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: Dream Big
In today's Monday Mindset episode, I discuss how important it is to conquer self-doubt and embrace a mindset where anything is possible. Inspired by the book "10X is Easier Than 2X," I explore the power of setting bold, audacious goals and reflect on how fear or external discouragement can stifle our ambitions. I'll consider personal experiences and even share a few stories that demonstrate how, with the right mindset, the sky’s the limit.
Tune in to learn how adopting a mindset of limitless potential can lead to a more fulfilling and innovative life.
Here's to another day of intentional living!
Well, hello teachers, and welcome to your Monday Mindset podcast episode. These are short, little snippets of thoughts, reflections that I share with you on a weekly basis, that are focused around mindset things that we can do to live our best lives, to live an intentional life, and I invite you to not just listen to these for yourself and how they apply to you in your life, but consider sharing them with other people too. Consider sharing them with your students every Monday and having a conversation about it and doing a reflection together, because I think a lot of these thoughts, these topics, these questions are just a part of being human, and sometimes being human can feel lonely and to know that other people are struggling through some of the same challenges that you are and are benefiting from having these types of conversations is hugely powerful in allowing us to get to be the best version of ourselves, to take who we are and who we be and who we show up in the world as to that next level. So I really hope that you enjoy these Monday mindsets and, if you do, let us know over on our Instagram at Evie academics. Thanks so much for listening and let's dive into our Monday mindset. Welcome back to another Monday mindset.
Speaker 1:Today, we are exploring the idea that sometimes, most of the time, I think we are afraid to dream big, and I think that that happens because so many of us think that our dreams however you define that are not attainable, and I want to invite you to think about that. This is all wrong. In fact, I'm going to argue that you should dream so big so 10x, so 100x of your life, whatever that means for you, that your fears don't even have a place to show up, because this concept of operating from this mindset can really transform your life into helping you create what you actually want to create while you are here on this earth. I read this incredible book called 10X is Easier Than 2X, and it just talks about how, when we have big dreams, we cannot let the little nuances and the little hiccups and the little bumps they don't get in our way because they're so trivial in the long-term pursuit of that 10X dream or vision for our life that they don't even exist pursuit of that 10X dream or vision for our life that they don't even exist. So I want to ask you a question and be honest with yourself, and there's no right or wrong answer, and there's also never any judgment from me.
Speaker 1:Have you ever held back from dreaming big because you were afraid your dreams were too far-fetched or too unrealistic, or you had someone tell you in your life that that's not possible? And if that's the case, you are not alone, and one of the things that I invite you to bring into your life that I have brought into mind is that anything is possible. If someone says to me I want to do blah, blah, blah, or oh, I can't do that, my response is is anything is possible? And think about that. If you offer that to your brain that literally anything is possible, you find a solution. You find a solution from a different level of thinking than if you held yourself in a place that, oh, that's not ever going to happen. Well, of course, it's not going to happen because you don't believe it is right. But if you come from a perspective of, well, anything's possible, well, it's possible, right?
Speaker 1:I've had this conversation so many times with my developers when we were building our portal. We're still in the development of it right now for our school's version of the app and our student-facing version of the app. But I would ask them a question. I'm like, can we? And I'm like hold on, I don't even want to ask it that way. Of course we can. We can do X, y and Z. It's just a matter of time, money, effort, energy, attention, right, but it's possible. So I think that that is such a cool example of like in the real world, of really being able to see it, that if you want to create something online, you can do it. Anything's possible. It's just a matter of how to execute on it or how to make it happen, right. So think about that.
Speaker 1:Many of us limit our aspirations because really, our subconscious is holding us back out of fear of disappointment or fear of failure. But the truth is is that when we play small, when we play it safe, we're never, ever going to get to live the lives that we truly want to. So I want you to really do your best to try to consider how can you break free from those quite frankly self-imposed, or from our families, or from the way that we grew up, the place that we grew up in, the societal conditioning that we've been, you know, the way that we grew up, the place that we grew up in, the societal conditioning that we've been forced to believe, those limitations that are put on us that say well, your dreams are too big, you can't do that. No, this is your life, not theirs, not society's, not somebody else's. It's up to you.
Speaker 1:Think about all the incredible advancements and achievements that happen around us all the time Technology, human potential. I mean, they're crazy. People do crazy things. You're like the internet. How does the internet even work? I don't even understand, right? These breakthroughs were made possible by people who dared to dream big, who dared to come up with something, an idea that people thought was crazy. Right, you're seen as crazy until it works. And then people are like, oh my gosh, you're a freaking genius, right? These are people who aren't afraid to push the boundaries, who aren't afraid to envision a future that seemed out of reach. Imagine if we didn't have people who thought like that. We would all just be, you know, walking around with no advancements. I mean, maybe that's a better thing, right? You could argue life was easier 300 years ago.
Speaker 1:I don't know, we don't need to have that conversation, but dreaming big is so, so important, because when you have big dreams, it ignites a different passion and drive within you. You have to have a grand vision for your life. It fuels your motivation. It gives you a compelling reason to wake up every day to work toward your goals, and having a sense of purpose is one of those keys to happiness. I was listening to a podcast episode yesterday. It really changed my life. If you want to send me a message on Instagram, I'll share it with you, but they were talking about one of the keys to happiness is having a life that is a life full of purpose. Our lives need to have meaning in order for us to be happy, and so when we have a big vision, we have a big goal, we have a big dream, our life has meaning, our life has purpose and we are more joyful, we are happier.
Speaker 1:Second thing big dreams inspire creativity. They inspire innovation. When you set your sights high, you challenge yourself to think outside the box. How can we make this happen? Someone's like, no, I don't think so. It's like, okay, maybe not through your solution-oriented brain, but what if we think about it this way? Or what if we think about it from this angle? You can start to come up with innovative solutions and ways to overcome obstacles. That someone's like oh yeah, that's a great idea. I never would have thought of that. Okay, I love the creative thinking, brainstorming, right With, especially, there's so much to be said about what I'm building with the portal.
Speaker 1:We were just on a call today with our developers and the intended outcome was X, and we couldn't quite get there in the amount of time that we had. If we had six months to execute on this, no problem. We have 30 days. And so it was like how can we do this in a way that hits all of the constraints, in a way that hits the time constraint, in a way that hits the human power constraint that we have of literally how many people we have working on this, in a way that hits the financial constraint? So we have these constraints. Well, now we have to get creative to solve for the problem because of these constraints, and I just love it. I think it's so much fun to be able to do that.
Speaker 1:Okay, so how can you start dreaming big and overcoming this fear that holds you back? One is I want you to start visualizing your dreams. Our mind is not able to differentiate between what we visualize and what we actually see in real life. That's why visualization can be so, so powerful. You want to picture the details, the emotions that you feel Really. Immerse yourself in the vision of that thing actually happening in your life and it really starts to help you make your dreams feel more real and feel more attainable.
Speaker 1:Set big goals. Dr Benjamin Hardy, who wrote 10X is easier than 2X. He's in a mastermind that I'm in and he was talking about his book that he's coming out with I think it's in October. It's called Impossible Goals and his whole concept is that you should set goals for your life that are seemingly impossible, that if you set it to someone else, they would think that you are absolutely crazy and just off your rocker. Because that is going to allow us to push outside of our comfort zone, to break free of these societal constraints, to break free from what the people around us think we can and can't do, because it is yeah, it's an impossible goal and I'm still going to go for it. I'm still going to go after it.
Speaker 1:This is where it's key to have people in your corner who support you, who believe in you. We've all heard the phrase, hopefully, that you are most like the five people you surround yourself with. Think about that. Who are the five people in your life that you spend the most time with, and what are they telling you is possible the most time with. And what are they telling you is possible? I know I have three very good friends in my life who, all of my crazy dreams, they're like. They look at me, they're like I have no doubt that you're going to make that happen. They just believe. Because they believe I believe. So surround yourself with dreamers, surround yourself with people who are going to encourage you and inspire you because, again, anything is possible. And the last piece with this, too, is I want you to reflect on your life, reflect on your progress regularly, take stock of how far you've come and the progress that you've made. I can guarantee you there are things in your life right now that you never thought were going to be possible, and yet here they are, and it's become your baseline, it's become your new denominator and that, hopefully, will start to help reinforce that belief in your ability to achieve anything that you want, no matter what that is. And again, achievement can mean anything to anyone. It's how you choose to define that can mean anything to anyone. It's how you choose to define that. So I hope that this was helpful for you and just considering how dreaming big like big, impossible goals big If you have a student who says I wanna play in the MLB.
Speaker 1:Who are we to ever doubt somebody's belief in themselves? My son wants to be a professional athlete. You know what I tell him? I say you got to work hard, you got to love the sport. And number three you got to believe. And whenever he comes to me with that and says I want to play soccer or want to play baseball or want to play football, I say you got to work hard, you got to love the sport. And he looks at me and interrupts me. He goes and I got to believe. And that's what I'm teaching him, because anything's possible. And I want you to truly start to believe that, because life changes. Life changes when you lean into the fact that anything is possible and that those big dreams are going to help you attain that. All right, you guys. Here's to another great week of living intentionally.