Grab Your Joy Where You Can Get It

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. Hopefully, it was a good school week for all you. And a big shout out to all the school counselors for all that you do. And it was a pretty sour week I might. My school kicked off the week with a school wide celebration for the Olympics. And it felt like one of those weeks where some pretty good learning took place. And I have to say though, one of my favorite moments of the week was given to me by another teacher. This woman pulls out several of my students throughout the week. And after one of her sessions this week, she comes into the classroom, walks right up to me. And she just starts raving about one of my students that she works with. And he was seated right next to us. And as she was speaking, you could see the effect that her words were having on him. And she went on to say that she asked his permission, if you could tell me all this. And he said that it was okay. And with such great passion in her voice. She said how he shows up each and every single day, and gives 100% that he just worked so hard all the time. After this, she left and I looked at my champion. Now my young friend doesn't always show a ton of emotion. But in this moment, you could see the joy and the pride that he had. It was such a wonderful moment that this teacher went out of her way to make and it was something small. It took less than 30 seconds. But the impact that she had was huge. First, I love how she respected him enough to ask permission to share that news with me. Then think about the joy that she brought. She filled this young man up, she reinforced the importance of showing up and putting in that effort. She let him know that his effort was seen. And she was feeling good about sharing it. He was feeling good listening to it. And all that energy pumped me up small things 32nd conversations. It was a short recognition. But it had a tremendous impact. And I'm going to come back to this story later in the podcast. As it relates to what we're going to talk about today. I was having conversation with one of my friends who's an amazing educator. And we were saying that we never want to get to that point in our careers, where everything just becomes negative, where we get burned out. And everything that we face in the school day just brings frustration, annoyance, Misery. And that may sound harsh, but maybe you've run across someone like that. And the tough part is many of these people are great educators, many of them didn't start out negative. But over time, the stresses have taken a toll on them. And it can happen to the best of us in that conversation that we had stayed with me. In the following day. I was listening to the Tim Ferriss podcast, and he was interviewing Sarah Silverman. And this is a great episode, by the way. So I definitely recommend you check it out. But she was talking about a really tough time in her life that she was going through. And her aunt told her that she needed to grab her joy where she could get it. And I heard this and it just stuck with me all week long. Any of us can slide down that slippery slope of negativity and just get trapped in such a negative place. Human beings are hard wired to focus on the negative, being able to spot out the danger and the negative is what kept our ancestors alive. And when you're in the field of education, there's always going to be stressors, there's always going to be something that's going to happen. And they're going to happen on a daily basis. But there's also going to be some wonderful moments too. And we should be looking to grab our joy, where we can get it each and every single day. This week with that, on my mind, I tried to grab on to joy. And these are just a few of the things from the week that I grabbed on to. But as I'm going through this, think about your own week. What were those small moments that were special to you? What were the things that made you smile that made you laugh? That filled you up? In a big question? Did you grab on to these moments? Now joyful moments, they can come from afar. I talked about at the beginning of the week, we had a little kickoff to the Olympics. And for part of the celebration, all the students lined the hallways, music was played over the loudspeakers, the students were chanting USA, in our very own Olympic Torch traveled through the hallways. Well, the school foyer is located right next to my room. In the pre K students were gathered there. And their teacher had handed out many American flags saw the students. And at one point, I look over. And there's this young lady who's standing up with a flag. And she was just lost in the moment, listening to the music, swaying back and forth, waving her flag. And it was unbelievably precious. It was a little joy. Enjoy can be grabbed from former students as well. I teach in a pre K through third grade build. So the third graders, they're the oldest in the building. And I passed by one of my students that I had last year in the hallway at the beginning of the day. And he's with a small crew. And they're found the phys ed teacher. And I said good morning to the gentlemen. And my one guy that I taught last year, who has personality for days says, What's up, Mr. Martin, we're gonna go help the phys ed teacher moves some things. And then he flexes his muscles for me in a manner that Arnold Schwarzenegger would have been proud of that was a little joy. Now joy can be found also, in seeing the magic of others. With our Olympic celebration, we have a giant metal count bulletin board display that shows the different countries and the number of medals that they've won. And I'm walking past this one day, and a kindergarten teachers out there with their students. And they're doing different activities with the bulletin board to work on reading skills. And let me just say, I have the utmost respect for every single grade level. But kindergarten teachers and pre K teachers are absolute magicians, and to get a glimpse of her working her magic, and having all her students engaged in learning was pretty awesome. It was a little bit of joy. And joy can be found in the words of encouragement of others. I walked into the office this week, and the principal was talking with a student. And they were having a good conversation. And I heard the principal ask the young champion, how does it feel on the inside, to be having a good day, hearing the love that people we surround ourselves with, pour into others. It's refreshing. If we choose to hear it's a little bit of joy. And joy can be found and seeing how the parents and grandparents interact with their kids. One thing about working in the same small town that you grew up in is you know a lot of the families that you work with. And it was at dismissal time. And this gentleman picked up a grandchild who's in kindergarten. And I watched as this this gentleman who I've known for a long time, who I've known in a completely different role than as a grandfather. And I see him with this kindergarten bookbag around the shoulder. And he's waiting ever so patiently as his grandchild plays in the snow. It was a little bit of joy and joy can be found in quiet walks and conversations and a cup of coffee. This week, the sun broke through and we had a few days where it was in the low 40s and after walking out to the car in the morning, when it's been below zero money days. 40 feels like an absolute heatwave. In just a few minutes walk in the local neighborhood, during lunch with the sun shining down was pretty amazing. There was also join in a cup of coffee with a colleague, with a short conversation at the waterfront with a colleague about our weekend plans. They're small things. But if we grab on to enough of them, it can help us stay positive throughout the day. And these are all small moments that happen outside of the class. And many of them, they didn't even truly involve me, we can still get joy from them, though. And think about the moments within the classroom, and the joy that they can bring you. Whether it's the student who's reading well above grade level, and he reads you a passage, and you're just blown away, or the student who's not on grade level, but read you a pass, and has shown you so much growth since the beginning of the year. And he looks up to you and says, I'm a great reader. That joy, there's joy in the high fives the students give each other the moment when a student says that they want harder problems, because they want to push themselves. There's joy in the left, the jokes the students share this joy. When you're doing a read aloud, and you look up. And the champions are all locked in hanging on every word. There's joy in greeting your students at the door. Or when they say, we'll see you tomorrow. At the end of the day. There's joy to be found. When you sit down and you have a heart to heart with one of your champions. There's so much joy to grab on to if we pay attention to it. We can also find joy, though, by paying it forward. At the beginning of the podcast, I talked about the wonderful teacher who spoke so much encouragement and love into my student. With 30 seconds of her time, she made a difference for him. And she lifted me up with her energy. And we can create our own joy to grab on to just by doing small deeds, taking 30 seconds to let students and not just the students that we have in our class, all of the students in our school, if we let them know, they're doing a great job that can bring us joy. If we extend a compliment to a colleague, if we leave a nice note, or send a kind email to someone, letting those around you know that they're seen, that they're heard, that they're valued, that they're cared about, that can be one of the best ways that we can grab on to a little joy. The days are always going to bring obstacles, they're always going to be in stresses, there's always going to be variables outside of our control, there's going to affect things. And it's easy to let those trickle into us. And rob us of our joy. Most days will give you great moments as well. So be on the lookout for them, and grab on to them when you can, because we all need a little more joy in our lives. Thank you for being part of the teaching champions community, I truly appreciate you. And if you could leave a rating or a review, I greatly appreciate it. And if you haven't done it yet, subscribe to the podcast. So the new episodes come right to you. And if you think someone would benefit from this message, if you think they could benefit a little more from grabbing on to joy, then I'd appreciate it if you could share the podcast. The teaching champions community is all about encouraging, supporting and lifting each other up. 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. And my challenge for you this week is to make a conscious effort to grab a little joy. To see it to hear, to feel. And remember, one of the greatest ways that we can grab a little joy is by sharing it with others, a Kinect, it goes a long way for others and it can go a long way for you as well. So grab your joy this week. Keep being amazing, my friends, and as we go out into the week, May you step into your strength may step in to your shop and let's build our champions have a great week everybody