Finding Belief and Bright Spots Within the Classroom

I'm Brian Martin, I'm 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. It was a good week as we slid into this first week of December. And I got to witness a pretty special moment recently, my school was getting ready to celebrate a colleague. So I was walking around to members of my second grade team to get them to sign a congratulatory card. And I go into one of my colleagues rooms. And she had her students at the carpet, they were sitting in a circle. And I was going to just drop the card off on her desk, but she waved me over to her. So I took the card over to her. And as she's signing it, she calls off a part for the reader's theater that they were working on. And right after she calls off the power, all of these little champions who are sitting crisscross applesauce, who are being nice and respectful, they all start clapping for the student. Then the teacher calls off another part. And the students all start clapping again. And it was so neat, and so heartwarming to see these students cheering each other on. And this was on all on their own accord. And later on, I ran into this teacher, and I told her how refreshing it was to see. And we had a good conversation about culture building. You see, the culture that she has created inside of her classroom is one of recognition. One of appreciation, one were cheering each other on is the norm. And those are the little things that are big things. And each and every single day, we play a role in the culture that we build. Every day, the students are watching and listening. They're paying attention to how we carry ourselves, how we talk, how we treat others, the tone that we speak to others in and so much more. Think about that moment right there. The students weren't arguing over who got what part, no student was mumbling underneath their breath. These amazing young champions, were just legitimately excited from one another, and they were cheering each other on. And in a world where we can easily get so caught up in the comparison traps, and trying to beat out the next person. It was a good reminder that we should be cheering on those around us, and only competing against ourselves. Now today, I want to talk a little bit about believing in others, and believing in ourselves by looking for the bright spots. Because that power of belief means so much. Whether you believe in yourself or not affects every single situation. It affects how you show up to the world, how you interact with others, and how you meet challenges. And the same goes for whether or not you believe in others. The way in which you view someone from a belief perspective affects how you look at them. It affects how you speak to them, and affects how you treat them. And the thing is, human nature often has us look for the negative, that negativity bias that was able to locate danger and keep people alive long ago. It can often take hold of us today and it pulls us down. It is said that we can register a negative event in a 12th of a second. But positive events. It takes up to 12 seconds to truly register. It's a defense mechanism. It's what kept our ancestors alive. And this negativity bias is amped up. The more sleep deprived we are the more fatigued we are the worst we take care of ourselves. It just amplifies it. We have to retrain our brains. We have to retrain those neural pathways, we want to make a conscious effort to look for the bright spots, to make a conscious effort to look for the areas in which we're thriving. There are veteran teachers out there, they show up to work every single day. They do amazing things. But they criticize themselves, and they have doubts about their effectiveness. How many times has the day, not gone perfect for you. And you might have seen the teacher next door, do something amazing. Or you may have walked past their classroom. And it seems as if everything is going perfect. And then you walk into your classroom, and you see the academic concerns, you see those behavior concerns, you see lessons that may not have gone perfectly, and you start doubting yourself, and then you leave school, and you're frustrated, you're worn out, you're angry, and you go home, and you get on social media, and you're bombarded with these classrooms that look absolutely amazing. And it just makes you feel worse about yourself. The thing is, if someone came into your classroom, they would see you doing amazing things, they would see students learning, they would see a place where students I loved and cared for, they would see a classroom that is thriving, so takes time. And instead of looking for all the places that are imperfect, look for the great things that are happening. Look at the systems and routines that you've created. Look at the culture that you've put in place, one that's fueled with love, joy and passion. Take a second and look at work that was done at the beginning of the year. And compare it to the work that's being done now. And see that growth, you've played a major role in that there are bright spots all around your classroom. But often, you don't see them, the parts that are not just the way we want them to be. Those are the ones that stick to us. But we push the bright spots to the wayside, and only focus on those negatives. Take time. And think of the good things that are happening within your classroom. Think about the progress is being made, whether it's academic, socially, or behaviorally, look at it, remember it, celebrate it, and build off of it. And just as we struggle with these feelings, our students on the same way. Our champions need someone to believe in them. Someone who sees the beauty within them. They need people in their lives, who are going to be their cheerleaders, who are going to be someone to offer them wisdom, offer them counsel, they need someone who's going to be there to listen to them, a person who's going to keep them accountable, and someone who's never going to give up on them. And I talked about it in one of my very first episodes. The reason why I named this podcast teaching champions, because those we serve those we teach their champions, all of them are champions. And you look at a champion different. You treat a champion different. You have high expectations for champion, you hold a champion accountable. You're patient with a champion, you push them, but you also pick them up on the stump. And that is what we have to do. And sometimes, that's not always easy. For some of the students, especially the ones that push your buttons, you have to be intentional. You have to look for the things that they do write, you have to find their shine, and it's there. It might be buried under some layers, but it's there. And the thing is, when you start noticing their shine, when you start seeing their positives, the way you look at them begins to change. How you approach them is going to begin to change and the relationship that you have with them is going to begin to change. And it's not always easy. But every single one of us needs to be reminded of our bright spots. Imagine what it would mean to some of these students to have an adult look at them as if they were beyond talented. Some of these champions are never shown or never told about their bright spots. They're never shown the value that they bring the growth they make. Every single one of us needs to hear that someone believes in us. In her book onward. Elena Aguilar says that if we want to strengthen our ability to see those words bright spots in our students and in ourselves. We can do that in five intentional ways. The first is we want to start our day off by setting our intentions. You want to prime your mind for how you want to show up for the world. What you want your mind to focus on what you want your heart to focus on. She says that your mind needs clear and explicit directions. Say you want to be more patient with some of your scholars today. Well, what does that look like? What does being patient feel like? Play that over in your mind? Visualize that if you're going into a meeting, and you want to be a bigger participant in it, picture that in your mind, see yourself speaking up, see yourself asking questions, sharing your knowledge come from a place of power. A second way Mrs. Aguilar says to be intentional is to take an inquiry stance, look to expand your horizons and the way you view situations. If you're having problems with students turning in homework, she says, generate questions that might help you come up with solutions. You might ask yourself, why don't my kids turn in their homework? What are other teachers doing to get their students to turn in homework? What can I do differently? She says then to engage in Appreciative Inquiry, where our focus goes our energy flows. So instead of focusing on what is wrong with an individual, or situation, look for what is right. Where is that success? How can we use those bright spots to create positive change. And the last of the five intentions that Mrs. Aguilar talks about is dealing with emotions. And she says, we can deal with emotions using the acronym rain, recognize, acknowledge, investigate, and have a sense of non identification. At some point or another, you're gonna run into the emotions of sadness, anger, and fear. And she says, when you find yourself in a space where these emotions are weighing on you recognize those feelings, don't ignore them. Acknowledge to yourself that you're feeling a certain way, label that emotion, then investigate, why do I feel this way? Ask yourself, where are these emotions coming from? What's going on inside of me right now, that makes me feel this way. She says the big thing is to be curious. And then the last stop in rain is to non identify, recognize, you have a thought, you have a feeling. But you're not that thought or that feeling. These strategies can help us focus on the bright spots, and refuel the belief that you have in yourself, and then those around you. And I want to share a quick story about belief. My favorite sport to watch is boxing. And this past weekend was a championship fight. Now the Challenger was a heavy underdog. Everywhere he went, he was told that he was going to be knocked out. Every press conference, every interview, every article that was written about the match gave this gentlemen no chance of winning. But you know what he did? In every interview, and in every press conference that he took pardon. He said that he was going to when he said he knew he was going to when his father who plays a huge role in his life, stood behind him and said his son was going to be a world champion. And the fight took place. And everyone who said that this young man was going to lose was wrong. The Challenger shocked the world and he became the new champion. He believed in himself. He didn't see everything that he couldn't do. He saw everything that He could do. He saw those bright spots, those gifts, those intangibles that made him special. And he had someone in his corner that was there to shout to the world and at times whisper in his ear that he was a champion. Their gifts inside of you, then no one else has their talents, skills. They're intangibles that you're made up of that are so special. So when you start doubting your greatness, take time and look at your bright spots. And also be that person who's there to shout to the masses. whisper in someone's ear, how truly great another person is. Thank you for being here for being part of the teaching champions podcast, I appreciate you. And if you think someone close to you needs a little pick me up, or would benefit from hearing this message, I truly be grateful if you'd share, the teaching champions community is all about encouraging, supporting and lifting 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. And my challenge for you this week, is to take a step back and think about those in your life. We may say we believe in others, but if we peeled away the surface, do we truly show that we believe in them? And the words that you speak to everyone around you? Do you let them hear how you believe in them? Through your actions? Do you show others that you believe in them? One person's belief. One person showing another that they believe in them can change someone's day, it can change someone's life. So let others know. You believe in them this week. Keep being amazing, my friends. And as we go out into the week, May you step into your strength, may you step into your shine, and let's build these champions up. Have a great week, everybody