OTT 262: Mid-Fall Teacher Fog: What It Is and How to Shake

Feeling that mid-fall classroom fatigue? You're not alone. The back-to-school adrenaline has faded, student behaviors are surfacing, and those carefully crafted routines are starting to fray at the edges. It's the perfect storm of teacher exhaustion that hits just as the calendar turns to October.

This episode tackles the very real phenomenon of "teacher fog" – that overwhelming fatigue that creeps in when the novelty of the new year wears off but the holidays still feel distant. I'm giving you full permission to recalibrate without guilt. Whether you need a mental health snow day or simply strategies to protect your dwindling energy reserves, we've got practical solutions to help you shake the fog.

The reality is that sustainable teaching sometimes requires a pause. We explore simple systems for regrouping your classroom routines, transitioning kids back into structure, and building in predictable activities that reduce decision fatigue. From emergency sub plans (including a free downloadable day) to creating "smart stations" that engage students while giving you breathing room, these strategies will help you navigate the messy middle of fall without burning out.

This season doesn't have to derail your teaching joy or your wellbeing. Take it one day at a time, celebrate small victories, and remember – it's okay to prioritize sustainability over constant innovation. Your classroom (and your health) will thank you. Ready to shake the fog and reclaim your teaching energy? Listen now and join our community of educators who are tired of pretending teaching isn't exhausting sometimes.

Free Sub Day of Plans:

https://www.trinadeboreeteachingandlearning.com/subplansdayone

October Sub Plans:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/October-Sub-Plans-2nd-Grade-Eme

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Mid-Fall Teacher Fog
• 1:23 Understanding October Teacher Fatigue
• 3:39 Permission to Take a Break
• 6:26 Practical Tips for Energy Renewal
• 9:13 Sustainability Over Burnout
• 11:00 Finding Your Voice as an Educator

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to One Tired Teacher. Episode 262, mid-fall Teacher Fog what it Is and how to Shake it. So today we are talking about teachers in the messy middle of fall. The back-to-school sparkle is gone, behaviors are surfacing and routines are fraying. In today's episode I'm going to give you permission to recalibrate. I'm going to share some simple systems for regrouping routines, transitioning kids back into structure and protecting your energy. Hope you stick around.

Speaker 2: 0:43

Welcome to One Tired Teacher and even though she may need a nap, this teacher is ready to wake up and speak her truth about the trials and treasures of teaching here. She is wide awake. Wait, she's not asleep right now, is she? She is awake right. Okay, from Trina Debery, teaching and Learning your host, trina Debery.

Speaker 1: 1:06

Hey. So welcome back. Today we're talking about something very real mid fall teacher fog. Now I know you know the feeling because it's like all the back to school stuff is kind of worn off and we're really into it, which often I find refreshing. But sometimes, like around this time, exhaustion starts to creep in. It's almost as if you've been running on adrenaline this whole time and now that adrenaline has faded and it's like get down to business and you feel tired. You know when you've been on like a journal and kind of high and then it crashes. You're left exhausted because your to-do list is longer than ever. The novelty of the new year has worn off and it's only October, okay.

Speaker 1: 2:00

So in this episode we're going to talk about you know, if you're feeling like you're wondering, you might be wondering to yourself if it's just you. Let me give you a spoiler alert it's not just you. We're going to talk about the fatigue, what it actually means, where it comes from and how to protect your energy without guilt. So October was always like the time of the year that someone in my family mainly me got sick. It's better than getting sick in August, for sure, because there's nothing worse than getting sick at the beginning of the year, when you don't have your routines and procedures set up or when you have not followed what you're supposed to do, which is. In my school, we had to have five days of emergency sub plans in a tub and we had to tell our team leader, which was me, where they were, and often we didn't always get that done.

Speaker 1: 2:59

So, that's why I created my emergency sub plans in the first place, just FYI.

Speaker 1: 3:05

But anyway so this is the time of year that somebody gets sick and it's hard and sometimes we feel like that creeping exhaustion of the beginning of the year. It's still lingering a little bit, but we've got the holidays on the horizon and we're getting really overwhelmed. And this is when I give you permission to pause, to ask for help or even to dip into emergency subplans for just a day so that you can keep getting up and going. Now I don't want you to feel overwhelmed about that, because I have a free day of subplans and I'm going to drop it in the show notes. You can find it at TrinaDebrieTeachingAndLearningcom.

Speaker 1: 3:49

forward slash sub plans day one all one word sub plans, day one. So you don't even have to worry about it, because I have been doing. I have been creating these Um, we do teacher chapter additions on TikTok and I have been having so much fun with this club because I've got teachers from all over, all over who knows where they're from who are talking about things that they're so tired of dealing with. And one person actually wrote something about how she was just going to muddle through. It was just too overwhelming to take a sub day, even though she was sick. She didn't feel good, but she's like it's not worth it. It's so much work. It really can feel like that. It feels like everything falls apart if you're not there. But the truth of the matter is that we have to be able to take care of ourselves. We have to be able to take care of our own children when they're sick. We have to be able to take that pause and take that moment for ourselves. And that is one reason why I created these sub plans, because I wanted to give teachers the ability to take a break when they needed to and have everything all ready to go. Subs used to tell me constantly Trina, can I please have your sub plans for another, for a different class, and I'm like what they were? They were always frustrated with what got left behind and I and I'm like, okay, sure, so I know they work. They worked for me, they literally saved me. I needed them, I needed them. I needed 10 days, like I always took every single sick day because I was sick, I was sick or my kids were sick, and it was just, it was just miserable, and sometimes I even had to get docked pay because I took more of the days than I I had, because I just, you know, I was, I was, I had chronic sinus infections. It was brutal, anyway, and that's why I made my monthly sub plans as well, because that way you would have what you need by month. If you needed October, you need November, they're available. They are standards and skills that progress just as a year has, and if you're curious or in a pinch, I've got you covered.

Speaker 1: 6:16

All right, let's talk about beyond that. Let's talk about some practical tips for energy renewal in case you are feeling the mid-fall teacher fog. First of all, give yourself a planned slack day. This can be a mental health snow day. This can be a mental health recharge. This can give you the opportunity to just sit at home on the couch watching Gilmore Girls with your tea or your coffee and snuggled up with your snuggly little pet and having the day to yourself. Maybe that's just my idea of something rewarding. But you know, and if you don't, if you're like, nope, I've got to be in the classroom, well then, maybe you take one of the days in October and the October plans and you just have the day completely planned for you and you just follow the plans yourself and you give yourself a little bit of a slowdown. Another thing to do is to build in predictable routines that reduce decision fatigue. Like, maybe, spending 20 minutes doing storybook STEM or Halloween STEM, or you use this as a daily reward or a weekly reward.

Speaker 1: 7:32

This has always been one of my biggest biggest I don't even know how to what to say about it Like when, when they told us that we couldn't take recess from kids, you know, as a behavior consequence, there was like both. I had like two sides of myself One side where my son did not enjoy school and looked forward to the kind of downtime which was recess, and if his behavior got in the way and it was taken from him, it was really difficult for him, and I also realized with my own students that I had kids that needed to move and they would move in inappropriate times, but they needed to move at recess. So taking recess from them felt wrong on one hand. On the other hand, there was the part of me that's like there has to be a consequence for this type of behavior. So it's really tricky. Well, something that I ended up doing at the end of the day, and so I didn't take recess at the end of the day.

Speaker 1: 8:29

We had like almost like a catch up time, but for kids that were finished and had acted appropriately, they got to do like smart station. That's what I called them, and they were based on Howard Gardner's smart multiple intelligences, and one of them would a perfect one, for one of them could have been STEM, could have been logic smart or even that could have even been in, like you know, the art, smart, like it could have been in either one of those categories, and it would have been. They would have felt like they were playing, however they were thinking and problem solving playing, however they were thinking and problem solving. So if they miss out on this, then it was. I normally reframed it like I'm going to give you some success time. So I'm going to give you, you know, instead of the 15 or 20 minutes that you get to spend in smart stations, you're gonna. I've got some success things for you to do, such as catch up on your work, or you know other things like that, things for you to do, such as catch up on your work or you know other things like that. So that way, when they went home and said I wasn't allowed to do you know centers or smart stations today, it was like, well, I had to give them some success time because they were not successful earlier in the day, so I had to give them some time to catch up. It's always a win-win. Anyway.

Speaker 1: 9:47

Another thing is don't pile on this time of year with new initiatives. October is not the time. This is the time for slow and steady wins. The race. Just a few more weeks and you get as at least a long weekend for Thanksgiving, if not the whole week. We had the whole week. Thank goodness You've got this.

Speaker 1: 10:10

And also, like I said earlier, use October or November subplans to give you a free week of no planning. You can find that in my shop on TPT, trita, devery Teaching and Learning. I've got October, I've got November. I've got you covered. And if you need just one day, a one-day breather, don't forget I have a free day of sub plans waiting for you. Zero guilt. Your classroom will be fine. You can grab it at trinadeveryteachingandlearningcom forward. Slash sub plans day one If you're feeling like you're behind or things are unraveling.

Speaker 1: 10:49

It's not too late. You can grab these emergency sub plans like a grab and go day and you can buy you time to reset. Remember, it's okay. It's okay to have, like this October fog. You're going to get through it. It's just one day at a time. Take it one day at a time. Just just give yourself a goal for one day.

Speaker 1: 11:13

I'm going to get up today and then give yourself a little bit of positive reinforcement. I got up today. That means I get to have a delicious coffee with a special creamer or whatever it is Like. Just reward yourself and just go one step at a time. You're doing a beautiful job, even on the tired days.

Speaker 1: 11:33

Let this be a season of sustainability, not burnout. And also, if you are in the need of like releasing some things that we do not care about anymore as educators because we are so tired of some of the nonsense that feels good to like, just voice it. And if you feel like you need to do that or you feel like that will make you feel better, then by all means come join me on TikTok, trina underscore Debrae and share those comments with me. I'd love to hear the we do not care about, and I'll say it for you, I'll shout it from the rooftops for you. I know when we're in the classroom and when we're in the trenches, we feel like we have to be really quiet because we're going to get in trouble or someone's going to frown upon it or whatever. Well, I can say it for you. I can say it loudly and proudly Now, until next time, sweet dreams and sleep tight.