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[teacher-brain]

Faith Over Fear

When educators discipline students based on fear of losing control, we sever the ties formed by meaningful connection and all trust is jeopardized. As a result, learning is no longer the focus or priority of the teacher student relationship.

[teacher-brain]

"To instruct someone... is not a matter of getting him to commit results to mind. Rather, it is to teach him to participate in the process that makes possible the establishment of knowledge. We teach a subject not to produce little living libraries on that subject, but rather to get a student to think mathematically for himself, to consider matters as an historian does, to take part in the process of knowledge-getting. Knowing is a process not a product."

Jerome Bruner

[teacher-brain]

Control What You Can Control

Let's talk about advice that everyone gives but very few actually follow...

"Control what you can control."

There are so many nights when my kid goes down to sleep, think about the moments where I attached my emotions to expectations rather than maintaining a healthy perspective. I definitely could have packed a snack for the drive home from school instead of getting frustrated by the fact that he asked for a popsicle 345702843 times before we got home. This also happens when I'm driving home from work. If anyone is a teacher or knows a teacher, they know that so much of their time outside of work is designated towards their work. I am that teacher more times than I would like to admit and it was for one reason. If I plan every minute and consider every factor that plays into my lesson, then my day will go smooth and children will learn. I would spend hours lesson planning to map out every activity, every transition, group formation, even down to annotating every possible question and scripting every single possible answer and explanation. And without a doubt, something would happen that I didn't plan for. Students would be absent that would mess up my grouping numbers or a group discussion went rogue and struggled to get back on task. Don't even mention the amount of interruptions that happen within a school day that messes up the flow. Overwhelming is an understatement that challenges the executive functioning of a teacher on a daily basis. We're expected to juggle everything like it's a glass ball without ever considering that life will go on if something isn't done perfectly. It takes a meltdown from a teacher for someone to regain perspective and take some things off their table. My parenting is going to be impacted by the stress of bills, marital status, mental health, physical health, habits, addictions, etc. Teaching isn't immune to that same effect when there's pressure coming from parents, students, administration, district protocols, duty, curriculum implementation, discipline, lesson plans, etc. So how we practice gentle teaching is identifying what our triggers are personally and professionally so that we can prepare in how we respond to the uncontrollables. By putting our energy towards that, we have less of an anxiety on preparing the perfect lesson and more energy into the goal or intent of the lesson.

[teacher-brain]

Gentle Parenting turned Gentle Teaching

My body knows school is about to start before I can wrap my head around the fact that summer is almost over. Each year, I try to approach the new school year with a different focus in an attempt to keep my perspective positive. Since I'm a mom of a toddler, I find it fitting to adopt a mindset similar to...dare I say it... gentle parenting. For me, gentle parenting was and is something that requires YEARS of skill development. This journey began before I actually had children. In an effort to be totally present for my kid, I decided to take the summer "off" this year and cancelled all plans of summer school, conferences, volunteer time, or picking up one piece of curriculum to try to prepare for the next school year. By taking this time to focus on my needs by meditating on what my triggers are, I've been able to regain self control that I felt like I was missing at times. There are so many times I've thought to myself, teaching has given me the tools to parent and parenting has helped my teaching. However, both have exposed the areas of improvement that leave me feeling inadequate at times. I've found that the biggest mindset shift has been focusing on my ability to control my perspective. Talk about a game changer. As a recovering perfectionist, I've tried to control all factors which has been an impossible feat and only left me defeated and exhausted. The more I seek to understand my child, the more I find myself being able to maintain healthy boundaries and support my kid in a way that empowers both him and me. Could you imagine what we could do in a classroom if we decreased the amount of times we lost our cool??