Welcome to episode 108 of Angela Watson's Truth for Teachers. I'm your host

Angela Watson and I'm here to speak life, encouragement, and truth into the minds and

hearts of educators and get you energized for the week ahead.

Today I'm going to share four teaching mistakes that drained my energy and the solutions

that changed everything.

Visit truth for teachers.com to get a transcript of this episode or to share your thoughts in the comments.

So I shared in my book Unshakable 20 ways to enjoy teaching every day no matter what. I talked a lot about the importance of saving energy and thinking about what gives you energy and what drains your energy.

And that's because energy is one of our most precious resources.

Unlike time, energy doesn't naturally replenish itself.

We have to be really intentional about how we use our energy and if we don't pay attention to the things that drain it and do less of those things and pay attention to the things that are energy giving and do more of those things, we're going to find ourselves feeling depleted

all the time.

So today I'm going to share with you four habits and practices that drained my energy

as a teacher for years, and I'll share the solutions that I uncovered

that completely transformed the way I approached my work. The first mistake that

I made that drained my energy was talking non-stop.

I ran my mouth so much as a rookie teacher that I lost my voice every fall

for the first five years I was in the classroom. I would explain,

re-explain, explain again in different words, and then recap with yet another

explanation. The only time I would stop talking was to give the evil eye or to give that deadly silence to students who dared to steal my thunder by saying something themselves.

In retrospect, I think I felt like my talking was the glue that held the classroom together.

I think I worried that without my constant narration of everything that was happening,

somehow the momentum of student learning would wane.

...