Thoughts From a Week of Teaching

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. You ever have one of those days where you feel like you just don't have it? Well, your energy was low, the flow of your lessons on that day just isn't particularly the way that you want it. And you just have a cloud of frustration surrounding you, where you're feeling a little grumpy. But then something happens and it makes you smile. It makes you take that step back and breathe. And it helps you snap out of that funk. Well, I was having one of those days. And it was towards the end of the week, not particularly what I would consider me being in my best. And it was towards the end of the day. And we're in the middle of a class. And one of my young friend shouts out, Mr. Martin. I'm sad. And I stop. And I said, why is that? And she goes, I wish it was Monday so that all of us could have the whole week together again. Now listen, my young friend got me, she snapped me out of the funk and put a smile on my face. And it's funny, sometimes you can be struggling and having all sorts of negative emotions running through you. And then there's that moment, that one moment where something happens. And it just serves as a reminder of how special things are. This young woman, she's smart, too. She knows parent teacher conferences are coming soon. She knew that. And she's definitely getting some good praise. And all seriousness, be on the lookout for these moments, capture them, hold on to them, reflect on them. These moments are over in the blink of an eye, but they can turn your whole day around. Now on today's podcast is going to be a little bit different. It's very random thoughts that I've had throughout the week. And each one of them is something that struck me and something that I wanted to reflect a little more on. And as always, these are just things that connected with me. Think upon your week, and what struck you. One of the best ways that we can grow is through reflection. My first thought stems from something that happened earlier in the week, my champions were playing a math game, and one of my students thought that he knew an answer to one of the questions. He gives me his answer. And he was wrong. And he sat there at his desk, his shoulders slouch forward, his head went down, and he blurted out, I always fail. And this moment right here, this is the most important moment of the week. And I'm only speaking for myself here. But in many ways, I want this to happen in the classroom. You see the students need to fail. All the students need to experience this sometimes is most important for the students. The academics come very naturally to them to feel these emotions, they need to feel that frustration. They need to feel a little disappointment. They need to feel what it means to come up short. And these are the moments where our teacher hats need to be on the most. These are the mic drop moments where you shut the class down and had the chance to make some of your biggest impact. Because failure is viewed as such a negative thing. Making mistakes is seen as weakness. But we need to change that narrative. And moments like this can help you flip the script on how failures perceived. You can help the students see them making mistakes is the pathway to growth, you can help walk the students out of the negativity basement, and help them understand how to cope with those feelings. And I'm not cold hearted, it stung a little to see my young friend feel that bad. But I care about them so much. And I want to build them up so that when they're older, and they face failure, they have these experiences to fall back upon. Because think of your own life. How many times have you faced adversity and come up short. There may have been moments this week, where you've had to push through those feelings and keep pushing ahead. Failure and making mistakes, they need to be normalized, it needs to be talked about daily, and it also needs to be celebrated. So our class took that moment, we talked about it, we celebrate it. And hopefully, all of us grew a little from it. A second thing that I thought about a little this week is to embrace your teaching neighbors, we all work with some amazing people. But teaching is a different job, though, the vast majority of our days are spent inside our classrooms with our students, we can get caught up staying just within our own teaching silos. And it's very easy to have very little adult interaction throughout the day. And there are people within all of our buildings that need a little positive interaction, a smile, a nod, a compliment, a short, positive interaction, they need to laugh. Our days are pretty packed. So we don't have a lot of time to sit around and shoot the breeze. But a simple one minute conversation, that conversation can mean the world to someone. So look, to connect, look to build our school culture, look to make a difference for your colleagues. Another thought that weighed on me this week is how we carry the weight of the school year. There is a long list of things that we deal with daily on a wide variety of topics, from academics, to social, emotional needs, to striving to accomplish everything that we need to do. And that's a lot. And I had a moment this week, I was frustrated with myself and other things within the classroom. And I took that home with me. And I spent the night with it hanging over my head. And I went to bed frustrated. And then I woke up the next day, and I hadn't even rolled out of bed yet in those issues from the day before we're smack dab front and center in my mind. And that's happened to all of us, where you go to bed with a problem. And it's just waiting there for you, the moment you open your eyes. And the worst part of it is most of the time, these problems aren't even that big of a deal. But it reminded me of a podcast by Justin Sue, who's a mental conditioning coach for the Tampa Bay Rays. And he talked about the Art of Letting Go the other day. And it was episode he shared the following story. A trainer walked around a room while teaching stress management to an audience. And she did so she raised a glass of water. Everyone expected they be asked the old half empty or half full question. Instead, she asked How heavy is this glass of water? The answers ranged from eight ounces to 16 ounces. She replied, the absolute weight doesn't matter. What's important is how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it's not happy. If I hold on to it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my arm. If I hold on to it for a day, my arm will be numb and feel paralyzed. In each case, the weight of the glass doesn't change. But the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes. She continue the stresses and worries in life. I like that glass of water. Think about them for a while and nothing happens. Think about them a bit longer, and they begin to hurt. And if you think about them all day long, you will feel paralyzed, incapable of doing anything. And I heard that story and it stayed with me this week. There's always going to be stress. There's always going to be burdens at school. And the most important thing is how we handle them. What do we do with them? How long do we choose to hold on to them? For me? I was holding on to something so small, but in turn, I was making it so big Think about your own weak, what were the stressors that you brought home with you? Were there things that you were holding on to that were hurting you just be aware of the things that you're holding on to, if we're not careful, we make those small things so much bigger. And they can have such a tremendous effect on us. Another thing that I thought about this week is how we need to step back and celebrate how far students have come. My school just finished the first marking period. So this week, I was doing a lot of data collection, getting ready for the report cards. And if you've been teaching the same grade level for many years, you know where the students need to be the different benchmarks that they have to meet, and so on. And one thing that seems to happen every year, is when you look at where you're at academically, that you can become a little overwhelmed of how much farther you have to go, how much more there still is to learn. And then looking so far ahead, sometimes that invites frustration, negativity, and other emotions. And what we forget to do sometimes is to look back and see how far students have come to celebrate that. Think about students in second grade right now. This is the first normal, uninterrupted school year that they have had since pre K. And some of them may have not even gone to pre K. So you're looking at a group of students who have never seen a normal school year. And what we forget to realize is that maybe the starting line changed for all of our students. And when you step back, and you look at how far your champions have come in such a short amount of time, we should be celebrating them. And my last thought actually comes from a conversation that I had with a friend several weeks ago, she lives in a different part of the country. So she's several weeks ahead. And she was saying that she's having her conferences, and one after another, the conferences are going well, the parents were saying how happy they were that their child was in our class, and how much their children love school. But then there was one conference for a student who's struggling. And this teacher was doing all she could to help this child. And we know that sometimes that's a process. And it takes time. Well, the parent came into the meeting, and was just saying some awful things. And man, many of us have been there. And that hurts when you're pouring so much love and patience and energy into trying to help someone. And your reward for that is met with some hurtful comments. And those negative comments. They always stay with us so much easier than the positive ones. And she said that all of her other conferences were filled with praise and appreciation. But at the end of the day, what was the one conference that she remembered? What were the words that she took home with her, the ones that were the most hurtful. And she said she felt those feelings. And then she forced herself to take a step back and look at where this person was coming from. And look to understand what their goal was in saying these words. And this individual was defensive. And instead of trying to have discussions on might work best for the child, she was just trying to hurt the teacher. And my friend said it took some work. But when she was able to step back and identify what the woman was trying to do, she was able to let go of a lot of the sting that those comments had. And this is important for all of us to remember, whether it's a situation with a parent, a student, a colleague, you need to step back and you need to identify what are this person's intentions? Where's the place that they are coming from with this, and then turn recognize how much credence should you give these comments, that negativity. It's sticky. So just always be aware of these comments, because they tell more about the person who's saying them than they do about you. And I just want to add that my friend the rock star that she is said, even though that woman put her down, she said she has been showing up day after day, and she will continue to show up for this child and give this child all that she has. Now that's all I have for today. Just some random thoughts, but hold Hopefully something that you can take with you today, or at least hopefully it sparked a different thought in your mind that you can take with you going into the week ahead. And I just want to say thank you for your time for being part of the teaching champions community, we support, we encourage we lift each other up. And thank you so much for all of you for sharing this podcast with others who you think would benefit from it. It's all about trying to breathe a little fresh air and positivity into all the educators out there. And all of you are helping me do this. So thank you. 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 the same mission. And we're always better together. My challenge for you this week is to take some time and reflect on how far your students have come how much they've grown this year. The school year is long. There's a lot of mountains that still lay ahead. But when you look back, when you see how much your champions have accomplished, smile, be proud of yourself. Be proud of them. celebrate that. Keep being amazing, my friends, and as we go out into the week may step into your strength may step into your shine, and let's build our champions. Have a great week, everybody