Mid Week Pick Me Up: How We See Our Students

What's going on everybody? I hope this finds you striving and thriving and doing absolutely amazing. My name is Brian Martin and I'm hosted the teaching champions podcast. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever listened to someone or something? And it really made you pause and think and question yourself. I was listening to the admire that podcast the other day, and he was doing an interview with Jeff Foxworthy. And if you don't know who Jeff Foxworthy is, he's the number one seller of comedy Albums of All Time. And in this podcast episode, Jeff Foxworthy just dropped some amazing gems. But the biggest one that I took away is one that I don't think he was trying to get across. Mr. Foxworthy was talking about empathy, and how he tries not to judge others. And he mentioned something. And this was a huge reminder to me to not paint others with just one brush. To understand that there's a lot to those around us. Before COVID hit for over a decade, Jeff Foxworthy, a famous comedian, a multimillionaire will go to a homeless shelter, and lead a Bible group once a week. And in this interview, he will go on to describe some of the lessons that he learned from this group. But as I listened to this, it really made me stop and think of how up until that interview, I would only view this man is a famous comedian. I labeled him and I made my assumptions based off of this label. But he's so much more. And it really made me stop and think about that colleague that I passed in the hallway about those students that enter my classroom, do I just label them as well? Do I just look at them one dimensionally, and only see this surface level? The truth is, everyone. Whether it's those we work with, or the students we serve, they have so much to them. And sometimes, it's good to step back and ask ourselves, if we're only seeing them through one lens, if we're only allowing ourselves to see what is right in front of us, in the classic How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, Mr. Carnegie says, If you want to be interesting, be interested in other people take time to know others be curious, approach others with a willingness to learn a willingness to look for areas that you can connect over, or just a willingness to appreciate others for who they are. Because there's some pretty amazing people out there. And if we take a second, we can learn some pretty special things about others. People may just surprise you. And I want to add this as well. When I was an assistant varsity basketball coach, one of my favorite things was developing that bond with the players, and really getting that opportunity to find out who they were off the basketball court. And they all brought something unique to the team. And the one thing that I saw as important was helping these young men see that they were more than just an athlete, that there was a lot to them, because a lot of times these young men, they only saw themselves as an athlete. And it was up to us, to help them see how special how much to them. There truly was. So not only is it important to see others beyond their surface, and see all of their shine. But for our young people, and sometimes even for our peers, it's important that we help them see they're more than just one thing. It's important that you see that you're more than just one thing. We've been blessed with another side Sunrise my friends have an awesome day everybody