10 Things to Consider This School Year

I'm Brian Martin, a second grade teacher who find so much joy and fulfillment in what I do. Being in the classroom for almost 20 years, I know all about the time, effort and energy that you are continuously pouring into those you serve. That's why each week, I'm going to bring you an inspiring message to give you a little joy, and help fill your cup back up. Thank you for being here. And welcome to the teaching champions podcast. What's going on everybody, I hope this finds you striving and thriving and doing absolutely amazing. The countdown is on for me, my friends, my district had a couple of inservice days this past week, and I'm Wednesday, I will be back face to face with my students for the first time in almost a year and a half. I can't wait at the primary level. on that first day. There's this book that many of us read to our students. And it's called the first day jitters. And it's all about this teacher who's nervous about that first day. And one thing that I know is I'm going to be reading that book. And I definitely will be having those jitters especially for being out from being face to face with my students for so long. It's going to be some special, and I just can't wait for now this week, I spent a lot of time rebuilding my class. Since I was remote. Last year, another teacher used it everything I had was boxed up and put away in storage. And one thing people don't realize that are outside of the teaching world is the time it takes to set up these classrooms. My goodness, and being at the primary level, I have always been the only male general education teacher in the building. And let me tell you something, these ladies crushed it, the details that they put into their rooms are insane. Now if it was just me, I would probably throw up a poster of LeBron James on one wall, we'll get a poster of the Buffalo Bills on another, we'll throw some Mandalorian and baby Yoda posters up there, maybe get some Marvel posters. But these ladies in my school, a couple of them have built these rooms that are dedicated to Harry Potter, in the details, like I said, are insane. It's amazing. And the other ladies, they have set up these learning areas, and the attention to detail that they've put in every piece of their room is absolutely amazing. You know, it's a good thing, because these ladies push me. And they make me better. And I appreciate it so much. Today, I want to throw out a few random thoughts for you to think about as we enter this new school year, we start the school year and we get zeroed in on the standards, the curriculum, new programs that we're going to be implementing academic pacing in so much more. We spend a lot of time on that. Often though, there are very important things that play huge roles inside our classroom that affect our students that affect our outlook on our school, our relationships with our colleagues, and so much more that we don't spend as much time thinking about and college football is just started up. And what a lot of college football programs will do is before the season even starts, the whole coaching staff gets together for a couple days. And they break down what their program is all about what they stand for their values, how they drive their culture. It's not about the plays, not about how they're going to do their defensive assignments or their offensive assignments. It's all about that culture. What makes them successful. And I think sometimes that gets lost in teach because we get consumed and so much is thrown at us all of a sudden, with the school year starting up for me I didn't have a ton of time to do Research. So I wanted to do this activity. And I spent five minutes. And I really thought about my classroom culture. What matters a lot to me. And I wrote it down on a piece of paper, and I want to share them with you. And while I'm reading them to you, I want you to think about what they mean to you. How do you handle these inside your own classroom. And I also want you to think about what drives your own classroom culture, you have an amazing class. So what drives we need to remind ourselves from time to time, why we do what we do, what are the little things that we do each and every single day, that makes our classroom great, that makes our relationship with our students flourish, that makes our relationship with our colleagues a positive one, one where we're all growing together, we're all striving for the same thing. These are just a couple of random things that I wrote down in my five minutes session. And when this is all over, I encourage you take just five minutes, and we can all spare five minutes. Write down the things that drive your classroom culture. Because when we take time to think about it, it makes it present in our mind. And it helps us do it even better. Here's my list, guys. Number one. It's that F word. And you got it right, my friend. failure. How do you address failure in your classroom? When those students are perfect? When they make those mistakes when they fall? Short? How do you address that in your school. And this is something that is so big for me, because when I look back, at my biggest regrets in life, it all revolves around the fact that I was so afraid to fail. And I think so many of us are like that, that we're worried about what others will think how we're going to be perceived, and we end up holding ourselves back. But what is one of the most important pieces of that learning process, making mistakes and learning from them. That's how we grow. But society has forgotten this. And from a young age, we push upon our students upon our children, that failure is a bad thing. In my classroom, I have several posters up on the wall. They're big posters. And one of them in big letters says make mistakes. And we had an open house a couple years ago, our parent walked by, and I was standing by my desk near the door. And I heard him say to the other adults with them, make mistakes. And he sat there and he laughed. And it just shows what society thinks about making mistakes. And I just go to what Sara Blakely said, Now Sara Blakely, the owner of Spanx, a woman who is a billionaire self made, and I was listening to one of her interviews and she was talking about the greatest lessons that she's learned throughout her life. And she said when she was a child, that she would come home from school and her father will be waiting for her. And when they went to the dinner table, she had to tell him, not how perfect she was not about what she succeed at in school, this spelling test that she got 100 all he wanted to hear about was what she failed at at school. And if she didn't fail at anything, he was upset at her. And she said this was the greatest lesson for her because it helped her frame in her mind what failure was and failure, is it not succeeding at something that true failure is not trying? And she said that was the greatest business lesson that she's ever learned. And that's a billionaire. How are we celebrating, making mistakes in our classroom? Something that I'm going to try this year is, I believe, once a month, I'm going to have a mistake party. And we're gonna get together as a class, and we're going to share our mistakes and we're going to celebrate them and we're going to have a little party all around The mistakes that we made, because I want that to frame it just like Sara Blakely that, that making mistakes is all about learning and growing, that failure isn't about not being perfect at something. The true failure is about not even try. Number two on my list comes from a book called The road to awesome by Dr. Dan Peppard. And in it, he talks about two questions that changed the way he approached education. Why does it always have to be about what they do wrong? Why can't it be about what they do? Right? Those two questions are so important. Think about our students think about the conversations that we have, how we view them, how often do we get caught up in looking at our students and only focusing on what they're doing wrong? Especially the ones that are struggling? Why don't we take time instead, to focus on what they do, right? And these are two questions that I think that we should write down on pieces of paper and put them by our computer screen, put them on our desk, pin it to the wall next to your desk, because we need that reminder, especially in the moment when things are a little bit rough. When we're not connecting with that student, that reminder, to always ask ourselves, why does it have to be about what they do wrong? Why can't it be about what they do? Right? Number three, the word that we've heard so much about this past year learning loss. It's a favorite buzzword this man published all around. And let me ask you this, though, in all the years that you've been teaching, when you've met with your students, have you met them where they're at? When you've had those students? Have you differentiated instruction to meet the needs of all your students? Let me answer that question for every single year you've done. You've taught your students where they're at, you've met them with where they're at. And you'll do that again this year. So when we hear about learning loss, when others individuals say the students are so low blackout, that negativity, think about what they did learn last year, think about how you're going to meet them, where they're at, how you're going to push them, how you're going to encourage them, how you're going to guide them, how you're going to teach them. And now you're going to watch them soar this year. Number four, think about the seeds you plant your words, they have power, your words, they can make your champions feel strong, where they can make them feel weak. Your words can fill your champions up. Or they can leave scars on them that they're going to carry for a long time. And your words can show the champions, what they're truly possible off. And every single day, we plant seeds with our words, when we go out there, and we show our students what they can be, when we remind them of their strengths of their skills. When we emphasize how amazing their own unique personalities are, we help encourage them. So take a little time and think how we use our words in class. Because our words are more than just something we use the teach academics. Our words are so powerful, and they stay with our students. So let's use them to elevate them, to lift them up, to bring out the best in them to point out to them who they can be, because we all need that. Number five, what about those quiet students? The student who sits in the back of class who's quiet, always has the work done, does well academically, never causes Any problems? What about them? You see, this means a lot to me because I was one of those Students, and they can be easily forgotten. So what are we doing to make sure that those students are seen heard valued, a simple head nod, taking that time to go over and asking them about something, that means a lot to them can mean all the difference in the world to that student, because those students need us as well. So let's take time to recognize those students who are doing the right thing, who are quiet, who are doing well academically, let's make sure that they're seeing that they feel heard that they feel valued, as well. Number six, where your focus goes, your energy flows, pay attention to what you're focusing on. Are you only focusing on the bad? Are you only focusing on what's wrong with the student? What's wrong with a new academic program? What's wrong with your school culture? Or are you focusing on what's right? The shine that your student has? What is good about those academic programs, the great things about your school culture, because where our focus goes, our energy is always going to flow. And that's going to affect our mindset, and how we approach the day. So take time, be cognizant, and be aware of where your focus is. Number seven, always remember, you influence you have influence above you, you have influence below you. And that means that we influence everybody around us, from our students, to our colleagues, to the administration, to the paraprofessionals, to the custodians, to the school nurse to the school secretary. We influence people to our words, and through our actions. So really pay attention. What energy are we bringing to every conversation? If you really pay attention to words, do your words lift up? Do they encourage do they support? Or do we jump in sometimes with those around us, and focus on the wrong things and bring things down? Our actions, making everything around us better? Are they encouraging? Are they supporting those around us? retired Navy SEAL, Admiral mcraven, once talked about how in his Navy SEAL training, that he was in the Tijuana mud flats, and it was cold, it was miserable. And everybody wanted to quit. And one person started singing in their positivity spread to another spread to another. And soon everybody was in golf, and they felt strengthened. And they were ready to continue with the training. And the same goes with you, my friend. what you bring to your school to your classroom to your students is so important. And you influence those above you. And you influence those below you with your words and with your actions. Number eight. What do you need to unlearn? And what I mean by this is, there are things that we have been teaching different strategies that might not be the best practices. So what do you need to unlearn so that you can bring in best practices for me, I've been doing a dive into the science of reading. And I've learned there's a lot of different strategies that I should be using. That I'm not and some of the strategies that I have been using all this time, work best practice. It's important that we don't always stand on our convictions that we're open minded, that we're always looking to learn and progress. Number nine, compete against yourself and cheer on others. You know, this brings me back to the classrooms. my classroom, the decor will never be up to par compared to Are the other ladies in the building, they crush it. So instead of comparing myself, I cheer them on, because it's amazing. And I can learn from them and grow from that. And the same should be in the academics, the teaching strategies that our others are using, instead of comparing ourselves to the teacher next to us, or the teacher that we see online, we should be cheering them on, and we should be learning from them. And the only real competition that we should be having as the competition against ourselves is, can I be better today than I was yesterday? Can I be better tomorrow than I am today. And the last one, my friends, number 10, bring the joy. Bring the laughter. We can get so caught up on being focused on the academics, we can get so caught up, focusing on everything that we need to get done, that we miss out on so many beautiful, amazing moments. Our classrooms should be filled with joy. Our classrooms should be filled with laughter is good for our students. It's good for us. Take time every single day, find something to bond with your students over Find a reason to laugh. It's important. And that's it, my friends. All right, those were 10 things that I jotted down in five minutes, that drive a lot in my classroom. So take some time today. And really think about what drives your classroom. What are the little things that you do inside your classroom, that makes it so amazing. Thank you for being here. I appreciate it. The teaching champions community is unbelievable. We support we encourage we lift each other up. And always remember, whether you're from rural America, to urban America, to Canada, to Spain to Bahrain, we're all on that same team. We're all on that same mission. And we're always better together. My challenge for you this week, is to take some time and look at your own personal life. Why do you do what you do? What means the most to what drives you? What do you value? What's your own code? Write it down on paper. Take time to think about it. It's important that we reflect from time to time and what we value the most. Keep being amazing, my friends, and as you go out into the week, may you step into your strength may step into your shine, and let's build our champions up. Have a great week, everybody.