Thoughts After a Year of Podcasting

I'm Brian Martin, I'm 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 before I get started today, I just want to share with you a great event that's taking place on December 30, from one to four eastern time put on by the road, awesome family. It's going to be a free live event called pep rally leaning into leadership. And we're going to be celebrating education, we're going to be celebrating all of you who are out there serving and making a difference each and every single day. And it's going to be a day filled with positivity and joy, there's going to be free giveaways. And it should be just a lot of fun. It's going to be live streamed on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. And you can register for the event at Rhodes awesome.net. And I'm going to leave a link in the show notes. Definitely would love to see you guys there. Now I had to do it this week. One of my least favorite things to do inside the classroom is breakout, the glitter. Words really don't describe my feelings towards. But it's that time of year. And I'm going to admit though, I made a promise to myself this year to appreciate moments like this. This is my 52nd episode. A year ago, I started this podcast a year ago, I was 100% remote. And I cherish those moments that I shared with my students from last year. And that class is always going to have a special bond with me. But I missed being in the physical classroom, I missed the energy of being in school. And I said going into this school year that I was going to cherish the small moments, even those moments when I was going to be working with glitter, there's always going to be parts of our day that they're not our favorite thing to do. And it's important though, from time to time, to remind ourselves of what it could be, and what we truly do have. And with that being said, if you've been a listener for this show for a while, I want to say thank you for going on this journey with me. And if you're new to the podcast, I just want to say welcome. And I hope you're able to walk away with something of value today. And this being the one year anniversary of the show, what I want to do is I want to go back, and I want to revisit some of the themes that run throughout this show. I want to revisit some of the amazing people and their teachings that we've looked at, is going to happen in no particular order. But I think some of these lessons are valuable. And if you can just pick out one of them and bring that into your day, you're gonna see tremendous results. And the first one that came to my mind was a teaching by Dr. Joe Sam Flippo. And he's been rated as a national Superintendent of the Year. If you don't follow him, he just exudes positivity. I love listening to him speak. And he was talking about school culture. And he said, If you want to build school culture, follow the R A E method. And when he's talking about AR a he, he said every time that you go into that building, every time that you go into your school building, and you walk down those hallways recognize the amazing things that are taking place, and we can go into any of our buildings, and there's something special that is happening every single day. And he said you start your mindset off right? If you enter that building and you recognize the great things that are happening. And then you take time to acknowledge that when you pass that person's room, and you see some great bulletin board display, or you had caught them in a teachable moment, where you just overheard them, knocking it out of the park with a student, that you take time, and you let them know how amazing that moment was, the great things that they're doing. And he said, after you've recognized it, and after you've acknowledged it, and you continue yourself on down the hallway, and you go into someone else's room, that you extend that conversation, that you go into that person's room, and you point out what you just saw. And you don't do it in a manner where we're comparing ourselves, and we're putting that person down. You do that in a manner where you're lifting them up while you're celebrating that person when they're not even around. And he said, If you do that, what's going to happen is that person that you just talked to, eventually, they're going to run into this other person. And they're going to let them know about the great things that they hurt. And think about the school culture that is built. Think about what would happen if we go through our schools, and we focus on recognizing the great things are happening all around, that we're acknowledging them, and we're extending it to others, that we're lifting each other up. Imagine that culture that's going to be built. Another teaching that I have truly cherished is from Dabo Sweeney, and Dabo Swinney is the Head Coach of the University of Clemson's football program. And he said when he took over that program, it was a team that was very mediocre. And he's built them into a national champion. But he said it his first meeting, that he walked in with his players, and he was carrying two signs. One sign was a wooden cutout. And it said belief in the other sign said I can't, but it had the T crossed off. And I said I can. And he said he is brought those two signs to every meeting that he's ever had with the players. And it's gotten to the point that if he shows up to a meeting, and he's forgotten one of those signs that the players pointed out to him. And think about how powerful that is. Think about the two messages that those signs carry. You know, I was in class earlier this school year, and one of my students were working on a project. And they said, I can't do this. So I took a page out of dabbles book, we stopped class, right on the whiteboard, I wrote in big letters, I can't. And then we crossed off the tee. And we read it together. I can. And it's a mentality is recognizing that we can do hard things is letting our students know when we tell them that you can, that we're here to help you that we're here to guide you that we see the greatness within you is letting them know. And it's giving them that visual clue. And then that same belief, and Dabo. I've heard him in other interviews, and he's elaborated on this. And he said that power of belief, because the world, the world's always going to be out there to tell everybody about what they can't do, about what they won't be able to achieve. There's always going to be so many voices out there that are trying to hold others back. But what if we use our voice to let those around us know, we believe in you. What if we let those students that come into our classrooms every single day? No. I see so much inside you. I believe you can do amazing things. And when we believe in people, we treat them different. They can feel it. We hold them to high expectations, but we're also patient with them. We're also there to guide them in they need to know I think all of us need to know I'm sure At some point in your own life, you needed someone to let you know that they believe in you. Even at 42 years old, I can't tell you how good it feels when someone pulls you myself aside, and lets me know that they believe in me. So let's empower our students with those two thoughts. I can, and I believe in you. A third teaching that I really cherish this year comes from Sara Blakely. Now I never knew who Sara Blakely was going into this year. But this is Jen and Sara Blakely. She's the founder of Spanx. And her story is amazing. There's a bunch of great YouTube videos and podcasts that she's been on. And I encourage you to go check her out, because she's a self made billionaire. And her story is amazing. Her story starts off with someone who had a couple$1,000. And she entered an industry that was dominated by men at the time. And she took them head on. And her story wasn't one where she experienced success right away, that she had to face trials and tribulations. But she said, the one thing that really impacted her was when she was a child, and she would come home from school with her brother, and her father was waiting for them at the door. He will welcome them into the house. And he would want to know, what did you fail at today? He wasn't asking them. Did you get 100? On the spelling test? He wasn't asking them. What did you succeed that? He said, What did you fail it today? And she said his whole purpose? And asking, What did you fail at today was if you're not failing, you're not taking chances. And he want his children to always be taking chances to always be learning to always be growing. And she said that set in to her whole mentality. And she said she doesn't view failure is not being successful at something. Failure to her is not try and think about how often we might not try. I know for myself, I've had to work on this a lot. Because I've always been worried about what other people would think. So I held myself back. I wouldn't put myself out there. Because I was afraid of not being good at something. So I view this mentality that Sara Blakely has as so important. It's so important for our students to adopt the mindset that failure isn't getting something wrong, because that's the society we live in the if you're not perfect, you're failing. That's so far from the truth, though. Failing, is not trying. Failing, is not doing something that you wanted to do. Because you're worried about how you're going to be viewed. Because you're worried that you won't be good at it. So it's so important that we let our students know that making those mistakes. That coming up short, is all part of the learning process. Another great person that I took a lot from is Coach Bob Starkey, and he's the coach of the Texas a&m men's basketball team. And he said that he will coaches players tough, that he will get on them, that he will have high expectations for them. But he said before he does that, he loves them up, that He loves them tough, that he pours so much into them. That that allows him to hold them accountable, that he's able to demand things from his players because they know how much he loves them how much he cares about them how much he cherishes and I think that's what we need to do inside our classrooms. We want high expectations. We demand a lot from our students. And the best way to get that out of them is to let them know how much we care, to let them know that we're there for them, to let them know that we're always going to be supportive of them, even when they come up short, that we're gonna show up and still be there for. So love your students tough. Another teaching is from Dr. Jody Carrington. And if you don't know who Dr. Jody Carrington is, she has several books out there. She's absolutely amazing speaker, great thought leader. One thing that she said in her book, titled kids these days, is she reminds all of us, the kids can't give away what they don't have. Kids can't give away empathy. Kids can't give away kindness. Kids can't give away love. If they've never been shown that, if they don't have that with in them, some of our toughest students don't have that they've never been shown that thing about the world that some of these kids grow up in. Not every kid that shows up at our doorway, has been told that someone loves them. Not every kid has someone who outside of school models, what it means to be empathetic. Not every kid has someone that models form, what it means to be kind, what it means to have someone fill you up with positive and uplifting words. So be there for you. So we need to keep that in mind. And that's not always easy. There's going to be tough patches. But if we're looking for the long run, if we're looking at the future of the students, then it's so important that we keep pouring these into them that we keep modeling it for them, that we show them patience and kindness and love and empathy. And eventually, because we were the ones who never gave up, we were the ones who showered them with empathy, modeled what it means to be kind to learn that helping hand that's going to take root. And that's going to help them out tremendously. Another great teaching that I came across this year was from Dr. Daren pepper. And in his book The road to awesome, he talks about two questions. And I think these are two questions that each and every single one of us needs to keep in mind. And he said he was at a faculty meeting. And they were talking about all these students behaviors, and everything that was going wrong. And a staff member raised their hand. And she asked, Why does it always have to be about what they do wrong? Why can't it be about what they do, right? And that's a small shift in mentality. But if we stop looking at all of our students, and stop focusing on every little thing that they do wrong, and we start emphasizing, on what they do, right? Imagine how that's gonna make them feel. Imagine if I start looking at a student and I start seeing the great things, because all of them have great things with it. And I start focusing on that. How I view that student is going to change how I treat that student is going to change my relationship with that student is going to change. So when we find ourselves, focusing on what they do wrong, maybe we need to take a step back and focus on what they do. Right. One of the best books that I read this school year was by Jon Acuff, and it was titled soundtracks, and it's all about the thoughts that we have in our head, and the power that we give those stops. One thing that he said, When you have a thought inside your head, that you want to ask yourself multiple questions. Number one, is this thought that I'm having true? Number two, is it true 100% of the time. Third, is it helpful? And is it kind, we're gonna have 1000s of thoughts that run through our heads daily. And we can't control all the thoughts, they just come to us. So it's important that we give power to the right thoughts, and that we learn to discard the negative ones, the ones that are holding us back. And that's something that we can teach our students as well. And another great takeaway that Jon Acuff had from his book was that we need to listen to soundtracks that other people have, listen to what other people are saying. And he said that he will write down thoughts that he has learned from other people's sayings that he's taken away from other people, I started doing that as well. And a couple things that I've held on to this school year is one quote by a mental conditioning coach, by the name of Justin sue his little, my little, a little becomes a lot. And I've held on to that, because think about our students were pouring in so much every single day. And sometimes we want results right away. But it doesn't happen like that. results come little by little. So if we just win the day, we just pour in a little bit, each and every single day, then a little by little, a little is going to become a lot. Little by little, our students are getting better, they're growing, they're learning, they're becoming a better version of who they are. And by the end of the school year, imagine where your students are going to be. Another quote that I've held close to me this year, is by John Gordon. He's an author, and positivity guru. And he said, Don't let them just hear your talk. Let them feel your walk. Don't let our words just be empty words. Let our words lead to action. That our words and actions, let them know how much we care about them, how much we cherish them, how much we believe in them. So don't let them just hear your talk. Let them feel your walk. And another quote that I've held tight this year, is for those bad days. Those days when you go home frustrated, was days when it's hard to sleep. And it is tomorrow isn't today. And it's important to remember, the school year is a marathon. There's going to be great days, there's going to be times when everything is going perfectly, our lessons are knocking it out of the park, our students are shining, and we're loving it. And then there's gonna be moments. There's gonna be a Class A day, that is just a struggle, that it's tough, that you take it home with you. So always remind yourself tomorrow isn't today. And another topic that we covered a lot is about the power of our words. Because our words have power, what we choose to fill our students with how we talk to them, it matters. Our voices have power in their lives. Sometimes we underestimate the power of our words and what it can do for them. So always be cognizant of it. They say, We can either be a drain, or a fountain in our words can act like that we can suck the energy the life out of someone with our words, or we can be like that out and we can fill them up. And we can help make them feel stronger. Make them feel courageous. Make them feel like a great learner. That's the power that our words have. And now my second episode, I talked about the power of showing up. And it was something that resonated with me, because as I was teaching remote last year, a colleague of mine who is a amazing at what they do. She told me that she felt like she was failing her students. And that was so far from the truth. Now, our lessons may not always be the best lessons, something might happen, there's a million different variables that are outside of our control. But just by you showing up just by you being there to listen, just by you being there, to speak strength, encourage and love to them, just by you showing up and letting your champions know that they're seen letting our champions know that they're heard that they're valued, you make an unbelievable difference. So next time, you're doubting about the difference that you're making about the impact that you're having, if you're showing up, you're making that difference. And the last thing that I want to talk about today is gratitude. Being grateful, recognize those bright spots, be grateful for them. We're at that point of the school year, where we can really see that growth. And I was reading with one of my champions the other day. And I was just listening to them read these words that the beginning of the school year, they never would have been able to. And I was seeing their face as they were lighting up is they are realizing of what they're doing. And it just filled me up. And I think about the laughter inside of the classroom. I think about the amazing colleagues that I'm surrounded with. I think about stepping outside my classroom door every single morning. And doing a little countdown with the kindergarten class that's waiting outside my door is we're trying to time when that bell is going to ring. And I think about how grateful I am to do this job. It's not easy. There's days when it's frustrating. But these students fill me up. There's so much to be grateful for. So make sure you take time, every single day, to sit back to think and remember how lucky we truly are, how many blessings we truly have in our life. And this is just a few of the things that we've talked about this year. I appreciate you so much. I appreciate you going on this journey with me learning with me. The teaching champions community is pretty amazing. We're there to support to encourage to lift 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. And my challenge for you this week is the thing about this soundtrack. And it comes from my dad. My dad is a pretty amazing guy. As soon as he retired from his job, he started volunteering in my classroom. And he would come in every single day. And he would read with the students. And he did this for years. And because of COVID he had to step away. But now, a couple times a week, he meets me on my lunch break. And we just take a 20 to 30 minute walk and we talk and the other day, we were out there walking. And he said, You know I don't worry about the past. Goes I'm not thinking about the future. I'm living my life right now. And I think that's important. Too, live your life right now. Just something to think about my friends. Keep being amazing. And as we go out into this 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