6 Small Tweaks That Can Save Your February Teacher Energy [Episode 242]

Heidi 0:00
This is episode 242 of Teacher Approved.

Heidi 0:06
You’re listening to Teacher Approved, the podcast helping educators elevate what matters and simplify the rest. I’m Heidi.

Emily 0:14
And I’m Emily. We’re the creators behind second Story Window, where we give research based and teacher approved strategies that make teaching less stressful and more effective. You can check out the show notes and resources from each episode at secondstorywindow.net.

Heidi 0:29
We’re so glad you’re tuning in today. Let’s get to the show.

Emily 0:37
Hey there. Thanks for joining us today. In today’s episode, we are talking about how to manage your energy so that you can have the best February yet. Plus, we’re sharing a Teacher Approved tip that might be a little controversial, but has the power to change your whole month.

Heidi 0:53
But first, let’s start with a try it tomorrow, where we share a quick win that you can try in your classroom right away. Emily, what is our suggestion for this week?

Emily 1:02
This week, how about sending a ‘one good thing text.’ At the end of your school day, you know, like before you leave the building, or right when you get home, text one person and share something good that happened that day.

Heidi 1:14
Now your good thing does not have to be big. It could be, oh, a kid who’s been struggling finally got something today, or I actually ate lunch sitting down, which is always a win. But the magic is that this forces your brain to scan the day, looking for something good, and then sharing it doubles the boost.

Emily 1:33
And this is especially helpful this time of year when the days are gray and cold and dark and it’s easy to just drive home and replay everything that went wrong in your head. So try this tomorrow or hey, today, depending on when you’re listening, pick one of your favorite people and send them one good thing from today.

Heidi 1:51
And if you find that this podcast is one of your good things, would you take a second to leave us a five star rating and review in your podcast app? It really helps other teachers find us and we read and appreciate every single one.

Emily 2:05
And you can include it in your one good thing text, if you want when you text.

Emily 2:10
All right, Heidi, so can you believe it? It is almost February. I feel like January is 1 million years long. So it does feel like a relief to get here after the slog of January.

Heidi 2:23
Oh yeah. It is the worst. Fully the worst. When I was teaching, January was my least favorite stretch of the entire school year. Nothing else even came close to how much I hated it, because I would come back from Christmas break. You know, you’re already mourning the loss of the break being over, and you come back and the festive December sparkle is all gone, and immediately I would have to jump into catching up my mountain of grading.

Emily 2:51
Yes, because in our district, term two didn’t end until that first week back. And so that meant when we got back the report cards and the parent conferences were just there waiting for us right out of the gate.

Heidi 3:05
And now, if I’d been on top of it, this would have been something I did before the break, but that happened exactly zero times. And when we had conferences, we did not have it easy, like these young teachers nowadays, like we did not have half days for conferences for us.

Emily 3:19
No, no, and, and I don’t know if it’s just around here that they’re getting those half days. Maybe some people are suffering the way we used to suffer, but it was a long day.

Heidi 3:28
Yeah, we had to go straight through. So we taught all day, and then we had conferences 3:15 to 9. And if you were lucky, at some point, you got 15 minutes to sneak away for some PTA prepared lasagnas in the faculty room. And you just had to hope there was food left by the time you got the time you got in there.

Emily 3:43
Right. And I usually had a few conferences before school too. So it was, it was a marathon day. And, you know, we deserve some kind of reward for having to do that in the beginning of January, especially.

Heidi 3:55
Yeah, or, you know, some bonus pay or something.

Emily 3:58
Ha! Wouldn’t that be nice? Well, on top of ending the semester, January brings all the mid year reset pressure too, which is important. And we talk about doing mid year resets for sure, but it can feel like another big thing to manage. And while you’re trying to fix everything that drifted off course in September, your students are also crawling out of their skin because of the cabin fever.

Heidi 4:22
Yeah, it’s relentless this time of year. I remember finally making it to February and just being in this fog where I was hopping from task to task with no real strategy, you know, just moving the stacks of paper around the room.

Emily 4:38
Yeah, and for me, it was the grading, because I hate grading, I’d put it off, and then I’d finally catch them in January, and then immediately fall behind again, because I had dropped everything else to do the catching up on the grading. And you know, it’s just a vicious cycle.

Heidi 4:52
Now, looking back with some perspective, I can see though, that February offered some opportunities that I completely overlooked. You know, the conferences were done for a couple of months, the mid year reset push was winding down, but the testing panic had not kicked in yet.

Emily 5:09
Yeah, you do kind of get a bit of breathing room here, but often you’re so drained that you kind of just drift through it.

Heidi 5:17
That is what I wish I had understood back then, February can be such a gift if you are aware enough to take stock of where you are and where you want to go.

Emily 5:27
That’s actually why it’s so important to think about the school year in seasons, because February needs something very different than December or March.

Heidi 5:37
This is the lens that we use inside the Teacher Approved Club to help you decide what actually matters right now, instead of trying to fix everything at once. So we are going to apply that same framework to our discussion today. We want you to have the kind of February that we didn’t get to have.

Emily 5:55
That starts with reflecting on what you need from the month and how you can use it to make teaching more sustainable. So back in December, we shared our December teacher survival kit to help you make a plan for how to manage planning and teaching and hyper kids and prepare for January all at the same time. And we got some very lovely feedback that we wanted to share about that resource.

Heidi 6:18
Yeah, Jonathan reached out, and he said, I’ve been teaching for 14 years, and I recently came across your December Survival Guide, which I purchased. I just wanted to tell you thank you so much for this product, because this has been the quietest, calmest winter break I’ve ever had. I’ve not thought about school at all, and have just been able to relax because I know everything is all set from the prep I did through your guide.

Emily 6:40
I love it so much. Thank you for sharing that with us, Jonathan. Kind of got a little teary the first time I read it, because that’s exactly what we hope the December guide will do for you. So we got to thinking about what teachers might need in February, because even though the challenges look different, the weight this time of year isn’t any easier to carry.

Heidi 6:59
And so, allow us to introduce our newest product, the very cleverly named, February Teacher Survival Kit.

Emily 7:07
Hey, it’s a good name. It says what it is.

Heidi 7:09
It is, you can, you know exactly what you’re getting. Now, this is much smaller than the December version, because there are fewer moving pieces this time of year, but we wanted to give you the tools that you need to take advantage of this little reset that February can offer.

Emily 7:24
So there are 14 exercises, and they’re organized into five planning categories: evaluate, clarify, plan, sustain and look ahead. And those will give you the perspective you need to take advantage of this moment without adding to your overwhelm. Unfortunately, we can’t go into all of them in the time that we have today. So we had to pick the one we think is the most important.

Heidi 7:44
This was a tough decision, but we finally decided that the February energy audit was the key to making everything else work. By this time of year, teachers are often moving through the day on autopilot. You know that feeling. It is very likely that some of the things you are doing right now could be easier with just a few tweaks.

Emily 8:05
Especially if you can plug any energy leaks. An energy leak is a repeating drain that costs more than it should. It’s often invisible because it’s just part of the regular routine.

Heidi 8:18
So these are things like that afternoon transition that takes five minutes longer than it should. I just felt my blood pressure spike, just thinking about it. Or, you know, it’s the email that you check real quick that pulls you out of your morning prep, or it’s the crating that follows you on because you couldn’t get it done during your planning time.

Emily 8:34
What makes energy leaks sneaky is that they don’t feel like emergencies. You don’t notice because nothing is forcing you to really look, you’re just trying to get through but every one of them is depleting your battery like an open app that’s running in the background.

Heidi 8:50
Okay, so here’s how we’re going to make this energy audit work in an audio form. We’re going to walk through six areas of your day where energy leaks tend to hide, and for each one, we want you to rate it like a traffic light. So green means that this area is working, and these are the things that you want to work hard to protect.

Emily 9:07
But if you’re rating somewhere is yellow, it means it’s draining more than it should, and something here could probably be better. And obviously, if you go to red, it means this is actively costing you, and something that needs to change.

Heidi 9:20
So you can do this right now as we go through the episode, you know, in your car, on your commute, just listen and rate each area in your head.

Emily 9:27
Although if you’re the type who needs to write things down, you maybe want to wait until you’re parked, or you can listen and then maybe at the end, come back and zip through and write down what you want to write down, because we do not want to be responsible for any accidents.

Heidi 9:40
Yes, no accidents, please. It’s a hot take, but that’s what we’re standing on.

Emily 9:44
Yes, yes. That is a firm teacher approved stance.

Heidi 9:48
Okay, let’s start with before school. This is everything that happens from when you arrive until the kids walk in. Now, do you ever find yourself trying to wrap up all of that morning prep while the kids are walking in? So you know, now you’re half prepping, half greeting, half answering questions.

Emily 10:04
That’s three halves.

Heidi 10:07
Well, that is exactly how it feels. You are doing 150% of a job, and probably none of it well.

Emily 10:14
If you only reflect on one part of your school day, this is the one. Energy leaks here can be extra sneaky, because they often look like productivity. You’re at school early, you’re working! But if you look closer, sometimes that time is leaking like a colander.

Heidi 10:28
So take a second here think about your before school time. Is it green, yellow, or red? If it’s yellow or red, take a few minutes to examine your morning routine. It might help to write it down, and we’ve got a page for this in the February guide, if that’s helpful. So think about what you’re doing at that time and what is eating into your time.

Emily 10:49
And even if you don’t have the guide, just writing this down on any paper will help you see what’s happening. Maybe you need to batch similar tasks. Maybe certain things should only happen on certain days.

Heidi 10:59
Or maybe the key to the whole thing is prepping your morning before you leave the night before. I know this can be so hard to manage when you’re tired, but think of it as a gift to your future morning self. You also will not have the time or energy to do the tasks that you’re putting off right now.

Emily 11:15
Right. You’re going to be tired probably both times. But I often am more motivated to help future me than I would be just to help now me.

Emily 11:23
Okay, let’s look at area two, during instruction. This is the time you’re actually teaching.

Heidi 11:28
Now, you know teaching is tiring. This is just true. Standing in front of humans all day and having to be on is inherently demanding. But there’s a difference between, teaching is hard, and, something about my instruction is draining me more than it should.

Emily 11:43
If your kids are disengaged during instruction, that might be a huge energy leak. You’re working so hard to deliver this lesson, and it’s just crickets and fidgeting, and that one kid who’s definitely building something out of eraser bits.

Heidi 11:56
Oh my gosh, the eraser bits. You know, and so that leads to another leak, off task behavior. When kids aren’t engaged, they find something else to do, and then you’re spending energy managing behavior instead of actually teaching.

Emily 12:12
It’s so exhausting, you leave those lessons feeling like you ran a marathon but somehow also lost the race. So consider your during instruction time. Would you rate it green, yellow or red?

Heidi 12:23
If it’s yellow or red, think about the balance between structure and spark or novelty. We talk a lot about this because it is foundational for everything that happens in your class. To add some spark to your lessons, try adding more active student response.

Emily 12:40
And we did a whole episode on this episode, 161 where you get every student participating, instead of just the hand raisers. You can also try a new lesson format, something that encourages exploration or discovery or play. Even just turning a lesson into a game can completely shift the energy.

Heidi 12:57
All right, you’ve thought about the before school moments and instruction time. Now let’s talk about one of the big ones, those in between moments. Think about your transitions, the five minutes it takes to get from the carpet back to desks, or the five minutes to switch from math to reading. On their own these long transitions might not seem like a big deal, but if you have got three transitions a day that take an extra five minutes, that adds up to 45 hours a year.

Emily 13:25
Oh, yikes. Those last moments really do add up fast. Another energy drain is the time lost to interruptions. It’s hard to get through a lesson when someone is knocking on the door, the phone is ringing and a kid needs to go to the nurse. Those constant, small disruptions break everyone’s focus.

Heidi 13:41
So think about your in between moments. Would you say they are green, yellow or red? If transitions are your leak, we have three episodes that can help you with this. Episodes, 48, 49 and 50.

Emily 13:55
Yes, we did, in fact, spend three episodes talking about transitions, because they are so tricky, and getting them right is really important to the flow of your day. It really can make or break the whole day.

Heidi 14:06
Oh, seriously, that’s not hyperbole. And I think with transitions, one of the most effective ways to plug any energy leaks is to have clear bookends to your transition. So bookend beforehand by making sure you have everyone’s attention while you’re giving directions. That will clear up a lot of confusion and wandering around. And then bookend at the end by making sure you have created what we call a landing pad activity. This is something that engages students the second they arrive at the next spot.

Emily 14:37
And landing pads can be so simple, it can be drawing a picture, playing the quiet game, taking out a book, discussing a silly question with a neighbor. But if kids arrive somewhere with nothing to do, they will find something to do, and I promise you, it will be disruptive.

Heidi 14:51
Yeah, that’s that’s a threat, and that causes an energy leak, because when you have to spend time and energy getting their attention all over again, that easily eats another five minutes. And if you consider how many transitions you do in a day, that’s a lot of leaking energy.

Emily 15:09
All right, we’re halfway through. How are you doing out there? Still with us, I hope. Let’s look at area four, after school. This is the time between dismissal and when you actually leave the building.

Heidi 15:20
And for a lot of teachers, or maybe I’m just adding my own bad habits, this is where the wheels completely come off. If you don’t have a plan for how to handle this time, it’s really easy to just putter around for an hour and still somehow not be ready for tomorrow.

Emily 15:35
Yeah, but you’ll feel productive because you’re doing stuff. But unless you know exactly what needs to happen for tomorrow, what you’re doing may not actually be helping.

Heidi 15:44
So reflect on your after school time. Does it feel green, yellow, or red? This is why an end of day routine helps so much. When you have a routine, you don’t have to figure out what to do. You just do the next step.

Emily 15:58
The February survival kit has an end of day routine planner that walks you through building one, but even just writing down, first I do this, then I do this, then I leave, gives you something to follow when your brain is mush.

Heidi 16:10
Now we’re going to be talking about this more in the next couple episodes, plus we’ll be talking about how to do a planning time routine. So make sure you’re subscribed to this podcast so you don’t miss anything. We want to help you figure out the right routines that support your needs, so your job is not any harder than it has to be.

Emily 16:25
All right, let’s check out area five, at home. This is how school follows you home. You know how it goes. Grading on the couch, planning on Sunday, answering emails at 8pm while you’re trying to watch TV with your family, but you just can’t turn off the teacher brain.

Heidi 16:41
Yeah, the leak here is doing school tests at home, which means you’re never actually off. So think about your at home time. Is it green, yellow, or red? If this is red for you, let’s think about what’s usually following you home.

Emily 16:55
And I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s probably grading.

Heidi 16:59
Oh yeah, grading is like laundry. You’re never done. So do what you can to make it more manageable, if possible, only grade the bare minimum.

Emily 17:09
Yes, this is your permission slip. You do not need to grade every bit of student work. You can mark things pass fail. You can look at one or two questions on each page, and that will tell you if the student understands it or not. Figure out how much information that you need to assign a grade, and then don’t grade any more than that.

Heidi 17:27
And if you do morning work, don’t grade morning work.

Emily 17:30
Oh yes, please don’t.

Heidi 17:31
Yeah, correct it as a class, everyone is learning, and you’re saving yourself a huge headache.

Emily 17:36
Yep.

Heidi 17:37
Okay, so let’s look at our last area, emotional labor. This is the invisible category. It’s the effect of all of the worry and concern that you’re carrying.

Emily 17:47
This might not even show up on your to do list, but compassion fatigue and decision fatigue and seasonal depression are all out there, stealing your energy. So is your emotional labor green, yellow or red?

Heidi 18:00
This one is a lot harder to fix, but there are things that help. First, try naming what you’re carrying. Just tell yourself, I’m holding a lot right now. That awareness alone can make a huge difference.

Emily 18:12
Second, treat yourself gently. Gretchen Rubin has a saying that you should treat yourself like a toddler. And I know it sounds silly, but it’s actually great advice, because toddlers need rest, snacks, play and someone who’s patient with them, and you need those things too.

Heidi 18:27
And also, you know, like a toddler, give yourself a bedtime. Make sure you’re getting more in your diet than caffeine and sugar. Take time to do something that’s just for fun, and when you’re struggling, be as patient with yourself as you would with a tired three year old.

Emily 18:42
There are so many factors that go into teaching that you can’t control, but you can build your capacity to handle them, and sometimes that starts with a snack and an early bedtime.

Heidi 18:51
Yes, a snack and a rest are never a bad idea.

Emily 18:54
Yeah, I think those solve a lot of your problems.

Emily 18:58
All right, you just rated six areas of your day. So let’s talk about what to do with what you found. For your red and yellow areas, you basically have three options. Option one, strategic swaps. These are the small shifts that reduce the drain without overhauling everything. So for example, instead of planning from scratch, you lean on what worked last week and just tweak it.

Heidi 19:19
Now, we gave you some swaps for each of the six areas already in this episode, and there are more in the February survival kit, but the guiding principle here is to look for small and targeted and sustainable tweaks.

Emily 19:32
Your second option for managing your yellow and red lights is to set boundaries to protect your time and energy. Try a hard stop for leaving school or being clear with a chatty co worker. Oh, that’s hard.

Heidi 19:45
Yes, yes. Boundaries definitely feel uncomfortable at first, especially if you are not used to setting them. It’s like a muscle you have to train, but they’re how you keep those energy leaks from taking over.

Emily 19:55
And then we have option three, channel your inner Elsa and let it go. This is the hardest one for a lot of teachers, because we care so much, we want to do everything well. But not everything that’s draining you is essential, so some things you can just stop.

Heidi 20:11
So for example, maybe you could stop sending the weekly newsletter that no one reads, or turn over bulletin board decorating to your students. They would be thrilled. If it’s not mandatory and they aren’t paying you extra to do it, let it go.

Emily 20:25
So hopefully, today’s energy audit helped you identify a few strategic shifts that will help you use February to refill your tank.

Heidi 20:33
If today’s episode helped you see what’s actually draining you, that’s huge, but knowing what’s wrong is only half the battle. You still have to figure out what to do about it while teaching and grading and managing the 100 other things you juggle in a day.

Emily 20:47
And so most teachers end up doing the same thing, scrambling for random solutions for whatever problem’s bugging you the most at 10pm on Sunday night, or just white knuckling through the chaos because that feels easier than fixing the problem.

Heidi 21:01
But what Emily and I have learned over the years is that many of the challenges that come with teaching are actually predictable. February boredom happens every year. Extra chattiness is coming in March. Sorry if that’s a spoiler. December, chaos is not a surprise. We can see it coming.

Emily 21:18
So we created the Teacher Approved Club to give you real solutions before you need them. Every month, we deliver strategies for what’s actually happening in your classroom right now. And these are not generic tips like, batch your copies. Although that’s a good idea, you should batch your copies.

Heidi 21:34
Yes, do that.

Emily 21:35
But what we’re offering is specific tools for the exact challenges of the season you’re in.

Heidi 21:41
When we get to April, you’re not going to be Googling how to manage spring fever, because you’ve already got it locked down. You got your April strategy on the first. And when December rolls around again, you won’t be drowning in festive overwhelmed because your November prep already included your holiday management plan.

Emily 21:57
The club is set up to give you structure and spark in action. We have monthly strategies and easy, quick win challenges to help you take action and live calls with us and a community of teachers who get it, so you can say goodbye to the midnight googling.

Heidi 22:13
So if you are tired of figuring this out alone, if you want to actually prevent the problems instead of just reacting to them, come join us. Head to secondstorywindow.net/club to learn more, or head to the link in the show notes.

Emily 22:29
Now for our Teacher Approved Tip of the Week, where we share an actionable tip to help you elevate what matters and simplify the rest. This week’s teacher approved tip is create some bonus prep time. Tell us about it, Heidi.

Heidi 22:41
Okay, I know this is going to ruffle some feathers, but I am okay with that.

Emily 22:45
You’re taking a stand.

Heidi 22:46
I am on this one. So since January is wrapping up, we want to challenge you to carve out some time during school this week or early next week to plan for February. Now, if you remember, back in December, we talked about claiming pockets of prep, just a few minutes here or there, so you can get ahead on all of the work that’s waiting for you. And that’s what we’re going to do here, but on a bigger scale. Now, a whole day would be ideal, but an afternoon, or even just an hour, if that’s all you can find, can completely change your whole month.

Emily 23:19
So here is what that looks like in action. Instead of teaching lessons, you’re going to keep your students involved in independent work. Maybe you plan a small group review challenge, get out math games from last term, or use flashlights to stretch reading time just a little bit longer. Maybe you’re going to have the kids do online activities, or you’re going to use a work packet or show a Wild Kratts video.

Heidi 23:42
There are so many options to keep kids engaged independently, but while they are doing all of that learning on their own, you’re going to be at your desk actually planning. This is your chance to pause and really look at what needs to happen next month, figure out what you need to prepare, or deal with that mountain of grading. This lets you finally get ahead instead of playing catch up for the next four weeks.

Emily 24:04
Now, I can feel some of you panicking through your ear buds right now. I can’t do that! My principal would have a fit! So let’s talk about it. First, as long as your students are engaged in meaningful learning activities, you are not short changing them. Reading is learning. Games that practice skills are learning. Review work is learning. Educational videos are learning. Your students are still benefiting from instruction, even when you’re not standing at the board, delivering a lesson.

Heidi 24:29
Second, one day, or one afternoon a month without small groups, is not going to hurt any student’s progress. And in fact, if you look at the big picture, this might actually help them, because this month, you will be able to more strategically meet their needs, instead of just plunging forward without any idea of your destination.

Emily 24:51
And third, let’s be honest, you will never be given the time you need to do your job well, so you have to get creative about using the time you have. If you can’t take a whole day, rearrange your schedule. Put all your lessons in the morning, and reserve the afternoon for independent activities.

Heidi 25:06
And honestly, your principal may not love it, but until they start paying teachers overtime, do not feel guilty about using work time to do work tasks.

Emily 25:16
If you’re worried about doing this all in one chunk and, you know, whatever your principal might think about it, you could also do a few smaller chunks over a couple chunks over a couple of days. So maybe just show a short video every day for three days, three different videos. Don’t just show the same one three times. That would be wasting the children’s time, but do three quality videos over three afternoons, and you can do it that way if that feels a little more comfortable to you.

Emily 25:40
And the February kit has planning pages that make this planning time even more effective. There’s a one small step page that helps you sort through everything and pick the one thing to focus on, and a finished, strong focus page that helps you clarify your priorities for the rest of the year.

Heidi 25:55
Hopefully this is something that you can make part of your monthly routine. Maybe you schedule it the last Friday afternoon of the month. Your kids will feel like they’re getting a treat, and you will feel like you won a prize, because you actually have a chance to be the kind of teacher that you want to be.

Emily 26:09
I love it.

Heidi 26:10
To wrap up the show, we’re showing what we’re giving extra credit to this week. Emily, what gets your extra credit?

Emily 26:15
I’m giving extra credit to hinge toppers. Did you already give extra credit to this one time? I can’t remember.

Heidi 26:21
I did. But I have different ones than you do.

Emily 26:23
That’s true. So I just loved the idea so much when you shared about it, about these little magnetic cutie things.

Heidi 26:31
They’re about an inch tall.

Emily 26:32
Yeah, like figurines, they are magnetic, and you can put them on the top of the hinges of your doors, you know, just a few scattered throughout your house. And what kind do you have, Heidi?

Heidi 26:41
I have dragons.

Emily 26:43
Oh, which is so cute. Well, you gave me some little gnomies.

Heidi 26:46
They’re so cute.

Emily 26:47
For Christmas, and I love them so much. I just put them up, and they just bring me so much joy, especially because they’re not, the ones I got, they blend in with the hinge, which I actually think is the best way to do it. You can do, there’s cute ones I’ve seen that are colorful, and that would be fun too, but I do really like that they blend in, because then they’re even more fun when you notice them there, because it’s like a little surprise.

Heidi 27:08
Yes, this little sprinkle of whimsy, but it’s so unobtrusive. And I don’t, yeah, I don’t think anyone has noticed my dragons unless I point them out, but it makes me happy. I love feeling like my doors are being guarded.

Emily 27:20
Yes, it’s like adding just like a little secret to your house. I think it’s so cute.

Heidi 27:24
I’m glad you like the gnomes. I thought they were pretty cute.

Emily 27:26
I love them. And whimsy is my word of the year. So you just front loaded me with some way to add some whimsy to my year. So thank you. What are you giving extra credit to, Heidi?

Heidi 27:37
Well, I’m giving extra credit to the blue air invisible mist humidifier. I started using this, well I got it for Christmas, so a month ago. I have really enjoyed it. It does a good job. Now, my benchmark for what kind of humidifier I wanted was I needed something that was easy to clean. And this is, you do have to disassemble it a bit, but it’s not too bad, and you can use tap water. That was the other thing, I don’t want to have to, it doesn’t leave, there’s no that white residue anywhere.

Emily 28:03
Yeah, sometimes you get with humidifiers.

Heidi 28:06
Yes, and it’s really easy to control in the app. The only problem I have is that when it is on night mode, you cannot turn the display all the way off. When it’s just on regular running setting, you can turn the display out, it has like an LED display, you can turn it all the way off, but you can’t do that in night mode. And I thought, okay, it might not, I’m just gonna Google it, and there, I guess you used to be able to and then they did some kind of upgrade, and it’s not a function now.

Emily 28:32
What?

Heidi 28:32
I know, it’s so bizarre. So the way around it is I just don’t use night mode. I just set up a, like, a schedule, because it’s not a big deal. I just set it up for like, the hours I want to turn on and the level of humidity I want, and then I can just turn the display all the way down, because I didn’t want that blue light all night.

Emily 28:48
There we go. That makes sense, and that, I have a blue air purifier in my room right now, and that is my complaint with it, is that it’s got this light on it that you can’t turn off, and it’s so annoying, I’ve covered it up with stickers, but I guess to see it through the little black stickers. But anyway, that’s good to know. I really need a new humidifier, so I’ve got my eye on this.

Heidi 29:10
Yes, watch for sale.

Emily 29:12
I will.

Heidi 29:13
That is it for today’s episode. Don’t let February drift by. Audit your energy, find your leaks, and make one small shift. And remember to grab the February survival kit so you have a place to reflect and plan.

Emily 29:24
And if this is the sort of topic you want to hear more of, be sure to join us in the Teacher Approved Club. Each month we’re preparing you to handle what’s ahead so you can protect your energy and enjoy your job.

Heidi 29:37
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Teacher Approved. I’m Heidi.

Emily 29:41
And I’m Emily. Thank you for listening. Be sure to follow or subscribe in your podcast app so that you never miss an episode.

Heidi 29:47
You can connect with us and other teachers in the Teacher Approved Facebook group. We’ll see you here next week. Bye for now.

Emily 29:54
Bye.