Listening to Your Intuition, Student Check Ins, and Educator Wellness with Sarah Said

What's going on everybody, I hope this finds you striving and thriving and doing absolutely amazing. Thank you so much for being here. And thank you for being someone who's out there, making their impact, supporting, encouraging and lifting each other up. And today's conversation is with a very special woman. Her name is Sarah side. And Sarah has spent the past 17 years in public education. She's served in the roles of teacher, Director of ELL director of language and equity, Dean and assistant principal. Sarah has been published on numerous educational sites, which include learning for justice, the teaching channel, and Adweek teacher, and Sarah stand strong when it comes to ensuring an equitable school community for all of its stakeholders. And she's an advocate for multi lingual learners and their families. And then this conversation, Liz, listen to how Sarah learned to trust her intuition, how she uses strategies that she's learned with the youngest of students and modified it to serve her older students. Think about when she talks about the power of saying no, about creating boundaries, and so much more. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. I am super excited today to welcome Sarah side to the teaching champions podcast ser, we are so thankful to have you welcome to the podcast. Thanks, Brian. I'm excited to be here. This is a one of my favorite podcasts. And it's kind of had a little starstruck right now being out here. So it's wonderful. Well, we are grateful to have you and I know that you have so much knowledge to share, because you have a lot going on. So could you give us your background? And how a little bit about your journey? Well, you know, I've been in education for about 18 years, my plan was to be a lawyer that, you know, I started teaching and the whole law thing just didn't, didn't sit with me anymore. And I'm like, You know what, I'm like King, so I'm going to stay in this. So I spent about you know, six years in the classroom, and then ended up as an administrator. And then after a couple of years, I ended up back in the classroom that ended up in administrator yet. You know, somebody called me in a summer and they're like, you know, what we need to promote you because I really need, you know, a dean AP. So I had taken that on a few years ago and then stayed in administration until the school year. So I've served as a teacher, a curriculum director, a dean AP system, principal, and allowed director and equity director like that was kind of a combined VLL, director and equity director. So I taught a few things. And so I'm back and listen to my intuition. And you know, decided that I want to spend the rest of my career most you know, pretty much in the classroom or instructional coaching, you know, but mostly in the classroom. I feel like, you know, my hearts there, you know, we started our school year, in the district, I work for a second largest district in Illinois, this school year, we started about, I don't know, like maybe three or four, four weeks ago, three weeks ago. Yeah. So it's been nice. It's been peaceful. It's been fun, just having that creative outlet in the classroom and making the classroom more interesting and fun for the 10th and 11th and 12th grade students that I serve in the district. So I, you know, what, this is the most fun I've had in about eight years. So it's at work. So it's been a good thing. Good. That's fantastic. And I think, with all your experience, like you run the gamut, in education as far as all the various roles, and that's gonna make it you know, more effective as a teacher to be able to see from all these different perspectives and then bring that back into the classroom. Now, you said you listen to your intuition. I think that's something that all of us need to get better at, or we can all improve on. Is there something that really led you to that path that you were able to live Some to yourself to bring you back into the classroom. I think at the end of last school year, I was just exhausted, I was exhausted and needed this, you know, seek support and advising because I was, I didn't know what I wanted to do after last school year, you know, and last school year was hard for everybody. It took a toll probably on everyone in every position in any school. And, you know, it wasn't unique to where I was working. And so I did a value store, somebody advised me to do Valley sort, and I did a valley sort before, but it was more of a night, it was more what I had done it, it was more of a task I had to do, rather than I wanted to do. And so I kind of, you know, it's I took a few days on it, like really just thinking about what are my core values. And, you know, what stood out to me was family and inner peace. And I said, you know, is what I'm doing, really serving that, and it wasn't. And so, um, that's where I was, like, you know, I really, you know, I want to make a contribution to the world, you know, that's important to me, right, and I could do my classroom, I could lead through the classroom, and lead through my writing. And I don't have to have this title of assistant principal or director in order to make that contribution to the world. There are things that I say sometimes where, you know, I've said this to teachers, I've had somebody say this to me, and, you know, some people rubs them well with some people doesn't. And what I say is lead from your classroom, you know, if you're looking to do something that makes a contribution, even if you are trying to move up to administration, lead from your classroom, really, really put your heart into instruction, and planning. I think that, you know, over the last three years, we have forgotten about our core planning, because we were interrupted as a profession, we found ourselves to, and we found ourselves learning these technology tools, and the technology tools are great. But now we are all in person, you have to remember the importance of building relationships, and the importance of building a classroom that is engaging, at least to two to three days a week, I have a lesson where kids are out of their seat. And the reason I do is because they need to be able to have that kinesthetic learning that they didn't have over the last three years, and have that learning through top that they didn't have over the last three years. You know, Zoom wasn't real talking. Right? Zoom, it was communication, but it wasn't the real, the real person to person communication. So I'm back in the classroom to make that contribution. Because as a society, we forgot a lot 100% And I love that that we can lead, right? Where we're at doesn't matter what position because leadership basically is influence. And each and every single one of us influence those around us. And I know your students are happy to have you back into the classroom. Now I just want to touch Yeah, no, absolutely. And you can see it like when you light up talking about your students right there. So that's pretty special. for someone that's looking to trust their intuition a little bit, could you dive into real quick, what exactly is the process for a value store? So it's, um, it's actually in an article I wrote for Edutopia, and I linked it on they linked it in there for me, it is a bunch of like, values right on cards. So like, in our case, was one of mine faith was one of my family was one of mine. And what you have to do is, there's a lot of them, like maybe like 50, or 60 of them, and you have to try to group them into what is most important, what is important, what's not important, and you really have to narrow down you're most important, but eight to 10 of them. And that's hard, because we care so much about those values. Now, sometimes we tend to create those, we tend to make these, these, it's meant we tend to make things our values because we think we're supposed to. And so you really have to think about not what am I what is society want me to do, but what do I want? Yes. So, yeah. And so that's that's where, you know, sometimes it's tricky, because we think that, you know, especially when we're in administrative roles, and teaching roles to we're in the public eye, we are public figures and so what's public, you know, you kind of go kind of gravitate towards what does the public want me to think and be my value? But you got to remember what you You want to be your value comes first. And I think as educators, we, we strive for perfection. Like when I and that is a national norm, I think that when we look at, it was featured. It was, it was one of those teacher blogs that put something up about, you know, the teacher contract in 1872. And it was you, you can't be married, you can't smoke outside of school, you can't. If you have kids, you know, you can't teach, you know, it's all these things. And when you think about that, that's the history of teaching, right? We've, we've been putting these boxes to be perfect figures. And we're not perfect. We're not nobody. And so that's what we have to remember that our values are for us, not the public, not what our parents or our spouses want. And that's really what drove my thinking there. I love that. I love that. And it's really interesting. You know, I don't think about it too often. But when you bring it back to like the history of teaching, yeah, like the teaching, and the image that we've supposed to have portrayed throughout history has been like a standard, that's not really achievable. Sometimes, like perfection is not achievable. Progress is important. Attraction. 100%. Now, what are some ways that you bring wellness and mental health into the classroom? So I'm glad you asked that. So one of the things that I've been working on is something I put together, there's two QR codes on that on the student debt. You know, in high school, they all have phones. I mean, that's, do they always work for QR code? No. So you know, you might have one or two kids that don't have them, I do keep paper copies as well to accommodate. And so the students scan the QR code, and they have like a drop down of how are you feeling today, there's a feel we'll tape to the death. And it's, it's a wheel that helps with the language of emotions and feelings. And so they can take board off the fuel wheel, if there's something in my drop down menu, that doesn't work. And pretty much they tell me if there's anything that I need to know, before class. So when I take attendance, like, I make sure to kind of just look at the spreadsheet and check what's coming into me, just to see, like, you know, who needs space today? Who, who, who might need a conversation with, and so like, and they put like, hey, I need to talk to you. Like for three weeks, they've gotten pretty good about that. Um, and then there's also a checkout, and part of the checkout is our learning target, like, did we achieve our learning target? You know, I'm an addition that, you know, really works to strive, you know, with learning that is rigorous. That is, you know, targeted success criteria base. So I saw that, and then I also asked, like, how have you been feeling during class? And, also have we followed we do classroom social contract, have we followed our classroom social contract. And so the social contract is built by the students really, and I ask them a series of questions at about, like how they want the classroom climate to be. We build that together as a class, which I do think is very, it's empowering to them that they know that they've helped build the structure of that classroom. Absolutely. I do try to work with students keeping their phones out of Sunday. And it's been fine. I actually have a doorbell that I ring at the beginning of class. So you know, they've scanned their phones, and they've, you know, done what they need to do for me, and they're working on what I call a settlement assignment. I don't call them a bell ringer or do now. Because I think that language creates anxiety. So I call it a settling assignment where they're doing the assignment to settle into the class. And so that's what I've been, you know, teaching this structure to do. Yeah, in addition to that, I do have like a sensory area. And so like, a lot of times in high school, we become content extra experts. So when I started out as a high school teacher, 18 years ago, I was a content expert. I was not a pedagogy, nor social emotional learning expert. I gain that expertise over time, right of teaching, but also being in the various roles I've been in. And also I've worked K to 12. And right, I've actually taught K to 12. And one my administrative roles, I had to serve as K to five classrooms as an ELL teacher. So maybe a little director so I, you know, I've seen it all I guess. And so, with high school, I have brought in some elementary structures, but I've given them more mature names and boundaries, I guess we could say and It created a sensory station where it was students struggling that day, there is a touch bin where there's certain fidgets they can touch on the, for the day, if they need to, there's a scent, then where there's some scented party that scented with essential oils. And I'll be honest, my students are huge fans of that. Um, it's been used a lot lately. And I even you know, I do raffles every now and then for like participation. And even like in my raffle, they, they want the party as a prize. And so I'm glad racers. So they can have a scented eraser and keep that eraser. But that I also have a visual area where they can look at visual painting that may occur, they have a visual paintings that may calm them down. And then there's also there's a sound area, but it's not sound per se, because I don't want anyone to be like drumming on something is. The class is more inspirational stickers, and water bottle figures. They're fans of those two, I, I you know, I've had to replenish my water bottle stickers, they really like. So I mean, like, I tried to do you know those structures in a high school classroom. And also some of you may have seen on Twitter, this like triangle with V that I have in my room. And what that is, is it's a I think that they call it peace feet in it, I think it comes from Responsive Classroom approach, and a peaceful path, which is more of an elementary thing. But I call it peaceful path. And we're, we're walking through the steps of an issue. So like, the other day, I had a student come to me and she was like, you know, mean, this girl, you know, whatever. And so we talked through the issue using the stats. And that's how we really reasonable thing. Absolutely. And I saw that on Twitter, and that's something that really popped out to me is that peaceful pathway where you had that triangle, and then you had like footsteps at different parts of the triangle to really give that visual and how you had like different colors at each footprint. And that represented a different part in that conflict resolution. Yeah, so the blue is like you state the problem and explain what happened. And then the orange, it's like, okay, let's vent about this. I know you need to get out let's vent about this. You tell me how you feel you tell me what's going on? And then I kind of say, Okay, now that you vent it, now you've seen the problem. Let's go to the next step, which is solutions. And I think that one of the things that adolescents in general, with the lack of being able to interact, relate to yours, right? The way that they should, they really lost the ability to problem solve. Absolutely. And and I love how you gave it a visual, and we have to teach them. Conflict Resolution is not easy. Adults like it, all we have to do sometimes is look around and adults, we don't always know how to do it the best way. So teaching them giving them that space, giving them that visual to identify it is awesome. Yeah. And so like, I'm a visual learner, so I'm like, if I'm a visual learner, they're gonna need those visuals to like that. That's actually helped me out. No, blue, that is orange that is green. Like, I love it. I love it. And I love you know, you talk so much about some of the things you said that you brought up some of the elementary to the high school, I think with your experience where you said you had that experience at the primary, intermediate level, and how you brought in, like, for the students to settle in, whether it is the sensory station, I think there's so much that we can share. Sometimes we get broken off in the blokes like I'm at the primary level, you're at the high school level. But there's certain things if we just put a little twist on it, that we can learn from one another and they're interchangeable within the ages. They just needed to be hit that maturity level and changed a little bit. I think like high school teachers like when I think about my my, my beginning of my teaching, we were trying to be content experts in the programs we came from, and I came from very strong program. But I would say my first year teaching, I wasn't totally ready for that understanding that pedagogy and understanding classroom management. And so it has to be a learned thing and I think programs when we're thinking about teacher programs and teacher retention Should we really need to think about? Well, in our programs, what tools? Are we giving teachers or daily high school teachers in order to manage classrooms in order to, you know, really give engaging pedagogy? That yeah, that is key. And I love also how you had, you know, with the QR codes that kids can come in, and just that that mental health check where you brought it up to their age level where they can scan it, they can give you a quick check in but also love that that follow up at the end of class? Did we follow that social contract that we drew up together? Did we meet the standards? How was it for you getting that feedback directly from them? That's huge. Isn't it empowers them? I think, so that I tell them like, whatever you tell me, I'm going to try to adjust if it you know, it makes sense. I'm going to adjust. And he usually does. So I need to be very honest there will say like, Hey, today, we didn't follow our social contracts, because we should have had our phones off the desk, and we didn't. And I you know, and even if they're not Adam, I just say off the desk, because I know if my phone's around me, I'm gonna be like, hey, like, my Twitter, I'm gonna, you know, absolutely. And I tell the man, I'm like, I keep my phone out of sight, because I want to look at it while I'm teaching you all, like, we get it, we get it. So like that. Those are the things that I hear in the in the feedback. It's it's funny what they say. But you know, they also tell me like, these are the terms we learned, like, we were unpacking ethos, pathos, logos the other day, and they were able to, you know, bring some of that information into your code. And the thing with that is like the QR codes like that's getting at there, like that we can incorporate QR codes into the instruction. That helps sometimes, you know, because teachers will tell me like, not at my school, but even like, where my son goes, like, we just let them have their phones, because we don't want to fight that battle. And I'm like, Well, why don't you just incorporate it into the instruction? Yeah, no, absolutely. Do that. And it just makes sense. No, 100%. Now we talked about like, that teacher retention is huge, especially now. And I think part of teacher retention, teacher wellness, and I know you have a ton of tips and tricks to for teacher wellness, would you mind sharing a few rules? Yeah, I think a lot of times when teachers hear self care right now, they start cringing, because that's all we've been told. But nobody's really like giving us time and space for that. And so I think most importantly, time efficiency. In past roles, I've seen teachers like, take their plan periods, and like, go chat with the office person, or go chat and lunch even know what I'm talking about. Teachers do that. And, you know, part of self care, is really using our timeline. It's really planning for what we need to accomplish. And so if you are using your prep periods, effectively, like, you know, or if you're using morning time you're given or after school time, you're given effectively to the kid leader. And you might be given a chunk of time where you're still on contract. But you know, you got to stay in the building. Right, who's that time and schedule things and get things done? You know, sometimes, I mean, for me, there's some people who really roll with last minute, and that's great. Like, I can't do that. Like, I have to know what my lesson plans are two weeks in advance. Yes, I adjusted students, yes, I adjust to how the class is going. But I have to have like a roadmap. So I think a lot of our anxiety is pent up, because we're not playing. We're not, you know, we're we're not using our time well, and we're not prioritized. And also, we got to remember not to take on too much. And have those boundaries. It's okay to say no. And, you know, the other day I said no to something and I kind of cringe like, because I'm usually a yes man. But I said, you know, the person respected it, but I was like, Whoa, there I go. I had that boundary. And I struggled with boundaries over the years. So, you know, that's kind of where I stand on that. And yeah, it is making time also for things like meditation and eating better. And, um, and, you know, just having time to exercise, but also I think one of the things as teachers is we let our identities be the teacher Like, we forget that we're Mom, we're daughter were a wife or husband, we forget about that. And so we make teacher our full identity. And that's one thing that I've had to learn to step away from. And I've had to learn the hard way is my identity is more than being a teacher. That's just part of who I am. That's not the whole thing. And I think that when educators really ground themselves in that, they begin to find more balance. 100% Yeah, we are so much more than just an educator, it's a piece of us. But like you said, whether you're a mother, a wife, a father, a husband, you might be a coach, many, many different things. So it's important that we just don't view ourselves is that one thing, and I love how you talked about being intentional with our time. That's important, and creating those boundaries. Because some sometimes and I'm kind of like you, I'm gonna Yes, man. And sometimes it's good. And sometimes it can. When you're saying yes, and you really don't want to do something that can cause a lot of anxiety, too. So I have a new wrote a great article about boundaries that I will link into the show notes. Because it is important, like saying no, is important for our mental wellness. It is and the first time a couple of times you do you kind of cringe like oh my god, I just said no. But then like, you're like, Okay, nobody's upset. The world didn't end. Yeah, that is the truth. It is like that first few times that you say no, it's hard, because it goes against what you're used to saying. But it gets easier over time. Like you said, the world is not going to stop just because we said no. Yeah. Awesome. Now you have some big things on the way you've gone back into the classroom, you write for a bunch of different organizations, and you're in the process of writing your first book, would you mind sharing us given us a little snippet of what your future books gonna be about? I gotta get on top of it. Like the last month, I have not been on my writing schedule. But it's because you know, I have to adapt to being a teacher again, but I'm gonna get on my writing schedule. Very soon. I'm digging even this weekend. But the book is about pretty much I'm really considering our mental health as educators, and it's a guidebook for that. I mean, is, am I a clinical? Am I Am I a clinical therapist? No, I'm not. I hope that the book, maybe is a step for people to say, Hey, I do need the help and support I should see clinical therapist. So it's a stepping stone for really helping teachers understand their own mental health, and hopefully guidance for getting the help that you need. Because also, as teachers, we try to say, we don't need help. We can do it. All right, we think we are Superman and Wonder Women, but we have to remember that we're not unset Yes, 100%, one of I read a lot of Daniel Coyle, and he's big on culture. And he says, One Piece of culture is being vulnerable. And being, you know, being able to say, when you do need a little help, they reach that handout sometimes. And as far as that writing schedule goes, I think every educator out there right now can completely identify when you go from summer vacation, back in that first month of getting back into that routine and getting the classroom set up is a lot. It is It was nice being off for the summer, I haven't really had a summer off. So I really enjoyed that summer off, you know, the transition from admin to teaching. The summer vacation is pretty phenomenal. It is we need to recharge because the year is so much. It is it is there. The burnout would be unbelievable if you if we didn't have that summer vacation. And I think your book is special, because you're writing it from a place where you're right in the trenches. You're in that day to day. No. And you understand like those battles and what if you're not in the classroom? You might not really you can get a little snippet but you don't know like the day to day things that go on and what people face. So I think it's gonna be great and I can't wait to read it when it comes out. Thanks, thanks. I got to finish writing it. It'll happen it will definitely happen. But now, what is in these are my last couple of questions. I always love asking people, What is a book or a podcast that you would recommend to others out there. I got a couple on my desk right now. There's, I think his name's Chris Eldon. He actually spoke at our district. Our district is what the district I just started working for it. Like I said, the second largest district in Illinois, they are wonderful when it comes to equity work. And they invited a guy named Chris Holden's name's Chris Eldon speak. And so I had been digging into his book, it's called ratchet Demmick. And it's really thinking about what we bring to our school for children of color. And really, how how does? How does our what kind of joy are we bringing? What type of you know instruction? Are we bringing to support our students? And how can we be Rach endemic? That I'm thinking into that the Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk. It's a popular book about brain, mind and body and the healing of trauma. That book has been, you know, near and dear to my heart. And then also, I've been reading the power student teams, I'm Michael Toth and David Soos, I think Susa, it's a book that a lot of people in the district I work for are reading. And because we are doing academic teaming, and so on learning how to do that. And so it's achieving social, emotional, cognitive learning in every classroom through academic teaming. And, you know, I'm still digging into it. But it's a really great tool to use to empower our students with the ability to lead their own teams in the classroom and lead their own learning. And so it's got some really good ideas in there about really taking out learning targets and having kids on the learning target, if that makes sense. Yeah, no, absolutely. Those are great suggestions. Yeah. And then also one more, no, please, my friend, and he's got his own podcast, too. And the podcast has the same name leading equity by Sheldon Aikens, and I know Sheldon, and he's a good guy. And his book is really, it's very, it's written in a very, um, I would say, a very direct way of, you know, thinking about the value of equity in our schools. And I just like when I look at his writing, I just like the writing, because it's so like, it's he doesn't beat around the bush. He's just there. And thinking about advocacy for the individual students. That's fantastic. Well, I definitely will be checking out the leading equity podcast, and yeah, that's good. Good, good. Good. And those are some great books, suggestion, some new ones. So I appreciate that. Thank you. Now, if someone wanted to connect with you, what would be the best ways that others can connect with you? Twitter? Um, yeah, I would say Twitter, and my Twitter handle is at Mrs. That sad one, seven? I do. I do respond to direct messages. So feel free to contact me. I give out my resources. I've had people say, you know, you were working on a goal setting sheet for weed a weed a standards and helping students with legal goals? Yeah, I'll give that to you. I'm the type where I just give it out. Like, because, you know, we we all need the community and support. We do. We do. That's great. Now, if you could have a listener, walk away with one thing from this episode, what would that one thing be? You know, when it comes to your career, what you need to do for you, not what everybody expects for you. Not what everybody thinks you should do. Do what you need to do. And really, listen to yourself. That's powerful. Listen to yourself. I love that. Well, Sarah, thank you so much for being here for sharing so many gems. You're doing great things, whether it's for all the educators out there, and I know when I, the listeners can't see it, but I can see it. When you light up when you're talking about being inside that classroom. Those students are blessed to have you. So thank you so much for all you do, my friend. Thank you and listeners. Thanks for listening. This was such a great conversation with Sarah side. She's a wonderful woman who has so much to share. And with all the different roles that she's served in throughout her career, she has that ability to see things through multiple lenses, which is definitely a great attribute. Now, this is the teaching champions tape, where I share three of my favorite gems from this conversation. And the first gem is when Sarah talked about lead from where you are, that it doesn't matter what role we serve him within the school, because each and every single one of us is a lead. Because ultimately leadership is influence. And all of us influence how we show up for the day. The energy, we give off, the way we approach problems, the way that we communicate with others. They all influence those around us. And it's important to remember that we're all leaders. So we just have to ask ourselves, are we being the leader that we want to be? The second gem that I loved is how Sara incorporated the check ins and checkouts into her classroom, how she's incorporating technology, how she's making sure that all of her champions are doing well. And she also goes and gathers information about what those students are taking away from the lesson, because we might think that we're knocking it out of the park on a lesson. But if our students aren't walking away with what we desired, then we need to switch it up. So these check ins and check outs are fantastic. And the third gen is I loved how Sarah embraced her time with the primary students. And she was able to incorporate things like that sensory station into her class to help calm her students down. Because it's easy to get caught up on focusing on just our particular area, our particular grade level, that we don't realize that there are amazing ideas out there, from every grade level, every content area, things that we might be able to borrow, and put a little spin on to use inside our own classrooms. And these are just a few of my favorite gems. Hit me up on Twitter at be Martin real. And let me know what were some of your favorite takeaways from this interview. And as we wrap up, I want to take a quick second and mention that my friends at road awesome. Dr. Darren Papert and Dr. Brandon Beck have created two courses that will help you step towards achieving your goals. And I'm going to leave that link in the show notes if you're interested. And I want to give Sarah A big thank you for this conversation, and for sharing so many wonderful takeaways. Now I also want to thank you for being here, for being part of the teaching champions community, we support, we encourage we lift each other up. And if you think someone would benefit from this message, please pass it on. 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. Keeping amazing my friends and as you go out into the week, May step into your strength may step into shine. And let's build our champions. Have a great weekend.