Are you ready with your back to school plan for the season as a teacher business owner? Or are you struggling to just stay afloat with all the to-dos and requirements the back-to-school season brings? Let me show you how to navigate this season of life and find joy in the process. 

Someone once said to me, “Kayse it seems like you are constantly having a new spiritual awakening,” insert eye roll that I could feel through her words. But the answer is yes, I do think reinventing your idea of success and finding new awakenings throughout your life is part of the excitement. 

I want to help you answer the question: “What does success look like in the back to school season”? I want to walk you through the step-by-step method that I’m currently using as I redefine what I want in life and help you navigate your teacher business during this back to school season. 

Let’s Take It Back To The Beginning:

I walked into a staff collaboration meeting with my clipboard in hand and sat down on a cold stiff middle school metal desk. I had gotten really good at hiding my vision casting. I had everything I needed for my 8th grade ELA meetings on top of my clipboard. And underneath the stack of lesson yearly planning and pacing guides, I could flip over to what I really came to the meeting for. The one thing I was focusing on, writing and declaring the goals for my life. I used to be the school teacher that spoke up, gave ideas, and felt like I was making a huge difference in the lives of my students but lately it just felt like it was one negative meeting after the other of ridicule and slaps on the wrist. 

But this day, this day sent me into a deep space orbit and it gave me the extra push I needed to see my future clear as day. I walked in, sat down – grabbed my diet coke and orange cheese crackers that I ate every day for a snack. Up on the smart board was a large pie-shaped circle. Ahhh another day going over data. The instructor went into detail about the red on the screen, all of the students who were not meeting the benchmark. Then she said “do you know who’s class this is?” and I instantly knew – without a shadow of a doubt, it was mine. Those were MY students on the board. Those were MY red mistakes. My moments where I had failed in their eyes as a teacher, only here’s the thing – I was ready for war that day. 

I had been the teacher who sat there and didn’t say a word in collaboration for about 2 years but when my students took this benchmark test and didn’t do well, I decided to dig down into the data myself. I want to know WHY. Why were my students who I was teaching doing so poorly? Was it me? Was it in the content? 

No, it was the test itself. The test was created by our instructors and it completely missed the mark for the content we were supposed to be testing on. 

My students outperformed the entire school on every standardized test every single time. I don’t say that lightly, but it wasn’t because I was the most amazing teacher and taught all the standards perfectly, it was because I reshaped and redefined what success meant to me on my first day of teaching. And I wholeheartedly believed that relationships would trump my teaching abilities. I could teach less and make more and that’s exactly what I did 180 days a year. 

As I mentioned before I was ready for war. And I slightly began dropping hints and clues that this test wasn’t actually covering our benchmark goals. I had every question pulled and every standard assigned. It wasn’t even content we were supposed to teach in 8th grade. That day didn’t go over all warm and fuzzy but I remember it lit a fire inside of me as I had never known before. I flipped through those papers on my clipboard and said those words on the paper:

• You were meant to be happier. 
  • You can do anything you want, but find your happiness first.
• You have goals
  • Leave the classroom once you earn $100,000. 
  • Make a 5 year plan to share with your husband
• And chase happiness

That day was a defining moment in my life because I saw those words. I wasn’t just repeating them any longer. I actually saw them for my life.

You were meant to be happier – and from that point forward, that vision lived inside of me. Now any time I venture from my goals or feel like I am not as successful as I want to be, I come back to this step-by-step process that helped me create the life I’ve always wanted. The process helped me find my life’s work. 

“Success is not owned, it is rented – and that rent is due every day.” Rory Vaden

Back To School Plan For Teacher Business Owners

6 steps to your back-to-school guide, and how to make more income and influence.

• Visualize the life you want and what success looks like to you. Replay that in your head before bed every night and the first thing in the morning 
• Integrate daily habits that will become stepping stones to your success 
• Schedule a weekly check-in with yourself 
• Interpret things throughout your day and categorize them by priority and quadrants 
• Only live in the present and future, never in the past 
• Normalize and embrace the success mindset by practicing each day with mediation, readings, prayer, and or walking 
• Expect great things are going to happen 

Where it all began: The Back To School Plan That Changed Everything…

“The clearer you are about your long-term goals, the more obvious it becomes what decisions you need to make in the short term”

More Ideas to Create a Back To School Plan as A CEO Teacher®

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Passive Income Ideas for Teachers

Part-Time Ideas for Teachers

Successful Side Hustles Other Than TPT