Gratitude in 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 another good week here, we're gearing up for parent conferences. And it was one of those weeks, where you really get to step back and see the progress these champions have made since the beginning of the year, whether it was big gains, or small gains, there were gains. And we celebrated that. And this week, I was checking out one of my friends on social media, who is a middle school principal, his name is Dan apps. He's just an awesome guy, he always brings a ton of positive energy. And he posted a video that was powerful, and it carried a ton of truth. And he really touched upon an issue that I think plagues many educators. And more than likely, many of you. He talked about a chess competition that he attended to support his students. And he said his students crushed, they had the top three place winners. And the overall team did amazing. And Dan said, he's standing next to the coach of the chess team. And she's just glowing, smiling from ear to ear, so proud of her kids. And he turns to her and he says, Great job. And she looks at him. And she says, I didn't do anything. And then she's not offering anything. And he said hold on a minute. Number one, you're providing these kids with a space to excel, you're giving them opportunities to be the best them. Number two, you value them and you support them. He said, you provide a space you support, and you mentor them, what more could a mentor do. And he talks about how you should never devalue the impact that you have on those you serve. And this is the truth. Every single day, you're showing up and you're providing these champions a safe place to learn a safe place to grow. You're there to listen, to encourage to support to mentor, you do so much you empty your cup, non stop. But too often, when the champions find success, you dismiss the role that you played in it. So give yourself credit. Recognize what you do each and every single day. It was such a great reminder is one that needs to be heard. And definitely check out Dan apps, he brings that positive energy that we all need. And I'll leave his Twitter handle in the show notes. With a being the week of Thanksgiving. I want to take a dive in the gratitude this week. Because it's important. It's been found that those who are grateful, feel more emotional well being they feel more joy and happiness. It's been found to help with depression. Grateful people get along better with others, they feel stronger connections to others. Grateful people have been found to be more generous, more giving more resilient. And the research is out there about gratitude and the positive effects that it has on our lives. So who doesn't want to feel a little more joy? actor Ben Stein once was asked what is the quickest way to become rich? And he said, I can't tell you any way on how to get rich. But I can tell you how to feel rich, which is far better than being rich. He said, Be grateful as the only totally reliable get rich quick scheme. And beyond that gratitude, he said is tax free. And we all know about gratitude. We've heard all about from writing in a gratitude journal, to taking gratitude walks, but I wanted to take a deeper dive into it, and what goes into being grateful. So I went to one of the leading experts in gratitude, Dr. Robert Emmons. Now Dr. Robert Emmons has written five books on gratitude. He's the editor in chief of the Journal of positive psychology. And he teaches gratitude in the university level. Now, Dr. Emmons said, there are three key facets to gratitude. The first is that you have to see, you have to look for the good, you have to see the good, you have to affirm the good, then he said, You have to receive it, you have to accept it. And third, he said, we have to put gratitude out into the world. And if we look at the first key to being grateful, you have to make that conscious effort to be looking for the positive, to be looking for those things to be grateful for. Because we have a negativity bias, we're predisposed to see the negative is our genetic survival mechanism. And let's face it, you can walk into your school, into your classroom. And there's always going to be things readily available that can bring you down. But the good is there too. It's there every day is there to see, it's there to hear. It's there to feel every single day. When I arrived to school, as I'm walking in, I pass a friend from high school, we played basketball together. And growing up, he was an elite athlete, he was a multiple star athlete in high school, he went on to play division one football. And you know, he's an alpha male. And now I see him walking. Every day. He's walking his young son up to school, I see his young daughter who isn't old enough to go to school yet. And she's holding his hand. And I see how she has this big tough dad wrapped around her finger. And I see the dad that he is in every morning and makes me smile. You see those you grew up with. And they've grown up and embrace the role of being a father. And it just brings a small piece of joy to me every morning. And it has nothing to do with me. But it's a small reminder of the goodness out there in the world. And those grateful moments don't have to be seen though. We can experience those moments just by listening. This week, I walked past some colleagues in the hallway. And as I'm walking past them, I hear one of my colleagues just raving about one of her students. She was praising his effort, she was talking about the aha moments that he was having that day. And it was so genuine. And it was filled with so much joy and positive energy that made me smile. As I walked down the hallway, her energy, her passion, it filled me up hearing someone elevate their student in conversation was so uplifting, and you can see it in you can hear, but you also need to feel. Now every week in my classroom, we have a growth mindset song of the week is a song that has a good message for the students. We put it up on the smart board with the lyrics. And by midweek the students have that song down pretty good. And this week's song was a million dreams from the greatest showmen. And we turn off the lights, the song starts going in the students. They're just crushing it. And I don't know if it was a song, how I was feeling that day or what. But I sat there. And I listened to these young champions who have such a bright future ahead of them. And I listened to them as they're singing this song. And it was one of those moments where time slows down. And you get those goosebumps. And you don't know what the rest of the day will bring. But you're just so thankful that you get to be there in that moment. These moments are there for you today as well. They're there and the conversations that you have with your students, their their in their smiles, the celebrations, the aha moments, those moments where you just throw your hands up in the air and laugh. See them, hear them, feel them. In one of the videos that I listened to of Dr. Evans, he said the number one question that he is asked by adults, whether it's parents or teachers, is it how do we become more grateful? But how do we teach our child Children become more grateful. And he said the answers simple. In fact, you know the answer already. If we want to teach our children how to be more grateful, we have to be more grateful. We have to model gratitude for them. Through our words to our actions, we have to show them, we have to make a visible and pointed out what it looks like to be grateful. And this isn't something that we can just have a lesson on here and there. This is something that we have to do with them daily. The research is out there. Gratitude helps emotionally. It helps build stronger connections with others, it helps build resilience. So as we go through our school day, it's important we find ways to bring gratitude into ourselves and into our champions. Thank you for being part of the teaching champions community. As we talk about gratitude today, let me say that I'm truly grateful for all of you for what you do in your communities for what you do in your school. And for what you do for me, just being here gives me a lot. And hopefully together, we can continue to build this up and help out those around us. And I wish nothing but the best for all of you and for your families this week. And always remember, it doesn't matter if you're from rural America, to urban America, to Canada, Spain, 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 twofold. First, look for moments to be grateful for throughout the week, moments make up our lives. And if we're not careful, it's easy to miss out on them. So see them, hear them, feel them. And the second part of the challenge this week, is to express your gratitude to others. We talk a lot about recognizing gratitude and taking it in. But the cornerstone of gratitude is sharing it back with the world. So write a letter this week to someone who has influenced you. There's been so many people who have played a role in our journeys. So write a letter to one of them. Let them know how much they have meant to you. You know, how many times have we wanted to say something to someone, but we held on to it saying that we're gonna tell them the next time we see them. But those words slip away. And they go unsaid and think about the times that someone has expressed appreciation to you and how much that meant. So let's give that gift to someone 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 our champions up. Have a great week, everybody