Monday, March 9th, 2020, is the release of my 100th Episode of the I Wish I Knew EDU podcast on VoicEd Radio. You can also find it on iTunes, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and Spreaker - but the VoicEd.ca community of podcasters is it's home. I'm honoured to be a part of this inspiring group of educators. My first episode was broadcast on VoicEd Radio on February 5th, 2018. I blogged about that first podcast experience in a post titled I'm a Podcaster! Then last year when I hit my one year/50th Episode Podcast-aversary, I blogged again in a post entitled: 50th Episode - I Wish I Knew EDU learning. You might think I had nothing left to say about podcasting... but you would be wrong. Two years and 100 Episodes in and I am still talking, listening and most importantly, still learning. The idea behind the podcast has always been to share the journey of educators at any given point on the EDU-career timeline - pre-service teachers, first year teachers, veterans with 5, 10, 20, 30 years in the business to those who have retired and continued their EDU-journey in a variety of ways. I always ask my guests to give me a look back at the years and experiences behind them, and to share what they have learned over that time that they wish they knew sooner. Then we have a look forward and share what their hopes for Education are.
The podcast has been some of the most
amazing Professional Development I've ever done. I've spoken to educators who have been so generous with their time and have honestly and openly shared their adventures with me. I've gained knowledge about programs, resources and career paths that would never have occurred to me to research or use or find out about. I've tried new strategies in my classrooms that they've shared with me, and met or followed other educators they recommended. Each guest has expanded my thinking and opened new galaxies of opportunities for me. Thank you to Tony Vincent for being my guest for Episode 100. If you are one of the 100 Educators I have had as guests on the podcast so far, I cannot begin to express my gratitude for the gift you have given me. I am a better Teacher because of all of you.
If you are a regular listener, thank you so much. My hope has always been that the podcast gives you something that you want or need to hear. Maybe a new activity or resource for your students, a different way of looking at things, a career opportunity that you hadn't thought of, a spark of inspiration or even just a moment of collegiality. On a day when you come home feeling lost, alone, mentally and emotionally exhausted and are thinking of giving up on teaching, I hope that you find something in the podcast that reminds you we all have those days and that it gives you the strength to keep fighting the good fight. I open each show with the comment that Teaching is the best job in the world. I absolutely and completely believe that those words are true. But it isn't easy. And somedays, it can be the toughest job in the world too.
So where do I go from Episode 100? It's been almost 26 years since I graduated from Teacher's College, and just over two years and 100 Episodes of podcasting. There are still so many Educators I'd love to talk to and so many things I want to learn. Maybe you are the person I'll learn them from. I really hope I'll be talking to YOU soon on I Wish I Knew EDU, where we are looking back and learning forward. As always, I welcome your comments and questions below.
November is tough. The excitement of September's fresh start has passed. You've worked hard to build those relationships in your classroom, but the honeymoon period is over. You've been doing great things in the classroom, and you are planning even more. There's meetings, Professional Development, extra curriculars, Parent nights....You've got a hundred balls in the air and you are trying to keep them there. There are no holidays in the month to give you time to catch your thoughts. The holiday break is approaching, but it still seems a long way off....and there is so much to do before then at school and at home. You start to feel like Sisyphus trying to push that bolder up the hill.
That's me pretty much every November. Yep, 24 years in, and November still drags my spirit down. This year was no exception, except for the fact that I seemed to hit a low that last week of the month that I had never before quite felt, or at least not in a very long time. There were a lot of factors that contributed to my perfect storm of self doubt and unhappiness that I don't need to go into here. What's important is that for the first time in a long time, my cup was empty and I was really struggling to just get a drop of anything in it.
I drove home one grey November day thinking, "I don't think I heard one positive thing today." On reflection, I probably did, I just wasn't in the state of mind to really hear it. The negative was drowning out every other thing in my head. Some of those voices were undoubtably my own internal Negative Nancy, whom I generally keep locked up and refuse to listen to. But, November had unlocked her cage and she was out and she was incredibly loud.
This was not me. This would not do. It was time to do some self care and get that b#*%!@ back in her cage. I took some "me time" to do a few things that bring me peace. I reached out to a Marigold (If my Marigold reference is foreign to you - check out this post by Jennifer Gonzalez) and bless her, my marigold gave me a positive message I could hold on to through this storm. There was a trickle getting back into my cup.
Then Joy Kirr shared a video about gratitude on Twitter. (Source: YouTube https://youtu.be/oHv6vTKD6lg)
And VoicEd Radio started their #voicEdGratitude challenge for December.
I wondered if, maybe, a daily intentional gratitude moment would start to quiet the negative voices.
Each day, Derek Rhodenizer would post a gratitude challenge for anyone following the hashtag to complete. Some of them were Twitter based like thanking a member of your PLN by sharing their Twitter handle. Many of them were not Social Media based, like thanking a non teaching member of your staff. There was even a more intense gratitude "Secret Santa" activity for participating members of the VoicEd podcasting community.
At first I was hesitant. Did I really need one more thing on my "to do list" each day? I gave myself a pep talk. These were not huge asks. They might help and they certainly could not hurt.
With each task, I felt my spirit start to lift. I dove into each new gratitude activity with greater gusto. My own gratitude experiment was working. My cup was starting to refill, not with positivity from others, but from doing something intentionally positive for someone else each day.
That is not to say, that by the last day before break, I was energetic and eager and back to my September level of enthusiasm. I came home that Friday pretty much ready for a long winter's nap. But, I wasn't on empty anymore. My cup was becoming self sustaining, at least at a workable level. After a week of holidays, family time, "me time" and reflection time, my cup is almost full again. Come January 7th, I'll be ready. And I'm really going to try to keep my cup from getting that empty again by filling it with the gratitude I give to others.
As always, I welcome your comments below. Do you get the November blahs? How do you refill your cup when it is low? How do you show gratitude year round?
