Episode 33: Answering your #1 Question!

Let's jump in!!! In this episode, I'll be answering the NUMBER ONE question I get asked! In fact, last month I tracked how many times people asked it, and I hit #43!!!

Here are the links mentioned in my podcast!

Obstacle Course (better at 2x speed)
Blog Obstacle Course
Tuesday Tip- My Fave YouTube Channels
Fadi - (Fadi Abughoush)

Thank you soooo much for listening and supporting! If you'd like more ways to connect with me, just click below!

Connect with me:

My Blog

My YouTube

My Instagram

My Website 

My TPT store

Transcript

Welcome 

Welcome to Teaching la vida loca, a podcast for World Language Teachers seeking inspiration, unapologetic authenticity and guidance in centering joy and facilitating language acquisition for the people who matter most, our students, I'm your host, Annabelle. Most people call me La maestra loca. And I'm an educator just like you, and inspiring teachers is what I do. 

Number One Question

Welcome to Episode 33 of teaching la vida loca. Did you know 33 is my favorite number, followed by 39. And because of that, I decided to make this episode very different from anything I've ever recorded. Because today, I want to answer the number one most frequent question I get asked. This is the number one question I get asked in emails. This is the number one question I get asked in my familia loca community, my PLC community. This is the number one question I get asked on Instagram. And every time I go to a workshop or a conference, are you ready for that one question? In fact, I bet if you think right now, what is the number one question I would ask La maestra loca Annabelle, if I had the chance, what would it be? Think for a second? Got it? You're gonna say it out loud at the same time as I say this, and we'll see if it's the same thing. 

My Answer 

Annabelle, how do you do it all? In this episode, I'm going to aim to answer that question for you. And I can already tell it'll be emotional. The answer is I don't. The last two weeks have been so hard. Memphis got really, really sick. Paul and I had to take turns taking off for an entire week, Monday, Tuesday, we alternated. So, I took Tuesday, Thursday off, he took Monday, Wednesday, Friday off. This completely depleted my PTO and made me negative one day. And then I got really sick. And then I really needed to take the day but couldn't because I didn't have the PTO to take a day. Excuse me, I took a day anyways, knowing I would be negative two days in my paycheck. And I still wasn't well enough. Finally, I went to the emergency room last Friday, followed by urgent care on Saturday, double sinus infection, a respiratory something or another pinkeye in both eyes, and then I tested positive for COVID on Tuesday. Now it's Sunday, a week later. But on Friday, I take off because my coughing fits were so out of control that I was vomiting. But there's this pressure that I have to be there because of PTO.

The Illusion 

I don't do at all. Being a mom and a teacher is the hardest job ever. In this episode, I want to talk about that. And I want to talk about the illusion that sometimes people see you with people who present on social media as teachers, presenters, content creators, this illusion that you think we do it all and that we're superhuman, we're not. I'm not superhuman. I go home, exhausted after school, and wracked with guilt that I don't have the same energy that I'd like to play with my kids. And the fact that I don't really get to set him up with a playdough station, or a fun little experimental station or if sissy's home we have 50% custody of her. If sissy's home, then they get a play and she entertains while I cook dinner. Wracked with guilt about not being a better mom, freaking exhausted all the time, feeling like I'm just getting by, also following all of the parenting things on Instagram and constantly comparing myself always to these moms who seem to have it all together. That's why I have several accounts that I follow who just, you know, make me feel normal and human. And not bad when I feel like my toddler is bullying me and making me cry and totally knows that he has me in the palm of his hand. 

The Reality 

This is such an icky episode, but it's real and I want I'm pushing myself to be authentic always with y'all. But this illusion that I have it all together. I do not have it all together. Also, I definitely don't do it all. Let's talk about consistency. One of the things that you are coached on when you have a business. I have a business. My business is La Maestra loca LLC. I'm very proud of it. I have a blog. I have a podcast. I have a TPT store. I write a weekly email. Sometimes not. I have a website, I have a Facebook, I have an Instagram, I have a Twitter account. I have a PLC called La Familia, loca. And honestly, that's the only thing that I'm consistent about is my familia loca, PLC. Everything else. I'm like, whoa, I haven't done a blog in two months. Whoa, I haven't done a podcast in three weeks. I was said I was going to do that every week. Oh, my gosh, wait, there's a TPT. One of my friends was like, oh, my gosh, I'm prepping for the TPT sale. I didn't even know there was a TPT sale coming out. Like I didn't even know that that was a thing. Should I be prepping for that? Maybe it's one of my sources of income. Do I have the capacity right now? No. I don't have the bandwidth to be everywhere all the time. And that's okay. 

Support System 

In addition, so if you look at my consistency, you'll notice, wow, she isn't very consistent. That's because I can't. I also have a system of people behind me that help me. I don't do it all anymore. I used to do all of those things. Now I have Viviana, who helps me part time. I pay her literally every month to help me with La Familia loca. She helps build resources, she makes everything beautiful, and keeps my brain organized because I'm not working hard enough to have my own PLC. She keeps me organized to make it run smoothly. I have Tiffany who helps me post my podcast, she helps me post the blogs, I write all the content, record all the content, she just helps me get it out there. Because that back end takes so much time. I pay somebody now to help me with that. I have Nicole, Cio, and Morgan who now helped me run small group coaching once a month in my PLC community. I couldn't do it without them. Because now I'm able to have the high school cohort, all the high school teachers meet, all the middle school teachers meet, all the elementary teachers meet, once a month, and it's more catered to them. And it's amazing. I have my PLC community who uplift and support me and make me feel good every day. This morning, we did our month of the work month, sorry, our workshop of the month. And I was feeling so rundown. And feeling like I hadn't put enough time into it. And all it did was praise me and give me amazing feedback on it. And I was worried that it wasn't as good as it normally was. And all they did was tell me how excited and joyful they were to take the ideas back to their classroom. So, I don't know what I would do with them. And most importantly, I have this amazing partner in my life that I am very privileged to have. And I know not everybody gets. I have my husband, who does all the dishes, he does all the laundry, he does at least half of the cooking. He makes me feel sometimes really like I am a bad mom, because he's such a better parent in my eyes. And I'm constantly comparing myself, and I know that that's not fair. But he allows me to have a second job because the reality is y'all. When you say God, how do you do at all. Many of us have second jobs. Many of us have to have second jobs because a teacher's salary is a joke. If you haven't looked at salary skills in the south, I encourage you to there's also a couple of states Arizona, I know is ghastly low. There's a few states that are as low as Louisiana. But we we couldn't make our mortgage without a second job. Paul is a full-time barber. He makes more than my teacher salary as a full-time job, barber. But we couldn't afford our mortgage if I didn't have a second job. And I love what I do with y'all. I love bringing more joy to your classroom. I love bringing more movement to your classroom. I love inspiring you to speak more target language in your classroom and making it make it more comprehensible for your students. I love doing this. So why not have a second job that I love? Right? I would much rather do this than wait tables or go and work at a coffee shop. This brings me joy. So when I think about self-care, serving others is a form of self-care for me. It really is. 

Your Contribution 

So when you're saying how do you do it all? I want you to keep a couple of things in mind. One, it brings me joy. It's a form of self-care for me, but two, I don't do it all and I have a support system behind me that allows me to bring these podcast episodes to you, to create the resources that I create in Familia Loca PLC, or bring in the guest speakers that I bring in. I couldn't do any of it if I didn't have you listening, sharing, if I didn't have you, commenting on my Instagram videos and saying this is so funny, thank you and sharing it with others so that I can grow. I wouldn't have it if you didn't share my blog posts, I can't speak, blog posts on Facebook, or with your friends, or save them, I can't do any of it without you, without you listening without you sharing. Without you supporting me. I am so grateful. So, I don't do it all. And what I do do, I'm only able to do because of supporters like you and my incredible network of people who enable me to do this every day.  

Brain Break 

I'm going to talk more about my journey as both a mom and stepmom on this podcast, just in random tidbits much like my brain breaks. Are you ready to do one yet? Let's do it. Okay, this one is really too hard to do in the car. So, if you're driving, please, God don't do this one right now. But if you're not in the car, I want you to open the link that is on this show notes. And it's going to be labeled obstacle course. And I just want you to pull it open on your phone and then turn your phone sideways and run. Just run like that little Wii Fit character just if he's running, run, if he's stopping to rest, and it really looks like he's twerking go ahead and twerk, if he stops and hit or if he's running and then jumping over cliff edges. I want you to run and jump over those. And I want you to do it in place. You got to do it in place. And you do it for exactly 30 seconds and you stop that video ready. Do it now. Okay, hopefully you did it. And if you didn't do it, hopefully you're laughing imagining all the people who are doing this as they do laundry or as they cook in the middle of their kitchens, or as they're on their planning period. It's a fantastic brain break. I call it obstacle course or Wii Fit obstacle course. I will link to the blog as well in the show notes. But recently, I've been doing a Tuesday tip with La Maestra Loca on my Instagram. And I've recently shared my top three favorite YouTube channels to find these videos. None of them are the Wii Fit obstacle course ones, you just got to Google those. Make sure you preview the content so that you don't have audio that you aren't okay with in your classroom. But they are highly entertaining and wonderful for all ages. I'm kind of obsessed when I see Fadi and share videos of his high schoolers doing these. It's fantastic. So go ahead, try this out with your students. Let me know how it goes. Make sure you let me know by tagging me on social media I cannot wait to hear.

Sharing More 

Okay, so much like the brain breaks, I will be starting to share either funny happenings or quotes or incredible mommy tips and hacks that I have in these episodes moving forward because that is so much a part of my identity, being both a mom and a stepmom because both are very different roles to be clear. And I think that I just want to be more authentic with you about that side of me because it is what I think about all day every day is I'm doing this for my family. And I am doing it for these two beautiful humans that I get to be raising Isla and Memphis and I'm the luckiest mommy and addat in the world. That's my name Isla calls me addat. So, I'll be sharing tips, tidbits in upcoming episodes. And hopefully you'll still listen even if you're not a parent, as I know that it looks different for everybody. But I'm grateful for you. And thank you for listening. Thank you for sharing this podcast. Thank you for spreading the news about it. And thank you for supporting me in all the ways that you do. Because I really don't do it all and the things that I do do, I couldn't do without you. Thank you for being a part of my life. Thank you for being a part of my journey. And thank you so much for letting me be a part of your teaching journey. I'm so grateful for you. Until next time, I'll be teaching la vida loca, and I am sure you will be to. Take care. Love you.

Thank You! 

Hey there, teacher thank you so much for listening to this episode of teaching la vida loca. If you enjoyed it, could you do me a favor, it would mean so much to me if you could leave a review for the podcast, or take a screenshot of you listening to it or a selfie and post it on social media and tagged me, it really helps me when we can spread the news about teaching la vida loca, either on social or through Google because then I get more noticed and I can impact more educators. Thank you so much for everything you do, seen and unseen, inside and outside of the classroom, every day. I'm so grateful for you, and I'm so grateful to be part of your journey. Take care and thanks so much. Bye bye.