Angela Watson's Truth for Teachers

Latest Episodes:

EP123 Gretchen Rubin on how teachers can use the 4 tendencies to help students (and themselves) to meet goals & expectations Mar 18, 2018

Show notes

I'm talking today with New York Times best-selling author Gretchen Rubin. I've learned so much from Gretchen's research on happiness from her book The Happiness Project, and I've studied her work on habits from the book Better Than Before. Gretchen's latest book is called The 4 Tendencies: The Indispensable Personality Profiles That Reveal How to Make Your Life Better (and Other People's Lives Better, Too).

I invited her on the show because the four tendencies are not just another personality type: They're about how people tend to respond to and meet expectations. When I first heard about the tendencies, I immediately saw the application to our work in the classroom, because it's such a challenge to figure out how to get students to meet expectations.

Listen in as Gretchen and I talk about understanding students' tendencies — as well as our own — so we can be more productive and accomplish the things that really matter.

Click here to listen to the audio, or read or share the condensed transcript and participate in the discussion.

EP122 Your #1 job when you don't feel motivated (don't stress over anything else!) Mar 11, 2018

Show notes

What do you do when you're just not motivated to get things done? Many of us try to force ourselves to be productive and slog through the day.

Today, I'll discuss how I'm experimenting with a different approach.

My #1 job — and yours — when we just don't feel motivated to get anything done, is to GET ourselves motivated to get things done. And that means taking a break from the to-do list to focus on things that get us energized is PART of your work and productivity, not a break from it.

Click here to listen in on the discussion, read summarized points, or participate in the discussion.

EP121 How to streamline assessment & spend less time grading (Productivity Roundtable) Mar 04, 2018

Show notes

One of the issues I'm most passionate about is making teaching more effective, efficient, and enjoyable, so I've gathered a group of educators to create a Productivity Roundtable.

Joining me are five members of the 40 Hour Teacher Workweek Club's graduate program. They have done a tremendous amount of work in experimenting with various productivity strategies in their classrooms and creating systems and routines that work well for them and their students. Since they teach at different grade levels and subject areas, in different types of school settings and communities, in a diverse set of locations throughout the United States, you're going to hear what works with a variety of teaching contexts and teaching styles.

The topic for our first productivity roundtable is streamlining the grading and assessment process. They'll share their best hacks and time-saving tips related to grading and assessment!

Click here to listen to the audio, or read or share the highlights from the roundtable session and participate in the discussion.

EP120 Engagement, excellence, & equity: A conversation with Regie Routman Feb 25, 2018

Show notes

Join me today for an interview with Regie Routman, as we discuss engagement, excellence, and equity in the classroom. Regie has over 40 years of experience teaching, coaching, and leading in diverse schools across the United States and Canada, and has been publishing books since 1988. Regie is among the top five people who have influenced my teaching practice and philosophy, and having her on the show was such an honor.

Click here to listen to the audio, or read or share the highlights from the interview and participate in the discussion.

EP119 Why I let 2 kids' behavior ruin my school year (and what I wish I'd done differently) Feb 18, 2018

Show notes

In this episode, I'm sharing one of the biggest mistakes I made as a teacher. I have a feeling it's something you'll be able to relate to, particularly if you have a couple of students who you just don't feel like you are equipped to handle. The choices I made took a bad situation and made it worse. I'll share what I wish I'd done differently, how I ultimately changed my approach, and what YOU can do to prevent the same problem from happening to you.

Want free resources to help you enjoy your work, even when it's super challenging?

Visit https://thecornerstoneforteachers.com/unshakeable and enter your email address.

I'll send you a downloadable calendar with ONE simple, actionable step you can take each day to enjoy teaching more.

I'll also send you a link to join the online book community for my book Unshakeable: 20 Ways to Enjoy Teaching Every Day...No Matter What. Join more than 9,000 teachers who are sharing ideas around how to infuse more joy into their teaching and stay connected to their purpose.

EP118 A stress-free system for summarizing student progress & generating awesome report card comments Feb 11, 2018

Show notes

The biggest pitfall that most teachers face with report card comments is overcomplicating the task, which creates overwhelm. I want to help you keep this super simple, so I created a 5-step formula for generating report card comments for ANY student. The end result? A positive, empathetic, and truthful set of comments that will be helpful for parents and facilitate their cooperation as you work together to help their children succeed, with you spending half the time!

Join me today as I discuss a new resource I created for my TeachersPayTeachers store, the Stress-Free System for Report Card Comments: Generate comments in half the time! It's available now to purchase or preview and at a discounted price through March 1, 2018.

Click here to read or share the transcript and audio or participate in the discussion.

Click here to view my new report card system resource in my TpT store.

EP117 Three trends from the positivity movement that are stifling teacher growth Feb 04, 2018

Show notes

There are a lot of trendy phrases from popular culture and the positivity movement which have infiltrated our thinking and practices as educators. They are helpful with a great deal of truth to them. However, I think we've gotten a little bit out of balance with the positivity movement and the rallying cry to be supportive of one another as teachers.

Join me today as I discuss three trends from the positivity movement, comparing their truths and how we can take them too far. I believe that we need to be having these critical conversations about the issues and challenging one another to do better. Moving past truisms and getting real is the only way we are going to shift school culture to truly be about what's best for kids!

Click here to read or share the transcript and audio, take a pledge or participate in the discussion.

EP116 How to create a morning routine that gets you energized to teach Jan 28, 2018

Show notes

There's a lot of talk about the importance of morning routines; however, it's not something that I commonly hear discussed in teaching circles. I think for most of the educators, having to be at school so early means that a morning routine is basically just getting yourself and your family out the door as quickly as possible and making sure you're in that classroom before your students are lined up outside your door waiting for you.

Join me today in listening to why morning routines are so important for teachers, and how to create a morning routine that works for you through intentionality and new habits.

Click here to read or share the transcript and audio, download a free morning planner, or participate in the discussion.

BONUS EXTENDED EPISODE: How to trim 3 (or more!) hours off your workweek starting NOW Dec 17, 2017

Show notes

In this special extended episode between podcast seasons, I'm sharing practical time-saving strategies and simple mindset shifts that will help you:

* Reduce your workload * Eliminate the unnecessary * Automate processes * Delegate responsibility to students * Get more done in less time * Create a sustainable work schedule

From lesson planning to grading, you'll walk away with lots of ideas for small changes that add up to big results, and get a fresh dose of motivation for the new year.

It's so simple to create change that you can try out just ONE of the dozens of approaches shared and save an hour a week, right away. There's something for every teacher here–don't miss out!

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Want more support with productivity?

Click here to learn about the 40 Hour Teacher Workweek Club, which is open to new members from Dec. 30th-Jan. 9th.

EP115 Goodbye, "Teacher Tired": 5 days to doing fewer things, better Nov 19, 2017

Show notes

What do you want your life to look like? When you look back on it all at the end, what do you want to feel like you've accomplished? How do you want to have spent your time? What will be your legacy?

Those are deep questions for sure, and most of us just don't have the time or energy to try to answer them. It's not because we don't care. We're just too tired to take a step back and try to figure out a better way. And yet, getting clear on what matters to you could change everything about the way you use your time and where you focus your energy.

Even though "there's no tired like teacher tired," a few changes in your mindset and habits can totally transform that. I created a free challenge called "Goodbye, Teacher Tired" with five of the most important things you can do to stop feeling tired all of the time and maximize your time, and energy and focus.

Listen in to get a summary of the five steps covered in the challenge. You can sign up for the challenge and participate in the discussion by visiting the original post here.

Or, you can learn more about the "Goodbye, Teacher Tired" Challenge here.

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