A Crumpled Up and Stepped on $100 Bill

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. Today, I want to talk about value, the value that you bring to your students, your school, your community and your family. I want to start off with a story first. nerds is famous speaker one time and he's given a seminar. And he starts off the seminar by holding up a fresh, clean, crisp, $100 bill. And he looks at the audience and he says, Who would like this. And there is no surprise because everybody in the audience holds up their hand. And he offered to give it to one of them. But he had to do something first. And he takes $100 bill, and he crumples that up. And now he takes that crumpled up $100 bill and he holds it up in the air. And he says, Who would like this now. Then once again, everybody in the audience raises their hand. And he said, Hold on, I have to do something first. And he takes that $100 bill, and he throws it on the ground and proceeds to step on it and dig it into the ground. Then he bends over, picks up the $100 bill and looks at it in his hand and it's crumpled up. It's stepped down it has dirt marks and tears in it. And he holds it up again. And he looks at the audience and says who would like it now. and members of the audience still raise their hand. And the speaker said, no matter what I did to this money, you all still wanted it. You all went favor my offer, because the value of the money never decreased. No matter what I did to it, it still held its value. The same goes for you. Despite whatever painful conditions, you're going through whatever failures you face, your value never decreases. And that's an important lesson for all of us, no matter what obstacles, what failures, what setbacks we've had, our value doesn't change. And if you look at this school year, I mean, people have felt like that $100 bill, where there's been moments when we were nice and felt like that crisp, $100 bill. But there's also moments when we've felt like we've been crumpled up. And there's even mend some moments for many of us what we felt like that $100 bill that was thrown to the ground and stepped on. And it's important that we all realize that and remind ourselves that no matter what's happened this year, we still have just as much value in the bright moments as we do when things aren't going perfectly. One thing that can be a little bit difficult is if you've been teaching for a long time, like myself, is you've had these lessons that you teach down pat. You know the objectives. You know the steps, you know, the parts where the students are going to need extra help. And you know how to handle that. But this year, we've been forced to adjust and adapt. And sometimes that can be stressful. It can lead us to feeling as if we're not that effective. And when we start feeling that when we start feeling frustrated and stressed out. It's important that we step back. And then we ask ourselves a few questions. Did our students learn? Have they grown since the beginning of the school year? And that's a yes. Have you played a role in that? Absolutely. And it's important to remember, your value as a teacher is far greater than any lesson that you taught. So on those rough days, when you question your worth of what you're doing, step back, breathe. remind yourself of what you did today. Did you listen to your champions, especially the ones who don't have someone to listen to them? Yes. Did you show patients? Yes. Did you show empathy? Yes. Did you show up today and give your time and energy? Yes. Did you build your classroom community? Yes. Did you invest in relationships? Yes. Did you show your champions that you are committed to them? Yes. Did you bring enthusiasm to that? Yes. And in some way, shape or form? Was there a champion who sat in your class that you change the course of their day? Yes. And sometimes we see it, we can see the effect that we have on them. And other times, it's not as visible, but they hear you. And they feel what you do for them. And by you showing up. And by you being there, you're making an impact on them. So if you ever question yourself on the value that you brought today, step back, remind yourself that there are days when we feel like that fresh, crisp, $100 bill. And there's gonna be moments when we feel like we've been crumpled up, where we feel we've been stepped on dragged through the mud. But your value never changed. You made an impact. Even if it was just one person. You impacted someone today. That's real value. Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate your time. It's all about serving each other. And I'd be so grateful if you could like review or share the podcast helps the podcast grow. And always remember, it doesn't matter if 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, take time and recognize the areas in which you add value to those around. And remember, adding value is as simple as being enthusiastic. patient, empathetic. nasaw encourage you to pick a one small thing that you can do a little more of this week to help others out. Give me an amazing, my friends. And as we go out into this week, may you step into your strength, step into your shine, and build these champions up. Have a great week, everybody