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: Find Your Person
Do you believe you can do hard things?
The simple belief that you are capable has more power than you may realize.
In this Monday Mindset episode, I explore how self-belief can reshape your entire journey. I'll spend a little time recounting personal experiences, hoping to showcase how believing in yourself is the foundation of resilience and courage, helping you face life's challenges and pursue your dreams with determination. I'll discuss how it's actually possible to find peace and joy within yourself, even when the world doesn't affirm you.
True bravery is about showing up for yourself consistently. The most important believer in your journey is you.
Join me and discover how finding your strength starts from within.
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.
Speaker 1:Well, hello you guys, and welcome back to another Mondayset episode. This episode is titled Find your Person, and it might not be exactly what you think it's going to be. Today we're talking about the importance of having one person in your life who believes in you unconditionally, who's going to stand by you unconditionally, who will be there for you all the time, someone who that, no matter what, is going to give you the courage and the determination and the motivation to do things that you've never done before. And the twist with that is that one person is actually you and, as I've been going on my own journey in the last couple of months, my experience of that is very true, that it is me and to find happiness and wholeness and completeness with myself. And I've also been rereading the book Eat, pray, love, which maybe some of you have read before as well, and it's so interesting reading her journey now, at 38, after going through you know what I'm going through personally in my life and reading it from this perspective, on this side of life, as opposed to when I first read it, when I was 20.
Speaker 1:And I didn't really understand the concept of really being complete and whole with just you, of having that quote, unquote person in your life, be you, that you are the person to be your belief system, that you are the person that you've got you, that you believe in you and then, if everything falls apart and goes wrong, that you will still be there for you. I love that so much because, yes, community matters, yes, having people in our lives and surrounding ourselves with incredible people matters. Having people in our lives and surrounding ourselves with incredible people matters. And it's also so important to find that in ourselves as well, because we often hear about the importance of having a strong support system right, family, friends, mentors, guides, people who believe in us, encourage us, stand by us through thick and thin. And, yes, that is so important and is so true that having others in your corner is invaluable. But really, at the end of the day, there is one person whose belief in you matters more than anybody else's, and that person is you.
Speaker 1:So I want to talk about why is it so crucial for you to be your own biggest supporter? Well, first, when you believe in yourself, you really start to cultivate this inner strength and resilience. Life is unpredictable. We say that all the time. Sometimes. Oftentimes, things don't go as you plan right, but when you have this unwavering faith in yourself, this unwavering belief in yourself that, no matter what happens, you have the ability to overcome challenges and keep moving forward. There's peace in that, there's joy in that, there's comfort in that, because you've got you, there are no external factors that are impacting your ability to be happy, your ability to find joy, your ability to find peace, your ability to find wholeness, because it's just with you and you are never going to leave you. God, that's so beautiful to me. The other thing, too, with this is that when you believe in yourself and when you are your own biggest supporter, it gives you the courage to take risks and try new things. It's easy to play it safe when you're unsure of your own abilities, but when you truly believe in you, you are so much more willing to step outside of your comfort zone and pursue your dreams, and I believe that self-belief is a paramount foundation to growth and success.
Speaker 1:You are going to hear things, inevitably, from people. My dad, who is my biggest supporter, will sometimes say things to me like oh, are you sure that's a good idea? And as much as he's trying to be helpful and look out for me, that totally deflates me, and so I've learned. Really sure I can share with people. And I've also got to be that strong foundation for myself. That unwavering belief has got to come from me, because I cannot place that on an external force, on an external circumstance, on an external person who I don't know what they're going to say. I don't know how what they're going to say is going to impact my belief. So I've got to stay strong in myself. You've got to stay strong in yourself when you are your own strongest advocate. It allows you to stay grounded Even when everything else seems to be falling apart.
Speaker 1:External validation, yes, is great, but, like I said, it's not always guaranteed. When you can rely on your belief in yourself, you are not seeking it anywhere else. You have a stable foundation to stand on, no matter what life chooses to throw your way. Man, hold yourself, god, I love it so much. Hold yourself, god, I love it so much. So how can you start becoming that one person in your life who believes in you unconditionally? Because, as always, it's easier said than done. It's simple, not easy.
Speaker 1:So number one is you want to practice positive self-talk, like positive affirmations make a difference. It's not some silly thing, it's not some crazy new age thing, the way that you speak to yourself shapes your reality. It impacts your beliefs, your mindset. If you're unsure of what you believe about yourself when it comes to anything, just look at the world around you and what it's reflecting back to you. What do your relationships look like? What are your friendships like? How are you showing up at work, in the workplace? Right, it shows up in so many different places. So if you're ever unsure of what you believe about yourself or your worth when it comes to relationships or when it comes to friendships, look at the friendships that you have. They will tell you what you believe, because our world is shaped by our beliefs, not the other way around. So when you start to shift your beliefs about yourself through your positive self-talk, it changes your reality. You've got to replace those negative thoughts with affirmations and reminders of your strengths, with evidence from past successes. You've got to speak to yourself with the same kindness and encouragement that you would to someone else that you love, who is not you.
Speaker 1:Number two set realistic goals and celebrate progress. Setting achievable goals is great. It's really helpful. I also believe in impossible goals as well, but achievable goals is great, it's really helpful. I also believe in impossible goals as well, but achievable goals can be extremely helpful in acknowledging your progress along the way to help you build confidence, because every single small victory is going to reinforce your belief in your abilities and motivate you to keep going right. Then you also got to embrace your imperfections, because nobody's perfect. I know for some of our perfectionists who are listening to this, this will be your greatest life's challenge is an understanding that you can't be perfect. It's not possible. It's not a thing for us as humans. So when you accept your flaws and you accept your mistakes as a part of the journey that allows you to believe in yourself despite any setbacks, it now becomes about building resiliency, increasing capacity, as opposed to constantly trying to be flawless. Give yourself an escape from that. Stop holding that over yourself. Number four visualize your success.
Speaker 1:If you've ever been on one of my workshops in the summertime, I talk about visualization, with an example of basketball players all the time and how many pro athletes utilize and college athletes, high school athletes utilize the power of visualization in sports. And there's this great study done with three groups of basketball players about visualization. There's a group who doesn't practice free throws for a whole month. There's a group who practices the actual physical act of shooting free throws every day for a month. And then there's another group who just visualizes making the free throws every day for a month. Of course, the group who doesn't practice gets worse, right. But the group who practices physically and the group who practices visually see the same, almost the same amount of growth in that month as each other. So when we visualize, it's as though we are doing it physically.
Speaker 1:So when you spend time visualizing yourself achieving your goals and living the life that you desire, this mental practice really boosts your confidence and makes your dreams feel more attainable. It makes it feel more real. When you see it in your mind, you start to believe that it's possible. Right? Our minds don't understand the difference between what's real and what's imagined. Think about how powerful that is, holy cow.
Speaker 1:And the last one that I want to say with this is to really show up for yourself consistently, like you've got to have discipline. To show up for yourself consistently. Keep the promises that you make to yourself. That means taking care of yourself physically, emotionally, mentally, prioritizing boundaries with people. Make decisions that align with your values and your goals. Surround yourself with people that align with your values and your goals and keep those promises, to consistently show up for yourself, because when you do that, you reinforce the belief that you are worthy of success and happiness, even though that doesn't need to be a belief, because you just inherently are, because you were born and you are a human here on this earth. You are inherently worthy of anything that you want, but so many of us have a hard time grasping that. So here you're able to reinforce this belief because really that's all it is. The end of the day is a belief. So by cultivating self-belief, you become the person who is always in your corner, no matter what. That inner confidence gives you the courage to take the risks that other people aren't willing to take, the resilience to handle setbacks that other people can't handle, and the determination to pursue your dreams with every ounce of your soul, with everything that you got.
Speaker 1:I once heard one of my business mentors answer someone's question. They asked him. They said why do you do what you do? It works his butt off, works all the time and has all the money in the world does not need to be doing any of this for money at all. And he says because I am here to leave it all on the field. I want to max myself out. I want to leave it all here before I die.
Speaker 1:Damn, think about the people who have achieved great things. Yes, they may have had support from others, but at the core, they believed in themselves. They knew that, even if everything else fell apart, they had the inner strength, that grit, to keep going. You have that same potential within you. By being your own biggest supporter, you unlock the courage to do things that you have never done before. So I just want you to remember that the most important person who needs to believe in you is you. So finding your person does not mean finding someone externally. It means finding them internally. All right, you guys, here's to another great week of living intentionally.