The glossy “good teacher” lists look harmless until you read the fine print: love more, inspire constantly, and be willing to “do anything.” We pull that poster off the wall and take it apart, exposing how duty-laced love, performative inspiration, and endless adaptability become tools for empathy extraction and self-erasure. Instead of chasing approval through toxic positivity, we make a case for a teacher identity that is human first and sustainable by design. We walk through each buzzword...
All content for The Burned Out B: Dear Teachers is the property of Nicole and is served directly from their servers
with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
The glossy “good teacher” lists look harmless until you read the fine print: love more, inspire constantly, and be willing to “do anything.” We pull that poster off the wall and take it apart, exposing how duty-laced love, performative inspiration, and endless adaptability become tools for empathy extraction and self-erasure. Instead of chasing approval through toxic positivity, we make a case for a teacher identity that is human first and sustainable by design. We walk through each buzzword...
The glossy “good teacher” lists look harmless until you read the fine print: love more, inspire constantly, and be willing to “do anything.” We pull that poster off the wall and take it apart, exposing how duty-laced love, performative inspiration, and endless adaptability become tools for empathy extraction and self-erasure. Instead of chasing approval through toxic positivity, we make a case for a teacher identity that is human first and sustainable by design. We walk through each buzzword...
The late-night grading. The careful tiptoeing from a partner who just wants you to rest. The belief that you’re the only one who can help. If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone—and you’re not broken. We go straight at the quiet heartbreak of giving your best energy to a job that forgets you by Monday while your family learns to live with the leftovers. We talk about ego disguised as duty, the savior story many educators are handed, and what it looks like from the other side of the bed wh...
Burnout won’t heal from a checklist and a succulent, and you don’t need another poster telling you to hydrate. We open the filing cabinet of teacher stress and name what’s really happening to your nervous system when the inbox gaslights you, the workload spikes, and the “wellness committee” offers pie instead of change. Comfort has a place, but real relief comes from root work—tools that regulate your body in the moment and habits that hold when the bell rings. We break down why workouts can...
What happens when a classroom spirals into chaos just three days into the semester, complete with violence, threats, and disruption—even with administrators present? The system's response is painfully predictable: blame the teacher. "Maybe you need stronger classroom management." Sound familiar? The Burned Out B pulls back the curtain on education's most destructive pattern. This isn't about teachers lacking skills or passion—it's about a systematic cycle of institutional failure followed by...
Ever feel like your compassion as a teacher is being extracted until you're bone dry? You're not alone. The education system masterfully reframes self-sacrifice as noble empathy while demanding teachers empty themselves for students who often aren't meeting them halfway. We stay after hours helping students who refused to engage during class time, sacrificing our own families in the process. We keep disruptive students in our rooms despite our gut instincts, endangering everyone's well...
Have you ever swallowed your truth to keep the peace? Bitten your tongue when boundaries were crossed? Convinced yourself that your exhaustion was somehow noble? The education system thrives on teachers who mistake compliance for respect. We're programmed from our earliest days to believe that respect means obedience, agreeability, and never making waves. But what if that definition is fundamentally broken? What if true respect looks completely different than what we've been taught? This ep...
What happens when the safety bargain you've been promised turns out to be a mirage? The burned-out bee tackles the generational lie at the heart of teacher burnout: follow the rules, and you'll be protected. The reality? You're making an unconscious deal—your voice for a paycheck, your boundaries for team spirit, your nervous system for a lanyard—but the system never signed the contract. While teachers uphold their end of this bargain with dedication and sacrifice, their legitimate concerns ...
Feeling like you're two seconds from flipping a desk but still somehow taking attendance? You're not alone. In this raw, unfiltered exploration of teacher burnout, we dive deep into the uncomfortable truth about how the education system runs on guilt, glitter, and unpaid labor—and why so many educators have unconsciously accepted this as normal. We pull back the curtain on the cycle of victimization that keeps teachers stuck. You know the pattern: checking off burnout symptoms while simultan...
The system is dysregulating—and it’s not you, it’s your vagus nerve. Have you ever gotten an email and your heart rate spiked before you even opened it? Ever frozen in a staff meeting or snapped at your own kid after holding it together all day? Yeah. That’s not you being dramatic. That’s your nervous system sounding the alarm. In this episode of Burned Out B: Dear Teachers, we go way beyond stress management and into the science of survival mode. I share a legendary 4th-period classroom stor...
Ever wondered why you feel like you're the problem when the system is clearly broken? In this episode, we name the mind games for what they are: gaslighting. And not just from politicians or policy—it's coming from inside your own school building. From the PDs that praise your resilience while piling on more work… to the wellness checklists that tell you to take a walk instead of lowering your caseload. We break down how to spot institutional gaslighting, how it hijacks your nervous system, a...
If you’ve ever stood in front of your class on the verge of tears, googled “other jobs for teachers,” or thought, “How is it only 9:07 AM?”—this episode is for you. In this raw, funny, and soul-punching premiere, Nicole shares the truth most teachers are too exhausted to say out loud: the burnout isn’t your fault. It’s a product of a system built to extract your compassion and sell it back to you as “professionalism.” We unpack the lies you’ve been sold about what it means to be a “good teach...
The glossy “good teacher” lists look harmless until you read the fine print: love more, inspire constantly, and be willing to “do anything.” We pull that poster off the wall and take it apart, exposing how duty-laced love, performative inspiration, and endless adaptability become tools for empathy extraction and self-erasure. Instead of chasing approval through toxic positivity, we make a case for a teacher identity that is human first and sustainable by design. We walk through each buzzword...
