Episode 7: Being Intentional About Rest

Here are the links for the highly engaging brain break I shared called This or That! The first is a link to a blog I wrote about it in the middle of the pandemic! Blog about Rest

Brain Breaks Part 24: This or That

Here is a link to Morgan Bennett's Instagram who showed me a simple no-tech way to play. Profe Bennett on Instagram

And, here are the links to my favorite YouTube channels for This or That.
UJU for this or that on YouTube (Fun Fact: Also has some in Spanish!)
This or That in Spanish

Phonics Man on YouTube

Finally, I know I didn't talk about these people in the podcast, but I want to connect you with some people and resources that are so enriching when it comes to setting boundaries and self-maintenance and self-care.

These are the wonderful women presenting in my Familia Loca PLC this month. While I'm taking the month off, I left the community in their capable hands along with ViVi (my business bestie!)

Andrea Eiter - Positively.WinBig on Instagram (Current Familia Loca member and expert in self-maintenance and Goddess of workouts)

Kayland Lamar (expert in teacher self-care and boundary setting)

Helena - the present teacher (someone who makes self-care doable in 5-10 minutes)

If you want to get in on one of the best World Language communities for developing and enhancing your skills when it comes to acquisition driven instruction in a community of people who are seeking more joy and fun for their classrooms. You can join our waitlist for la Familia Loca! 

We would absolutely love to welcome you into our family!  There's truly no place like it!

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Transcript

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, Annabel. Most people call me La Maestra loca. And I'm an educator just like you, and inspiring teachers is what I do.  

 Welcome!

Welcome to episode seven of teaching la vida loca. It's been a while, since the last episode that I recorded. I actually experienced a terrible accident on April 6, which was my husband's birthday. I decided to take a lunch break at school, I had set up an epic activity for my students like y'all, when I say epic, I mean, it was literally oh my god, it's my new favorite thing ever. And I can't wait to share more about that. But I'll do that next year in the fall when you're ready for it when you can fully grasp the epicness. Don't worry, I won't forget, I had set up this huge activity for my kids that I knew they were going to love and that they would be very active and moving around the classroom. And I was hot and sweaty, and I was like, I'm just gonna go treat myself to a lunch. So I left the building and was crossing the street and I was actually hit by a sewage and water board truck, a city vehicle. And it was awful and traumatic. And I'm okay, I was concussed. I had to call my husband on his birthday because my friends and colleagues were forcing me to make the phone call. And I was in the emergency room for like 10 hours for them to do CTS and all these scans and very lucky and fortunate to have friends, family, and people who care about me.  

 Feeling Fortunate

I had the families of my school delivered meal trains for the two weeks following and then they started a GoFundMe for me to cover the medical expenses. Because unfortunately, no lawyer, no personal injury lawyer would work with us to cover the ambulance cost or the cost of all the physical therapy and things because the city of New Orleans hasn't paid a claim since 1983. So unfortunately, it doesn't matter if they're insured. It was a city vehicle. So just something like crazy to think about. And I feel very fortunate to be loved by so many and so privileged to have the people in my life that I do that has allowed me to be okay and to pay the bills despite not being responsible for them, I guess.  

 Making Plans

So I'm back. But that is the reason for my long absence. It really caused me to pause and take some time, I was out of work for a while and paid and I just really allowed myself to refocus on what was so important. What's so important in life. And that's really what this episode is about. It's about scheduling rest for yourself this summer. Now I know that it is close to the end of the year for some of you, some of you on the east coast have this week and the rest of next week. left some of you have until the end of this month, which is bananas. And yet others of you I know my listeners in Japan, there is no such thing as this big long break in these middle months of the year. So wherever you are, and whatever your situation is like for this summer. I want you to be really intentional about scheduling some time for yourself. Right now I'm actually in an Airbnb in Houston. I'm getting my passport tomorrow because I lost mine and one of the only ways to get a replacement very quickly before international travel is to go to an actual agency. And the options for appointments were Houston or Honolulu. So I drove up late tonight and I am driving back tomorrow as soon as the passport is done. I wish I could see some friends in town but this appointment is very important in my plan for scheduled rest. My husband's friend is getting married in Mexico. And we have planned this trip. We've saved really hard for it and it's happening and I need that to happen. I have planned for it I have scheduled for it. 

Self-care 

I have been very intentional about scheduling special guests for my Familia loca and making sure my incredible right hand lady Viviana could cover all of my absences there and make sure that the learning experiences in my PLC could be as rich and as productive as they always are. While I'm out and this month is all about self-care in La Familia loca, too. So, how can we be very intentional about planning that for ourselves? How can we be intentional about taking a break from all things, education, all things related to our professional career, and really step back and reconnect with what we love and reconnect with ourselves.  

 Hobbies? What Hobbies?

I had a student ask me two weeks before the end of school, what my hobbies were. And it made me pretty emotional in the middle of class because I realized, dang. outside of teaching and teaching teachers, I don't know that I have any hobbies anymore. I mean, I'm a mom. And I've been an excellent mom. This year, I've been really intentional about my time with my kids, and I'm a kick ass wife, and I know this. But those aren't hobbies, right? Like, dang. And it caused me to pause and go, okay, if I'm being intentional about my June off, so I'm really planning three solid weeks of off time in June. What does that time look like? Am I being intentional with that time around, like, really rediscovering hobbies and interests that I have? Because I think that the pandemic has caused so many things. But one of the things for me, is I've really stepped away from knowing the things that I love. So, I'm going to play the piano again, I'm going to marble haven't marbeled in years, I'm really excited about it. I'm going to reconnect with some of the people that I love that I haven't talked to in a while. I'm going to break open the games and our game closet and play games with Paul. I want to maybe build a poker table.  

 My Secret

A secret that many people don't know about me, but now the world is about to know is that my second job when I was a first, second, third- and fourth-year teacher in Denver, Colorado was I was a semi pro poker player. I played poker every single day, and on my weekends. Occasionally, I would go up to the casinos. And I would literally stand and wait for somebody to basically pay me to play for them in a high stakes game, something that I couldn't buy into, and I would get a percentage of anything that I made for them. So maybe I'll build a poker table so I can finally use my poker chips and start a poker game at my house every week. But really reconnecting with things that I love.  

 Brain Break Time For You

I want you to be really intentional about doing this for yourself. You know what, I think it's time for brain break. Okay, so this brain break is epically awesome. And it is called this or that and it's really super simple. So we're going to play right now. And we're going to have a theme around like, rest and summer rest, okay, so if you prefer waffles touch your head if you prefer pancakes, touch your nose waffles head pancakes, touch nose. If you're driving, please be safe. Hiking, touch your head. Napping touch your shoulders. So, if you'd prefer to go for a hike, touch your head. If you'd prefer to take a nap, touch your shoulders. If you would prefer to binge shows on Netflix, you're going to jump up and down unless you're driving and then don't jump. Just imagine you're jumping. And if you'd prefer to read a book that you've been waiting to read for a long time. Go ahead and wave your arms around like you're a crazy person blah. You don't have to make that noise but if you prefer the beach, wiggle your ears if you prefer the mountains, wiggling your nose If you prefer to, if you would prefer to take a dance class, I want you to dance using mostly your arms. If you'd prefer to take a cooking class, I want you to dance using mostly your legs. Excellent. So that's basically this or that that's the jest of this or that. And that's just one way to play. 

 Brain Breaks For Students

Honestly, the way I usually do this or that in my classes, is I use YouTube videos that are already premade by YouTube, whatever channels, my favorite is Yoo hoo. And my other favorite is phonics. Man, I will link to both of those in the show notes. But my students love those too. And basically, it gives them two choices to choose between 10 seconds to choose those. And then once they've made their choice, it gives you five seconds to explain the exercise that they have to do, whether it's jumping jacks or planking or, you know, I don't know, slow running or what I can't think of any of them. But it gives the explanation for five seconds. And then for 15 seconds, they have to do the exercise or for 20 seconds and then it gives them two more choices to choose between. Phonics man is super fun. They love the beat and the rhythm of phonics, man, they think it's super cool. And I'm dealing with two cool middle schoolers. I have heard of high school teachers who use the exact same videos as these. But I've also seen really incredible high school teachers like Morgan Bennett, Profe Bennett, who does it more like what I just did with you, like, stand up if you prefer the mountains and sit on top of your desk if you prefer the beach. So, you can do this or that in various different ways with your students. But I hope you love this brain break. And I will link to different resources for it, including a blog that I wrote in the show notes. 

 Be Intentional

So, what I'd like to do right now with you is to really help you through this process of being really intentional about your scheduling time for joy or scheduling time for rest. And I want you to grab a piece of paper and a pen, or a pencil. I'm a big fan of pen and paper. That's how I keep my planner and my calendar. Everything is pen and paper. If you prefer something electronic, that's fine, but grab something and I want you to create a bucket list. I want you to create a bucket list for your summer. Things that you'd like to do, ways that you'd like to reconnect with yourself, or with your passions or with your hobbies like I do. And really just come up with a list of things that you'd like to accomplish. And I really want you to then be intentional about how you were scheduling time to make these things happen. If you are a parent, this can be particularly challenging with juggling your kiddos too. I know I'm running a summer camp for Isla and Memphis. It's called mommy and dad debt summer camp because I look calls me at debt. But I'm still being intentional on the days that I don't have Isla, which is half of the week we have 50/50 custody of her. I am dropping Memphis off at his school because we're still paying for that anyways. And that's where I'm being intentional about my self-care and about my scheduling joy and rediscovering my hobbies. 

 I'm Here for You

So, I really want you to think about what is something that you haven't done in a while that you want to do. What's something that you want to try that's new for you. How can you intentionally make time for that this summer? And how can you rest? Whatever rest looks like for you? I hope that you do that. And then I would love for you to email me and tell me what you're going to do to disconnect, to reconnect. Send me an email at Annabelle at La Maestra loca.com or send me a DM on Instagram at La Maestra loca and guess what, I'm probably not going to respond to you until July. But it's gonna be great. I want you to do that as the final accountability piece. Email me, let me know what you're going to do. DM me, I'd love to hear from you. I can be your accountability buddy for rest. And when you don't hear from me, don't take it personally. I'll just message you in July.  

 Thank You

I'm grateful for you teacher. Thank you for what you have done for this profession this year and in the years prior. If you were moving on from education, thank you for everything you have given. I'm so grateful for you. And if you are staying in the profession, please be extra super careful to be intentional about your rest the summer. If you've enjoyed this episode, please make sure and give me a rating on whatever you listen on and leave a review if you're feeling up to it. I would super appreciate it and I'm so grateful for you and I can't wait to hear about how you're being intentional about your rest of the summer. Take care, and I'll talk to you soon.