Episode 75: Jump for JOY!- 5 ways to inject JOY into your day!

YAY! Whether you're at the start of the school year or well into it, these five strategies are EASY PEASY ways to inject more JOY into your day and none of them take long at all! See the links below for various things shared throughout the episode! I can't wait to hear what you try! Email me and let me know!

Links mentioned:
Join my email list silly goose!
Blog on Positive Phone calls home
Podcast on Positive Phone Calls home
10 Day Brain Break Challenge
Don't Flinch Brain Break
Danny Go!
Quick Feet Brain Break
Carry Toth
Después de Dismissal Dance Party
CI Midwest in Wisconsin
Music to my Ears Course with Bertha Delgadillo 

YAY for Spooky Season! You can find ALL my spooky season resources in ONE place! Just check out my latest blog!

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Transcript

Welcome Back!

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. Hi, hey, hello. Welcome to podcast number 75 of teaching la vida loca. I thought I was gonna be way more consistent with podcasting being like a stay-at-home mompreneur this year, since I'm taking a year maternity leave and so far, that has not proved to be true at all. But here we are. You know, we're doing it when we can, and we're emailing when we can, we're blogging when we can, and there's the baby. She woke up right on time. This is brilliant. I'm gonna go try and put in a pacifier. Give me one second. I mean, what are the chances? Though, it's okay. The pacifier worked. Hi, I'm so happy you're here today, I want to give you five different strategies to inject some more joy right now, whether you are literally just beginning the year, I know some of my friends just started school, but I also know that there are teachers here where I live who have been teaching for eight weeks already. So, no matter where you are in your school year, I want to give you five different strategies to inject some more joy in your day, and I'm excited that you're here to listen in. 

First Strategy

The first is a challenge that I put out to my email list yesterday. If you're not on my email list, what are you waiting for? I'll put a link in the show notes so you can add yourself. But I asked everybody on my email list to make three positive phone calls before the day was out. Notice I said phone calls. I did not say positive texts, I did not say positive emails. And I don't know why, but it bothers me so much when teachers are like, oh yes, I love writing positive emails, and I'm like, no, no, I use the word phone for a reason, because I tell you what, everybody who trusts me and tries this, I've never, ever once had a teacher not say, oh my god, that was the best thing I've ever done. Oh, my God, I'm so glad I finally did that. In fact, a week ago, a Familia loca member made a post in our Facebook group that was like, I don't know why I waited so long or why I resisted so long, but I finally did it, and oh my god, it was something that I will never, ever, ever stop doing. Now, they don't have to be longer than 60 seconds long. I've created a whole podcast and blog on it before. I will paste those in the show notes for you too, but it's something that I am begging you to try, because I promise you, it will be an immediate injection of joy for yourself. I want to email or, oh gosh, but I y'all I'm so freaking sleep deprived. Okay, I want to read this email I got from Erin after I sent that email, she did the challenge literally right away, and emailed me back and said, Annabelle, I just called three parents, left a message for one, called the next one, and I started crying. It was so emotional realizing what a huge impact my students have on my life and how great they are. Then I called another parent, and when the mom said she was going to cry, I cried so two parents were so happy to hear about how great their kiddos are. It was pure and honest joy. Thanks for challenging me. I needed the push, so do what Aaron did, trust me. Take the leap. Make three phone calls today. Do it towards the end of the day. That way, no matter what happened during your day, you're ending on an incredibly positive note. You will note that most families are like, whoa, why are you calling me? Because it just doesn't happen. People don't call unless they need support. They send an email, perhaps, or they, you know, let you know what carpool, which is great, but people don't make phone calls for positive things. And I promise you, it can be under 60 seconds. In fact, the blog, and the podcast that I'm linking in the show notes will give you literal scripts that you can read from to keep it short and sweet, and you're welcome. I'm so excited for you to do that for yourself, and you're going to love it. And why don't you let me know? Just send me an email. Let me know how awesome it is. 

Second Strategy

Number two, to inject more joy is to try a new brain break. Now, if you are not using brain breaks at all, then I will encourage you to check out the show notes for my 10-day brain break challenge. To get you started on using brain breaks, I can't say enough about them. I assume, since you're following me, you already do brain breaks, or you know all about. Them. So, my hope is that if you don't, you will start using them, because they are by far the easiest way to inject joy in your classroom, for you and your students. They're an amazing way to boost engagement, because with a tiny little bit of movement that is under 60 seconds long, it is amazing how it boosts that engagement and that alertness in our students, and then they inherently build community without you even trying. So literally, I don't know why anybody doesn't use brain breaks, but to get you started, if you want that 10-day brain break challenge, it's free. It's in the show notes, and they are daily videos that will guide you and your students through it. You can even show the videos to your students if you want to. Now, if you are looking for a new brain break, if you haven't tried, don't flinch. Or if it's been a while since you've done don't flinch. It's so freaking fun. I don't know that I would try this with younger than fourth grade. With younger than fourth grade, I would you know you can do anything for a brain break, stand up and dance, or look up a new Danny go video. I love Danny go for brain breaks with littles, but for older kids, don't flitch is so freaking fun because it... you get your kids in circles. I usually do two circles for classes of like 25 and smaller, even your smallest class sizes, you want two circles. And for bigger classes, then you could do three circles. And the circles are because this game does have like outs and eliminations. So basically, what you do is you give every circle a stuffy. And one student starts with it doesn't matter who, and they toss the stuffy to somebody, and then that person tosses it to somebody else, and then they toss it on and it's not like the name game, where you must pass it to the same person every time. They're just passing it to whoever in the circle. And then eventually somebody kind of pretends to pass it, they don't throw it to the next person, and if that person flinches to try and grab it, then they're out. Now instead of sitting back down, they're going to just join another circle. And so, the circles need to learn to like, step back and invite other people in, because there's going to be constant movement in this game. As students flinch, I do think it's better if they can like, toss, toss, toss, toss, toss, toss, flinch. However, I noticed that high schoolers seem to be better at that, like every high school teacher that sent me videos of their kids playing this, that's how it went with my middle schoolers. And, with my fourth and fifth graders, it was more like everybody wanted to try and make somebody flinch. And it still works, like it's okay, but I also try and teach them, like, Y'all, more people will flinch if you throw, throw, throw, throw, and then try and get somebody out for flinching. But the two circles, or the three circles, serve the purpose of when somebody gets out there immediately, still in the game, they're just moving to another circle. I will link a blog to this game, and in that blog are YouTube videos of my kids doing this. I think it's a video of my sixth and sixth and eighth graders doing it, because a great way, don't forget, to get kids to buy into something is showing a video of other students doing it. Rather than saying, this was my idea, let's try it. Say, hey, I got this idea online. Let's watch these other kids doing it, and then it creates more buy in. I think that was episode three that I recorded, or episode five. I can't remember. Anyways, it's a great brain break, and you're gonna love it. 

Third Strategy

So, the next way to inject some joy is Bitmoji notes. For students, if you don't have a Bitmoji, what I was like totally everything that we were doing during covid, we were making Bitmoji classrooms. Remember, I love Bitmojis. I still use them a lot. Anyways, Bitmoji notes, what I do, and you don't have to use a Bitmoji for this. You could literally make a gratitude card. But kids love Bitmojis. Doesn't matter what their age is. What I do is I create, like a google slides presentation, and I drag four Bitmojis onto one blank slide, and I use the heart like Bitmojis with me blowing kisses with hearts, or the Bitmoji that has the heart cutouts, or the Bitmojis that saying, Great job, you’re awesome, or whatever it is, Bitmoji holding a card, whatever. And I put those on slides, and then I just label them. Bitmoji gratitude notes, so I have a slide deck of five different slides with all different Bitmojis that I could be used, that could be used, and I print those out. And then when I need to write a letter of gratitude to another faculty member or somebody in my building, I just grab one of those, because I have them cut out and they're just stuck in my desk. And I also write these letters to students. I've talked about this before. I don't remember if I've blogged about it, but this is such a powerful and easy way to inject some joy in your day and simultaneously inject joy in somebody else's day. And it only takes about 60 seconds. You just grab one of these obviously creating the slides might take you a couple minutes the first time you do it, but once you've done it, all you need to do is hit print, right? You write a little gratitude. Doesn't have to be long. And then you can stick it in the student’s journal, so it's what the first thing they see when they open it up to do their due now you can deliver it to their homeroom. That's very exciting, especially for littles, for high school students and middle school students, you can stick it in their locker. There's a lot of different ways to do this, but it's a special thing and it and it injects joy, not just in your day, but somebody else's also. There's so much power and gratitude, right? So Bitmoji notes for students, I highly encourage you to try that. 

Fourth Strategy

The fourth thing you can do is a true or false grab, great game. I think the first person I learned this from was Carrie Toast, maybe from somewhere. To share is her blog. I can't remember if that was her or not, but I got this idea last night I went to my son's Capoeira class with him, and it was a special lesson. It's his botizado week in Capoeira, which is from Brazil, and they are doing it. Last night, they did a parent class where we did everything with them. And it was so much fun, and it was so joyful. And one of the games they played, the teacher teaching, it used Memphis and I as a model, which was perfect because it reminded me of a brain break that I play called Quick feet. I'll link that blog as well, but it reminded me of Quick feet, and it also reminded me of this game that I learned, I think again, from Carrie Toth, where you put an object in between two students, if you have desks, it can be on a desk. If you don't have desks, I would just put an object in between two kids. They can sit on the floor. They can stand. If they're standing, please be careful that they don't bonk heads. I find that middle schoolers and elementary school students tend to be a little bit clumsier with games like this, but have them sit on the floor, put a marker in between them, or last night, we had an orange cone between us, and you restate details from the class. It could be like if you did a special person interview. It could be details from the special person interview. It could be details from the clip chat that you just did. It could be details from the cultural story you just read. Whatever it is, you're restating details and giving them more juicy, rich input, right? But every now and then you're going to throw in a false statement, and you want to be casual about it, just throw it in while you're talking. And when they hear that false statement, they should grab the marker before their partner does. And then you can call on one person that you feel will feel confident talking from the class, and they can correct it. You can say, Okay, well, how can I make it true? And they can correct it. And I know that I think when I saw this played by Carrie Toth, she did sentence by sentence, but I like to do it more as like a story that flows, because it's more unexpected when that false sentence comes, and it provides even more juicy, rich input. So that's another one that will inject joy. It's super fun. Competition is fun. It's a dopamine boosting game. So, yay.  

CI MIdwest

Speaking of dopamine boosting, that is one of my presentation titles at CI Midwest this year. Are you going to Ci Midwest? In my email that I sent out yesterday, I sent out a very special exclusive deal that CI Midwest offered just to my email subscribers, the first 25 people get, I think, 30% off or something. It's crazy deal. Anyways, if you missed that email, go, and check it and try and grab that before it's gone. But CI Midwest is already at an amazing price for what you get for those two days and all the phenomenal presenters that are coming, as well as just the sessions. The lineup this year is insane. It looks so good. So, hope to see you in Wisconsin on October 11 and 12th. 

Fifth Strategy

But the last one, the last one. Are you excited? I'm so excited. The last way to boost your day with some more joy. Inject more joy in your day is to start or end your day with a song and dance. And I'm not saying with your students. If you are a person that loves to sing and dance with your students, go for it, honey. Love that for you. Yay. Sometimes I do. Sometimes, I don't, but when I when I do that with my students, I'm sillier about it. I'm not like professora del Gladio, who can dance like and do amazing things with her students and teach them real, cultural, beautiful dances. I'm a hot mess with that. It's more like me at the center of the class doing the sprinkler or the popcorn or any other move that I decide to move like in that moment, very awkward. I'm talking about for you. So, at the start of your day, like during your prep, before students come, even if it's five minutes, put on one of your favorite songs to dance to and sing at the top of your lungs, lock your doors, and dance it out. I don't know if I have any Grey's Anatomy fans, but literally, like Meredith and Dr Yang, dance it out. Put on loud music. Dance, dance, dance for one song, two songs. Holy cow, is it a freaking amazing way to start your day? I only did that a few times last year, and I don't know why. I don't know why, because it was always like, I literally walked out of my room with the biggest cheeseburger grin, because it just felt so good. I think the beginning of the day always just felt so hectic, like but I was very grateful to profe, my colleague, Michael Gutierrez, for suggesting that to me, because every Friday afternoon I had these, dismissal dance parties. I'll share one of them in the show notes. I always posted them on Instagram, and I would do it with Memphis. We would come upstairs after dismissal on Fridays, and we would dance it out four or five songs, just dance and dance and dance. And I always recorded one, and it was always so much fun, but I dance it out at the end of most days, because it doesn't matter like how your day went if you could force yourself to put on one of your favorite songs and sing and dance it out. It makes things better. It is incredible. Even if you had a good day, don't forget to dance it out. I love doing this, and I strongly encourage you to, and I need to do that more, even while I'm home this year. You know, I need to dance it out with my baby. I love singing with her, but I should just sit her in one of her bouncers and sing and dance it out in front of her and show her just how much joy that can bring. Music is a powerful, powerful tool. Speaking of music, if you need ideas to use music in your classroom, I'll link Bertha Delgadillo in my course on music in the classroom and using music as authentic resources in your class, and how to really milk that. I know that Professor Delgadillo uses music as like her core thing for teaching language through all levels. She teaches high school, and I certainly do a ton with music in my classroom, and not just senior wooly, like actual songs from target language cultures. And I teach novices. So, it's not always, like focused on the lyrics. Most of the time it's not focused on the lyrics. So, I'll link that course too, in case you're interested. 

Thank You!!

I hope you love these ideas to inject more joy in your day. Yay for jumping for joy, and I appreciate you for listening. If this was an impactful episode for you, please send it to somebody you care about. It could be any teacher. It doesn't have to be a language teacher, because a lot of these, let me look all. Pretty much all of these would work for other teachers. Yay for that. So, send it to a colleague, send it to somebody in your building, send it to your whole faculty, yay. Don't get in trouble for sending an all-faculty email. Oh, my God, that would be so awkward. And then go and leave me a review on Apple podcasts, if you really love me, you know that would make my day. That would make me real joyful, that would make me jump for joy, and I appreciate you. If you follow on Spotify, you can just give me that five-star review right at the top, but Apple podcasts, woo. That's impactful, those little reviews, and I appreciate you. Okay, until next time, you'll be teaching la vida loca, and I will be supporting you and sending you love from New Orleans, take care. And until next time, I will be thinking of you. Take care. Bye, bye.