The Four Agreements for Educators

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. And this past week was a big one for me, I wrapped up the school year. And there's always a mixed bag of emotions that come with that, you know, you say goodbye to the students that you've laughed with, that you've bonded with that you've learned together, and you've watched them grow in so many ways. It's emotional. But being fully transparent, when you walk out of that building for the last time to end the school year. It is an unbelievable feeling. But before I left on that last day, I went to the main office, and I was cleaning out my mailbox. And there was a drawing that one of the students have made for me. And they dropped it off to the main office, when they return their school iPad. And it was all folded up. And I'm folded it. And across the top of the paper, it said, I love the superstar scholars. And that's what we call ourselves, you know, I'm second grade. So superstar scholars is still pretty cool to the young ones. And below these words, was a john of every single member of our class. And we're all holding hands, and then just melted my heart. You know, my students met each other one time. And this young lady felt such a special love for her classmates that she drew a picture like that. And if you teach elementary, you have a whole collection of these pictures, you have trinkets, and you have all these other gifts that the young ones give you. And I'm sure if you're in the older grades, that you get those emails and cards. And my whole purpose in sharing this is we set the tone in our classrooms. And if we fill it with love, if we fill with positivity, if we celebrate one another, we show empathy for one another, then even in the toughest of times, you can have a young lady draw a picture of all her classmates holding hands and saying how much she loves her class. When showing them what we create. We're responsible for that culture. And we can do it. Now let's get in today's podcast. And it's the second edition of the summer series where we focus more on us and the things that we can do to rejuvenate and be ready for when school starts back up. And today, I want to share a few lessons from a book that I would say is easily in the top five of my favorite books. And it's one that I'm gonna say it's had the greatest, if not one of the greatest impacts on myself and how I approach the day than any other book that I've ever read. And this book is The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, and in this book mysteries shares wisdom from the toltec people of Mexico. Now these agreements that I'm sharing with you, they can apply to our classroom, they can apply to our daily life as well. And what I want you to do is as you hear these agreements, think about your own life, think about the truth that's in his teachings, and think about how you can apply them. Now the first agreement that Mr. Ruiz talks about is to be impeccable with your words. He talks about using your words to build up to encourage to spread love and joy to make that positive difference. Because our words have power. They can make such a profound impact but And life has taught us this all too well. Our words can also destroy, they can hurt, and they can bring pain. And it all depends on how we choose to use our words. And it's not just the words that we speak to others, the words that we speak to ourselves, that matters so much as well. I mean, have you ever said anything to yourself that you would never say to another person, that the words are so hurtful, so painful, that you would be ashamed to your core if you spoke them to another, but you say them to yourself. And I think at some point in all of our lives, we've all been guilty of this. And one reason why our words matters so much, is because they stick to us, they influence us, especially the negative ones. And sometimes, we don't always recognize the impact our words have. In the book, Mr. Reis tells the story of a woman who she's intelligent, she has a good heart. And she has his daughter that she absolutely adores. And one night she comes home from work, and she's tired, she's not feeling good. She's filled with emotional tension. And all she wanted was some peace and quiet. And in the meantime, her daughter's there. And she's happy, she's singing, and she's dancing all around the house. And she's completely unaware of how our moms feeling. And as the night goes on, her singing, grows louder and louder. And as the singing grows louder, the pain in the mother's head grows to a point where she eventually she screams at the child, that she had an ugly voice, and to just be quiet. Now this mother, she loved her daughter. She is physically emotionally, mentally at her wit's end, and had a bad moment. And it wasn't that this girl's voice was ugly. It was that this mom was struggling. But the child, she believed her. And this child made an agreement with herself, that she would no longer sing. And now she believes her voice is ugly, and she doesn't want to bother anyone else with it. And the mother, she never realized the powers of the word she spoke. And think about how easy that can happen any one of us. It's so important that we're cognizant of what we say, because ultimately, we're all going to slip up at times. So if that happens, we need to address it right away, and we need to correct it. Because what we say matters and matters to our students, it matters to our colleagues, and matters to our family and friends. And remember, the words that we speak into ourselves, matters so much as well. agreement number two, don't take anything personally. And this is one that I have had to remind myself over and over again. And for this agreement, mysteries says, Whatever happens around us, what people say what people do, don't take it personally. Because other words and actions, it's all about them. And we want to create our world from the inside out, and not basing things off of external validation. If we know who we are, what we stand for, and love that person that we see in the mirror than others, they lose their power over us. agreement number three, don't make assumptions. Now, have you ever had a situation where you thought someone wronged you? But that wasn't the case. You perceive their actions one way. But it wasn't meant to be like that. And you create a story in your head and you started filling in the missing pieces. And every time you replayed that story in your head, you got angrier and angrier and angrier. Well, Mr. Reese says, Don't assume. And he says second, have the courage to go and seek clarity. You see, when we're presented with different situations, and those emotions start bubbling up inside, the best thing that we can do is we pause, step back and seek clarity. have that courage to go up to someone and ask them questions. Because the more we communicate, the more we're all with one another, the more we can avoid unneeded fallouts and confrontations. The fourth agreement is always do your best show up for the day and give your best. And that doesn't mean we have to be 100% all the time, because that doesn't happen. It means showing up and giving your all with what you had that day. Some days we wake up, and we're on cloud nine, and we can give that absolute 100%. Other days, we're not 100%. But we're still pretty good, we show up. And if we have 80%, that day, then we give all that energy that we have. None, there are those days where life hits you with a haymaker. And it's all we can do just to get out of bed. Just know, you just give what you have. And it's all right. Now, this was just a quick overview of the book, and I can't recommend it enough. Being impeccable with our words, not taking anything personally, not making assumptions, and doing our best. They sound simple. And some days they are. And some times they're not. But if we make a conscious effort to work on these, you're gonna see how impactful they truly are. And I just want to thank you for listening and being part of the teaching champions community, we encourage we support, we lift each other up. And if you could subscribe to the podcast, or share it with others that you think would benefit from this. I truly appreciate it. And always remember, it doesn't matter if we'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. And my challenge for you this week, choose one of those agreements, whether it's, be impeccable with your words, don't take it personal, don't make assumptions. Or always do your best. And make a conscious effort to apply this to your life for just a week. Pay attention to how you interact with others, and how they interact with you. And pay attention to how you feel at the end of the day. You know, we're always a work in progress in these agreements right here. So great place to start. Keep being amazing, my friends. And as we go out into this week, may you step into your strength, may you step into your shine, and let's build these champions up. Have a great week, everybody.