Episode 74: Look at you being so cutesy! Very Demure! Very Mindful!

So grateful for Jools Lebron and her  "demure and mindful" trend because if we approach teaching this way, the impact is HUGE for both students AND us! Let's dig in! Here are six different ways you can be more demure and mindful in your teaching practice!

Links mentioned:
Breathing Brain Breaks
Guided Breathing Freebie
Bubble Video
Guided Breathing resource on TPT
Teaching circumlocution Podcast
Teaching circumlocution Blog
Boundaries Checklist freebie
Megan Hayes Brain Breaths

Let's Connect!

My Blog
My YouTube
My Instagram
My Website
My TPT store
La Familia Loca PLC

Transcript

Welcome! 

Welcome back to teaching la vida loca, the podcast you come to for short and sweet and sometimes spicy episodes full of enthusiasm, magic and tips and tricks for your classroom. I'm Annabelle, your maestra loca, and I'm here to bring you inspiration, unapologetic authenticity, and ideas to spark more joy in your teaching journey. I'm turning up the excitement and elated to have you right here with me. I'm not just your host, I'm your cheerleader, and I'm thrilled you're tuning in. So, let's do this. Let's tackle teaching la vida loca together. Welcome to Episode 74. I am so glad you are here, because today we are going to talk about how we can be very demure, very mindful, very cutesy as teachers in this incredible profession that we are a part of. And if you do not have social media, then you have no idea why this is great that I'm talking about this. If you do have social media, then there's no way that you haven't heard this viral trend going on about being very demure, very mindful, very cutesy. And this was all coined by Jules LeBron, who recorded a Tiktok video about how she is very demure, very mindful at work. And so, people are now applying it to their own context and their own professions. And I think that there's many, many ways we as teachers can be very demure, very mindful in our classrooms. And I'm going to talk to you about a few of them today, and how powerful it is, not just for students, but for us, if we are very demure, very mindful. So, let's dive in. Let's start.

Way #1   

The first is practicing mindful transitions between classes. It's very demure, very mindful to do this. Because if students are coming from us from, let's say PE where there was a competition going on, their team lost, or they're coming from math and there was a math quiz and they feel like they failed it, or they're coming from ELA and there was a debate, and their friend was like, on the other side of the argument from them, and they're actually genuinely, really frustrated with them right now, whatever context they're coming to us from, if they can walk into our environment, and our classroom is already setting a tone for a calm and peaceful class that you know, it completely changes automatically how they are feeling. Like it starts to ease them in right, giving them that mindful transition is very demure, very mindful, and it allows them to come into that space and already feel better. It's also really, really good for your nervous system. Because if you're teaching back-to-back to back, being able to start every class in a peaceful, mindful way is powerful for you. So, some ways to do that, you can play peaceful calm, like instrumental music as students come in. I really like flamenco guitar music. You can find many different playlists online. I also sometimes use very some different like brown noise or green noise, blue noise, pink noise. You can find all of those, and you can find those with instrumentals laid over it. And it's just a good way for students to come in and get their 'do now' done, start their classroom jobs, and it's a powerful way to just ease into class. I love playing music throughout my class, but I usually start with something more calming again, because it sets that mindful and calm transition that tone for like transitioning into Spanish class, and then, yes, throughout the class, I play my regular music playlist with Spanish music.

Way #2 

Prioritizing mindful moments is a second way that you can be very demure, very mindful for your students. That might look like prioritizing brain breaks that allow for breath work, very intentional, guided breath work. In fact, I'll link my freebie on Guided Breathing, my Guided Breathing activities in the show notes. You can also pull up a mindfulness video on YouTube. I used to do this all the time with pre-K. In fact, I'll link that video too. There are some great YouTube videos that allow us to practice mindfulness. And you can pull up that and even guide them in Spanish or French as you're watching the video. Practicing mindful moments and being very intentional about is not only very demure, very cutesy, very mindful, it is really, really good for students' nervous systems, for students' ability to be more present, to bring the classroom energy back down to a level that feels good again. A lot of times in our classes, the energy can get very excited, and I love that, obviously, Hello, it's me. However, if we are more mindful of that energy, it's also good to provide brain breaks that are more calming and bring us back to a place where we're again more present and able to focus on the input, right? So, prioritizing mindful moments is the second way it can be very demure, very mindful.

Way #3 

The third way is practicing active listening that is incredibly demure, right? For our students, if we are being very intentional about showing them that we are actively listening to them, they're far more likely to actively listen to us. We are very lucky as World Language Teachers focusing on acquisition driven instruction that our students are our content. So, being very intentional about actively listening to them, it helps us create more meaningful and mindful content for them, right? If we, as we are asking them questions, are actively listening and being very mindful to take notes, even physical notes, of what we are learning about our students, it's showing them we care about them as humans, and then we're able to bring that back into other lessons later on, if we already remember what connections students had, which students preferred Instagram over Tiktok, which students prefer to eat ice cream over cake? Like silly little things are important in building those relationships, because it's showing that you are active listening and finding ways to connect students within the classroom, build community, build relationships, all of that is incredibly demure active listening, and so also modeling active listening for your students, and that is something that can be really challenging right now with social media and with screens in general, students ability to like, maintain eye contact and not be distracted by their device. All of that. If you are practicing active listening and showing them that respect, you're modeling it for them as well.

Way #4 

And the next way you can be very demure at work is humility when you make a mistake, showing humility when you don't know something, it's it happens literally all the time to me. So, every year that I've ever taught, I have had questions come up from teachers saying, hey, well, what do you do when, like, you don't know a word, or students question you about not knowing something. I'm like, I'm honest. I don't know everything. Spanish is not my first language. So, you stop, stop in the middle of class when students say, like, how do you say this? Clement? So, you say, blah, blah, blah, and you don't know it. Say, Ooh, good question. First, let's circumlocute that. How could we circumlocute that. That's always my first pushback. If you don't know how to teach circumlocution, I will link a podcast episode that I recorded last year on being very intentional about teaching circumlocution, and I'll link a couple blogs too in case you prefer to read about it. So, I first say, like, how can we circumlocution that? So, we do that together. And then I say, Okay, now let's look it up. And I pull up word reference, which is always a tab on my computer. It's always pre-loaded, and I type in the word, and we look together, and we learn how to use Word reference together. And we look up the word, and we learn it and we acquire it together. And it's powerful. It's far stickier because we've done the circumlocution part. When I say sticky, I mean, like, it's far more likely to stick in their brain because they've done the work of circumlocution it first. And then we have that moment of like, acquiring and learning a new word together, which is powerful, and it's practicing humility, which is very demure, very mindful, in front of our students, saying, you know, I don't know everything. I'm not the end all be all. I love learning, and I am on this learning journey with you. And even though I am your teacher, there is still things that I can learn, and it is not my first language. And yay. Let's look something up together, also practicing humility when you don't know something. You might be corrected, in fact, by a heritage student. You might be corrected by somebody who speaks Spanish as their first language or French as their first language. And that can feel like a lot in the middle of class. If you know the way that you said it is correct and that there's it might be a way that you learned it when you were living abroad in Chile or in Spain, and it's just a different word, then that's a beautiful moment to say, oh, thank you. That is so interesting. Your families from Honduras, right? Or Guatemala. That's so fascinating. I learned this word for it when I was living in Chile. I love learning new language. Thank you. Can you say it again for us? Have them say it again, write it up on the board. That's important. Now, if what you said was incorrect and they're correcting, don't feel attacked by that. Take it in stride. Say thank you so much for correct. Me, I didn't know that. That's interesting. Now, if they do it in a way that feels really attacking, first, check yourself. Are you just feeling that way because you're embarrassed, or was it really in a negative way and then still in the class, say, oh, thank you for that? I'll talk with you about it in just one second. Stand everybody up. Do a brain break, tell that student one on one. Thank you. I appreciate your knowledge because it is your first language, and I recognize I made a mistake. In the future can we find a way for you to do that in a way that feels a little bit more mutually respectful, like I really want that feedback, but I need it in a way that shows other students that you are respecting me, because I do respect you and I respect your knowledge as a heritage student, as a student who has more knowledge of this language than me. So can we find a way for you to correct me in a way that feels more kind and not so attacking or accusatory, because I am always learning and growing as well. Very demure, very mindful.

Way #5 

The fifth way is creating a calm corner in your classroom. It's very mindful, very demure. I love providing a space for my students to just go and chill, right? I call it my Sona de calma. They can self-opt into going to it and in it I have my mindfulness breathing Guided Breathing resource. I'll link the TPT resource too. I have the two pages that are free, but I have far more in my TPT resource. So, I have a Guided Breathing activity for them, several of them that they can choose from. They're all laminated. I have a feelings chart there. I have some reflection pages. I have some fidgets. I have stuffies. I have one of those big posters that like things are lost in it, and you like can seek and find things. I have a two-minute timer there, because they set a timer when they go back. And that alone is an incredibly mindful way to give your students and recognize that we have moments where we need to just remove ourselves, because we're not taking anything in right now, we are feeling overwhelmed. We are still in our emotions about the last class, and them having a space to be able to go to and remove themselves, to recenter or reground themselves, is also teaching them to be mindful and aware of their feelings. It's very powerful. Even when I had very small classes, I found a way to do this. It's important that the space is not at the front of the class, because it's incredibly distracting for other students, and sometimes you may need to ask a student to go to the calming corner. This is something that I want it to be self OPT I would like them to be able to do it. However, there are times where maybe you've given several redirections and reminders for a student, they're still not meeting expectations. You might need to ask them to go and take a moment to visit the sole Calma, maybe even fill out a reflection, if it's something that was damaging to the community, but that's powerful, and it's not me sending them out of the classroom, right? I really try and avoid just sending students out or just calling for the dean of Dean of whatever you call it at your school. I really would rather solve and talk with students and not make assumptions before just setting them out of my classroom, if possible. And that's another powerful reason for using brain breaks in your classroom, is the ability to have those check in moments with students who maybe aren't meeting expectations or are struggling, because there's pretty much always a reason for why they are behaving the way they are. Right. Okay.

Also… 

Finally, the most powerful way you can be very demure, very mindful, very cutesy in your class is by setting boundaries for yourself, for your mental and emotional health, and protecting your work life balance, and being very intentional about that, because a demure approach helps you assert your boundaries with grace, to ensure that you are maintaining a balanced and sustainable teaching practice like without that guilt, without feeling any guilt about it, because you know that fostering a healthy work life balance is modeling important behavior for your students and your colleagues. It's creating a more positive and calmer classroom environment for your students because you're being mindful of your boundaries and your needs, right? So. So this is another place where I'm going to insert my boundary setting checklist for you. It's a freebie, and it's a PDF guide for some boundaries that you can set for yourself at the beginning of the year, to be very intentional about being demure and mindful in the classroom. Set those boundaries for yourself. Be aware of your personal needs, and be intentional about setting those boundaries so that you can be a model for your colleagues and for your students, right? And the demure approach allows you to approach that guilt free again. It's beautiful thing. So that is how you can be very demure, very mindful in the workplace this year. And as far as being cutesy, you are a cutie. You're cute, you are damn cute. That's what I always tell Ophelia. So, you damn cute kid, you are damn cute. And she really is, and she knows it, dang she really knows it, this girl, y'all Okay, that's all I have for you for today. And I hope that you have a wonderful oh, let's do a brain break. Time for a brain break.

Brain Break 

It has been a minute, hasn't it, since I've done a brain break on this podcast. It really has. Okay. We're just gonna do one that I learned from Megan Hayes a long time ago. Megan Hayes has a wonderful blog on brain breaths that I have talked about before, and I will link again in the show notes, but it's called the Five Finger breath, and you hold out one hand, I always say, your non dominant hand in front of you, and then with your dominant hand. So, I write with my right hand, I'm going to trace my hand and I'm going to inhale when I go up my pinky, exhale down my pinky. Inhale, up my ring finger, exhale down. Inhale, up my middle finger, exhale down, inhale up my pointer finger, exhale down, inhale up my thumb, exhale down. And this is a very mindful, very demure, very mindful brain break for you. You're welcome.

Thank You! 

Yeah, okay, that's all I have for you. You know? What would also be very cutesy, very demure, very mindful you sending this to somebody, or going and writing a little review for me on Apple podcasts. That's very demure, very mindful of you. I would really appreciate it. Yeah, and until next time, you'll be teaching la vida loca, and I'll be supporting you while on maternity leave. I love you. Take care of yourself. I appreciate you.