Angela Watson's Truth for Teachers

Latest Episodes:

EP114 Seven ways teachers can push past imposter syndrome Nov 12, 2017

Show notes

Have you ever felt like an imposter? Or the feelings that you have no idea what you're doing as a teacher or that you're not capable of doing everything that needs to be done?

If you can relate to any of those feelings, you might be dealing with a phenomenon that's commonly known as Imposter Syndrome. It's that feeling of being a fraud, an almost panic-inducing sense that at any moment, other people are going to figure out you have absolutely no idea what you're doing and have no business being given the level of responsibility you have. This is a real thing, and it can be paralyzing.

On today's episode, listen in as I share some strategies from personal experience that help with countering Imposter Syndrome and managing the self-doubt. I've chosen seven specific things that have been helpful for me over the years, and I hope they'll be helpful for you, too.

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

EP113 How teachers can conquer anxiety, overwhelm, and the pressure to always do more (with Dan Tricarico) Nov 05, 2017

Show notes

During today's episode, I am excited to feature an interview with Dan Tricarico as part of my Truth for Teachers podcast. Dan and I met when we were both speaking at a conference a couple of years ago, and I remember walking away from the conversation with him thinking, "This guy is the real deal." That's the phrase that stuck in my head because he just came across to me as being so grounded and so sincere in everything he said -- he was truly passionate about everything we spoke on and had a pure heart for helping kids and teachers.

Last February, I was out in San Diego for another conference, and he and I sat down together and hashed things out a bit. We've been working for the past 7-8 months on creating something together that addresses teacher anxiety. It's called Finally Free: The teacher toolkit for conquering anxiety, overwhelm, and the pressure to do more.

Today, we're going to give you some of our favorite mindset shifts and advice from the toolkit and talk about some ideas that will really make a big difference in how you feel.

Dan and I are making one of the modules in the Finally Free toolkit available to you for free. It's Module 1: Freedom from Comparison, which is designed for you to listen to when you're feeling not good enough and comparing yourself to others. You can go to finallyfreetoolkit.com to learn more about the toolkit, and scroll down to the preview where you can download the audio and PDF for that first module on comparison right now.

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

EP112 How to earn trust with families in poverty & empower parents as education partners (with Tamara Russell & Sarah Plumitallo) Oct 29, 2017

Show notes

Listen in on the second half of my interview with Tamara Russell and Sarah Plumitallo on building trust and relationships with families!

I've invited two current teachers, Tamara Russell and Sarah Plumitallo, onto my Truth for Teachers podcast to talk about what they're doing with their students.These two ladies are in the trenches, so to speak, on a daily basis and they share about their work on social media, which is where I first connected with them. We've had countless conversations about an issue we're all very passionate about, which is education equity, and I invited them both on the show so that more educators can learn from their experiences.

Our conversation ended up running for over an hour! For the first time ever on Truth for Teachers, I've decided to air almost the entire interview and split it into two episodes. The first half hour of our conversation was focused on classroom-based work, and the last 20 minutes was focused on building trust and relationships with families.

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

EP111 Three things real teachers focus on in high poverty classrooms that actually get results (with Tamara Russell & Sarah Plumitallo) Oct 22, 2017

Show notes

Today I've invited two current teachers, Tamara Russell and Sarah Plumitallo, onto my Truth for Teachers podcast to talk about what they're doing with their students. This is something that I hope to do on the show more often because it's just another angle of expertise that I think is important for you to hear as a teacher. These two ladies are in the trenches, so to speak, on a daily basis and they share about their work on social media, which is where I first connected with them. We've had countless conversations about an issue we're all very passionate about, which is education equity, and I invited them both on the show so that more educators can learn from their experiences.

Tune in today to our conversation centered around classroom ideas that teachers can focus on in high poverty classrooms that actually work!

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

EP110 6 ways to stop worrying about problems before they happen Oct 15, 2017

Show notes

In today's episode, I'll talk about 6 steps to stop worrying about problems before they happen. Teachers are faced with an enormous amount of stressors throughout their days, weeks, and school years. Just the possibility of being moved to another grade level or school (and in some cases having no position at all) will keep the teacher's lounge abuzz with nervous energy and speculation about who's retiring, who's taking leave, and what's going to happen to everyone else.

You see, anxiety, worry, and apprehension are completely useless emotions because they're based on potential problems in the future. Unlike fear, which is a response to problems we're facing in the present moment, anxiety does not produce anything positive. And, anticipating problems is an especially dangerous habit in the field of education, where policies and procedures seem to change on a dime for no apparent reason and against all logic.

Listen in today to discover ways to consciously set our minds on the present reality and remind ourselves that the majority of problems we anticipate never happen.

If you struggle with teacher anxiety and found this episode helpful, I want to let you know about a new resource that you may want to check out. It's the first new product I've made for teachers in three years. I've partnered with Dan Tricarico to create this toolkit which is a collection of audio resources called Finally Free: The teacher toolkit for conquering anxiety, overwhelm, and the pressure to do more.

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

EP109 How to reduce work hours & streamline parent communication without looking like a slacker (Kristen's coaching call) Oct 08, 2017

Show notes

The episode of the Truth for Teachers podcast featured here is a free coaching call I conducted with a graduate of the 40 Hour Teacher Workweek Club. Her name is Kristen, and she's a year 4 teacher in Australia, which is equivalent to 4th grade in the U.S.

Kristen is in her sixth year of teaching and feeling like she's spending way too much time communicating with parents and answering emails, and also feeling nervous about what cutting back on the amount of time she spends on these things and other tasks might do to her reputation in the school.

Listen in today to the second half of this conversation where we're focused on email communication and giving yourself permission to stop correlating hours worked with effectiveness.

Click here to read this podcast online or download it to listen on the go.

EP108 4 teaching mistakes that drained my energy (and the solutions that changed everything) Oct 01, 2017

Show notes

I am always looking for ways to save energy. I shared in my book Unshakeable that energy is one of our most precious resources because unlike time, energy does not naturally replenish itself. We have to be intentional about how we use our energy. If we don't pay attention to the things that drain it and do less of those things and pay attention to things that are energy-giving and do more of those things, we'll find ourselves feeling depleted all the time.

Today I'm going to share with you 4 habits and practices that drained my energy as a teacher for years, and I'll share the solutions I uncovered that completely transformed the way I approached my work.

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

Click here for the no prep, collaborative learning strategies resource we discussed.

EP107 6 simple ways to infuse growth mindset into daily classroom routines Sep 24, 2017

Show notes

Growth mindset has been a buzzword in education for quite awhile and I think a lot of teachers and kids are already familiar with it. But I've noticed a pitfall that seems to occur fairly often: growth mindset is introduced to students near the beginning of the year and then the curriculum demands seem to take precedent.

When you have so many skills you have to teach and so many standards for kids to master, it's hard to remember, much less make time to talk about growth mindset. Fortunately, there are some simple ways you can infuse growth mindset into what you do on a daily basis.

Join me today and listen in for these regular practices that help you ensure students will be willing to try new things, stick with hard tasks and not give up, push themselves to do their best work, and believe in themselves and their own ability to learn.

Click here to read this podcast online or download it to listen on the go.

Here's quick access to the resources I recommend in today's podcast: Dr. JoAnn Deak's Fantastic Elastic Brain book, Carol E. Reiley's Making a Splash growth mindset book, free online brain songs, and a more structured, complete 10 lesson unit that I've created that is a best seller on TeachersPayTeachers.

EP106 3 beliefs that damage teacher relationships with black male students (and how to connect instead) Sep 17, 2017

Show notes

The majority of the Truth for Teachers podcast episodes are on topics that will help improve your teaching practices with ALL of your students, but in some cases, I like to talk about specific student populations. It's okay to focus for ONE episode on meeting the needs of English Language Learners, or students with special needs. And it's okay to focus for an episode on students of color.

In this case, I chose to focus even more specifically on that: to talk about black males in particular. My guest today, Principal Kafele, is a black male himself and is a nationally-renowned authority on his work with black male students. There's a tremendous amount of research showing that many black males in the United States are facing unique challenges and are underserved. We do a disservice to our students if we pretend that the outcomes that our students experience from our school system are all the same regardless of race. Our black male students can do better, and we can do better by them.

The question of HOW to do better is what we're going to tackle today in my interview with Principal Kafele. Listen in to his message on helping students succeed by connecting with them, understanding them, and building relationships with them so that we can meet their needs better.

Click here to visit Principal Kafele's website to learn more about him and the resources he offers.

EP105 How to move out of the day-by-day lesson planning trap and think big picture (Rachel's coaching call) Sep 10, 2017

Show notes

In this coaching call with a teacher named Rachel, I think you'll recognize a very common dilemma for teachers: spending exorbitant amounts of time doing lesson planning, and still feeling like you don't know what you're doing from day to day.

If you're caught in a trap of planning every night for the following day, forgetting to do certain things with students even though it's in the plan, and constantly running out of time before getting to finish the lesson...this episode can be a game changer!

Listen in as Rachel and I tackling all of these problems. Her lesson planning process is essentially done in three steps, and you'll hear me articulate each of those steps as we go through them, because I think it's a good model to follow.

Certainly it's not the only way to plan lessons, but I think many teachers have never heard another teacher explain exactly how she plans, and everyone's process is unique. It's fascinating to listen in on her process, which sounds great in theory, and try to figure out where the breakdown is happening.

I hope this helps you identify missteps in YOUR planning process so you can streamline a bit like Rachel!

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