Healthy Teachers, Healthy Classrooms

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Healthy Teachers, Healthy Classrooms

I blend real stories, reflective practice, and practical tools that support real change. Alberta
Agriculture
Women

I’m Carman Murray, a speaker, coach, and author who helps educators reduce burnout, reconnect with their values, and create aligned rhythms for life and teaching.

08/06/2026

Calm is built in the small moments.

The breath you take before responding. The pause between one task and the next. The few minutes you give yourself to move, reflect, or simply be still.

My Calm is a Practice YouTube playlist offers simple, practical ways to bring more steadiness into your day, both in the classroom and beyond. These videos are here for the busy mornings, the full afternoons, and the days when your nervous system could use a little extra care.

You don’t need an hour. Start with one video, one practice, and one small moment for yourself.

Click on my link in my profile to watch.

Which practice will you begin with?

08/05/2026

Create a “do not carry forward” list.

Before you start thinking about classroom setup, bulletin boards, first-week plans, or the new pens that somehow always jump into your cart, take a little time to reflect on what you do not want to bring into the next school year.

Not everything from last year needs to come with you.

Maybe you’re ready to leave behind checking emails late at night. Maybe it’s skipping lunch, saying yes too quickly, carrying work home every weekend, or feeling like you have to solve every problem on your own.

Grab a journal, open a note on your phone, or sit outside with a glass of warm water and ask yourself:

🌿 What drained me this past year?
🌿 What habit made my days harder?
🌿 What boundary do I want to honour more clearly?
🌿 What am I ready to release before September?

This isn’t about judging how you handled the year. You did what you could with the energy, support, and information you had.

This is about choosing with more awareness.

Because the new school year will bring its own full calendar, beautiful moments, hard days, and unexpected surprises. You don’t need to carry old patterns into it just because they’ve been familiar.

Let this summer give you space to set a few things down.

What is one thing you do not want to carry into the next school year?

07/31/2026

What does it feel like to truly know that you matter?

That question is at the heart of Mattering by Jennifer Breheny Wallace, and it’s one we’ll be exploring together during a free online book club through the Werklund Institute.

We’ll gather over four Wednesday evenings in August to read, reflect, and share meaningful conversation. Come as an educator, a leader, a parent, or simply someone who’s curious about the role mattering plays in our lives, relationships, and communities.

There’s no homework to hand in and no pressure to arrive with the “right” answer. Bring the book, your thoughts, and a willingness to listen and learn alongside others.

I’d love to have you join us. Click the link in my profile to register.

07/29/2026

Make your mornings yours again.

During the school year, mornings can feel like a race before the day has even officially started. Summer gives you a chance to slow the pace and notice what helps you feel grounded, clear, and ready for the day ahead.

Your morning rhythm doesn’t need to be long or complicated. It might look like:

☀️ Drinking a glass of warm water
☀️ Stepping outside for a few deep breaths
☀️ Stretching for five minutes
☀️ Sitting quietly before the house wakes up
☀️ Taking a short walk
☀️ Writing down one thing you’re grateful for

Choose one small practice and try it for a week. Keep it simple enough that you’ll actually want to return to it.

The goal isn’t to create the “perfect” morning. It’s to begin your day with something that supports you before the rest of the world starts asking for your attention.

What is one small thing you would love to add to your summer mornings?

07/24/2026

I hope summer is treating you well.

I hope you've found a little more time for yourself. Time to slow down, catch your breath, spend time with people you love, and maybe even read a book just because you want to.

One of the things I'm most excited about this summer is a free online book club we're hosting through the Werklund Institute.

We'll be reading Mattering by Jennifer Breheny Wallace over four Wednesday evenings in August. It's a thoughtful book that explores something I believe all of us long for—to know that we matter.

Whether you're an educator, a leader, a parent, or simply someone who enjoys meaningful conversations, I'd love to have you join us. There won't be homework, lectures, or pressure to have all the answers. Just a group of people reading, reflecting, and learning together.

DM me for the link to register.

07/21/2026

Reconnect with joy outside of teaching.

You spend so much of the school year caring, guiding, organizing, encouraging, and giving. Summer offers a little more room to notice what brings you back to life.

Joy doesn’t always arrive through big plans or special occasions. Often, it’s tucked into the ordinary moments:

✦ Drinking your warm water while it’s still hot
✦ Walking barefoot through the grass
✦ Playing a favourite song a little louder
✦ Reading something with no lesson plan attached
✦ Sitting in the sunshine for a few extra minutes
✦ Laughing until your cheeks hurt

These moments bring you back to yourself. They remind you that your joy matters too.

This summer, pay attention to what makes you feel lighter, more present, and more like yourself. Then choose a little more of it, on purpose.

Self-love can be found in the small decisions to listen to what you need, make room for what lights you up, and enjoy something simply because it feels good.

What small moment of joy are you choosing this week?

07/15/2026

What if your summer had a feeling? ☀️

Maybe you want it to feel spacious. Playful. Restful. Light.

Maybe you want slow mornings, bare feet in the grass, books read just because, warm water that stays hot long enough to enjoy, or evenings where no one is asking you to find a missing permission form.

Choose one word for how you want to feel by the end of summer, then let that word become a gentle guide.

When an invitation comes up, ask: Does this create more of that feeling?

When you’re making plans, ask: Is there room for that feeling here?

When your schedule starts filling up faster than the laundry basket, pause and come back to your word.

You don’t need to plan every moment. Leave a little room for wandering, wondering, and whatever makes you feel most like yourself.

What feeling are you choosing for your summer?

07/09/2026

Before summer turns into another list of things to catch up on, take a breath.

Teachers spend so much of the year pouring out, adjusting, supporting, redirecting, planning, answering, and holding the room together.

Summer can be a place to receive again.

Maybe you need rest.
Maybe you need slow mornings.
Maybe you need time with your people where your mind isn’t still at school.
Maybe you need five quiet minutes to remember what you actually want.

You don’t need to rebuild your whole life this summer.

Start with one small practice.

Ten breaths.
A walk.
A real lunch.
A phone-free hour.
An earlier bedtime.
A book that has nothing to do with teaching.

Calm is a practice.
And summer is a beautiful place to begin again.

What do you want summer to give back to you?

07/08/2026

This summer, pay attention to what gives you energy.

Keep it simple. Open a note on your phone and create two headings:

Gives me energy | Takes my energy

That’s it.

After a coffee with a friend, jot it down.
After a long scroll that leaves you feeling drained, jot it down.
After time outside, a quiet morning, a good book, a messy kitchen dance party, or a conversation that reminds you who you are, jot it down.

By the end of summer, you may start to notice patterns.

And those patterns matter.

They can help you make clearer choices in August. They can show you what needs more space in your life. They can also remind you where your energy has been quietly leaking.

You don’t need to overhaul your summer.

Start by noticing.

What gave you energy this week?

07/04/2026

Summer reading doesn’t always have to be fiction, beachy, or borrowed from your neighbour’s cabin shelf.

Sometimes the best summer read is the one that helps you come back to yourself.

Teachers First was written for the educator who gave so much this year and is finally starting to exhale. The one who packed up the classroom, carried home the emotional weight, and maybe still hasn’t fully landed in summer yet.

Inside, you’ll find stories, reflection questions, and practical tools to help you look at burnout, boundaries, classroom leadership, routines, and the way your own well-being shapes the space you create for students.

Read it slowly.
Underline what lands.
Skip to the section you need most.
Let it meet you where you are.

Because you matter in July too. Not just when the bell rings. Not just when the classroom needs you. Not just when everyone else has been taken care of.

If you’re looking for a meaningful summer read, Teachers First might be the book to tuck into your bag, your camper, your deck chair, or that quiet morning coffee spot before everyone else wakes up.

Your next school year doesn’t need the exhausted version of you.

It needs the more honest, rested, supported one.

Address

Acme, AB
T0M0A0

Website

https://healthyteachers.ca/, https://www.eventbrite.com/e/werklund-institute-book-club-mattering-by-jennifer-wallace-tic

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