Saying Good Bye, Culture, and Apologies

What's going on everybody, I hope this finds you striving and thriving and doing absolutely amazing. It was our first week back from break, and things went well as we're entering that final stretch. And I was walking down the hallway with one of my colleagues, who's a good friend. And as we go into this final stretch, she's finishing her last few weeks as a teacher. And she's going to be retiring after 40 some years. And there's a walk, we passed by a paper chain that a fellow teacher had hung up outside of their class. And it was a countdown for all of my colleagues who are retiring this year. And my friends stop. And she reached down, and she picked up the bottom of the chain. And she looked at that last link, and it had 40, some days written on it. And she let out a little laugh. She shook her head. And she left a chain fall. And I looked at her and I asked her, was she excited? How is she doing with all this as we're slowly coming up on that final countdown. And she looked at me and she said, she really didn't know, the teaching has been what she's known for the last 40 years. Now, I'm sure she's going to do great in retirement because she has so much to look forward to. But that conversation really stayed with me. We're always in such a rush. To get to the big events in our life. We're always consumed with that to do lists. We're always just trying to make it to the weekend. And we can miss out on so much of what today has to offer. And this conversation, it was just a reminder to me to be where your feet are at, to stay present to embrace the moment. Because Time goes fast, and we shouldn't want to miss any of it. And this week, I want to share something that I saw something that I heard, and something that I read. And these are a few things that have stuck with me lately. And these are things that made me think that made me reflect and hopefully, maybe they made me a little bit better this week. And as I share them, maybe they resonate with you. Maybe they don't, or maybe they make you think of something that you saw something that you heard something that you read this week, that made you a little better. And I think one of the ultimate goals for all of us is to be a little bit better today than we were yesterday. And hopefully a little bit better tomorrow than what we are today. And the first thing that I want to talk about is something that I saw recently, there was this video that was circulating around, and it was of this gentleman who I would say judging by the size of his students taught around the fourth or fifth grade. And we always talk about how we greet our students, greeting them at the door lighting up as they come in. Some of us have special greetings that we share with our champions, the words that we speak to them as they enter our spaces, just to let them know how happy we are to see them. But how often do we talk about how we send them off, whether it's the end of the period, end of the day, end of the week. In many ways, this is just as important as how we welcome them into our classroom while I was watching this video of this male teacher, and you could tell in this short video that he brought a strong male presence to his classroom. And it's the end of the day and he's standing outside the classroom door. And as the students acts, he gives them a hug and he says I love you. One after another the students exit the classroom and he pulls them in and he says I love you and this is done in a very up appropriate manner. And you could see how these students cared about him and the power that this action that these words left in those champions. And then the last student comes out, and he's walking, and he has his head down. And the teacher stops. And he says, It was a tough day. And I love you. And he hugs the student. And the student, he starts to walk off, and his head is still down. And the teacher says, hold up. And as he's going toward the student, in a loving manner, where you know, he's going to have a heart to heart with his champion, the video cuts off. And this is a powerful video, it illustrates how much it means that our champions leave our space. And they know that we care about them, that they know, we value them, that they know that we appreciate them, that they know that we're here for them. And they should walk away every single day from our space, feeling that way. And think about how that strengthens the connection between us and our students. And look what this gentleman did. For that student who had a rough day. He recognized it. But he reaffirmed to the young man, that even though it was a tough day, I still love you. And when this young man was walking away with his head down, this gentleman stopped him and was going to make sure that this child left his space with his head held high. And those students who push back against us, they need reaffirming that no matter what happened throughout the course of the day, we're still there for them. It's important. They need to know that they can have a rough day. But there's still love just the same. And I'm not sure who this gentleman was. But all I can say is well done, sir. Well done. And something that I heard this week comes from a new podcast that I checked out. It's called the no quit living podcast by Christopher Werth. And it's a personal development podcast. And the host was talking about a company that he was working with, and the culture that this company was trying to create. And he talked about an acronym from the word culture. And I have to be honest, that I'm big on culture, and how we create so I was locked in during this episode. And the acronym that he gave was excellent. And it is something that I should strive for every day in my classroom, in my school, in my personal life, and it's something that you should strive for in your class, in your school, and in your personal life. And Mr words, broke down cultures this C is communicate, u is understanding, L is love. T is trust you as us, R is relationships, and E is energy. And I love this. Imagine if we kept these pillars of culture at the forefront of our minds each and every single day. We should be asking ourselves, How are we communicating with those around us? Are we open? Are we using our words to encourage to lift up to strengthen to affirm? Are we leading with understanding? Do we show empathy? Before we judge before we critique? Are we trying to see things from others perspective? And love? How are we showing up and letting those around us know that they're seen that they're heard that they're valued? Trust? Are we building it? Are we cultivating it? are we sharing it? Us? How are we showing up? Are we focusing on controlling the things that we can control? Relationships? What are we doing to strengthen relationships today? If we want to have strong relationships, then we have to be pouring into those relationships. And it can be easy to get comfortable, where we get kids assumed by everything that we need to do that we end up neglecting our relationships after a while, is not purposeful, but it can happen. And energy. What type of energy are we bringing to the day? When we enter the room? Are we lifting that room up? Or are we pulling it down? Culture is key. And we influence it every day. And when I heard this acronym, I wrote it down as a reminder. And every day, I try and reflect on how I did that day in each one of those areas. And in some of those areas, I do great. And then other areas, I struggle. And it's through that reflection, that it keeps it in the forefront of my mind. And whether you like this definition of culture, or you have different components that are important to you take time daily, or at least weekly. And ask yourself, How are you doing in those areas? What areas are you excelling at? What areas do you need to work a little bit more? Because that culture, it matters. And last, recently, I've been reading the book teachers these days by Dr. Jody Carrington, and Laurie McIntosh. And in it, the authors are talking about repairing ruptured relationships. And there were two things that really stood out to me in this chapter. The first was, the author said that we need to normalize apologies, they mentioned that the more apologies that we receive, the more apologies that we can give. And that's the truth. Think of your own class, do have students who no matter what they do, will not apologize. And that can be frustrating. But when we step back, and we ask ourselves, How often have these students men apologized to? Do they know what an apology looks like? Do they know what it feels like to receive an apology. And for many of them, they may not live in a world where they've experienced that a lot, then that's why it's important for us to be the biggest models of this, we're human, we're not going to react to every situation that we face day in and day out perfectly. So there's going to be plenty of opportunities for us to own our mistakes. And to model what an apology looks like. Another gem that I took away from this chapter is a simple question. With everything that we do, between our words, and our actions, are we breaking or building connection. Because every single day, within every single interaction, we're doing one of the two, we're either breaking connections, or we're building connections. And the author mentioned how she put signs around the room saying braking, or building to remind yourself that in every single interaction that she has, she's doing one of those. And these are just a few of the things recently that have made an impression on me. There were a few things to reflect, to ask ourselves. How do we show our students as they leave our space, that we care about them? To think about the culture we built, how we communicate, how we show, understanding how we show love, how we show trust, how we strengthen us, how we build the relationships around us, and what is the energy that we bring? And finally, how are we normalizing failure? And are we breaking or building our connections today? And my challenge for you this is to think about something that you've seen, something that you've heard, or something that you've read this week. What's something that you can reflect on? There's gonna help you be a little bit better today than you were yesterday, and help you be a little better tomorrow than you are today. Thank you for being here for being part of the teaching champions community. I appreciate you. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast so you can get new episodes come right to you. And I'd be extremely grateful if you could share this episode. are with someone that you think would benefit from this message. The teaching champions community is all about supporting, encouraging and lifting each other up. And always remember, whether 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. 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