Why Good Teachers Stay Stuck (And How to Break the Cycle)

Why do some of the most talented, dedicated teachers feel stuck in their careers? In this episode, Dr. Lashawnte unpacks the hidden reasons high-performing educators plateau and how to break free. Learn the difference between survival and alignment, why “being good” can limit growth, and practical strategies to reclaim purpose, leadership, and momentum in your work. This episode is a must-listen for educators ready to evolve beyond compliance and step into intentional impact.

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What if I told you some of the best teachers in our schools are also the most stuck? I was one of those. Not because the teachers like skill, not because they like passion, but because they have mastered survival instead of alignment. Today we will talk about why good teachers stay stuck and more importantly, how to break the cycle without burning out. Welcome to the road to an effective classroom environment where we don't just talk about teaching, we talk about transformation. So let's start this conversation.

Being a good teacher can actually become a trap. Why is that? So when we look at what good teachers are, good teachers they get relied on the most by any and everyone in the building. They say yes the most and they carry the most emotional weight. And they are expected to figure it out without support. So what happens? Those are the teachers that become indispensable, but they're not getting developed. They become consistent, but they're not being evolved. They become respected, but they're not fulfilled.

And slowly they stop growing. And it's not because you can't grow, it's because the system rewards your compliance more than your capacity. Now you might be saying, now, Dr. Lashonta, I thought you were in administration, and I am, but I am also a truth, and I have been through what I'm about to discuss with you all today. I've been through it. Colleagues of mine have been through it. Different people in education have gone through this: being a good teacher, being a good educator, and getting stuck.

But there's a way out and there's a way of getting unstuck. It's not about getting out of education. So let's just get into it so you can see what I'm talking about. So there are reasons, as I said, why good teachers stay stuck. And so we're gonna talk about three types of teachers. And really, these three types are interchangeable, and they they really can, you know, go from one phase of being one type into another phase all within the same day. So I you'll see what I'm talking about. So good teachers they confuse stability with success.

So what does that mean? You've you are that teacher, you have your routines down pat, you have your classroom rules, your test scores are fine, but deep down inside, you're no longer challenged. You're not getting the challenging students because they may be moved around to other classrooms because you are that great teacher, and you're not getting the challenging assignments, you're not having to teach a subject without a book. You are not getting the students who are going to challenge you each day to see whether or not you truly care about them.

So, stability, it feels safe, it feels comfortable, but it can quietly stall your growth. The second type of teacher is one who operates in survival mode, and survival can be disguised as excellence. So, what does that mean? You're the teacher who's managing behavior, you're meeting deadlines, you're showing up every day, but from the out, and from the outside, it does look like you are amazing, that you are the go-getter. But inside, you're exhausted, you're reactive, and you're disconnected from your purpose.

And so that does not equate to excellence, that is survival mode with just good branding, okay? And then the third type of teacher is one that waits for permission to grow. And too often we have educators who are waiting to get that title, they're waiting to get that invitation, they're waiting for that tap into leadership, and they're waiting for these things before they go into their next level. So let me be clear when I say this: growth is not assigned, growth is claimed. You don't have to wait to be a leader, you are already a leader in your classrooms.

If you listen to the last episode where I talk about the classroom being a lab, and this is a complex organization, your classrooms are complex organizations, and so you are CEOs in your classroom, you are already in leadership mode, but sometimes our teachers are waiting for that leadership tap before they begin to grow professionally, personally, spiritually, emotionally. They wait to get that. And just to share a story of mine. So when I was in the classroom, I was at one school as a classroom teacher at a high school for seven years.

And I I loved doing what I was doing. And during that time, I got my master's degree and I got my master's in educational administration. And I sat and I waited. I waited on getting that feeling of being ready to go into leadership. And so when I was ready, I began completing the applications and going on interviews within my school district because I wasn't quite ready to move outside of that area just yet. And so when I became ready and I was doing everything I could to get to that next level, you know, things were not panning up the way I wanted them to pan up.

But once I began to, in my mind, I was still doing applications. And when it was time for me to go back into the classroom, the year leading up to me going into administration, I was working, doing the work as an assistant principal, but doing work within the district because I was doing the work in an area of leadership without having the title. And I wasn't waiting to get the title. I was pursuing things that I wanted to do in order to develop as a teacher because I already knew I was a leader in my own right.

So, just an example from my own life and my own career, where the leadership tap, it didn't come when I wanted it to come. But once I began to change my mindset and see myself as a leader already, which I knew I was, but there were just some things that I began reading and I just began preparing myself because I was already walking in leadership. All right, so how can we break the cycle? So we talked about the three types of the three types of teachers, okay? So how do we break the cycle? So in breaking the cycle, we must begin to shift, shift in our thinking, shift in our doing, and shift in our saying.

And so you don't have to stay stuck because staying stuck is not your destiny. Keep that in mind. So one of the things that you want to be able to do is to get out of the mindset from being a doer to being a designer. And you want to think about your role as a classroom teacher. You want to think about your role almost like an interior designer because you are designing lessons, you are designing your classroom, you are helping your students to be more and more, not just looking at content, but more as individuals, as citizens, as human beings.

So, what you need to begin to do is stop asking, what do I need to do today? That's number one. Stop asking, what do I need to do today? Because it sounds like a, you know, it sounds like you're gonna start a checklist. Now, I love checklists when I'm working. A checklist is great. But when it comes to your passion and your purpose and your role as a classroom teacher, you want to get out of the habit of saying, What do I need to do today? That should be almost a secondary question. Your first question should be, What am I building in this classroom?

That sounds more purposeful. It has more purpose behind it. You move from the checklist that I've got to, I've got a grade test, I've got to make sure I have my learning intentions on the board, I've got to make sure that I give homework to my afternoon class because the morning class got it. That's a checklist. Now, is there anything wrong with those items that I just said? No, there is absolutely nothing wrong with what I just said. Nothing. But when you start looking at first, what am I building in the classroom?

You go from being a more checklist oriented to purpose-driven. And you can start looking at your environment, and you're talking about how you're designing the experiences in the classroom. That talks about engagement, designing the systems in your classroom. That goes back to talking about your classroom management and looking at what are the expectations and consequences in the class, and then designing the impact, the end goal, how the students perform in your class. But all of that is started with the one word, design.

And you can even look at your lesson plans as the blueprints of the blueprints of the lessons. So it's all about how you word and how you think. Because when you start looking at yourself as a designer versus a doer, then you get a little extra skip in your heart when you start thinking of yourself as a designer and not just a doer. Because you don't want to get stuck, you don't want to get to a place where you are misaligned. And that was also another episode, uh, which I'll hit on that a little bit later on, just to bring it back up, if any of you are interested in listening to that one.

All right, so we're moving from being a doer to a designer. So, what else do we have to do? We have to reconnect to our why. So we don't want to have a generic why. A generic why sounds like this. I am a classroom teacher so that I can be able to take care of my family. I'm a classroom teacher because I love kids. I'm a classroom teacher because I want to be a superintendent. Now, again, nothing is wrong with anything that I just said because these are things that are obvious. They're definitely obvious, but those are generic whys.

You want to be specific. What is your why? Why did you become a classroom teacher? Why did you choose to be a CEO of your classroom? And in doing so, you are thinking in the mindset of being a transformational leader. So think about what transformation do you want to create? What problem do you want to solve in education? Those questions should help you to answer what is your why? Because when your purpose gets clear, your path gets even clearer. You should have a specific purpose. It's almost like your generic whys about loving the kids and being able to provide for your family.

Those are almost like charms on a charm bracelet. And if you've ever seen a charm bracelet or ever had had one, the bracelet itself fits around your wrist. And then the charms, they dangle from that bracelet. So think about the generic whys as objects that are dangling from your true why, which is actually the charm bracelet itself. So without that bracelet, you wouldn't have any place to put the charms. So just think about that. Reconnecting to your why. So what else do we need to do? Create alignment and not just achievement.

And what that means is that you don't need any more strategies than you already have now to make changes and to get aligned. Everything that you need in yourself right now, you already have it. Now, of course, I love professional learning. I am an I am an individual that provides professional learning, whether it's in my school setting or as a consultant and coach. But for this matter that we're talking about right now, those of you that are listening, if you feel like you are misaligned, this is where you don't have to go and read another book to get into alignment.

All you need to do is to begin to organize your thoughts and to begin to make some shifts in your mindset and bring some things back to your remembrance as well as do some reflection. So you just need to make some alignments between what are your values, what are your what does your work look like? What is what does your work mean to you? And then what type of impact are you trying to make in your role? Because here is the truth misalignment, it feels like burnout, but alignment feels like momentum.

And so the episode that I was talking about earlier, that it should, it was two episodes ago. It talks about you're not burnt out, you are actually misaligned. Go back and listen to that because there were some strategies and steps in there that you can do to put yourself back into alignment. Because many times we like to use that word burnout, and sometimes people do get to that point where they are actually burnt out. But for the majority of educators, if you think and and follow some of the steps in that episode that I did, if you start doing those steps, you will come out of what you think is burnout, and it's actually misalignment.

So go back and listen to that episode. So some other things that we need to do in order to not feel stuck, lead before the title. That speaks for itself. So you're already a leader in your own right as a classroom teacher. Remember, you're a CEO. So what you want to be able to do, you want to share your ideas. If you have a great idea that's gonna help the sixth grade hall to be better and have a better flow when the students are coming back from the cafeteria, then share it with whoever the team leader is, share it with the principal, share your ideas.

We have got to get out of the habit of working in solitude and keeping all of our great ideas to ourselves, thinking that others are going to steal them. This is about community. Our school should be about community and we should be helping each other to be better. So make sure you share your ideas. Be a mentor to a colleague, mentor someone who is a new teacher or someone who's new to the building, or just some someone who may be a veteran teacher, but they're out of alignment. And you may be that individual that can help them to see how to get themselves back on track.

That so that teaching is their passion again. You can tell when people have lost their fire. You also want to be able to innovate your classrooms. So your classrooms, your environments in your classrooms, those are those areas should be conducive to learning. And I'll touch on that in in just a minute. But innovate your classrooms, get them up to par, whether it's technology, whether it's making sure that you have incorporated all of the things that your administration wants you to have, and then add that that touch, that personal touch that makes the room speak and say, this is who I am as an educator, and these are my students.

And then speak up in meetings. When you have faculty meetings, you have PDs, professional learning, speak up. If there's a question that's asked and you have the answer, you know, share your thoughts. I have been blessed to be in an environment right now where my principal, when we have meetings, he opens up with, let's talk about some good news. And so the teachers have the opportunity to talk about not only what the students are doing in class and how well they've done, but also to talk about themselves if they've gotten recognized for an award in their particular industry.

So speak up in meetings. Again, going back to sharing your ideas, that's a perfect outlet where you can um talk and share. Because leadership is not a position. It is not a position. Leadership is a posture, not a position. All right. And then lastly, some things that you can do to stay to get out of being stuck is to do an audit of your environment. So this is where you ask yourself, is your current space stretching you or is it shrinking you? And am I growing or am I dysfunctioning? And back in 2018, when I began this podcast, I put out an episode, it's episode five, and that episode talks about the classroom setting.

So episode five is entitled The Physical Classroom Structure: Shaping Effective Learning Environments. That is something you also want to check out if you're thinking about making some changes in your environment and how you can make it to conducive to engagement and conducive to being a great learning environment. But you want to look at your space and say, is this something that is helping me to stretch? Is it limiting me? Am I limited by how I have devised my classroom? And if the answer is uncomfortable, then you have your answer.

You know that your environment needs to change in some way, shape, or form. And as this podcast is entitled, The Road to an Effective Classroom Environment, we know it's not just about the physical setting itself, but the physical setting is also a part of helping to make that classroom effective. So check out episode five of the podcast. So in shifting our mindset, we have to do some things in order to make sure that we have a shift. Because you are you are not stuck because you lack ability. You have the ability within you to be awesome, to be great.

You have it. You are stuck because you have been rewarded for staying for being rewarded for staying where you are, and because you have mastered systems that no longer serve your growth. But hear me clearly: you don't owe the system your stagnation, you owe yourself evolution. You don't have to stay stuck, you don't have to be stagnant. And sometimes you have to speak on things. When you see that there's an area within the school where there can be improvement, there is a way to do it. There's a process, there's a protocol, but don't just remain silent.

Talk, speak up, because again, you are the leader in that classroom, you are a leader within that building. And it is your it is your calling to make sure that you have done everything possible in order to make sure that students are successful under your watch as well as the watch of others. And so I hope that this conversation has challenged you a little bit, has made you think about whether or not you are stuck. Because if you are that teacher that is the doer, if you are that teacher that you have almost you've gotten to the place of you have arrived, so to speak, and that you really don't have to do a whole lot because things are smooth sailing, you may want to analyze yourself and see, am I really and truly stuck?

Because if you're not growing, if you are not walking in your leadership role and adding to your repertoire, if you are not adding on and if you are not expanding yourself, and expansion doesn't always mean that you're doing more work. Because again, the one who is that doer is doing a whole lot, but the doer is exhausted. The doer may not be able to sleep at night because you are up trying to get some things together in order to make sure that the next day goes smoothly, not only in your classroom, but you may be the team lead that's trying to do any and everything to make sure that the entire hall is great.

Take a step back, reflect, think about all of what we have talked about today, and decide if you are truly in a place where you are that good teacher who is stuck and has not been growing lately, you have not added anything to your repertoire, you have gotten to a place where you might be on the struggle bus when it comes to being motivated. So if this resonated with you, good. Because now that you have identified what's going on, you can do something about it. So this week, I want you to do one thing: identify one area where you've been operating on autopilot and then disrupt it intentionally, because growth doesn't require a full overhaul.

It starts with just one intentional shift. And if this episode challenged you, stretched you, or shifted your thinking, don't keep it to yourself. Share it with another educator who is doing all of the right things but still feels stuck. And remember, you're not burnt out, you may just be misaligned. This is Dr. Lashata, and I hope that you enjoyed this episode. Until next time, have a great day.