Two Questions

What's going on everybody? I hope this finds you striped in thriving and doing absolutely amazing. Two questions. Two questions came to my mind is I stood there, and I could feel my blood pressure rising. My name is Brian Martin. I'm a second grade teacher and hosted the teaching champions podcast. I stood there, and I watched. As my students walked out of the room to lunch, my blood pressure was elevated, I was frustrated, upset, and disappointed in myself in many ways. It had been one of those mornings with one of my students. And we were just not seeing eye to eye. There have been multiple moments throughout that morning, that had been a struggle with that individual. In the final straw calm as my friend had been upset their place in the lunch line. And they had been extremely vocal about their displeasure in this. And after a morning full of moments, I responded in a way that could have been handled differently. And as the students left the classroom, the energy had been sucked out. This particular student wasn't in a good place. And I was left alone in the room. And I was just filled with frustration, and disappointment. And as I stood there, I thought about something that I had read in Dr. Darren Pepper's book, The Road to awesome. And in this book, he talks about two questions that completely transformed the way he approached education. And he talked about a time when he was an administrator, and he was leading a faculty meeting. And they were talking about how to handle certain behavior issues that were popping up in the school. And everyone started chiming in, and one faculty member raised her hand. And when it was her turn to speak, she said, Why does it always have to be about what they do wrong? Why can't it be about what they do, right. And in that quiet room, as I was just standing there, I did a self check. And in many ways, I was only focusing on what this individual was doing wrong. Subconsciously, I believe that I was just waiting in anticipation for the child to step out of line. And this was affecting my relationship with the student. It affected the way that I saw the student. And ultimately, it was affecting my patients, and how I was treating the student. So I sat there, thinking about this reminder. And from that moment on, I made it a point to really focus on the good things about this child. And there were so many. And the more that I looked for the good in this champion, the more good I saw in them, and focusing on what was right. being intentional about seeing the good daily, reminding myself of the joy that this student brought. It just had a huge impact on how I saw the student, how I treated the student and my relationship with that student. Now, there were still moments, but they were fewer and farther between. And I think it's just a reminder that sometimes we have to step back. And we have to ask ourselves, what are we focusing on? Are we focusing on? What's wrong with the student? Or are we focusing on what's right with them? Such an important question to ask ourselves. And I've kept this reminder with me ever since that day, see the good in them. It's there, and it's in abundance. A big shout out to Dr. Darren PAPR definitely check out his book The road to awesome in his podcast leaning in the leaders yet and we've been blessed with another sunrise, my friends, so have an awesome day.