Educator Well-being with Kathryn

 Every teacher knows the weight of responsibility that comes with nurturing young minds—but who’s looking after the educators themselves? In this heartfelt conversation, we sit down with Kathryn, an experienced teacher turned online educator and health coach, who’s passionate about supporting teacher and student well-being. 

With over two decades of teaching experience across New Zealand, Kathryn shares how her journey led from the classroom to several principal roles and, more recently, to working with students online. 

Kathryn offers practical well-being strategies that busy teachers can start using right away—like reconnecting with your "why," taking mindful nature breaks, and prioritising sleep and nutrition. Her reflections on self-compassion, including insights from Dr. Kristin Neff, remind educators to care for themselves with the same kindness they show their students. 

Hosted by Debbie Ross
Find us on Instagram & Facebook: @nurturingeducators

For more information, guest recommendations, and sponsorship opportunities 
or to chat, please email: nurturingeducators@gmail.com or visit  www.nurturingeducators.co.nz

Thanks for listening! 

Transcript

Introduction to Nurturing Educators

Debbie 0:15

Welcome to Nurturing Educators , the podcast that shares inspiring and insightful conversations with passionate teachers dedicated to and well-being . I'm your host , Debbie Ross , and each episode we will explore the personal stories , challenges, and successes of educators from all walks of life . You'll hear practical tips and strategies to help them thrive both in the classroom and beyond . To help them thrive both in the classroom and beyond . Hello , fellow teachers , I'm really stoked for today's chat . I'm joined by Kathryn , a teacher and a health coach , who I met through Prekure . We're both keen on helping teachers and students live happier , healthier, and more balanced lives . She's made the shift from classroom to online teacher and today we're chatting about her journey and some down-to-earth advice for teachers who want to feel better and avoid burnout .

Kathryn's Teaching Journey

Debbie 1:14

Let's get into it . Hey , Kathryn , thanks for joining us today . Would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself ?

Kathryn 1:21

Yeah , sure , I'm based in Tauranga , but my teaching career has been sort of around a few places in New Zealand . Actually , I started in Auckland , I did my training in Auckland and moved around the country a lot , so I won't go through all of the places , but I've done a lot of teaching in Tauranga , Hawke's Bay and Taranaki probably the places that I've mostly been based . Yeah , got four kids they're pretty much grown up now and left home and I enjoy doing hiking and crochet , quite a few things . So yeah .

Debbie 2:00

Do you want to tell us a little bit about what you teach and how long you've been teaching for ?

Kathryn 2:07

Graduated in 1998 and did quite a bit of relief teaching in my first part of my teaching career because I had young children so did sort of switch to full time teaching . Gosh , I can't remember now I've seen so long ago uh , sort of around about 2008 , and I went quite quickly from full-time teaching into a teaching principal role , which was interesting because it wasn't something that I actually ever planned on doing , like I didn't aspire to be a principal just for personal reasons .

Kathryn 2:47

I was living in an area at the time in 2007 and 2008 there was actually an excess of teachers , believe it or not and it was really quite tricky to get a job and I was living in Hawke's Bay at the time and I needed full-time work and the only job available, actually quite a small place . The only job available was a teaching principal role and I thought I really don't want to be a principal , but I just , yeah , like I said , for personal reasons , I had to apply . Yeah , that was kind of the my entry into principalship and then , interestingly enough , I ended up loving it . It was a really full on job because you had to be a teacher and a principal . That was kind of the start of my principalship . So , yeah .

Debbie 3:32

Oh , wow , good on you . That an opportunity came up and you're able to take it and make the best of the situation . That's really great . Yeah , how has your teaching journey changed over the years from principal ? What else have you done ?

Kathryn 3:49

Yeah , so teaching to principal was a big leap . And then , well , because I was a teaching principal , it was a big leap from being a teacher , because it was just additional roles on top of being a classroom teacher . But then from that , I did a stint as a full-time principal and I actually found that easier , believe it or not , because I had staff to delegate to , and so that wasn't such a big leap . But then in the last four years , I've had another change , going from being a on-site school teacher to a online teacher , and that was another quite significant shift because we all kind of had a taste of what it was like during lockdown . But this particular style of what I do now is very , very different from what we all tried to do during lockdown . So it's yeah , it took quite a bit of adjusting too , but yeah , it's what I do now , so it's interesting .

Debbie 4:42

Do you mind sharing a little bit more about what it entails ? It sounds fascinating .

Transition to Online Teaching

Kathryn 4:47

Yeah , well , we actually teach a project . We're a project-based curriculum we use and so I guess , unlike a busy classroom where you're kind of working with small groups of children and you're constantly moving around the classroom to manage behavior and try and get the most out of your learners , this is completely front-facing . So I guess in some ways it's a little bit like going back to the old chalk and board , you know , chalk and blackboard style of teaching in terms of your lesson . So we we do have to do very engaging lessons to keep the kids occupied and engaged , but then there's also quite a lot of follow up and like helping them , supporting them with their projects , and what that involves is . So there's a lot of communication outside of the actual classes and they can message us at any time and we just give them support with whatever they require at the time .

Kathryn 5:46

Yeah it's different .

Debbie 5:49

What's the general student ? Where do they come from ?

Kathryn 5:53

Yeah , that's a really good question Because initially we had a large number of students who were with us because of mainly because of parental frustration with all the lockdowns and the inconsistent teaching when we were all in the COVID era . But more recently we've taken on students with neurodiverse students , a lot of students who get really bullied in school , unfortunately and we also have students who are quite remote , live remotely , so you know , it's a one or two hour drive for them to get to school on a bus and um . So yeah , there's lots of different reasons why people join us now it's it's a lot more diverse than just the initial covid frustrations .

Debbie 6:39

Yeah sounds great , though it sounds like you're filling a bit of a niche in the market there for those who don't quite fit the school mould . That's really cool that they've got somewhere to be able to continue these studies as well .

Kathryn 6:51

Definitely , and as we're all constantly aware of , adding to the teacher's workload is the students with anxiety and mental health struggles , and we do have a number of students that fit that category as well .

Debbie 7:07

Oh , that's cool . So , speaking of mental health , that's how we met through a health coaching program . So what got you into health coaching ?

Kathryn 7:17

Personal reasons , actually , I I mean , I've always had an interest with natural health . I've always been somebody who tries to identify what's you know , self-diagnosed , but also look for strategies that don't require taking medication . I'm just a little bit

Path to Health Coaching

Kathryn 7:38

that's just me personally . I don't like taking medication , so I always look for things that I can do and , um , you know . So that's kind of the basis of it .

Kathryn 7:47

I also like medicine you're talking about yes , yes , yes , I was just gonna say because my grandmother , actually she was a huge advocate of natural health too , and I remember she used to feed us all sorts of really strange things , but she was ahead of her time , in all honesty .

Debbie 8:06

Yeah , it sounds like it .

Kathryn 8:07

You know , this is back in the 1970s way , before things like herbal teas were even you know that .

Kathryn 8:15

Yeah a thing , and she had us . She would make them . You know , she'd concoct them herself and she had us on carrot juice and celery juice and all sorts of things . So that's a really kind of background . But then , just personally , I am actually anaphylactic to undiagnosed triggers . I've never had them identified , Despite having done a number of tests . It's never been actually identified what causes my anaphylaxis and as a result of that I didn't want to risk taking the vaccine . So therefore I was terminated from my role actually .

Debbie 8:56

Oh sorry to hear that .

Kathryn 8:59

And yeah, thank-you .

Debbie 9:00

Horrible times , were those, weren't they ?

Kathryn 9:02

Very , very traumatic experience , but I was what am I going to do ? Because , of course , and nobody knew when the mandate was going to be dropped and um , so I was actually looking for alternative options for what I could do for work . So that's pretty much what got me into health coaching , doing the training , and from there I went on and completed a positive psychology diploma as well .

Debbie 9:27

Oh , amazing So how has teaching helped you as a health coach ? How do they work together ?

Kathryn 9:36

I think one thing I do find really quite significant is that it gives you a deeper understanding of how people learn and how people grow and how they respond to support . And because you can sort of through coaching you can get those deeper , more meaningful responses from people you know , you can really start to understand , you know what drives them , and it also helped me to become a better listener and a better communicator , and those skills are all foundations of effective coaching , you know .

Debbie 10:12

So what kinds of struggles do you see teachers facing these days with their health ?

Teacher Well-being Challenges

Kathryn 10:18

Well , I mean , teaching's a really demanding job , as we all know , and being responsible for so many people little people or younger you know young youth or children every minute of the day , it's an honour , but it's also really stressful , and I think that currently , teaching is even more stressful than it was historically because we've got on top of just the day-to-day demands of running a classroom , we've got government-directed implementations which seem to be being fired at us regularly . We've got the ongoing staffing crisis and basically increasing expectations with less resourcing . So teachers are really stretched that and they're really stretched and that has an impact on emotional , physical and mental health . So , yeah , all of those things combined really do create struggles for teachers .

Debbie 11:14

Yeah , it does . What would be a tip that you would give teachers that are feeling stressed or getting to the stage of burnout ?

Kathryn 11:25

I think you have to look back or focus on what you can control and try to manage what is not in your realms of control . The way to do that is , I think it's really important to reconnect with your why and I just I mean , I had to rely heavily on that when I was mandated out of my job because I started to lose . You know , when you lose your identity and your purpose , you sort of it really impacts you mentally and you're just sort of thinking what can I do ? How can I get myself back to a place where I feel like I have meaning in life ? So , again , what I had to do is just focus on what was the reason I went into teaching in the first place . You know what drove me to it , and it is a love for children and it's a desire to support them so that they can learn , yeah , and so that they have a good outlook on life in the future through education .

Debbie 12:27

Yeah , that is so important . Your why is a big part of it .

Kathryn 12:31

Yeah , definitely .

Kathryn 12:33

And I also think that you know , when you direct your attention on what's going right particularly during those times when things are really stressful and everything just feels like getting on top of you if you focus on the things that are going right , the small wins the student who smiled at you today , the children who can now self-regulate better because you were in the playground , interacting with them and supporting them and showing them how to handle a confrontation . You know the child who learned how to write an engaging introduction and story writing today . You know those are the moments that we need to reflect on and we need to praise ourselves more for the way in which we support , because constantly , throughout the day , you're doing things like that and we just take it for granted . That's just part of our job . But when you actually think about it , every little moment and every little conversation that you have has a ripple effect on not just the child but their family , their community . Yeah , so it's important to focus on those little things yeah , such valuable insights .

Debbie 13:40

What are some small daily habits that you use or that you could suggest for teachers to help them feel better well-being wise ?

Kathryn 13:49

well , I mean , again , it comes down to self-care and you know , everybody has different ways where that fills their cup and helps them to feel like they've got more energy . Um , I mean , I'm a big believer in getting outside and into nature . That really works for me and I mean that , to be honest , that's something that teachers can do during the day with their students . You know , take them for a walk around the field , but instead of saying , hey , run around the field , take notice of the flowers and the , the you know the , the trees and the insects , and just take notice of things around in your surroundings that we just forget about them and we ignore them because we're so focused on other things that distract .

Kathryn 14:29

I find

Self-Care Strategies for Educators

Kathryn 14:30

that when I really just get outside and look around at my surroundings and I take deep breaths , you really start to appreciate all the things that are there that you know that we just often don't even see and we don't even reflect on them . So that's a really big one . For me , exercise is also really important . I find that people some people call it mindfulness , other people call it living in the now but it's amazing how we can get so focused on our inner thoughts and what's what you know , our worries , and I find , even when I'm in a classroom or when I was in a classroom , just even when you , if you just look at the ceiling or you touch a desk , or you do something to give yourself time to pause , it can help you to respond better to a challenge or a difficulty that you're going through in the moment , because you you know how you can just get distracted in your thoughts and you just say , oh , I can't deal with this . What am I going to do ? It can just kind of put you back into okay , this is where I am , this is my surroundings , this is what I can do , you know ? Just kind of helps you to calm down again yeah and to get into that state where you can actually use your thinking brain rather than your emotions taking control of you .

Debbie 15:48

It's quite a good way for grounding as well . Yes , I know there was one that we used to do with the kids , which was the five colors , or five things that are that color , and yeah , it just gives them an opportunity to just calm down and be a bit more present before getting on with your work . Yeah , some good advice . Uh , do you think food has anything to do with our well-being as well ? Is it important ?

Kathryn 16:12

Definitely , yeah , definitely think . I mean that's just such a big can of worms at the moment because you know , there's just the threat of all the GMO stuff taking over our food supplies , even more than they , you know , than what we even realize now . But nutrition has such a huge impact on our health it really does . And again I think not wanting to turn it into a gender thing, but I do think that women particularly need more protein than what we actually consume . Protein is just something that it just makes .

Kathryn 16:48

It just helps you to your brain to focus and , really , really important , to make sure you get lots and lots of protein .

Debbie 16:55

What helps you stay balanced and healthy ?

Kathryn 16:58

I actually really love hiking and recently , again , just going back to my experience with the mandate , because it was such a traumatic experience , I had to do a lot of deep dive stuff really and I had to .

Kathryn 17:14

It's real basic stuff , but it's stuff that we often ignore because , again , just getting into that whole ignore , because , again , just getting into that whole busyness of life , and when you're in a stress state , you become quite self-absorbed on just that whole negative mindset , and so I think it's really you have to take , make deliberate steps to change your mindset and look for joy . You know , look for things in life that can bring you joy . And I , as an example , when you're really , really busy and stressed out all the things that you actually enjoy , they're usually the first things that we give up . And so I started doing my crochet again and I started going out and deliberately in the weekend going and doing some photography , you know , just trying to find things that I used to enjoy . That I love that get put to the side when you're in a bad place or you're going through a bad experience . So , yeah , it's making deliberate effort to try and find things that can bring you joy .

Debbie 18:16

I like that it's so important .

Debbie 18:19

Joy , along with sleep , I think , is not one that we have talked about today , but I think that's really important .

Kathryn 18:26

Massive .

Debbie 18:26

yeah , you need to get good sleep in order to function well as human beings .

Kathryn 18:31

I totally agree . That's a really , really important one actually . Yeah , again , you know that's one thing that very often again , when you get back into that stress state or that emotional state , sleep is hard and you know it's one of the things that can be quite a tricky issue . But definitely , going back to those basic things having a , having a warm bath , you know , trying to calm yourself down I find magnesium is amazing , actually , I agree for sleep .

Debbie 19:04

So even if it means taking some supplements for a while until you can get yourself back

Finding Joy and Practicing Gratitude

Debbie 19:09

on track with stress levels , it's those sort of supplements are really useful and then I think one of the other things that we learned in our course with pre-cure maybe just to finish up was the human connection and how important it is for us to have connections with others in order to fulfill that cup as well .

Kathryn 19:28

Yeah , definitely and I mean gratitude's a big thing you know a lot of . I don't really sort of need to elaborate on that because it seems to be one of those buzz things at the moment you know talking about gratitude a lot .

Kathryn 19:38

But I mean it is important to again to focus on things that bring you joy , but also things that you know to be grateful for , the things that , what you do have . I mean , I think so much of our negative mindset comes about through comparison and by focusing on what other people have and then you look at yourself and think , oh , I haven't got that . But if you don't do that , if you focus on what you do have in life and what you what does bring you joy and how you know fortunate you are to have x , y and z , it takes away that . You know wanting to say , oh , I don't have this or I don't have that , you know , yeah , I'm not as fortunate as my neighbor or whatever

Debbie 20:19

That's so true . Focus on the positives instead of the negatives .

Kathryn 20:23

That's right yeah , 100 % .

Debbie 20:25

Gratitude journals are quite good too for some people . I think , being able to jot down a couple of things day, and it makes you think about the positives instead of going .

Kathryn 20:35

Yeah , no , I totally agree , I think . Um , one thing when I did my positive psychology diploma , though , what they say with the gratitude concept is you've got to mix it up Like you can become . It can become quite stale if you sort of focus on right , I'm going to write down three things a day . You've kind of got to mix it up a little bit . Like , for example , one week you might want to write a gratitude letter to somebody that you really appreciate They've done something for you in your life and you want to recognize them . Another time you might decide to , you know , just , uh , not necessarily write things down , but just , you know , get into that thought process of , okay , specific things . I'm going to focus today on nature . Or I'm going to focus today on foods . Or I'm going to focus today on friends , or you know people that are in my life .

Kathryn 21:25

So , um , yeah , mixing it up is really important because otherwise , great .

Debbie 21:30

Well , I think maybe on that note we can wrap up , but I just wanted to say I really appreciate you taking the time to come and have a chat today , Kathryn . I think so many of these issues is just , you know , so important for us teachers to be able to acknowledge in order to look our well-being . So I really appreciate you being so open and honest with us and , yeah , also sharing some great things that we might be able to put in place to our well-being as well .

Kathryn 22:01

Yeah , thank you . Just one more thing , that's come to my mind .

Kathryn 22:08

I think another one is really important is I've done quite a lot of reading about self-compassion and a person or a good book that you should look up if you're not familiar with it is Dr Kristen Neff . She's written

Final Tips on Self-Compassion

Kathryn 22:21

a couple of books actually actually , she's written about three , I think and she's got some really good advice around self-compassion . In fact , she's actually got a website . I think if you just put Kristen Neff in the Google , it would come up . Her website would come up and she's actually got some really good practical practices that you can do to help guide you through difficult circumstances and teach yourself how to be more compassionate to yourself .

Debbie 22:47

So that's a really good one . Oh , I love that . Thank you , I will definitely be looking that up . Okay , well , I appreciate your time today .

Kathryn 22:54

No problem , it's been awesome to chat with you .

Debbie 22:56

Yeah , all right , take care .

Kathryn 22:59

You too See you later . Okay , bye .

Debbie 23:05

Thank you so much for listening . If you enjoyed today's episode , don't forget to hit the subscribe button , leave a review and share it with your fellow educators . Let's keep these important conversations going . For more information , follow us at Nuturing Educators on Facebook and Instagram . Until next time , take care .