5 Lessons Learned on Communication, Modeling, Being Intentional, and More

What's going on everybody, I hope this finds you striving and thriving and doing absolutely amazing. My name is Brian Martin. I'm a second grade teacher and host of the teaching champions podcast. And as we're putting in October, I hope everybody had an awesome week, it was a good one in my world. And my school year started later than many parts of the country. But even after a few weeks, it's pretty neat to already see that growth in the students to see the strong connections that you're making. And there's something special about the whole process. So before we even dive in to today's episode, let me just offer a little reminder to enjoy every step of the journey. And as you're listening to this, think about the growth that's happened already inside of your classroom. Think about the relationships that you're forming, and how rewarding that is. And I was having a conversation recently with one of my best friends. And he's a third grade teacher, and just phenomenal at what he does. And he said that, at this point in time, we should be able to name 10 things that we like about each and every single one of our students. And that's the truth, there's going to be moments that offer a wide variety of challenges along the way. But if you see the great things that each of your students offer, then that's only going to allow your relationships to thrive. Now, that's just my rambling for today. And this week, I wanted to take time to do a look back at some of the gyms that my most recent guests have dropped. And one thing for me is that I found that I have to be very intentional with everything that I do. Because if I'm not, then time ends up slipping away from me, and I don't get done what I plan to do. And that also goes with learning things. If you're like me, and you listen to a lot of podcasts, or you read a lot of books, or you take part and great discussions, then sometimes I've found that it can be information overload, and you end up consuming so much, that unfortunately, a lot of things fall to the wayside. And you may not end up putting into practice what you've learned. So as we're rolling into October, I sat down and went over some of the most recent conversations that I've had on the podcast. And first off, I just want to say these guests crushed it. There's so many people out there doing great things. If we just take the time to listen, there's so much for us to gain. And I wrote down five reminders from recent guests of things that I can do in my class, how I can connect better with my students to connect better with my colleagues or the parents that I serve. And these are just a bunch of things that I can do better moving forward. And then hopefully, they'll make you say, what are some things that you can do as you roll intact over yourself that you can do better moving forward. And the first reminders from Debbie Tannenbaum. And she talked about how stepping out of her comfort zone and taking risks, how that transformed her life. And what was most powerful about this is she talked about how it changed her children's lives as well as how her own children have taken her lead. They're stepping out of their comfort zone and looking to take risks, because they saw their mom do it. And Debbie talked about how she shares the risks that she's taking with her students as well. That she's open and honest with them about how she's stepping out of the comfort zone. And I think it was just such a great reminder that we model so much for our students, and allowing them to know the risks that we take, allowing them to know that even adults have difficulty sometimes taking risks in all of the emotions that come with that. When we try new things, the knowledge that we share with them is important. But everything we model for them is equally important as well. It's modeling taking risks, modeling, how we communicate with others, modeling, how we control our own emotions, modeling, how we treat others, our students, they're always watching. They're always listening. So it's important that we're aware of what we're modeling for them. A second reminder that I had was from Zachary Rondo and Grayson McKinney. Now, these gentlemen, they teach fourth and fifth grade in the the authors of the expert effect. And they do some great things with project based learning. And that's something that I'm making an effort to become much better at this year. And they break their system up, where they said, they want their students to first learn from an expert, then become an expert, and then teach like an expert. And this episode came to my mind, because the other day, I saw a primary teacher post on Twitter that she had zoomed with a geologist that day, and how much her kids absolutely loved it. So this really has me thinking about who are some of the experts that I can bring into the classroom for my students to learn from. And Grayson and Zack say that it's important to remember that we don't have to be the experts all the time, that it's okay to say we don't know as much about something, and to bring someone else into the classroom. Not only would the students benefit from someone who has a ton of knowledge in a certain area, but also just think of how much more engaged the students will be. Then Grayson and Zack talked about the different ways they empower the students to build their knowledge up about a topic. But then they talked about the different ways that they allow their students to share like an expert. And one avenue that they both have is a classroom podcast, where the students lead it, and they share their learning. In these gentlemen, they talked about how family members from all over the world have tuned in to listen to their students. Now, think about what that does for the students to be able to share their knowledge, and to think about the connections that this makes with the families where parents, grandparents, extended family from across the country, even across the world can tune in and check it out. And this really has me thinking about what can I do this school year to break down the classroom walls and allow my students to share information about what they've learned. And it might not be a classroom podcast. But what are other options through technology in such things that I can allow my students to share their knowledge and shine. And Zach and Grayson couldn't say enough about the benefits of this. And how learning from an expert becoming an expert and sharing like an expert shot engagement through the roof in their classrooms, and really strengthen that bond between home and school. A third gem they came from another podcast was with Ashley Hubner, and she talked about the experience that she's had as an instructional coach. And now communication is at the core of everything. And I think when you're in the people business, if you don't know how to communicate, then you're definitely not going to be able to be effective at what you do. Unless let's be honest, being an instructional coach isn't easy. It's not easy to go into an educators classroom and try and coach them up. And Ashley said, one of her keys to being a successful coach was listening. Being fully present, and truly listening. And one key is to not take a person. If you're met with negative feelings, keep asking why? To get to the bottom of their feelings. And oftentimes, she said, you may find out that those feelings come from a much different place than you expected. And this week, I had a student that became upset, and they shut down. And I thought back to this conversation in the wisdom that Ashley shared. So I really took the time to find out what was at the core of the students feeling. Why were they feeling this way. And when we got to what had caused those feelings, it really enlightened me, in it allowed myself in the student can to continue the day, in a positive way. And to solve that problem. Now before Jim, was from Ray Heuer, and Ray dropped some great wisdom in our conversation, and one thing that I was truly grateful about was that Ray was super vulnerable. And in the conversation, Ray was very open about her struggles with reading, and how that made her feel as a child. And she said, she used that struggle to help connect with her students, and the parents of her students. And she said that she would take aside a student that had a similar struggle, and let them know that she had that same struggle, and that they were going to be alright. And she said, she would do the same thing with parents, when there was meetings about their child. And she talked about how in those meetings, she would lean over to the parents, and reassure them that their child is going to be alright, to let them know that she had those same difficulties. And when I think about the meetings that those parents have to go through, sometimes, my heart goes out to them. Think about how difficult it would be to be a parent, to sit in a room with a bunch of people about your child, and have to hear about that child struggles. And oftentimes, vocabulary and terms that these parents might not be familiar with, are used. So for Ray to lean over, and let her the parents of her students know that she had those struggles, that they would work through this, and that their child is going to be just fine. That's powerful. That building a connection, that reassuring parents in a very emotional setting that their child's going to be taken care of, and that there's so much hope for that child's future. That's making a difference in the lives of students. And that's making a difference for those parents to a few words, can go such a long way. And the fifth gem that I loved was from my most recent interview with Johnny tearsa. And he's big on building connections through joy and laughter in the classroom. And I loved how Johnny talked about how he's extremely intentional on the conversations that he has so much. So that even keeps track to make sure that he has at least one authentic conversation with each and every single one of his students. And it reminded me of my conversation with Sarah siete as well. And she discussed how every single day, when her students come in, they do a check in and that the end of class, they do a check out. And it's that intentionality piece of really monitoring the ones that you serve. And I'm really taking a look at my first few weeks of the school year, and how can I be more intentional with everything that I do so that I can strengthen those relationships. As I roll into the second month of the school year, these are just a few of the things that are on my mind. Taking that time to reflect doing the self audit being open An honest with yourself can only make your classroom better. So my challenge for you this week is to look back and your first few weeks of the school year, you know, we start the school year off. And we always set out with the best of intentions. And there's no doubt in my mind that you're rocking it this school year. But there might be something that you could do a little bit better. Something that you told yourself before the school year got underway, that you were going to focus on, but maybe you fell into those old habits and routines. Maybe you got so busy that this thing that you wanted to do to be a priority, it just fell down the list. So think of one thing that this month, you can make a priority, and really put it front and center in your day. Thank you for being here for being part of that teaching champions community. We support we encourage we lift each other up. And if you think someone will benefit from this message, please share. 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. Keep being amazing, my friends, and as you go out into the week, May step into your strength may step into shine, and let's build our champions. Have a great week, everybody