Teaching Middle School ELA
Welcome to the Teaching Middle School ELA podcast, where we are dedicated to helping English Language Arts teachers create dynamic and engaging lessons for their students, while also managing the day-to-day responsibilities that come with being a Middle School ELA teacher.
As educators ourselves, we understand the challenges of finding a work-life balance that allows us to pursue our passion for teaching while also enjoying our personal lives. That's why each Tuesday, hosts Caitlin Mitchell and Jessica Cannata share practical and innovative solutions for managing your workload and staying inspired in your teaching practice.
Whether you are looking for fresh ideas to inspire your students, strategies for improving your writing instruction, or tips for managing your time more effectively, this podcast is designed to provide you with the tools you need to thrive as a Middle School ELA teacher.
Join us each week for curriculum and lesson ideas, classroom stories, and interviews with fellow educators who are experts in the field. We believe that with the right support and resources, you can create a classroom environment that encourages students to become strong and passionate learners.
If you teach reading and writing to middle schoolers and want to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices in ELA education, then this is the podcast for you! Tune in every week and let us help you make a difference in the lives of your students and in your own teaching career.
Teaching Middle School ELA
Monday Mindset: Opportunity is Risk
In today's Monday Mindset episode, I'm asking you to consider if the key to unlocking your full potential lies just outside your comfort zone. You know...that place that feels risky and uncomfortable. Perhaps embracing risk—both personally and professionally - could be the catalyst for growth and new opportunities that you've been missing! I'll share my own experiences and encourage you to be curious about where you might be holding yourself back from stepping into the unknown. Tune in to uncover how shifting our mindset to view risk as a gateway to learning can make previously daunting tasks more manageable and redefine our baseline for what we consider challenging.
You'll learn practical strategies for building your risk tolerance, starting with smaller, calculated risks, and learn the importance of making decisions from a place of love rather than fear. This episode is a call to action to seize opportunities despite uncertainties, encouraging you to live intentionally and embrace the risks that shape you into a better version of yourself.
Here's to another day of intentional living!
Hello everybody, welcome back to another Monday Mindset. Today we are diving into a concept that I love, and it's just something that I think we hear a lot but we don't ever unpack and really think about, and that is that with every big opportunity in life comes risk, and what I think is so interesting with this a lot of us won't take that risk. A lot of us will stay in our comfort zone, and I think that that happens because most of us, human nature, we want to stay comfortable. We don't like venturing into the unknown, the discomfort, all of that stuff, and so we wait to see, like, okay, I got to figure it all out first, I got to eliminate all the risk first. But if we do that, a lot of the times the opportunity will likely have passed us by, and so what I want to do is I want to dive into this a little bit, and then I want to talk about how you can leverage it to elevate your life, to change your life a little bit. So opportunities and risks really are like two sides of the same coin. When a big opportunity presents itself, it's often going to come with a certain level of uncertainty and potential downside that you don't know. You don't know what that potential downside might be, and for us that can be intimidating and most people hesitate. Most people are going to wait for that perfect moment when all the risks are gone and everything is in the clear. And when we do that, the opportunity is gone. And opportunities really are these dynamic and time-sensitive things. They require us to act, to take that leap of faith, to step outside of the comfort zone, and if we spend too much time overanalyzing and overthinking, we miss it. And I think a lot about some of my own choices in my life, of risks that I've taken and the universe has always rewarded me and that could be my perspective that I've chosen to take right. Life is choice and seeing that, okay, this was a big risk and it didn't work out the way I wanted and it served me in some higher capacity that I may not know right now or that I'll find out sometime in the future. And I think about when I left teaching. That was a big risk. I didn not know right now or that I'll find out sometime in the future. And I think about when I left teaching. That was a big risk. I didn't know anything about selling radio advertising. I still don't. I was probably the worst employee they ever had, but it was a huge risk to leave the classroom. And then also, when I left radio advertising, that was a big risk to leave too.
Speaker 1:But I've always kind of lived my life from the perspective of leap and the net will appear, because I just trust that it's all working out in my favor, even if it doesn't feel like it sometimes. A lot of the times I tell myself the story that it is this is serving my greater good, my higher purpose, my higher self. So, even though it feels like this risk wasn't worth it Maybe, but at the end of the day it probably is worth it, right, because it's all working together in your favor. And I think that that's just a whole mindset shift that has taken me a long time to really be comfortable with and sit in, and sometimes, you know, there are still moments of doubt. But I also truly, truly believe that everything in life is happening for us. So I want to talk about how can we embrace this risk, how can we be okay with that risk? Well, first, I think it's about taking a different perspective and view of risk. Could you see risk instead of a scary thing, a thing that is completely unknown, a thing that could be harmful. Maybe we could look at risk as this is a door to growth. Taking this risk is a door to learning, because when we step into the unknown, when we take that risk, we challenge ourselves, we expand our capabilities, and that is where true growth happens in our lives. By embracing risk, we position ourselves to learn to adapt in ways that, had you stayed in your comfort zone, you never would have been given that opportunity. And what I want to say with this too, is when we take the risk and we're pushed outside of our comfort zone and we grow, we now have a new basis, point right. We now have a new denominator. So things that were once really hard for us are now super easy. And I'll give you an example from running EB from the business.
Speaker 1:I remember how hard it was for me to learn about the differences between a 1099 contractor versus an employee versus a non-exempt employee versus an exempt employee, contractor versus an employee versus a non-exempt employee versus an exempt employee and all of these rules. And I sat before that when I had to learn that in the business, and it was this massive mountain that I was like how on earth am I going to climb this? How on earth am I going to understand the ins and outs of all of the different state laws when it comes to employees, right? Employee protections, which, of course, I want to give to my team and I remember sitting there being like I can't do this. And now, because I have now a new baseline for understanding that, it's easy for me, right? Someone can come ask me a question about a 1099 contractor and I can give you the answer in a heartbeat. But when I first stepped into the unknown, I didn't know anything and it was hard and that's okay, and I think, being okay with the difficulty because I know that it's going to lead to growth and it's going to lead to learning and it's going to serve me in building the best version of myself, then risk isn't even risky anymore. Risk is exciting because it's going to change me. It's going to make me a better person. Exciting because it's going to change me. It's going to make me a better person.
Speaker 1:The second thing that I want to talk about here is that risk-taking can lead to great rewards, regardless of how you think about it. So, whether or not that's some sort of financial reward or some sort of personal reward or some sort of happiness reward, whatever it might be. That's up to you to view it from that perspective that, even if it's a risk, that quote unquote didn't work out in your favor. Well, did it actually work out in your favor in some capacity, in some greater reward?
Speaker 1:I had this conversation with my son about losing and he was at football camp last week and I picked him up and he was not in a good mood and I'm like what's going on, bud? And he's like we lost the championship game. I hate football. And I was like whoa, first of all, we've got an attitude problem. I didn't say that to him, but we did have a conversation around. Okay, well, how does losing actually serve us? Right, if we always won, winning would become redundant. It wouldn't have that allure anymore when we also wouldn't learn anything about ourselves. I remember my dad always saying to me growing up losing builds character and it's about how you lose that matters.
Speaker 1:So, even though risk-taking can lead to great reward, even if that great reward isn't what you thought it was going to be, perhaps just like losing is actually winning this, whatever that risk is, that maybe isn't the quote unquote great reward that you thought it was going to be. Actually, that is the reward, right, and I want you to think about, like entrepreneurs or artists or leaders, people who've achieved great things in life. However you choose to define great things, maybe great things to you looks like someone who has a wonderful marriage, or whatever it might be. It doesn't have to be achievement based, right. Achievement can look like anything. Achievement could be the happiest person you know, right? However you choose to define that. But what I think about these people and when I look at these people, these people didn't wait until everything was certain. People take bold steps despite those risks, and that willingness to take risks is often what sets the goods apart from the greats. That the greats are the ones who are allowing themselves to achieve and seize remarkable opportunities that the goods just simply won't. So just an interesting perspective. I think around that.
Speaker 1:And then the third thing that I love about taking risks is that it builds resilience. Gosh, that is so something our students need. That's so something we need as humans. In today's day and age, we lack this resiliency that used to exist. Every single time you take a risk, no matter what it is, whether you succeed or you fail, but more often, when you fail, you become stronger, you become more resilient, you learn how to navigate that uncertainty and you learn how to bounce back from setbacks. That resilience is crucial for long-term success and, quite frankly, happiness, because not everything is always going to go the way that we want it to. Happiness, because not everything is always going to go the way that we want it to right. But if you look at it of okay, that's what I wanted, that's not what I got, either you get what you want or you get the lesson that you need in order to ultimately get what you want.
Speaker 1:So how can we develop the courage to take risks and seize opportunities? I want to give you a couple strategies to help you embrace risk and really make the most of life's big opportunities. Number one and hopefully you're picking up on it on the way that I've kind of phrased this whole Monday mindset is that you've got to shift your mindset. Instead of viewing risk as something to avoid, see it as a great thing, it's an exciting thing, it's a necessary component of growth and success. So embrace the idea that risk is this integral part of pursuing our dreams and that risk might be a risk to move across the country. That risk might be a $10,000 investment, that risk might be I don't know what it is, you name it Something that seems scary and that's okay and we can do it anyway because, no matter what happens, you are going to be okay. No matter what, you're going to be okay.
Speaker 1:And it wasn't until I kind of this is off topic but it wasn't until I came to a place in my life where I looked around at just all of the things. You know, we have so much stuff, we're such consumers, right, we're conditioned to be like that. And I looked around and I thought about everything that I had, everything that I physically had, and it wasn't until I became okay with losing absolutely every. If I lost everything, but I still had my friends, I still had my family, I still had my friends, I still had my family, I still had my son, I still had my relationships and I was happy. Even if I lost everything, I'd be okay, I would be okay and so will you, no matter what. That is a powerful, special, peaceful place to operate from life in.
Speaker 1:So shifting your mindset and viewing risk as something that is great, that's positive, that's a key component of growth and success. Then the other thing with risks is you can take calculated risks. While it's important to embrace risk, yes, you can also be strategic about it. You can be wise to be strategic. So do your homework, gather relevant information, weigh the pros and cons. Then you can take action with a clear understanding of what potential outcomes might be right.
Speaker 1:I always look at good, better, best, what is the worst case scenario? And I look at the worst case scenario. I'm like, meh, okay, I'll be fine, right. So what? I'll be okay no matter what happens, right? So the only thing with calculated risks I cannot remember the study, but I read this study that you get to a point where you have too much information that you actually can't make a decision, that your decision actually is now skewed because you've gathered too much data. And I cannot what it is, and if I find it I'll put it into the show notes, but it was so fascinating. It was like so many people get stuck in the research of making the decision that they gather too much data and it hinders their ability to ever even make a decision to begin with.
Speaker 1:And then the last thing that I wanna say here with this is that start small, you know if taking big risks. Whatever big means to you, big is going to be defined as something different by the person sitting next to you than it is for you. If taking big risks feels overwhelming, you can just start with smaller ones, gradually build your risk tolerance by stepping out of your comfort zone in maybe more manageable ways that feel a little bit more comfortable for you, that don't feel as scary for you, and then over time, you start to just become more comfortable with being uncomfortable, because that's just what you do, that's just how you operate in the world. And I think about this from myself, from my perspective of leading EB and all of the risky decisions that I've made over the years of investing a lot of money back into the company big risks to. Maybe we'll see what happens, but I believe in the vision that we have at EB, I believe in the mission that we're doing, and so it's like those risks totally outweigh or the reward rather totally outweighs any of the risks that I'm taking. Right, and so I, because I do I'll get to a point I'll be like, oh my God, I don't sleep at night, I'm stressing about, you know just the investments of the things that we're doing, especially with the build of the portal and just how much that costs the business. Like that costs a lot of money for EB to do and we don't have investors, I don't have foundations supporting us, because I want to be able to make decisions that are best for our teachers, not decisions that are best for investors or for a board or people who have some sort of ulterior motive or another vested interest in what we're doing.
Speaker 1:And so there have been plenty of times where I've been up at night concerned like is this risk worth it?
Speaker 1:And then I think about the why, and then I think about the outcome, and then I think about the impact, and then I think about the people whose lives will change and it's like, yeah, duh, of course it's worth the risk, right? So by implementing some of these strategies, I hope that you can start to just develop the mindset, the perspective shifts and the skills needed to embrace risk, start to seize those opportunities, and just remember that the biggest opportunities often come with some of the greatest uncertainties, and if you wait for the perfect moment for all of the risks to be eliminated, you may miss out on a chance to achieve something truly remarkable in your life, like think about the moments in your life when you took the leap of faith and it paid off. Leap and the net will appear. Those moments came with their fair share of risks, but they also brought significant rewards peace, joy, happiness, whatever that is for you, and so I want you to keep that in mind as you move forward and you face new opportunities.
Speaker 1:You know, don't let fear hold you back. Make decisions from love, not from fear. All right, you guys, I hope that was helpful for you. Let me know if it was. Share with somebody, if you loved it, and we'll see you guys next week on the podcast. Here's to another great week of living intentionally.