S2: E4- 50 Years from now...

You're amazing... Don't forget it... There's a tiny homework assignment in this episode that will take 30 seconds but have a BIG impact!

Here are the links mentioned in this episode:
John Bracey
Work won't love you back - Sarah Jaffe
Blog on End of the Year Survey

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Transcript

Welcome!

Welcome back to my podcast teaching la vida loca for season two. I'm Annabelle, your Maestro loca, and I am ready to kick off season two with even more enthusiasm, magic, and tips and tricks for your classroom. Get set for a ride of 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 and your cheerleader, and I am thrilled you're tuning in, buckle up, and let's do this. Let's tackle teaching la vida loca together. Hi there, welcome to episode four of season two of teaching la vida loca. I'm really, really happy you're here. I think that this will be one of my favorite episodes and most important episodes I've ever recorded. And I felt inspired to do so after a workshop that we recently had in La Familia Loca PLC with our guest of the month, John Bracey. I hired John to come and talk to us this month, because our overarching umbrella theme for the whole quarter has been work smarter, not harder. And this particular month has been talking about the multi-prep nightmare like we, as World Language Teachers, often have more preps than any other teacher, and less prep time, right. So, I teach nine classes a day, I have four different preps, if I'm lucky, I can get away with three different preps. But it's a lot and then I have less planning time than I've ever had before in my career. Now, I'm okay with that because I'm so happy at my school. And I feel so appreciated and honored and celebrated and seen and heard and loved and cared for and empowered, and all those things that I want. 

Planning Time

It still does not take away from the fact that I must be very intentional and strategic with my planning time to get everything done that I need to because I refuse to work from home at all, ever, period, end of story. I will never bring work home. And that's also because I run this full-time side business, right? I work from home, as a job as my business, you know. So, there's that. But even before all of this, I've always been really good about not taking work home because about four years into my career as a teacher, I realized it really didn't make a difference. And I have realized in the last quarter with talking to my members, that it's way more of an issue than I realized it was with teachers. I thought it was getting better, like after COVID, like the weight of the world on us and all the things added to our plates. I thought teachers were getting better about setting boundaries around not working from home. And yet, I'm learning that some went in the opposite direction, there are teachers working more than they ever have from home. And so, I felt compelled or called whatever you want to call it to record this episode for you. To just help you think through what really matters. 

50 Years from Now…

I think I'm going to call this episode 50 years from now. 50 years from now, it won't matter how much extra time you put in at home on those extra lessons, or how you spent 20 minutes extra each night making your slides really pretty or how you spent three and a half hours on your weekend getting those papers graded because it just needed to be done. 50 years from now, you will care much more about the time you invested. calling a friend that you haven't talked to in a while. 50 years from now, you'll care way more about the extra walks that you took with your pet. Or the extra snuggle time you had on your couch with your favorite human watching your favorite show. 50 years from now., everything will be more important than the extra time you put into your class. 

The 3 Things

Because what ultimately, we have to remember is our students are going to remember three things. And this is really hard. For those of you who are workaholics and used to working from home. This might be hard to hear, but these are the only three things that they will remember. They're going to remember how you felt about them. They're going to remember how they felt in your classroom, as a student, as a human being in your classroom, and they're going to remember how you felt about your job. Because, yes, we are their world language teacher. But we are also showing them on a day-to-day basis what it means to be an employee, what it means to have a job, what it means to dedicate ourselves to that job. I am a very dedicated teacher, I'm a passionate teacher, I love what I do. My students know that I love what I do. In fact, I'll link a blog that has my end of year survey. Every year that I've ever given that survey 100% of my students every single time, mark that I love my job, and I love that. I love that they know that this is anonymous, they don't think I ever see the data. 100% of my students always say and indicate that they believe that I love my job. I do. I love my job. But I'm not going to be a martyr for my job. I don't love my job more than my children. 

Work Won’t Love You Back

A book that John Bracy recommended during his workshop with us, I have it pulled up, let me read it out loud. The title is called, "Work won't love you back" by Sarah Jaffe, I don't know how to pronounce her last name. So, I don't want to try and mess it up. But the subtitle is how devotion to our jobs keeps us exploited, exhausted, and alone. I will link to that book in the show notes for you if you're interested. But I think that we must keep that in mind, as well as those three things that I mentioned. Students are going to remember how you felt about them, how they felt in your classroom, and how you felt about your job. And if you don't believe me, then I want you to take a second and I want you to think about a teacher in your career that you remember. In your school career, I mean, might be an elementary teacher might be a middle school teacher might be a high school teacher might be a university professor. What do you remember? Do you remember details of the individual lessons? Or the slides that they created? Do you remember exactly how the lesson was scripted? Or how it went? What do you remember most? You probably remember how that teacher felt about you. And the way you knew that. You probably remember how you felt in that classroom. And you probably remember, or had an inkling of an idea, of what they felt about their job. So, I encourage you to think about that. 

Do This One Thing!

There's also one other thing I want you to do. I would like you to take out a sticky note, or a note card, or grab something to write with. If you're in your car, I really want you to come back and do this later. And I want you to write this down, this sentence. I'm going to give you a sentence stem and you're going to fill in the blank. And this is hard. But it's really important. And I want you to stick it on a mirror or stick it on your computer, stick it somewhere where you're going to see it maybe in your desk drawer that you open frequently. And it's going to say, "It is just ____, grade ____". So, you're filling in the blanks. If it were me for example, mine would say, "It is just fifth grade Spanish". Yours might say it is just 10th grade French. It is just fourth grade German. It is just eighth grade, Japanese, whatever it is that you teach. I want you to put that on a sticky note so that when you are feeling overwhelmed by all the things that you feel you have to do that have to get done, that you have to do in a certain way because you are a perfectionist and you want it to be done well, you want to continue to grow and you want to do all the things. I want you to take a breath and look at that sticky note and remember, it is just seventh grade Spanish. And it's okay. Take a breath. Remember that, keep that in mind because what you're doing is more than enough and you are not your job as John Bracey reminded us. Your job will not love you back like that book title, and what you are doing in your class day to day, communicate strong messages to your students about how you feel about them. It will give them a good feeling or a bad feeling depending on how they feel in your classroom, right? 

Thank You!

Focus on creating a positive joyful experience for your students so that they remember, wow, my experience acquiring French was joyful. It was great. I had fun. And they're also going to remember how you felt about your job. And we want to keep that a great experience for you because it just you deserve it. We deserve to enjoy what we do. That's all for this time. I love you. And I'm grateful for you. And I hope that this was an important message for you to hear. I hope that you write that down on a sticky note and you keep it. If you did enjoy this. I almost said workshop. I'm so tired, y'all. If you did enjoy this podcast, please take a minute to write a review for me on Apple podcasts. I appreciate the couple of new reviews that rolled in last month. I would love to see some more. It really helps Google recognize me. And it also makes my day. Can you imagine opening your email to see another review of how you impacted somebody by doing this podcast. It's a big deal for me. So, if you have some time, I would love that and just know that I'm thinking of you and that I want to see you joyful in your job. And I want you to remember that your students care way more about how they're feeling in your classroom than what your slides look like or how much time you put into grading their papers. Sending you lots of love, and we'll talk soon. Until next time, I'll be teaching la vida loca and I'm sure you will be too. Take care, teacher.