Let's Grow From This Year

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. As many of you have wrapped up the school year, and the rest of us are getting closer and closer to the end of ours. I think it's a great time to talk about reflecting and examining the year that was. And before we dive into this, I want to share a story about a successful man, a Zen master and the teacup. There was once a well educated, highly successful man who went to visit Zen master to ask for solutions to his problems. As a Zen master and the man conversed, the man would frequently interrupt the Zen master to interject his own beliefs, not allowing the Zen master to finish many senses. Finally, the Zen master stopped talking and offered the man a cup of tea. When the Zen master poured the tea, he kept pouring after the cup was full, causing it to overflow. Stop pouring, the man said the cup is fall, the Zen master stopped and said, similarly, you are too full of your own opinions, you want my help, but you have no room in your own cup to receive my words. This story is a reminder to staying open minded and being willing to learn. And one of the greatest pass towards growth is through reflection. And first and foremost, I just want to say as we talked about last week, you should look back at this year, and you should hold your head up high, you should appreciate the journey that you and your students took, you know, celebrate that appreciate that, give yourself credit. But as the school year is still fresh in our minds, it's a great time to reflect. To be honest, in my adult life. Reflection has been a big piece of me in many different stages from the military, where we would do a Rs, which Stanford after action reviews. After each mission and training exercise. I also did a ton of reflection. During my time being involved in a great basketball program where the head coach and his top assistant, they would be constantly breaking down film, they be analyzing what went right what went wrong in the areas that we needed to focus on. Now, we don't have game film to watch. But while this school year is still fresh in our minds, we can use this time to learn. And I told a colleague recently that I can't wait for the dust to settle from the school year, so that I can have that opportunity to sit down and take a deep look at this year. Because honestly, when you're in the middle of something, it's hard to take that step back and really look at things with a clear Latins. So I'm really looking forward to that. And I was reading an interesting article about reflection the other day, and the author talked about how they took all the lessons that they learned over the past year. And they wrote a letter to their past self explaining everything that they should know, on how to get through the year that they had just gone through. What if we took that idea? What have we set aside a little time this week, and we write a letter to ourselves? We look at the bright spots, those areas where we crushed, we look at the areas where we fell short. What happened, why? And what can we do differently. We look at our teaching philosophy. And we look at how our champions learn and see, do we hold the same beliefs as we did before. We look at how we connected with our students. We look at how we connected with the parents, and how we built those relationships and whatever Other areas that you wish to explore. We take all these thoughts, we put them in a letter to ourselves. And then we tuck it away for a few weeks. revisit it right before the school year begins, as john Maxwell says, reflective thinking turns experience into insight. So let's use this year to grow. Let's use this year to become a better version of ourselves. Thank you for being part of the teaching champions podcast, we support we encourage we lift each other up. And if you could subscribe, rate or share this podcast, I truly appreciate it. 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, is to take some time and reflect. Life is always throwing obstacles and challenges our way. There are important lessons that you've learned recently, that could truly benefit you. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves of those lessons that we've learned so that we can grow so that we can strengthen ourselves so that we don't make those mistakes over and over again. So take some time in whether it's in a journal, whether it's a letter to yourself, or just some quiet time alone, and reflect on those lessons. And always remember, we're never a finished product. We're always striving to be a little bit better tomorrow than what we are today. Give me an amazing my friends. And as we go out into this week may step into your strength, step into your shine, and let's build these champions up. Have a great week, everybody.