Angela Watson's Truth for Teachers

By Angela Watson

Truth for Teachers is designed to speak life, encouragement, and truth into the minds and hearts of educators and get you energized for the week ahead.... more

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How many episodes does Angela Watson's Truth for Teachers have?

The podcast currently has 383 episodes available.

Best of Angela Watson's Truth for Teachers

The most played episodes among Podcast App listeners.

Number 1: EP354 You don't have to teach like an influencer.
If you scroll social media right now, you'll probably land on a teacher revamping their reading corner like it's a home renovation reveal, then a TikTok Shop haul of classroom must-haves you didn't know you needed nine seconds ago, then someone who built an entire year's curriculum with AI in under a minute. And somewhere underneath all of it is this creeping feeling that you're already behind, and the school year has hardly even started. In this episode, I'm telling a story about a veteran teacher I worked next door to early in my career, and why I think about my mistake in emulating her every time some new pendulum swing happens in education. And, I discuss how a lot of what shapes our thinking about teaching no longer originates from trainings or mentors or our own gut instincts and professional expertise. It's coming from whichever five seconds of video happened to outperform in an algorithm built to sell ads, not to teach well. The truth is that you don't have to teach like the teacher down the hall, and you don't have to teach like an IG influencer. You just have to keep asking the question I had to learn the hard way: is this authentic to my teaching philosophy, or am I performing someone else's idea of what a good teacher looks like? Listen in. Or read the transcription here.
August 16, 202621min
Number 2: EP355 A short history of the 8-hour workday (and how to protect yours)
A third of your day (apart from work and sleep) is supposed to be yours. So where does it go? In 1817, labor movement activist Robert Owen coined this rallying cry: "Eight hours for work, eight hours for sleep, and eight hours for what we will." But if you've ever tried to make that math work as a teacher, you know the catch. In those "eight hours for what you will," we have to fit commuting, cooking, cleaning, errands, caregiving, homework help, and all the invisible labor of running a life. How do we actually make space for the things that bring us joy? In this episode, I unpack the labor history most of us were never taught, and why I find it a little ironic that I now run a program called the 40 Hour Teacher Workweek. I also talk about the gendered piece of this history that rarely gets named. Women were absolutely part of the labor movement (Frances Perkins literally drafted the Fair Labor Standards Act), but they still ended up with the second shift waiting for them at home. And teachers, who are still overwhelmingly women, are living that reality every single day. I share three practical things I've learned from Katrina Onstad, author of The Weekend Effect, about how to actually reclaim some of that "what you will" time. I also talk about why I refuse to frame rest as a productivity tool, and what I think we owe the workers who fought and died for the protections we now take for granted. This Labor Day, I hope you'll listen to this one somewhere restful. And I hope it gives you permission to protect your time, not because it makes you a better teacher, but because you're a person who deserves a life outside of school. Listen in. Or read the transcription here.
August 30, 202624min
Number 3: EP353 Think out loud: teaching the hidden skills of planning and prioritizing
You make dozens of invisible decisions every class period. Should I squeeze in one more activity or leave time for questions? Do I spend more time on this concept or move on? Is this the best use of our remaining five minutes? You weigh options, estimate time, and reprioritize on the fly, and you do it so automatically that you barely notice anymore. But here's the problem: your students have no idea any of this is happening. They just see you move seamlessly from one thing to the next. If kids never see how you plan, prioritize, and adjust, how are they supposed to learn to do it themselves? In this episode, I'm talking about how to make your thinking processes visible to students, and why it matters so much. We'll cover how to talk through your weekly overview so kids learn to anticipate where their time and energy should go, how to involve students in prioritizing decisions (like "We have five minutes left, should we do X or Y?"), how to model breaking down projects into manageable steps, why most people are bad at estimating time and what to do about it, and what to say when things go off track and plans need to change. These are teachable skills, but kids won't pick them up through osmosis. They need to see it modeled, and even better, they need to be invited into the process. Listen or read the episode here: https://truthforteachers.com/truth-for-teachers-podcast/think-out-loud-teaching-the-hidden-skills-of-planning-and-prioritizing/
August 02, 202626min
Number 4: EP352 Why distress tolerance is the missing piece in classroom management
Do your students seem less and less able to sit with anything uncomfortable, whether that's boredom, confusion, frustration, or the feeling of not immediately knowing the answer? The research backs up your anecdotal evidence: distress tolerance in young people is measurably declining. In this episode, I dig into why this is happening and what teachers can actually do about it. We'll talk about the biology behind why comfort reduces resilience (and why that's not anyone's fault), why our students are more stressed than ever but building less capacity from it, and practical strategies for building distress tolerance in the classroom without being dismissive of real struggles. I also get into how this applies to us as adults, because we're dealing with their own version of this. Listen in to hear: Why distress tolerance is declining in young people, and why it's a predictable biological outcome rather than a character flaw The difference between chronic, overwhelming stress (which breaks people down) and acute, manageable stress (which builds capacity), and why modern life has gotten this equation backwards How stress inoculation works in the classroom, including specific strategies for gradually building students' ability to sit with discomfort The tension teachers feel between "tough it out" and "honor every feeling," and why both extremes fail How to help students distinguish between "I can't" and "I don't want to" Why normalizing the feeling of not knowing might be one of the most powerful things you can do Where teachers can apply this same thinking to their own lives Listen in. Or read the transcription here.
July 19, 202626min
Number 5: EP348 Stuck in survival mode? Here's how to calm your nervous system.
Most of us are walking around in a low-grade state of fight-or-flight all the time, and we don't even realize it. It looks like the tight jaw in the morning, the exhaustion that doesn't lead to sleep, or the feeling of being on edge even on a good day. These are signs of a nervous system that never got the signal that it's safe to come down. In this episode, I'm sharing a lesson from my new free video course called Everything is Terrible: An Anxiety Toolkit for the Age of Doomscrolling. It's a five-lesson toolkit for people who care deeply about the world and are quietly exhausted by the weight of it. Each lesson is a standalone tool you can use when you need it. This episode shares an excerpt from one of these lessons, covering: -What's actually happening in your body when you're stuck in fight-or-flight -How to manually activate your parasympathetic nervous system even when the external world is still chaotic -Two specific breathing techniques you can use anywhere to send your body the "all clear" signal -Grounding phrases for when your body has settled but your brain is still spinning. Check out the full Everything is Terrible toolkit FREE on my Substack. You can also: Read the blog post for this episode Learn about upcoming teacher retreats Join The Reset, a free at-home nervous system reset retreat June 26-28
May 17, 202619min