🎙️ The Missing Spark: The Moment You Know It’s Time for a Reset

🌟 When teaching starts to feel heavy, it’s not burnout — it’s 

disconnection.

This episode helps teachers recognize that moment, release the guilt, and rediscover how curiosity and clarity can bring their classroom — and themselves — back to life.

💡 Why This Episode Matters

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed, tired, or like you’re just going through the motions, this post is for you.

You’re not burned out — you’ve been disconnected.

Disconnected from the creativity, curiosity, and connection that once made your classroom come alive.

This reflection will help you:

✅ Recognize the moment you realized something had to change.

✅ Validate what you’re feeling — without guilt.

✅ Reconnect to your creativity and confidence as a teacher.

✅ Discover how inquiry-based, STEM-driven learning can bring back the joy.

✅ Begin your own journey through The STEM Reset, a framework for finding your rhythm again.

🎶 When the Spark Starts to Fade

Have you ever had that moment in your classroom — the one where you’re standing in front of your students, doing all the right things…

You’re managing. You’re teaching.

But something still feels flat.

That spark — that joy — it’s gone missing.

If you’ve felt that, it’s not burnout.

It’s disconnection.

And sometimes, the best thing we can do as educators is pause… and hit reset.

✏️ The Missing Spark

You ever have one of those days when everything looks fine on the surface…

but deep down, you know something’s off?

The lesson is planned.

The slides are ready.

The objectives are on the board.

And yet — you can feel it.

Something’s missing.

For me, that day came during a vocabulary lesson on animal adaptations.

Vocabulary is one of those necessary evils, right?

It’s essential — but not exactly exciting.

It can feel like academic oatmeal: filling, but flavorless.

That day, my students were filling in their Frayer models with words like mimicry, hibernation, and camouflage.

They were quiet. Focused. But not engaged.

And neither was I.

I was teaching the words… but not the wonder.

So the next day, I tried something different.

Instead of writing definitions, I asked my students to create the words.

I drew the word camouflage on the board — in tiger stripes and tall blades of grass, blending into the page.

Then I told them,

“Your turn. Take one of your words and turn it into a picture that shows what it means.”

I explained the idea behind PBS’s Word World — where animals and objects are made out of their own letters.

At first, they hesitated. Then something shifted.

Markers came out. Ideas flowed. The room came alive.

Mimicry had twin birds hidden in the letters M and Y.

Hibernation became a cave curled from the H and N.

And adaptation was written in vines, with little chameleons camouflaged in the loops.

It was messy.

It was loud.

It was thinking.

And standing there, I realized — they weren’t just learning words.

They were building meaning.

💬 “You didn’t lose your spark — it got buried under pacing guides, testing, and expectations that don’t match what kids need.”

✨ What you’re feeling isn’t failure.

It’s feedback.

It’s your intuition whispering, You were meant to teach differently.

That small shift — from copying definitions to designing understanding — changed everything.

Vocabulary wasn’t a worksheet anymore.

It was an invitation.

And maybe, just maybe, that’s what your students — and your spirit — need too.

💭 The Moment You Know It’s Time for a Reset

Let’s pause for a second.

Think about your moment.

The one where teaching stopped feeling like discovery… and started feeling like survival.

Maybe it was during yet another staff meeting when someone said, “We’re adding one more program.”

Maybe it was mid-lesson when your class was off-task — and you realized they weren’t defiant, they were disengaged.

And maybe… you were too.

Because the spark doesn’t fade overnight.

It fades minute by minute.

Sixty minutes of a computer-based program that promises results if you have fidelity to the plan.

Sixty minutes of intervention that pulls struggling students out of joyful, hands-on learning.

Not bad things — just misaligned things.

Each minute chips away at your creativity, your flexibility, your hope that real change is possible.

Until one day, you realize…

You’re not just tired — you’re soul tired.

💭 So ask yourself:

When did teaching stop feeling alive?

When did planning start feeling heavy instead of hopeful?

When did your classroom stop feeling like a lab for curiosity?

And maybe most importantly — what do you miss about those early days of teaching?

That version of you wasn’t naive. That version was free.

💬 “That moment — the one where you realize something has to change — isn’t the end. It’s the beginning of your reset.”

A reset doesn’t mean quitting.

It doesn’t mean starting over.

It means reconnecting.

Reconnecting to your purpose.

To your students.

To your craft.

It’s the quiet, courageous choice to say:

“I’m not going to let the system steal my spark.”

“I’m going to teach differently — even if I have to start small.”

Because students don’t need perfect lessons.

They need present teachers.

They don’t need compliance — they need curiosity.

And maybe your reset starts with one question:

✨ “What if I could teach with curiosity again?”

Because you can.

And that spark? It’s waiting for you.

🌿 What a STEM Reset Really Means

So… what do you do with that moment?

You don’t need another binder or pacing guide.

You need a reset.

When I say “The STEM Reset,” I want to be clear — it’s not a program.

It’s a framework.

A way to find your rhythm again through science, curiosity, and connection.

It’s not about starting over — it’s about rediscovering what made you love teaching in the first place.

Because you don’t need more things on your plate.

You need space to focus on what matters most.

The STEM Reset helps you simplify, reimagine, and reignite your teaching — without sacrificing rigor or joy.

💬 “The reset isn’t about doing more — it’s about doing what matters most.”

Over the next eight weeks, we’ll explore how to bring curiosity and creativity back — one small shift at a time.

We’ll look at:

🌱 How to start with science to build reading and writing confidence.

💡 How to design routines that run themselves.

🎨 How to bring back student voice.

⚡ How to balance structure and creativity.

Transformation doesn’t start with an overhaul.

It starts with one intentional step.

✨ Your Next Step: The Reflection Guide

If something inside you is whispering that it’s time for a change — trust it.

You’re not behind. You’re ready for a reset.

To help you get started, I created a STEM Reset Reflection Guide — 3 Questions to Help You Reconnect to Joy in Your Classroom.

It’s short, simple, and designed to help you:

✅ Name your moment.

✅ Reconnect with your “why.”

✅ Redefine what kind of teacher you want to be moving forward.

Grab your free copy here 👉 learning-project.com/reset

🎶 Take a deep breath, friend.

This isn’t the end — it’s the beginning.

Your spark isn’t gone.

It’s just waiting for you to notice it… and light it again.

Let’s find that spark — together. 💖