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How do I add "play" to my classroom environment that promotes more intrinsic motivation? I definitely need to think more about this from a HS perspective.

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I need to find a realistic method of "disconnecting" from work each day. Leave my computer at work each night? I've already put "screen limits" on my phone and that seems to be helping me limit my phone usage later at night...

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Even if we can't actually have this four day week (yet!), we can structure our week so that it's frontloaded on a Monday and lighter on a Friday.

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Systemic problems need systemic solutions. To support educators in your school with creating better work/life balance, here's what's new from 40 Hour.

Want to listen instead of read?

Work/life balance solutions for teachers

I created the 40 Hour Teacher Workweek program back in 2015, and despite the name, the goal isn't actually to work 40 hours a week. The goal is to maximize your contractual work hours-which are usually around 40 hours a week-so you're not working endlessly on nights and weekends.

The average teacher is working 62 hours a week when they join, and 51 hours a week when they complete the program. So it's not a 40 hour workweek for most, although many do keep to their contractual hours. The typical savings is 11 hours a week, which is around 500 hours a year. That's really the difference between burning out and making teaching a more sustainable career, and that's my whole goal.

However ... a lot of what creates teacher burnout is stuff beyond teachers' control. I can offer individual solutions to a lot of problems, from grading hacks to ideas for streamlining lesson planning, to strategies for managing email and staying organized. All that stuff is in the 40HTW and it makes a massive difference for teachers.

Ultimately, we can't solve systemic problems with individual solutions. We need collective problem solving. Ideally, teachers will be working in schools with administrators who also see the value in work/life balance, who create a school-wide culture focused on wellbeing and reducing time wasters and unnecessary work.

40 Hour Leadership to support principals and other administrators in shifting school culture

Now you might be thinking, Yeah, that's ideal, all right. That is NOT reality. My principal expects us to do whatever it takes for kids and doesn't care how many hours I work. This is something my school leaders would never get behind.

But you might be surprised to know their principal may be one of hundreds who have contacted me over the years asking, "Is there a 40 hour club for administrators?"

The truth is that everyone who works in schools feels overwhelmed by all of the responsibilities. That feeling of never being able to get ahead, never having done enough, and being pulled in 100 different directions? It isn't unique to teachers. Administrators are feeling it too.

One of the root problems is that the way that we traditionally do school is inefficient. There are a lot of broken systems and cumbersome bureaucracies within most schools that just haven't been re-imagined.

Administrators - principles, assistant principals, deans, counselors, and everyone else carrying the load of school-based leadership - need support too.

And when their workload is simplified, streamlined, and their energies are focused on what matters most... everyone else in the school benefits.

So beginning this summer, we're going to be piloting the 40 Hour Leadership program for administrators with a select group of schools that truly want to innovate.

The goal for admins is similar to the goal for teachers. It's not about working 40 hours, it's about being intentional with your time. It's a five module program that will help admins do a time audit to figure out where teachers' time is being spent and what they can remove from teachers' plates, and create more efficient, effective procedures for meetings, email, and more.

40 Hour Leadership is designed to change systems. It's focused on not only what's best for kids, but also what is sustainable and manageable for the adults responsible for them. We believe a system is not best for kids if it causes the adults to burn out, and subsequently under perform or quit. If we want to reduce the teacher attrition crisis, we have to center the well-being, care, and work life balance of those working in our classrooms.

Great teaching and great school leadership is not achieved by working harder or putting in longer hours, but by prioritizing the things that make the biggest impact. We believe that when administrators have the tools and support they need to be organized and manage their time well, everyone else in the school benefits.

40 Hour Instructional Coaching

We're going to be offering a special version of 40 Hour for Instructional Coaches, as well.

This is something else I've been asked about countless times but honestly didn't have the bandwidth to create. Then back in April, Nicole Turner of Simply Coaching approached me about having her team co-create the materials, and everything fell into place quickly.

We are working together to create a course that will help instructional coaches prioritize tasks and organize their time, then help the teachers they work with do the same. It covers how to create coaching cycles and focus on growing teachers and tiering teachers for support. There are processes and templates to help instructional coaches streamline data collection, observations, and professional development they present to staff. The program also covers some basics on how to coach teachers to be intentional with their time.

We anticipate releasing some of the 40 Hour Instructional Coaching materials on July 1st when the 40 Hour Teacher Workweek program begins, but we're announcing August 15th as the final date when all the entire program is ready, just to make sure we're not rushing or cutting any concerns trying to meet a tight deadline. So you can pre-order the 40 Hour Instructional Coaching program now and get the materials the moment they're released.

How to support the vision and help create systemic change with us

If you love this idea of maximizing contractual hours and creating a school-wide culture that's focused on productivity and wellbeing so that education is a more sustainable career path...here's how you can support the vision.
1. If you haven't taken the 40 Hour Teacher Workweek program yet, we're accepting new members through July 15th.
It's a yearlong program that begins each July and supports you through each season of the school year, so summer is the only chance to begin with a cohort of like minded educators. Get in the program and start leading by example in your school - find ways to set boundaries and still do a great job for kids. Show your colleagues and admin it's possible.
2. If you can find a like-minded colleague, we have a "join with a friend" bonus.
Enter each other's names in the referral section when you each sign up individually, and you'll both get your own $20 Amazon gift card in September. Having a colleague go through the program with you will enable you to get even better results and start shifting norms in your school.
3. If you have a good relationship with your administrators and/or your instructional coach, let them know about the programs we're offering for them.
40 Hour Leadership and 40 Hour Instructional Coaching is designed to make their jobs simpler and less stressful - you can just pass along the links, or even give your admin a PDF brochure we have that explains how the various programs work.
4. If you get a good response from this, you may be able to get your admin on board to pay via purchase order for the 40 Hour teacher, 40 Hour admin, and 40 Hour IC programs using school funds.
We have an awesome customer support team that can answer questions and help get everything set up so no one's paying out of pocket. Obviously that's the goal here - to get everyone in the school using shared vocabulary and strategies and working toward a shared vision, but you can baby step toward that as your school budget allows. Maybe just you and your principal start for this year, and expand from there.
5. If you've already taken the 40 Hour program, please don't be shy about telling other educators about it.
We've had 42,000 teachers utilize it which sounds massive but there are around 3.5 million teachers in the US alone. We've only reached maybe 1% of them, and if they're not listening to teacher podcasts or reading teaching blogs or following teacher social media, they may not know that there IS a more sustainable approach to teaching.

Your recommendation of the program means way more than me telling them about it, and in fact, I attribute the success of 40 Hour almost entirely to word of mouth, to teachers taking the leap of faith, seeing that this works, and telling their friends it's the real deal. So please, let your union know, let your colleagues know, post on your social channels. That referral program applies for you, too - if they list your name and email when they sign up, you get a $20 Amazon gift card for each person.
6. If you're done with the teacher program and you're now an admin or a coach, see if you can secure funding to help with your current position.
Because those jobs are so different from teaching, there's very little overlap between what you've already done and the leadership and coaching programs, so it would totally be worth it for you to do it.

This is our year to truly reimagine education (not just talk about it)

Friends, this is our year. We are in a great time of transition in education, where we're on the brink of a brand new phase. What aspects of pre-pandemic teaching will we try to return to? What did we try this past year and a half that we want to keep? What will the future of education look like?

This is the time for intentionality, for revaluation priorities. We cannot just try to rush back to normal and the way everything was before, when what we had before wasn't working for all teachers and kids. Do not settle for normal this coming school year. Take control of your personal and professional development. Lead the change in your school to focus on how to do fewer things better. We have to find a sustainable approach to work in education, and all these 40 Hour tools can help.

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Truth For Teachers - The 40 Hour Workweek is here...for teachers, admins, AND instructional coaches

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Systemic problems need systemic solutions. To support educators in your school with creating better work/life balance, here's what's new from 40 Hour. Want to listen instead of read? ﻿ Work/life balance solutions for teachers I created the 40 Hour Teacher Workweek program back in 2015, and despite the name, the goal isn't actually to work ...

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It's important to reframe our thinking around a locus of control. What conditions can we put in place, what structures can we create, and what can we share with our students and peers to foster greater attention and minimizing stressors within our professional spaces?

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When you are dealing with a challenge in your life, do you feel that you have control over the outcome, or do you believe that you are at the mercy of outside forces? Your answer to this question refers to your locus of control.

Our locus of control influences our response to events in our lives and our motivation to take action. If you believe that you hold the keys to your fate, you are more likely to change your situation when needed. Conversely, if you think that the outcome is out of your hands, you may be less likely to work toward change.

What Is Locus of Control?

Locus of control is the extent to which you feel you have control over events that impact your life. Put another way, it is "a belief about whether the outcomes of our actions are contingent on what we do (internal control orientation) or on events outside our personal control (external control orientation)," explains psychologist Philip Zimbardo.

In 1954, psychologist Julian Rotter suggested that our behavior was controlled by rewards and punishments. The consequences of our actions helped determine our beliefs about the likely results of future behaviors.

In 1966, Rotter published a scale designed to measure and assess external and internal locus of control. The scale utilizes a forced choice between two alternatives, requiring respondents to choose just one of two possibilities for each item.

While the scale has been widely used, it has also been the subject of considerable criticism from those who believe that locus of control cannot be fully understood or measured by such a simplistic scale.

Internal vs. External Locus of Control

If you believe that you have control over what happens, you have what psychologists refer to as an internal locus of control. If you believe that you have no control over what happens and that external variables are to blame, you have what is known as an external locus of control.

It is important to note that locus of control is a continuum. No one has a 100% external or internal locus of control. Instead, most people lie somewhere on the continuum between the two extremes.

These are characteristics of people with a dominant internal or external locus of control.

What Role Does Your Locus of Control Play in Your Life?

Internal locus of control is often used synonymously with " self-determination" and "personal agency." Some research suggests that men tend to have a higher internal locus of control than women while others suggest the opposite: that women have greater internal locus of control in comparison. Other research reports a shift towards more internal locus of control as people grow older.

Experts have found that, in general, people with an internal locus of control tend to be better off. However, it is also important to remember that internal locus of control does not always equal "good" and external locus of control does not always equal "bad."

In some contexts, having an external locus of control can be a good thing-particularly when a situation poses a threat to self-esteem or is genuinely outside of a person's control.

For example, a person who loses a sports game may feel depressed or anxious if they have a strong internal locus of control. If this person thinks, "I'm bad at sports and I don't try hard enough," they might allow the loss to affect their self-image and feel stressed in future games.

However, if this person takes an external focus during such situations ("We were unlucky to get matched with such a strong team," or "The sun was in my eyes!"), they will probably feel more relaxed and less stressed.

Do You Have an External or Internal Locus of Control?

Where does your locus of control fall on the continuum? Read through the statements below and select the set that best describes your outlook on life.

I often feel that I have little control over my life and what happens to me.

People rarely get what they deserve.

It isn't worth setting goals or making plans because too many things can happen that are outside of my control.

Life is a game of chance.

Individuals have little influence over the events of the world.

If the statements above best reflect your view on life, then you probably tend to have an external locus of control.

If you work hard and commit yourself to a goal, you can achieve anything.

There is no such thing as fate or destiny.

If you study hard and are well-prepared, you can do well on exams.

Luck has little to do with success; it's mostly a matter of dedication and effort.

In the long run, people tend to get what they deserve in life.

If the statements above best reflect your outlook on life, then you most likely have an internal locus of control.

A Word From Verywell

Your locus of control can have a major impact on your life, from how you cope with stress to your motivation to take charge of your life.

In many cases, having an internal locus of control can be a good thing. It means that you believe that your own actions have an impact.

If you tend to have more of an external locus of control, you might find it helpful to start actively trying to change how you view situations and events.

Rather than viewing yourself as simply a passive bystander who is caught up in the flow of life, think about actions you can take that will have an impact on the outcome.

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Are You in Control of Your Destiny, or Are You at the Mercy of Chance?

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Locus of control is the extent to which you feel in control of the events that influence your life. Do you make things happen, or are you at the mercy of chance?

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I think about building independence in our students. Encouraging them to get out there and do things on their own. I've never organized a field trip before, but I'm now thinking about doing one. It doesn't even have to be in my content, but just an opportunity for them to be out and fend for themselves. 

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I think about building independence in our students. Encouraging them to get out there and do things on their own. I've never organized a field trip before, but I'm now thinking about doing one. It doesn't even have to be in my content, but just an opportunity for them to be out and fend for themselves. 

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I'm considering designated one day per 2 week cycle as a tech-free day. Design lessons that don't require use of iPads or phones.

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Books on the printed page are a great way to refocus. The WHS library has thousands of books and this response is shameless promoting. Patrons could browse the print material if avoiding a digital look up was important.

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Welcome to Township High School District 214

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Yep....I said more government regulation of surveillance capitalism. My role would be electing politicians in support of limits on tech companies and their mining our personal data or highly influencing our decisions in ways that violate our privacy.

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non tech support in library, tutoring and helpdesk

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non tech support in library, tutoring and helpdesk

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The library, tutoring and helpdesk can provide more "other" not tech support for students. Ideas for projects or homework, craft type material for creating, book recommendations to read for enjoyment plus more.

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This is true not only for our students. Many adults fall into the endless scroll of the curated content - myself included- on social media. I would like to keep my scrolling to a specific time or place and not be tempted for the "mental break" whenever I have a free moment.

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"All this suggests that when people work less, their focus significantly improves" (Hari 190).

I question how much time students are actually focused while in class compared to the old schedule when classes were only 45 minutes long.

With the longer periods, I know I give more independent work time in my class, but question how much work time is too much.

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I want to choose my use of screens and social media and not just fall into it.

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I want to choose my use of screens and social media and not just fall into it.

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Put away all devices for just an hour each day and see what kinds of thinking processes emerge in our brains without the constant distractions or diversions that screens bring us.

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I think our students are structured to the gills. If there was unstructured time for students to interact with each other (sans devices), it would be interesting to see how that would improve on their ability to interact with each other and themselves without relying on a device to provide that scaffolding.

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As an Educator, how do we guide intrinsic motivation...

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As an Educator, how do we guide intrinsic motivation...

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I will to continue to foster my students' independent thinking and assist them to connect with their creativity and imaginations more. No more lemmings!

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I plan on eliminating food dyes from my diet, getting more sleep, avoiding pollution, working less (but harder), staying off my devices, being more independent, and vacationing in the Alps.

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I appreciate the comment about 'being structured to the gills' and 'fostering students' independent thinking,' but we also have to look closely at how to do this. Structure provides good classroom management, and routines give students comfort within the structure, but how do we create meaningful routines? How do we foster students thinking independently while giving them time and space to do so because a lot of my students do not know what to do with time to think. Our teaching ideas and philosophies have to be examined and tweaked to help our students overcome their attention deficits and inability to sustain focus more than ever.

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"What we eat now harms our focus."

I think of this when I see kids eating breakfast, lunch, & snacks straight from the vending machines.

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Being more mindful of phone use - putting it "away" when I get home. Focusing more on my family when we do actually get time together at home. 

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Being more mindful of phone use - putting it "away" when I get home. Focusing more on my family when we do actually get time together at home. 

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I often feel like I'm killing all of the trees, but it's so much easier to get my students to produce GOOD work when they've put away all of the devices and just work on paper. This also helps me because instead of making sure they're not on ChatGPT or off task, I can easily scan to make sure they're doing what they're supposed to and then focus more on helping instead of monitoring students.

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Daily walks with out a device, tech free nights, better eating habits...starting 2025 with more "focus" on these areas.

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PERSONAL CELL PHONES AND ELECTRONIC DEVICES

The possession and use of personal cell phones and other electronic devices are subject to the following protocols:

1. The use of cell phones and other electronic devices is prohibited in academic spaces. Cell phones must be put away

and unused during instructional time.

2. Cell phones must be turned off or silenced during instructional time unless: (a) the teacher grants permission for

them to be used; (b) the use of th

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Need a stronger district/building cell phone policy

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Need a stronger district/building cell phone policy

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In my experience with the lower-level students, who are MUCH more affected and unfocused due to their cell phones, getting them seperated from their technologu in class has been a huge struggle. Tehy refuse to use the cell phone caddy and continue to take their phones out during class. In the height of my determination against them, I found myself playing "cell phone police" the entire period. And then students and I were simply not getting along. I have since decided to back off on my aggressive nature against cell phones in class.

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PERSONAL CELL PHONES AND ELECTRONIC DEVICES

The possession and use of personal cell phones and other electronic devices are subject to the following protocols:

1. The use of cell phones and other electronic devices is prohibited in academic spaces. Cell phones must be put away

and unused during instructional time.

2. Cell phones must be turned off or silenced during instructional time unless: (a) the teacher grants permission for

them to be used; (b) the use of th

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I often feel like I have very little control over the structure at work, so I will focus my efforts at home. I want to work on the diet and time for my children. I would like fewer structured activities for them, more play time and family time, and less homework. I have been advocating with their school to reduce homework, and I think that would be beneficial for our students, too.

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“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

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“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

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It is easier to procrastinate than deal with a problem head on.

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It’s not you. Phones are designed to be addicting.

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For me it is not to take the kids unfocused behavior personally. I have to admit that for a while the unfocused behavior of my students really bothered me and I took it as disrespect to me. After reading "Stolen Focus" and other related books I now have a better understanding of this generation of students and their obsession with their devices is not about me as a teacher. I have learned that it literally is hardwired into their brains. So what I am now doing as a result of "Stolen Focus" is taking a more positive approach with students whose focus is being consumed by their devices. I try to talk to them about the realities of not concentrating and being distracted by their phones. I also try to put my advice in the context of the real world and what will happen with their jobs and life if they continue to let their phone distract their focus from the job.

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Play is often defined as activity done for its own sake, characterized by means rather than ends (the process is more important than any end point or goal)

Even as an adult, I think that this is something to prioritize. I find play in pickleball, playing board/card games, etc. I want to keep looking for ways to cultivate play.

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Implementing activities that are student focused or project-based. Where they have roles & a goal that has a purpose is something that would be helpful. It can take some planning but is better for the students. For example: an escape room where they physically have to get up and find clues. I have been doing this more and my students are more connected to the class.

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Although unstructured play is ideal, I think that high school students who thrive are the ones involved in some activities or even jobs. How can we encourage this even more?

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I really liked the following quote: "To grow and flourish to its full potential, your focus needs certain things to be present: play for children and flow states for adults, to read books, to discover meaningful activities that you want to focus on, to have space to let your mind wander so you can make sense of your life, to exercise, to sleep properly, to eat nutritious food that makes it possible for you to develop a healthy brain, and to have a sense of safety" (Hari 273). 

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I really liked the following quote: "To grow and flourish to its full potential, your focus needs certain things to be present: play for children and flow states for adults, to read books, to discover meaningful activities that you want to focus on, to have space to let your mind wander so you can make sense of your life, to exercise, to sleep properly, to eat nutritious food that makes it possible for you to develop a healthy brain, and to have a sense of safety" (Hari 273). 