in the classroom. So they can actually have something to pin their learning to, and know what to look for when they are learning to be teachers. And then it also means that we need to be extending that hands on workshops and side by side support for new teachers, those first or third year teachers, rather than just saying, here's all, there's, here's how you'd be a teacher,

00:28:04
okay, go do it. Thanks.
Lindsay Lyons: Yes. Oh my gosh. The research on job embedded support like that too is really positive, right? Like this is what teachers actually need is to be supported as they're doing this. Yes. Oh my gosh, So I love these things that you're talking about, and I want to know why, I think so much of what you've already talked about. You've mentioned this a bit already, is so tied to these ideas of justice and equity that we always talked about on the podcast. So I'm curious to know if you have anything to add from what you've said already around the importance of this work in that frame.
Jeanne Wolz: Yeah, I think we've kind of, we've danced around a little bit, kind of talking about certain aspects, but just to kind of bring it home. If we think about who are teachers are teaching and who are veteran teachers going to, where our veteran teachers fleeing to? What kinds of schools, what kinds of grade levels, What kinds of workloads, where are they going? And who, where, what positions are being opened up? We're talking about schools that maybe have lower income. We're talking about schools that have higher levels of diversity or maybe have higher needs in terms of instructional needs.

00:29:16
And if those are the positions opening up and those are the those are positions being filled by first or third year teachers, that's where all of our support needs to be. And that's what it's going to be creating these cycles of inequity every single year, if we don't address and kind of put a plug to these teacher retention problems that we're seeing, and things like that.
I was gonna say one other piece of that, and now I'm forgetting what I was gonna say. But I mean, in a nutshell to me, this work is not just about making new teachers' lives easier. Of course it is, but it's also about solving huge issues of inequity in our school systems across the country. And conversations that we need to be having about how workloads and how positions and how master schedules are created and who is filling those positions and what kind of support we're giving them and what assumptions we're making about, what should that experience look like for that teacher?

00:30:18
What are we asking teachers to just accept?, And do because they're a good teacher and they want to be a teacher, and this is what they should be doing, kind of like you're talking about, like, okay, I want to get a job. I don't feel like I should be looking for a different kind of job. I don't think I feel like I should be advocating for myself, because I think all teachers deserve a reasonable workload. And also, if we want good teachers to stay in the profession and continue to grow and for our students to reap the benefits of that, then we need to be paying attention to these kinds of things.
Lindsay Lyons: So well said. I'm so glad that we were able to kinda like, wrap all that together because you're right, we're kind of we're talking about it in so many ways, but what you just said is absolutely it and why this work is so necessary. So, thank you for naming that so clearly.
As we think about, you know, coming to a close of the episode and all of the great things that you've shared, I'm imagining a listener just kind of being like, okay, there's so much that I could be doing if I'm a leader to support educators and if I'm a new teacher to kind of wrap my mind around some of these things or ways of thinking, ways of doing things that maybe I didn't learn in teacher prep school, because I think we should actually start now.


00:31:29
I think we should start like, your own teacher prep school, because I think everything you're describing is like, yes, I wish is this is what the school was like before I got into teaching. but as people are kind of hearing all this stuff. What is one thing if they were just kind of getting started there? Like I like these ideas that you've been sharing. I want to take one next step to start building that momentum towards kind of living it out. What would that recommendation be?
Jeanne Wolz: Yeah. I think, well in all change, I really like to think of it in terms of think big, start small, be consistent. So I would, if you could, I always would recommend doing a mind dump, brain dump of all the different ways that you could be improving, maybe what you're doing yourself, what the school can be doing. And then kind of picking one to start with from there.
In terms of giving a little bit of direction, I think the first thing that's really really important, a good place to start is to figure out where we can start taking things off of new teachers place, so we can make space for all these things.

00:32:36
So teachers can even, I have teachers that love our mastermind groups that dropped out because they just have too much on their plate and so they're making this choice to fly solo so that they can survive rather than have a list of support that they can have. So that would be the first steps that teachers feel like they can accept help. And then I think to a really easy way to make a shift that doesn't require more time and energy from you, is to think about how you're talking to new teachers, how you're talking to them about the profession, about what's a reasonable workload for them to accept. And and teaching them boundary setting. And maybe even like scaring and when you're, I'm just talking about conversations you will be having anyway with new teachers. How can we start steering new teachers to more student centered strategies rather than strategies that are centering on them doing tons and tons of work? And then of course checking yourself if you are prone to that badge of honor for working late into the night, those kinds of things because those are culture shifts that we can all be responsible for making and they don't require any extra help and energy.

00:33:50
And then of course if you've got more energy and time, take a look at that list I was talking about before and see which one would be reasonable for you to tackle first.
Lindsay Lyons: Beautiful. I love it. And as a final kind of question that I love asking just for fun, I think everyone who comes on the podcast is just constantly growing and learning themselves. And so I'm curious to know what is something that you have been learning about lately?
Jeanne Wolz: Yeah, so I'm really excited about this class I'm taking right now. It's called Playing Big Facilitators. Of course, I think it's the name, but it's by Tara Mohr. If you've ever read the book, Playing Big, fantastic book, so powerful. Tora Mohr, she's a coach that helps women and leaders sidelined their inner critic, amp up their own inner wisdom and tune into that and then play bigger in their lives, however, that looks for them. So this course that I'm taking is about helping other women and other leaders do that and I just find it so fascinating, thinking about especially since teaching is such a woman dominated industry, thinking about how different pressures and socialization and cultural expectations have been placed by women, how that translates into perhaps that workaholic culture and not maybe not stepping up and speaking up when they could be when they have so much wisdom and expertise to share and helping and just thinking about how to help teachers do that in their buildings and play bigger,
Lindsay Lyons: Wow, that sounds like an amazing book I now need to read.

00:35:24
Jeanne Wolz: Yes, definitely recommend
Lindsay Lyons: That is great. And I'm sure people are going to be really sad that this episode is ending because they want to continue talking to you and learning from you. And so I'm curious to know where would you some listeners who are interested in connecting, learning more about you taking your course or joining your masterminds.
Jeanne Wolz: Yeah, I think the central hub would be the Teacher Off Duty website, it's just teacher off duty dot com. That's my first website. That's kind of where they're at least to everything. If you want to learn more about the New Teacher Mastermind Program, you can just go to new teacher masterminds dot com. And you can find me on social media with through teacher off duty handle on everything. And then if you wanted to learn more about how to shift mindset and challenge missed about supporting new teachers and concrete ideas about how to support new teachers, I have a freebie on the New Teacher Masterminds website that you can download for free, about 10 ways to support new teachers.
Lindsay Lyons: That sounds amazing and I'm gonna drop links to all those things into the show notes in the blog post for this episode.

00:36:28
So if you're driving or running or something, don't worry about like writing these things down in the moment, You can totally grab them later. But Jeanne, thank you so so much for this really wise and brilliant conversation.
Jeanne Wolz: Thank you Lindsey. It was wonderful talking to you. Thank you for having me.
Lindsay Lyons: Thanks for listening, amazing educators. If you loved this episode, you can share it on social media and tag me @lindsaybethlyons or leave a review of the show, so leaders like you will be more likely to find it. Until next time leaders, continue to think big,, act brave, and be your best self.

Jeanne can be found on her websites: 
www.teacheroffduty.com
www.newteachermasterminds.com
Or on social media:
Instagram: @teacheroffduty
​Facebook: facebook.com/TeacherOffDuty
​

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