Creating Resilient Teachers Through Wellness with Amber Dembowski

Jethro Jones: Welcome to the Resilient Schools Podcast.

I am your host, Jethro Jones.

You can find me on all the socials at Jethro Jones.

The Resilient Schools Podcast is a proud member of the BE Podcast
Network where you can find the best educational podcast out there.

So excited today to have Amber Nki, who was on the Transformative Principal Podcast
many years ago, and we've stayed in touch and I'm really glad we did because
she is all about teacher wellness and she created an app called Teacher Well,
which you can find@teacherwellapp.com, and she has just done some amazing work.

So welcome Amber.

Thanks for joining me on Resilient Schools.

Amber Dembowski: Thanks for having me I am super excited to be here.

You have been an ongoing inspiration to me, Jethro.

Like you mentioned, I was on your podcast Transformative Principal back, it was 2016 or 2017.

I can't even remember.

It seems like a lifetime ago.

But you made me feel super comfortable and I have been a huge follower of you ever since.

I appreciate that.

And that was in actually 2020 when that was published, Oh, 20, 20, okay.

Jethro Jones: not that long ago.

Isn't that crazy?

Amber Dembowski: That feels like a lifetime ago.

2020.

How is that?

Jethro Jones: I know.

It's wild.

Well, there is a link to that episode.

There was actually one that I split into two episodes on Transformative Principal dot org.

I will put a link to that in the show notes@resilientschools.com so people can go back
and listen to that because that conversation we talked about bringing humanity back.

And mistakes that instructional leaders make.

And those were good episodes that I think are worthwhile and people should definitely go
back and listen to because they've aged well and they're not those things are still real.

They're still things that we need to be thinking about and paying attention to.

And so, so the links to those are on the show notes for this show@resilientschools.com.

One of the things that.

That I say about resilient schools is that resilient schools have resilient
principals that hire resilient teachers, that teach resilient students.

And the process has to happen to all the people in the school to make them resilient.

And so one of those things that that happens there is.

Having teachers take care of themselves and feel like they can, that
they have the space and having systems in place to support that.

So tell us about teacher.

Well, what led to it and what made you decide to create that
instead of doing all kinds of other things that you could have done?

Amber Dembowski: Oh my gosh.

Do you want the long story or the short

Jethro Jones: Well let's go with the short version and
spurts and we'll, we may dive into a little bit more.

Amber Dembowski: Well, the short version starts about four years ago, and so

Jethro Jones: Right after you're on my podcast.

Interesting.

Okay.

Amber Dembowski: Yes.

Well, right after I was on your podcast.

I was asked or assigned to a building to be principal.

I was already principal for seven years and I was asked to go to a new building.

And this new location, this new building was in a community that
experienced a lot of trauma the trauma would trickle into the building.

As I'm sure you know, lots of administrators and
teachers have experienced, every day was really tough.

There's not a day that I wouldn't go home with a bruise or a new bite mark or be
outside for hours in the cold chasing after a kid who had left school property.

Every day was really tough and it was tearing apart me, but I
also had teachers who were kind of crumbling and this was under.

Leadership who believed in the power of a positive mindset, who believed
in developing the resilience in teachers, but I couldn't keep up with it.

we even had all of the right things and systems in
place so that those things shouldn't be happening.

You know, we had great teachers, we had strong SEL programs,
we had a lot of resources for our families in the community.

on paper it looked like everything should be okay, but everything wasn't okay.

So that's when I started researching you know, I found all these apps,
well, not all these, I think I found one app for Workplace Wellbeing

It was I was intrigued by it, but it was so expensive and it was developed for corporations.

corporations like Paramount, Walmart hundreds of 'em.

I can't think of all of them, but they were purchasing this app and I wanted to be a part of that.

And it kind of pissed me off that this is something that education doesn't have the funds for.

' cause we need it probably more than anyone else, in my opinion.

Jethro Jones: Well, and if I can interject there real quick, this idea that there are things that
industry is doing that we are not doing in education that are very real and definitely have an
impact, and sometimes they are priced out of reach for education and that could be very good.

There was one, gosh, I can't remember the name of it now.

I'll probably remember it and I might bring it up later, but there was an employee engagement app
tool that was out there that I just thought was amazing and was so good, but it was so expensive.

It would've cost like half of our entire budget to be able
to access it, and they wouldn't offer an educator discount.

And it was too bad because it could have been really beneficial and provided some good things.

And I.

It's just unfortunate when those things happen.

'cause it doesn't always have to be that way.

Amber Dembowski: Absolutely, and that was really kind of the deciding factor for me.

Like there's something bigger out there that I need to
dedicate my time toward and that I want to be a part of.

Jethro Jones: Yeah.

And so you created the Teacher Well app and so what does
it look like and how do people use it for their wellbeing?

And also, I.

Why is it so important for a school or district to purchase
the license for everybody and not just an individual?

Amber Dembowski: Gosh, that's a packed question there.

So there are three main, I guess, things that teacher, well tackles.

And actually I'm gonna, I wrote down a quote.

So you host a monthly meeting,

uh, for the big impact mixer

and I

Jethro Jones: Go check it out if you wanna make a big impact.

Thank you for bringing that up, Amber.

Amber Dembowski: Absolutely.

And the very first meeting was about resilience.

And I wrote down this quote, and I'm pretty sure you're the one who said it.

Jethro Jones: Oh, you're quoting me.

Amber Dembowski: yes.

You said resilience is a little light that encourages you to take the next step.

Was that you?

Jethro Jones: It could have been, I say a lot of things and I don't always remember 'em.

Amber Dembowski: Well, I'm pretty sure it was you.

I wrote down the quote, I have it right here in front of me.

And that's what Teacher Well is it's a little light that
encourages people to take the next step so it develops resilience.

It, self-awareness and it helps people prioritize self-care.

So those are really the three main things that the app does, and it is curated all for teachers.

Even though the strategies that you learn within it generalize to the rest of your life.

Because as a teacher you walk in and you're not just a
teacher, you're a mom or a dad, or a sister or a daughter.

So you're those things first and then a teacher.

So

teacher, while the strategies are rooted in the stressors of the job of an
educator, but you can use those strategies in any part of your life, so.

Jethro Jones: Well, and this is what I like so much about it,
is that it is not designed to help you be a better teacher.

It is designed to help you be a better person.

And I can say that confidently because it's not about, so one of the things that I often
say is you shouldn't take care of yourself so that you have enough to give everybody else.

You should take care of yourself because you personally matter enough that.

You should take care of yourself just because you are a human
being and you deserve to be taken care of as a human being.

And all too often we, especially in education, we
self-sacrifice for the good of someone else and you know.

We don't do the things that are good for us because they're good for us.

We always say, well, I need to do that so that I can have
more time, energy, whatever, to support these other people.

And it's like, no, you really gotta recognize you are valuable enough
as your own self to, to take care of yourself in a powerful way.

And that's what you're talking about here as well.

Amber Dembowski: For sure.

You know, I've always been so fascinated by athletes.

I'm not a huge sports buff, but just, I find fascinating because they, their job
professional athletes, their job is to go out and do this real physical activity.

But then when you really read about how they prepare for it.

There's a lot of mental fitness that they're doing behind
the scenes, and I think that's something that we're missing.

Kirk Cousins was talking about how his recovery time is so important and I.

I think we need recovery time as teachers.

I know we're not out there getting tackled.

Actually.

I think I have gotten tackled once, but not on a daily basis.

But our minds are going through a battlefield every single day.

And so we have to build in that time for the recovery.

And then there's also mental fitness.

You know, just like you do pushups to gain strength in your arms, you
also need to do things to build up the neural circuits in your brain.

Just to kind of simplify it, and I'm sure you're familiar, there's the amygdala
in the back of the brain and that's where our fight or flight responses
and then the prefrontal cortex, that's where we can think more reasonably.

But that's also where hope.

resilience and self-compassion lives all of the message that messages
that go through our brain, they have to go through that amygdala first.

And if our neuro circuits aren't strong enough, if we don't work
them out, it's not gonna make its way up to the prefrontal cortex.

And so we really have to prioritize that mental fitness.

So there's kind of like the recovery time, and then there's also the mental fitness time.

Jethro Jones: Yeah and they're so important, and a lot of my coaching has to do with
that mental fitness piece of helping people be in a place where they can withstand the
barrage of difficulties that are coming at them from the outside and from the inside.

Because we all have saboteurs in ourselves that are telling us we are not good enough, or
this bad thing is going to happen, or we should avoid doing that because it's uncomfortable
and all these different saboteurs that are preventing us from being successful.

And the reality is if you're not doing something to.

Ease that pathway so that the messages can get through to the prefrontal cortex,
then they're just not going to, and you're going to react with your lizard brain
with your biggest fear first instead of with how you actually want to react.

And so how does your system help people with that?

Amber Dembowski: So the app is filled with a variety of resources
because just like I mentioned, we all come in as different people.

We all have experience, different experiences.

We all have different knowledge.

And so we need a variety of strategies because not one thing is going to work.

you know, there's the teachers who are the.

You know, over committed, exhausted, and overworked teachers.

And then on the opposite side of the spectrum, there's the I hate my job, I'm getting ready to quit.

Teacher both sides of the spectrum Aristotle.

He talks about finding our golden mean.

He says That's where we flourish.

And the golden mean is that happy middle.

It's whatever's in between all of that.

And the app offers a variety of strategies so that people can find their happy middle.

And so the app is filled with personal development.

it's filled with meditation and it's filled with challenges to prioritize self-care.

And so all of these are resources that are housed within the app and the
teachers can mark them as completed and earn points and badges for all of that.

Just to kind of monitor their progress as they go.

Jethro Jones: Yeah, and so why an app and not a community?

And there is a community aspect, so don't get me wrong there, but
what's the benefit of having an app to be able to do these things?

Amber Dembowski: So the app is, it was cre, individuals
can purchase it, but it was created for group plans.

And within the group plan the principal has more, I.

I guess control of how they want this used with their teachers.

the teachers part of the self-awareness is checking in every
day with their principal, and it's just a quick check-in.

It is optional.

But it's just a quick check-in where they have to pause for
a second and think about what is their attitude for the day.

And then the principal has the choice to go check on
that teacher if they need to, or whatever the case is.

So that's one.

wanted it to make it a real tool for administrators.

Actually I built it selfishly as a principal who felt like I was
losing control and I didn't have enough to offer my teachers.

So I built it from a perspective of an administrator.

I had some missed opportunities to go check in on teachers that I didn't know were struggling.

And if I would've had this as a tool, I could have done that.

And

so really it had to be an app where all of these.

Moving pieces could come together into one cohesive tool.

Jethro Jones: And part of the benefit of it is that if it is outside
of the school system as it were, it's not part of their evaluation.

It's not like what they say is going to end up on that.

And I think that that's valuable because it's like this.

The supportive, interested third bo, third party that's there to help
and support, but not there to influence or catch or anything like that.

And it allows for the human connection.

And one of the things that I see is that it facilitates the human connection
in a more powerful way than, than a lot of other things that could happen.

Right?

And so you, this automatic check-in with the principal.

That is a human to human connection that's facilitated through an app
that makes it easy for the principal to have check-ins with everybody.

That's a little thing, but that's also a really big thing that
you can put up a flag and say, Hey, I need some help over here.

And you know, if the principal's looking too, they can see that flag and go and help you.

Amber Dembowski: Absolutely.

I can't even tell.

You know, it was always a goal of mine to make it into every classroom, every day
to greet the teachers every morning, but kicks in and that wasn't always possible.

So this makes that, that this makes that possible.

Jethro Jones: So there are other roadblocks.

What else is gets in the way of principals and teachers being able to prioritize the wellness?

Amber Dembowski: You know, teachers are completely exhausted.

There is compassion fatigue, decision fatigue, attention fatigue,
all of the behaviors that they're navigating throughout every day.

And so when they're dragging their bag to their car, I totally get why.

And at the end of the day, they don't wanna make one more decision.

I can't even tell you how many times as a principal I've heard.

You know, oh my gosh.

You're adding one more thing to my plate.

I can't take one more thing.

I can't do one more thing.

adding things to our plate.

And so that's why I wanted to be really intentional about
teacher, well, to make sure that it just fits into their life.

Most of the resources are audio, and that was intentional because I wanted it to be able
to just fit into what they're already doing so they can listen while they're walking.

They can listen during plan time.

They can listen in the car or while they're working out and they can fuel their selves.

Fuel their soul throughout that process.

Jethro Jones: And a lot of people have different ways of doing that, and I
see one of the benefits here of having everybody on the same page and saying,
this is something we're going through together and we are going to have.

Support common language, things like that.

How does that help in the process of improving morale and culture in a school?

Amber Dembowski: I think you know when a principal or a district.

Purchases the app.

They're making a huge statement.

They're, it's, and then it's an incredible message.

You know, they're saying, we care about you.

We know this job is hard, and we're gonna give you the tools to help you feel
better about yourself and to feel your best self when you walk through that door.

And so I think it starts there, but.

also the principal has to be a little intentional about what they're doing and how they're using it.

It's not like they can just purchase it and throw it out to the teachers
and think all as well just like when you purchase new curriculum.

So, but I support what, I support them through that.

I have templates of emails that they can send to their teachers.

I create, if they have the time within their PD calendar, I create little PD sessions that they can.

Pull from and use to incorporate teacher well into those sessions.

And so, you're right, the language and just the focus,
I think making the statement of this is important.

I believe that your wellbeing is just as important
as the instructional strategies that we're teaching.

I think it's all powerful and it really has to come.

Wellbeing has to come before school improvement.

Once wellbeing's in place school improvement's gonna skyrocket.

And I have a whole page on that, on, on the website for teacher Well app.

Some of that is because when teachers are stressed they're not teaching
in quality ways, they're not implementing those strategies very well.

But the other thing is just emotional contagion.

You Stress is contagious.

It.

You.

You release cortisol when you're stressed, which actually releases
into the air and increases the cortisol of anyone around you.

So then their stress level rises just for being around you.

So teachers are stressed.

get stressed, they start to misbehave, which stresses the teachers out, and it
just creates this negative loop, this pat negative pattern that you want to avoid.

And if you can find ways to avoid it or combat it, then your school improvements going to skyrocket.

Jethro Jones: Yeah, that.

That is absolutely true and if you are stressed and worn out and just exhausted and tired, it's
gonna be really hard for you to show up as your very best with the students that you're working and.

So if you're like, man, we really just need to improve school improvement
and then we can focus on teacher wellness, now you gotta swap those around.

And that includes principal wellness and student wellness.

Also.

Like those things, if they are taken care of,
everybody has more bandwidth to do all the other stuff.

So I think that is fantastic.

So thank you Amber, for being part of Resilient Schools.

This has been awesome chatting with you.

You can go check it out@teacherwellapp.com.

And then Amber is active on all the social medias.

We've got her links to those in the in the show notes@resilientschools.com.

Final words before we part Amber what's the thing you
want everybody to remember from our conversation today?

Amber Dembowski: Oh gosh.

I think that we just have to love ourselves enough and invest in ourselves
knowing that we are able to accomplish so much more than we think we can.

the things around us are tearing us down.

But if we can.

Persevere through that and have the tools to do it we
can really feel happy and joyful every day as a teacher.

Jethro Jones: Yeah, absolutely.

Well, Amber, this was great.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate you being here once again.

It is teacher well app.com.

And Amber, thanks so much for being part of Resilient Schools.

Amber Dembowski: thank you.

Jethro.