172. How Meditation and Yoga Helps Children in School with Giselle Shardlow from Kids Yoga Stories
Jun 05, 2024
Are you looking for strategies to improve classroom management?
A great place to start is by teaching emotional regulation skills to your students. This will help them better self-regulate and better manage their behaviours. But how do you teach self-regulation skills to kids?
Yoga and mindfulness is a great way to teach emotional regulation to students in a fun and engaging way!
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we interview Giselle Shardlow from Kids Yoga Stories. We ask what is kids yoga and how is it different from adult yoga? Giselle shares how to teach yoga to kids and teens and how to bring yoga and mindfulness into the classroom. We also talk about how to make yoga and mindfulness fun for kids so they’ll enjoy it and want to participate. Finally, we discuss how to prepare for bringing mindfulness and yoga into your classroom or school. Learn easy ways to get started!
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171. New Teacher Tips: Practical Strategies to Help New Teachers Thrive
May 06, 2024
Are you a new teacher feeling overwhelmed by all there is to figure out in the classroom? Do you want practical strategies for how to avoid teacher burnout?
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast we’re interviewing Alisha, a seasoned educator and co-host of the teacher podcast, Rainbow Skies for New Teachers. We discuss the challenges that new teachers face. Plus, Alisha gives advice for new teachers that will help to prevent teacher burnout.
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170. Time Management Strategies to Prevent Teacher Burnout with Shawna Lapointe
Apr 01, 2024
Is there a way to live your best life without constantly feeling overwhelmed and burnt out?
Learn how to improve your work-life balance and avoid teacher burnout with these time management tips from Shawna Lapointe of Too Busy Livin’.
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re interviewing Shawna Lapointe, teacher, entrepreneur, and mom of 4. Shawna shares concrete strategies that will help you leave work at work and enjoy your time at home to the fullest.
Shawna will teach you:
an important question you need to ask yourself in order to maintain work-life balance.
strategies she uses to complete all her work during contractual hours – no planning or grading at home in the evenings!
time management skills she uses at home to reduce the burden of cooking and cleaning, freeing up more time to enjoy her family.
meal-prep tips that will help you save time and ensure you eat what you love without wasting energy.
By the end of this episode, you’ll have simple and powerful strategies that you can start using right away to prevent teacher burnout and improve work-life balance!
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10 Short Mindfulness Winter Activities for All Grades
Nov 06, 2023
Today, we’re tackling a fun topic on The Balanced Educator Podcast… who doesn’t love a good seasonal topic!
We share concrete ways to incorporate social emotional learning and mindfulness on the theme of winter!
With the winter season upon us, it’s an opportune time to explore mindfulness in winter and dive into some calming breathing exercises that will help with self-regulation and classroom management!
Today, we’ll be sharing 10 activities you can do with your students of all grades, though some will work better with some grades than others.
You will leave this episode with ready to use, no prep winter activities you can use right away for a calm classroom environment.
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168. How to Help Your Students Self-Regulate with Mindful Coloring
Oct 02, 2023
There are so many great ideas for classroom mindfulness activities!
In this super practical episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we talk about one of our favorites: mindful coloring (and hint: we share a link to some free coloring pages for kids for your use in the classroom!).
We share the what, why and how to use kids coloring pages in your classroom to help with self-regulation and classroom management.
We give concrete, no prep ideas you can start using right away!
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5 Habits of the Least Stressed & Most Empowered Educators with Grace Stevens
Sep 04, 2023
Today on The Balanced Educator Podcast, we are chatting with Grace Stevens all about feeling less stressed as teachers and more empowered. A perfect episode to listen to in the first few months of the school year to set yourself up for success!
A former corporate girl, Grace quit VP life to pursue her dream job as a public school teacher. After 20 years in the classroom, she focuses full-time on helping educators have a more positive teaching experience. Grace combines her signature mantra, “Your energy teaches more than your lesson plans,” with two decades of study in behavioral therapy and positive psychology to create science-based habits for overwhelmed educators. She has authored three books on teaching, including the best-selling Positive Mindset Habits for Teachers and the One New Habit book series.
We are excited to dive into the 5 habits of the least stressed most empowered educators with you!
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166. Focus Teaching Strategies for Distracted Students
Aug 07, 2023
Tired of managing off-task students? Or having a hard time in the classroom distracted students that lack focus?
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we walk you through a simple and easy lesson plan for K-12 classrooms that will show you how to explicitly teach your students focus strategies in a systematic and efficient way (and make classroom management easier for you!).
Just like we can’t expect students to learn how to read on their own, we also can’t expect them to learn to focus on their own.
Listen to this episode if you want some concrete teaching strategies to help your students be able to focus on their academic learning, increase their problem solving skills and apply self-regulation strategies on their own!
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Nurturing Resilience: Exploring Child Stress with Lindsay Miller from The Stress Nanny
Jul 04, 2023
Join Lindsay Miller, a distinguished kids mindfulness coach, mindfulness educator, and host of The Stress Nanny Podcast, as we embark on a captivating exploration of child stress. Lindsay’s expertise, backed by 20+ years of child development study and mindfulness certification, equips us with invaluable insights to support children’s emotional well-being.
Discover how to recognize stress symptoms in kids. Explore effective strategies for emotion regulation and social-emotional learning, and unlock the power of mindfulness in promoting kids’ mental health. Tune in to this enlightening episode and discover the secrets to nurturing resilience and fostering a mindful, balanced life for children.
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164. Emotion is ME and WE. Interpersonal Neurobiology in the Classroom
Jun 09, 2023
Have you noticed that when you arrive to the classroom stressed, your students’ behavior problems increase?
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, Kailey explains the neurobiology of why emotions seem to be contagious. She talks about how emotions have the function of communication internally and interpersonally. Then, Kailey explains how we can work with this system of interpersonal neurobiology instead of fighting against it.
You’ll learn how to create a social and emotional teaching plan in your classroom that allows everyone to prepare their brains and bodies for effective teaching and learning. Furthermore, you’ll learn why this whole brain teaching routine will lead to greater academic success.
Use the information learned in this episode for your teacher toolbox to simplify your classroom management plan, to improve your behavior management strategies and to help your students develop their emotional intelligence!
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SHOW NOTES
Book: The Developing Mind by Dr. Daniel Siegel
Book: The Whole Brain Child by Dr. Daniel Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson
163. A Calm Classroom Mindfulness Activity for Self-Regulation
May 01, 2023
Are you looking for simple, yet highly effective classroom ideas to get your students ready for learning?
In this to-the-point episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we share an excellent easy-to-teach self-regulation strategy that will help to create a calm, respectful and focused classroom environment.
This teaching strategy won’t take more than 5 minutes of your precious class time… We know how busy every single school day can be! However, we also know how important it is to get students into a state where they are ready for academics if we want them to learn! And this strategy is a tried-and-true winner with students!
You will leave this short and practical episode with everything you need to implement this calm classroom activity right away, and we even share some extra free resources you can download for free to make this activity even more seamless with your K-12 students!
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162. Six No Prep Breathing Exercises: Make Classroom Management Easier
Apr 03, 2023
Do you want to make classroom management easier for yourself and your students (and be able to focus better and enjoy your time in class together a whole lot more)?
In this short and sweet episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we share how to make classroom management easier by teaching your students emotional regulation through breathing exercises.
Specifically, you will learn 6 breathing exercises you can teach to your students that can then be added to your students’ coping skills toolbox. Plus, you’ll learn the secret to getting them to actually use those self-management skills on their own when they’re feeling a big emotion (if you listen to this education podcast often, you may already have an idea as to what it is!).
You will leave this episode with everything you need to start implementing these awesome teaching strategies right away and to create a well-managed, respectful and focused classroom environment.
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161. A “Tech-Intentional” Approach in the Classroom with Emily Cherkin
Mar 06, 2023
A big struggle in the classroom, especially in middle and high school, is managing students’ use of technology.
Smartphones and other devices can be powerful tools in the classroom. However, they can also be major distractions for students and a constant struggle for teachers.
In this episode, we interview Emily Cherkin, The Screentime Consultant. Emily has a masters in Education. She is an internationally recognized consultant who has worked with families and schools over the last fifteen years. A former classroom teacher and current parent, Emily helps families go from tech-overwhelmed to tech-intentional. She’s been featured on The Today Show (twice), Good Morning, America, and in The New York Times. She can be found on the major social media platforms and at www.thescreentimeconsultant.com.
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SHOW NOTES
Connect with Emily on her website and social media:
160. The Best Picture Books for Social-Emotional Learning and How to Use Them in Your Classroom with Andrea Burns
Feb 06, 2023
Looking for books to help you teach social-emotional skills in your classroom? In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’ve invited 4th grade teacher Andrea Burns, to share her list of the best books to read with your students to support social-emotional development.
Andrea Burns is extremely passionate about all things bookish. This includes children’s literature, the smell of a brand new book, or adding new picture and chapter books to her already full bookshelf. Andrea is also passionate about Social Emotional Learning. She is an author and has a children’s book coming out that is SEL related. Andrea lives in Kansas. She is a teacher and has a Masters of Science in Curriculum & Instruction. She loves helping other educators implement SEL into their classroom.
In this episode, Andrea also shares her method for incorporating SEL and mindfulness in her classroom and the planning strategy she uses to connect the books she chooses with the learning outcomes and standards in the curriculum. You’ll leave this episode with social-emotional learning and mindfulness ideas, resources, and strategies that you can start using in your K-12 classroom right away.
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SHOW NOTES
Try the Educalme mindfulness and social-emotional learning program for free: www.educalme.com/free
159. Mindful Nature Activities for the Classroom with Sandi Schwartz from the Ecohappiness Project
Jan 02, 2023
Looking for simple, no cost ways to practice mindfulness with your students and help them to manage their emotions?
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we talk to Sandi Schwartz, the founder and director of the Ecohappiness Project, about how to mindfully engage with nature.
In this episode, you’ll learn the science behind why time mindfully engaging with nature is beneficial to children’s emotional health.
You will also discover how to implement nature programming in your classroom in a creative way to help students better manage their emotions. You’ll will walk away with tons of fun, simple nature activity ideas to add to your curriculum.
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158. Letting go of Perfection with Shibani Joshi
Dec 05, 2022
Feeling overwhelmed? Burnt out? Unmotivated? Perfectionism might be the problem! In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we talk with Shibani Joshi about the expectations that are put on women in the workplace, how to let go of perfectionism and how to speak up for ourselves.
Shibani Joshi is an experienced journalist who has covered business, technology and general news for global media outlets, including ABC News, Fox Business Network, Fox News Channel, Yahoo! Finance and Huffington Post.
She previously anchored a daily markets show on the Fox Business Network and had her own tech segment across Fox’s networks. Shibani has interviewed hundreds of corporate CEOs and executives from companies, including Apple, Citigroup, Ford, Google, McDonald’s and Uber. She has also reported extensively on the floors of the NYSE, Nasdaq and NYMex exchanges.
Shibani is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma and holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School. She currently lives in the Bay Area with her 3 children.
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157. Social Media and Teen Mental Health with Richard Capriola
Nov 07, 2022
Sixty percent of teen girls and forty percent of teen boys experience negative social comparison on Instagram.
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’ve invited Richard Capriola to talk about how social media is affecting teen mental health.
You’ll learn shocking statistics on how teen mental health is evolving in the recent years. Plus, you’ll leave with strategies you can use in the classroom to support your students in this complex social media and pandemic era.
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SHOW NOTES
Visit Richard’s website to learn more about his book and read his blog: helptheaddictedchild.com
Netflix documentary on social media: The Social Dilemma
155. Is Educalme the Right Mindfulness and SEL Program for Your School?
Sep 05, 2022
Is choosing the right resource for teaching mindfulness and social-emotional learning in your classroom stressing you out?
With so many programs out there, it can be overwhelming to choose the best option for your goals.
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we share the outcomes, benefits and evidence behind the Educalme social-emotional learning and mindfulness program.
This episode will help you decide if this is the right program for you.
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153. Mindful Media Literacy with Amy Jussel
Jul 04, 2022
With screen time doubled via online learning, now more than ever critical thinking skills specific to media and devices are a necessity to help kids navigate the ever-changing influences of the digital landscape.
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’ve invited Amy Jussel to teach us how to integrate media literacy, mindfulness and SEL in the classroom for a transdisciplinary approach that replicates real-life.
Amy is the Founder of ShapingYouth.org, a media literacy organization using critical thinking tools to educate and embed habits of inquiry, enabling children to deconstruct media messages presented to them from all walks of life.
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152. Beginner Mindfulness Exercise for Teachers & How to Use it with Kids
Jun 06, 2022
Starting a mindfulness practice can feel overwhelming when there are so many resources to choose from.
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we share a beginner mindfulness practice. One that you can listen to over and over to start, reinvigorate or deepen your mindfulness practice.
We also talk about how you can use this exercise with the kiddos in your life and/or in your classroom.
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SHOW NOTES
Purchase a membership to Educalme to get more guided mindfulness audios for yourself as well as daily audios to practice with your students that intentionally build, mindfulness, self-awareness and self-regulation over time. Go to https://www.educalme.com/classroom/ for more information.
Share this post on Pinterest so other teachers can benefit from this mindfulness practice too!
151. What Teachers Need to Know About Adolescent Substance Abuse with Richard Capriola
May 02, 2022
What do teachers need to know about adolescent substance abuse today?
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’ve invited Richard Capriola, a mental health and addictions counselor and the author of The Addicted Child: A Parent’s Guide to Adolescent Substance Abuse, to share his expertise on adolescent mental health and substance abuse.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
which drugs teens are using,
the warning signs of substance abuse that educators should be familiar with,
how drugs work in the teen brain,
how the pandemic has impacted teen mental health and compulsive behaviors,
and how teachers and schools can reach teens in a meaningful way that can impact a child’s decision to not use illicit drugs and alcohol.
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SHOW NOTES
Richard Capriola’s website where you can find his book and other resources for parents and teachers: https://helptheaddictedchild.com/
150. Co-Regulation Before Self-Regulation
Apr 04, 2022
Are your students struggling to self-regulate?
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast we explain why you will have more success is you focus on co-regulation first.
You will learn concrete ways to co-regulate with your students in the classroom so that everyone can benefit from emotional regulation and be ready for effective teaching and learning.
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149. Work Less, Teach More: How to be an Effective Teacher and Live a Life you Love with Dan Jackson
Mar 07, 2022
Are you feeling overworked, stressed or like you never have time to complete your to-do list?
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, Dan Jackson, educator and author of the book Work Less, Teach More, shares strategies from his book. Strategies that will help you better manage your time so you be an effective teacher AND live a life you love.
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148. How to Increase Student Engagement in Learning
Feb 07, 2022
Isn’t it frustrating when a student doesn’t engage in classroom learning experiences?
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we share our tried and true methods for increasing student engagement in any classroom activity, but especially with mindfulness and social-emotional learning.
You’ll leave this episode with concrete strategies that you can start using right away to get even your most reluctant learners to participate.
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147. A No Prep Classroom Calming Strategy: A Joyful Memory
Jan 03, 2022
Are you like us, always looking for social-emotional learning and self-regulation strategies to add to your teacher toolbox?
In today’s episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we share an awesome no prep mindfulness activity for your toolbox! An all around feel-good activity, and a student favourite, too!
It’s called A Memory That Brings Me Joy.
We tell you exactly how to do this exercise in your classroom, and we provide you with everything you need to do it right away!
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146. 5 No Prep SEL Activities for the Tired Teacher
Nov 22, 2021
When you’re tired, you need some no-prep activities that you can do on the spot, with short notice and next to no supplies, that can fill time while still being enriching for you and your students.
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re sharing our go-to no-prep social-emotional learning and mindfulness activities that you can do with all ages whenever you need a filler activity but don’t want to feel guilty that you’re wasting time.
These are great activities for when a lesson goes faster that you expected. Or, for when holidays are coming up and both you and your students need a break or any other time that you want to infuse some SEL at the last minute.
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SHOW NOTES
Sign up for the Educalme Free Trial to get no-prep SEL activities that you can enjoy too. Just press play and feel calm and focused alongside your students.
Share this post on Pinterest so other teachers can get these 5 activities too!
145. Teach Your Students to Manage Their Time – A Step-by-Step Strategy
Nov 08, 2021
Do your students hand assignments in late? Do they feel stressed about completing their tasks on time?
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we share the exact strategy we teach high school and university students to help them reduce stress and overwhelm and better manage their time all while prioritizing their wellbeing.
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144. Your Ideal Week: Teacher Productivity Hacks
Oct 25, 2021
Do you feel like you’re pulled in so many directions as a teacher? That at any given moment that you can never complete the tasks you planned to do, then have to catch up before and after school?
No More!
Learn a highly effective strategy to keep you on track! Plus, find more work-life balance (and avoid teacher burnout) in this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast!
We’re going to walk you through a quick process we follow each week to plan our tasks and be more efficient than we ever thought possible.
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143. How to Talk to Kids About Complex Social Justice Issues with Shelby Kretz from Little Justice Leaders
Oct 11, 2021
How can we talk to kids about complex social justice issues in an age-appropriate way… And without watering down the realities of the issues?
Oftentimes, kids have no issue understanding and being comfortable with these concepts. It’s often adults who need help to facilitate conversations.
So how can adults get to the point where they feel comfortable talking about really important issues with kids: topics like racism, sexism, human rights, and all the intersections that lie within?
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’ve invited Shelby Kretz to teach us how. Shelby is an educational researcher at UCLA and creator of Little Justice Leaders subscription box. Little Justice Leaders is a monthly box for parents and teachers of elementary school students, which provides resources each month to learn about a new topic of social justice.
Subscribe to The Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes: iTunes | Spotify | YouTube
142. Free Lesson! Intro to Mindfulness for Middle and High School
Sep 27, 2021
The biggest hurdle to starting a mindfulness practice in your classroom is often the fear of the first lesson.
How do you introduce mindfulness to your students so that they will be on board and understand the benefits of this practice?
We’ve decided to completely remove this barrier for you by creating an introduction to mindfulness video lesson that you can show to your middle and high school students to give them the pre-teaching they need to have a successful mindfulness routine whether you’re teaching in person or online. Just press play!
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we explain why we included what we did in this lesson, how to use it in your classroom and how it fits together with the Educalme Classroom Free Trial and with the full mindfulness program.
We’ve also included the audio version of the video right in this episode so that you get an idea of what’s in store for you and your students when you play the video in class.
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Subscribe to The Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes: iTunes | Spotify | YouTube
SHOW NOTES
Sign up for the Educalme free trial and watch the Introduction to Mindfulness lesson with your students!
Share this post on Pinterest so other educators can use this free lesson too!
141. Free Lesson! Introduction to Mindfulness for Primary Students
Sep 13, 2021
The biggest hurdle to starting a mindfulness practice in your classroom is often the fear of the first lesson.
How do you introduce mindfulness to your students so that they will be on board and understand the benefits of this practice?
We’ve decided to completely remove this barrier for you by creating an introduction to mindfulness video lesson that you can show to your primary and middle school students to give them the pre-teaching they need to have a successful mindfulness routine whether you’re teaching in person or online. Just press play!
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we explain why we included what we did in this lesson, how to use it in your classroom and how it fits together with the Educalme Classroom Free Trial and with the full mindfulness program.
We’ve also included the audio version of the video right in this episode so that you get an idea of what’s in store for you and your students when you play the video in class.
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Subscribe to The Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes: iTunes | Spotify | YouTube
140. How to Teach Kindness & Compassion
Aug 30, 2021
As teachers, we want to create a safe space for our students where they feel comfortable being themselves and advocating for their needs.
So, we do our best to treat our students with kindness and compassion.
However, conflicts between our students, or worse, bullying can create a classroom atmosphere that goes against our values.
But how do we ensure that our students are treating each other well and contributing to the caring classroom culture we want to create?
By deliberately giving our students the opportunities to practice kindness and compassion and build on these skills over time.
Just like anything else we teach in the classroom, structure, routine and repetition are keys to success.
So, in this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re going to teach you how to systematically teach the skills of kindness and compassion so that you can meet your goal of creating a positive classroom culture for both you and your students.
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139. How to Teach Self-Regulation (Part 2)
Aug 16, 2021
Today we’re diving into part 2 of this topic on The Balanced Educator Podcast, all about how to teach self-regulation in the classroom!
Last episode, we talked about how to teach for self-awareness and self-regulation, which, in turn, makes classroom management easier and allows us to be more productive in the classroom. If you haven’t listened to that one yet, we highly encourage you to go back to episode 138 to listen to it before diving into this episode!
Today, we’re going to give you a step-by-step roadmap that you can follow to teach self-regulation to your students using the Educalme method. We’ll give you concrete ideas to implement in your classroom right away.
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138. How to Teach Self-Regulation (Part 1)
Aug 02, 2021
Teaching self-regulation to our students allows them to manage their emotions and behaviours independently. In turn, this makes classroom management easier and allows us to be more productive in the classroom.
But, teaching self-regulation can feel daunting! There’s so much information out there and lots of different advice on how to do it… It’s difficult to piece all of that information together so that we can teach it in a step-by-step, coherent way.
So, in this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we break self-regulation down to the basic. We show you that it can actually be much easier to teach than you think.
Once you know the basics, you’ll probably realize that you already have a lot of the skills and knowledge to be able to confidently support your students in their emotional regulation journeys.
This is part one of two episodes. Next episode, we are giving you a step-by-step roadmap that you can follow to teach self-regulation to your students using the Educalme method.
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137. How to Build Student Self-Confidence
Jul 19, 2021
What can we do as teachers to help our students gain self-confidence? Where do we start?
In this episode of the Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re sharing a step-by-step approach on how to teach self-confidence in the classroom.
First, we break down how we incorporate positive self-talk practices in elementary school, middle school and high school. We talk about the activities we do to help students understand how beliefs are created and how our beliefs about ourselves impact our wellbeing and our success in school and life.
You’ll leave this episode with concrete strategies to help your students build their self-confidence and positive self-talk.
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136. The Why & How of Mindful Movement in the Classroom
Jul 05, 2021
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re talking about how using mindful movement in the classroom helps students manage their emotions and be ready for calm and focused learning.
We talk about why movement breaks are effective and how to incorporate them into your classroom routine to support learning and simplify classroom management.
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135. How to Create a Safe Space Where Kids From all Cultures Feel Valued with Noreen Sibanda
Jun 21, 2021
Talking about racism can feel scary.
Especially when we don’t want to offend or say the wrong thing.
However, this fear can hold us back from learning how to support all of our students in their unique needs.
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’ve invited Noreen Sibanda, a Provisional Psychologist, to teach us how to create safe spaces where kids from all cultures feel valued.
Kailey asks Noreen questions that have been on her heart this year as she’s been learning more about systemic racism and white privilege. Noreen talks about how to help immigrant students in our classroom feel valued and supported. She explains how language and cultural perspectives of mental health and spirituality can differ and how to be inclusive when we discuss mental health.
Noreen encourages us to be curious about different cultures and to take the time to ask questions to learn more about our all of our students’ lived experiences without making assumptions.
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134. Executive Functioning and Motivation with Rachel Kapp and Stephanie Pitts from Learn Smarter the Educational Therapy Podcast
Jun 07, 2021
Supporting struggling learners can be a challenge when we don’t know the root of the problem or which strategies to employ.
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’ve invited educational therapists Rachel Kapp and Stephanie Pitts from Learn Smarter, the Educational Therapy Podcast to teach us about how educational therapists support learners, teachers and families.
Rachel and Stephanie teach us about the role of executive functioning in learning and how to support students in developing their executive function skills.
They also give practical tips for motivating disengaged learners.
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Subscribe to The Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes: iTunes | Spotify | YouTube
132. Integrating Mindfulness at a School Level with Erith Thompson
May 10, 2021
In this episode of the Balanced Educator Podcast, we’ve invited Erith Thompson to share how she uses Educalme, our social-emotional learning and mindfulness program, with her grade 6 team.
Erith shares why she started using Educalme with her students and what resources she found really useful when she was getting started. Then, she talks about the process of using Educalme with her grade 6 team.
This episode is perfect if you’re thinking of using Educalme in your classroom or with a team of teachers at your school and you’d like to hear an example of how it has worked for Erith and her team.
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Subscribe to The Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes: iTunes | Spotify | YouTube
131. A Letter of Gratitude Lesson Plan
Apr 26, 2021
How do we teach our students to be grateful?
Today on The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re discussing concrete ways to explore gratitude in the classroom! We share an awesome letter of gratitude project that teachers can do with their students right away. This interdisciplinary classroom activity will help students understand the power of gratitude and being kind to others.
You will leave this episode with many ways to incorporate gratitude in the classroom and a clear step-by-step gratitude writing activity!
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Subscribe to The Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes: iTunes | Spotify | YouTube
We teach your students how to manage their emotions and behaviours so that you can both thrive in a calm and focused learning atmosphere through the Educalme program. Try it for free!
Share this post on Pinterest so other educators can learn about this gratitude project too!
130. How to Create a Trauma Sensitive Classroom with Kimberly Mackey
Apr 12, 2021
Trauma can negatively affect a student’s ability to learn and there might be more students in your classroom that have experienced trauma than you think.
Creating a trauma sensitive classroom supports all learners and equips students with skills that will support them in coping with difficult experiences that they might face in their future. In this episode, we’ve invited Kimberly Mackey to teach us about trauma and give us concrete strategies that we can implement in elementary to high school classrooms.
Kimberly is a School Social Worker and is certified as a Trauma Practitioner with Starr Commonwealth. She is well-known as an advocate for the role of school social work in supporting staff and students, and for building trauma-sensitive schools.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
What is trauma and why is it important for teachers to understand it?
Why teachers support all learners when they teach in a trauma sensitive way.
What are concrete ways we can create a trauma sensitive classroom at both the elementary and high school levels?
Good resources on trauma for teachers who want to learn more.
129. Raising Good Humans with The Mindful Mama – Hunter Clarke-Fields
Mar 29, 2021
Have you ever reacted to your child’s or student’s behaviour in the heat of the moment then wished you would have handled the situation differently? In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re interviewing Hunter Clarke-Fields, host of The Mindful Mama Podcast and author of the book Raising Good Humans about mindful parenting.
Hunter shares how she transformed her reactive parenting style which was leading to more conflicts and tantrums to mindful parenting which created more peace in her family. She talks about how to cultivate a mindfulness practice as a parent and how it leads to more skillful interactions with your children.
Hunter shares how to be okay with making mistakes as a parent and how self-compassion leads to growth. She coaches on how to handle big emotions and tantrums more effectively with less stress and judgement.
Finally, Hunter gives expert advice on managing conflicts between siblings.
Whether you’re a parent, an educator or both, this conversation will help you to interact with children with less conflict and more grace.
This year, everyone has been telling teachers to practice self-care.
But, when do we find the time?
Self-care doesn’t have to be restricted to outside of your workday and doesn’t have to be an added task on your to-do list.
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’ll teach you how to integrate self-care into the school day so that both you and your students can benefit.
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Subscribe to The Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes: iTunes | Spotify | YouTube
SHOW NOTES
Try Educalme, the ready-to-use online mindfulness program for the classroom for free!
Share this post on Pinterest so other educators can learn about wellness in the classroom too!
127. The Do’s and the Don’ts of Mindfulness in the Classroom
Mar 01, 2021
How can you practice mindfulness in the classroom with success?
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re sharing the 4 do’s and don’ts for teaching mindfulness in the classroom so that you can avoid making the same mistakes we did early on in our careers.
When you follow the tips we share in this episode, you’ll have success teaching mindfulness in your classroom and see results quicker.
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Subscribe to The Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes: iTunes | Spotify
126. Social-Emotional Learning in High School
Feb 15, 2021
In this episode, Kailey shares how she teaches mindfulness and social-emotional learning in her high school classroom.
She explains how she introduced mindfulness to her students at the beginning of the semester, how she created a social-emotional learning routine and how her students reacted to this daily mindfulness practice.
Kailey addresses common worries about teaching mindfulness in high school like : What if the students think it’s not cool and don’t want to participate? How will I find the time when I have so much curriculum to cover? And What do I do when students arrive late to class?
Finally, Kailey shares her student’s feedback on the daily mindfulness practice and what she plans on doing differently next semester.
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Subscribe to The Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes: iTunes | Spotify
125. Have More Fun, Reduce Behaviour Problems with Dr. Marcie Beigel
Feb 01, 2021
If you have students in the classroom displaying problem behaviours, having more fun might be the solution! In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’ve invited behaviour specialist Dr. Marcie Beigel, onto the show to teach us how having more fun in the classroom can help students manage their behaviours.
We talk about how having fun can help to create positive relationships with our students. Dr. Marcie explains how these connections lead to proactive solutions to behaviour challenges.
Dr. Marcie gives examples of activities we can do in the elementary or high school classroom to have more fun with all of our students. She also gives examples of ways to have fun with our students when we’re teaching online.
This episode will remind you to lighten up even in times that feel heavy . You will gain ideas for ways to bring more play, laughter and relationship building to your in-person or online classroom.
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Subscribe to The Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes: iTunes | Spotify
124. An Interdisciplinary Growth Mindset Lesson and Project
Jan 18, 2021
How do we help students go from I can’t to I can?
Today on The Balanced Educator Podcast, we are sharing practical and applicable lessons, activities and projects you can do in your classroom to teach your students about growth mindset and how to adopt this mindset, which we believe is extra important now with the hurdles students have had to face during the pandemic!
This mindset will help your students to become more focused learners, help them do hard things with a positive attitude and give them the tools to overcome challenges both in and out of the classroom.
We take you through a step-by-step interdisciplinary lesson and project we did with our own students this school year that you can do in your classroom too!
By the end of this episode, you will have everything you need to take a growth mindset deep dive in your classroom with success!
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Subscribe to The Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes: iTunes | Spotify | Google Play
This year is one for the books. Finding balance as a teacher has always been difficult but…throw in a pandemic…and teacher stress and overwhelm is at an all time high!
I don’t know about you, but we’re ready to make a change! What if 2021 is the year that we set healthy boundaries and prioritize self-care?
BUT let’s be real…as a teacher, taking time for self-care can feel impossible.
That’s why we decided to create a quick and easy set of resources that you could use before, during or after your workday. De-stress in 5 minutes or less!
Introducing the Self-Care Teacher Toolkit!
The Self-Care Teacher Toolkit makes taking care of your wellbeing feel possible, even when you have mountains of teacher tasks to cross off your list.
Imagine a toolkit of ready-to-use self-care strategies that help you to shift your body out of the stress response so that you can be more present for yourself and others, so that you can feel more focused and so that you can feel more energized and motivated.
The Self-Care Teacher Toolkit is organized into themes or toolkits. Each toolkit offers a different self-care practice that will help you to process and manage your emotions mindfully. When you’re feeling overwhelmed, stressed, tired, or just in need of a quiet moment, choose a toolkit that fits your mood and enjoy 5 minutes of self-care.
Wellness that you can actually fit into your daily routine!
Mindfulness Toolkit
In the Guided Mindfulness Toolkit, you’ll find a 5 minute guided mindfulness practice that will help you to reduce feelings of overwhelm and connect to the present moment, one breath at a time. Simply sit in a comfortable position in a quiet place and press play.
Journaling Toolkit
In the Journaling Toolkit, you’ll find journaling prompts to help you process your emotions and shift your mindset. Set a timer for 5 minutes and use the writing prompts to guide you through a reflective process.
Kindness & Gratitude Toolkit
In the Kindness and Gratitude Toolkit, you’ll find a bingo style card with gratitude and kindness prompts. These prompts will encourage you to take actions that will focus your attention on the things you have to be grateful for. It will also help you shift your emotional state.
Movement Toolkit
When we’re feeling big emotions, especially stress, a great way to process those emotion messengers in our bodies and shift your state is with movement! In the Movement Toolkit, you’ll find a list of short and effective movements. You can do them just about anywhere to to help calm or energize you.
Affirmation Toolkit
Our mindset and our emotional state begins with the words we say to ourselves. In the Affirmation Toolkit, you’ll find a list of affirmations to help you when you’re feeling overwhelmed, tired or like you aren’t doing enough.
Podcast Toolkit
Finally, in the Podcast Toolkit, we’ve curated a list with links to our most helpful The Balanced Educator Podcast episodes. Listen to an episode on your way to work, during your lunch hour, while you’re cooking or at any other time that you’d like to learn something new, feel uplifted and support your wellbeing.
Think of the Self-Care Teacher Toolkit as a grab bag of wellness strategies for when you want to process or shift your emotions. Just log in, choose a Toolkit and de-stress in 5 minutes or less!
122. The Zero-Waste Classroom with Heidi Rose
Dec 21, 2020
With so much talk about the climate crisis, you might be wondering what you can do in your personal life and in your classroom to care for the environment.
We’ve invited Heidi Rose from zerowasteclassroom.org to teach us about the zero-waste movement and how we can make changes at home and in our classrooms to reduce the amount of trash we send to the landfill.
You’ll learn:
What zero-waste means and what mindsets can set you up for success.
How to reduce the guilt you might feel for “not being perfect” at zero-waste living.
Tips for reducing waste in your home.
Tips for reducing waste in your classroom.
How to teach your students about zero-waste living and why it’s important for the environment in an age-appropriate way.
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Subscribe to The Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes: iTunes | Spotify | Google Play
Share this post on Pinterest so other educators can learn about how to get started with their zero-waste classroom journey!
120. Teaching about Financial Wellbeing with Andrea Ferrero of Pockets Change
Nov 23, 2020
Money can bring joy or cause stress!
Our finances are tied to our emotional and physical wellbeing. Yet, many of us didn’t learn much about personal finance in school.
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’ve invited Andrea Ferrero of Pockets of Change to share how we can help our students build financial literacy and resilience in any course that we teach (not just math!).
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Subscribe to The Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes: iTunes | Spotify | Google Play
Try Educalme, the online ready-to-use social-emotional learning & mindfulness program for free!
How many of you really love budgeting? Yeah, me neither. It’s something I learned to do through mistakes, missteps, and way too much worry. You’re not alone if you think it’s difficult or an obligation like brushing teeth.
Studies show that thinking about money is stressful and talking about it is even more stressful. We form our relationship with money around age five the same time our early literacy skills are setting the stage for future success or challenge. Unlike reading skills, families are not receiving support and encouragement in having financial conversations and as educators we’re not receiving training or resources to foster those intergenerational learning moments. We have the opportunity to change that and get more comfortable with money in our own lives in the process.
Almost two decades ago, I stepped into my first classroom with a $50 supply budget. Creativity out of necessity inspired me to start a classroom store and begin exploring teaching entrepreneurship. I co-founded Pockets Change to make financial education more accessible, reaching the communities that are often overlooked. We build financial resilience through Hip Hop pedagogy with K-12 & college students, parents, educators.
Understanding our finances impacts more than our wallets, it gives us the skills to thrive. Early and ongoing financial education has tremendous power to increase intergenerational outcomes including the skills to manage decision-making, navigate the unexpected, and chart the path to reach goals consistently. Now more than ever, financial education is a tool for self-care and social justice.
Getting Started with FinEd: Find Your Money Personality
So where do we start, financial education is about more than numbers, it’s crucial to develop an understanding of our relationship with money.We begin forming our beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors around money in early childhood. These tendencies inform life-long decision-making. Check out our money personality quiz for yourself and with students to start a conversation.
Wants are Needs too! Go Beyond Budgeting with Spending Values
When it comes to looking at our money in action. One of the best pieces of advice I’ve heard came from a high schooler who said, “if I don’t create a plan for my money, it will have a plan for me.” Our curriculum goes beyond basic budgeting to creating a spending plan that focuses on personal values. When we move away from arbitrary formulas it allows us to create a budget that works for our lives and prioritizes what matters most to us. Whether you’re 6 years old or 60, talking through our values is a powerful way to plan for the future and take action in the present. Check out our Spending Values Matrix and create your own plan by visiting: http://www.pocketschange.com/spending-values
Money is Emotional: Take the Next Step with Money Buddies
Perhaps the most powerful thing we can teach our students about money is to ask questions and create conversations. Money is still a taboo topic for many and the result is that we end up feeling wrong and alone in dealing with financial decision-making. We’ve had a six year old walk into a workshop and declare she was “bad at money”, by the end of the day she was discussing ways to make money with a sticker business. We want students to know that money is a tool and that we can all make finance personal.
If you’re interested in more tips and tools for talking and teaching about money, sign up for our monthly newsletter. http://www.pocketschange.com/newsletter
Share this post on Pinterest so other educators can learn how to teach financial literacy in their classrooms too!
Let us know in the comments, how will you apply what you’ve learned in your classroom?
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast we’re explaining the biology of how we experience our 5 senses. We talk about how our brain processes our senses and how we interpret what we see, hear, feel, taste and touch.
We explain how our 5 senses can help us to stay present and be mindful. Then, we give examples of simple mindfulness activities you can do with your students.
Alright, we’re going to keep this one short so you can get on with your… Mindful Scavenger Hunt!!!
Our 5 senses are how we engage with the world around us. Through the exploration of one sense at a time, our students learn how to fully appreciate what they are experiencing in each moment.
Plus, they will understand that when you choose to focus on one thing at a time, your senses become amplified. This helps to develop attention and awareness.
In this Mindful Scavenger Hunt PDF, you will find two worksheets and a lesson plan. This is a perfect mindfulness activity to do with your kiddos to fill a bit of time in your schedule. Also, a great one to leave to a sub since the lesson plan is already written for you!
This activity is a part of the Mindfulness and the Five Senses unit inside Educalme, our ready-to-use mindfulness program for the classroom (there are lessons for the entire school year!). In this unit, students develop their mindfulness practice through the exploration of their five senses.
118. A Cross-curricular Approach to SEL and Mindfulness with Julia Carreiro
Oct 26, 2020
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’ve invited grade 5 French Immersion teacher Julia Carreiro onto the show. We talk about how Julia integrates social-emotional learning and mindfulness across the curriculum for a holistic approach to teaching.
Julia gives concrete examples of cross curricular projects she’s developed that integrate:
English creative writing
French grammar
coding
with Mindfulness and social-emotional learning.
Plus, she talks about the benefits she’s observed from teaching mindfulness and social-emotional learning on student wellbeing, mental health and learning. She discusses creating a positive classroom and school culture by integrating mindful strategies into her classroom and in morning announcements.
This episode will give you great ideas for how you can create a greater sense of wellbeing across the curriculum with your students and have a positive impact on your whole school culture. You’ll also get ideas for how you can use the Educalme online mindfulness program to support your teaching.
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Subscribe to The Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes: iTunes | Spotify | Google Play
117. Kindful Moments with Student Services Teacher Krista Labossière
Oct 12, 2020
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast we’ve invited Krista Labossière to share about how she integrates mindfulness into her role as a student services teacher.
Krista talks about her journey of integrating mindfulness into her life, her family life and her work with her colleagues and students. She explains how she built her mindfulness practice slowly over time and how mindful moments turned into kindful moments in the classroom.
This episode illustrates the big picture of how mindfulness can support us and our students and also gets into the details of how to integrate this practice with staff, in one-on-one and small group interactions with students and at the classroom level.
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Subscribe to The Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes: iTunes | Spotify | Google Play
116. Well-being and Well-Becoming: An Integrated Systems Approach for Education with Thomas Falkenberg, Ph.D
Sep 28, 2020
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’ve invited Thomas Flakenberg, Ph.D to share his research on well-being and well-becoming in schools.
Thomas teaches the The Five Components of Well-Being and Well-Becoming. Furthermore, he explains how to use those components as a framework to ensure that our teaching and our school culture contributes to our students living a flourishing life.
In this episode, you’ll learn how to use well-being and well-becoming as a framework. One that will guide your teaching and your interactions with your students in a way that will help your students to live a flourishing life.
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Subscribe to The Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes: iTunes | Spotify | Google Play
115. Building Student Resilience with Teacher Brandi Raehal
Sep 14, 2020
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’ve invited Educalme Teacher Brandi Raehal. Brandi shares how she adresses social-emotional learning and mindfulness in her grade 2 classroom.
Brandi talks about how her daily routine supports student resilience and growth mindset, especially during the challenges of remote learning. She also shares how the online mindfulness program for the classroom, Educalme, influenced her personal and professional growth.
Brandi explains the outcomes and transformations around social-emotional development, self-regulation, classroom management, time management and classroom culture that she noticed from using Educalme. Plus, she shares how the skills students learn from this program reach far past the classroom.
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
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114. Supporting Student Mental Health Through Mindfulness and SEL with teacher Maria Costaki
Aug 31, 2020
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’ve invited Maria Costaki, teacher of 27 years, onto the show. Maria shares her reasons for implementing a social-emotional learning program with her students.
Maria shares how she uses the resources in the Educalme program. She also explains what she does to create a safe and compassionate classroom culture that supports student mental health and wellbeing.
Maria gives her sage advice to teachers that are considering starting an Educalme Classroom practice.
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
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113. The Importance of Routine and Repetition for Learning
Aug 17, 2020
In this episode of The Balanced Educator podcast, we discuss the importance of routine and repetition in the classroom. We talk about how routines free up brain space for learning. We also explain how repetition helps the brain to create stronger connections and make learning last.
This episode will help you to plan for student success this school year.
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
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112. Social-Emotional Learning and Classroom Management with Teacher Amélie Bauch
Aug 03, 2020
Being a first year teacher comes with many challenges.
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re interviewing Amélie Bauch. Amélie is a first-year grade 2 French immersion teacher.
We talk about what Amélie does in her classroom for social-emotional learning and what the routine is in her classroom. She shares the hurdles she’s encountered and how she overcame them. She also talks about how if affected her classroom management.
Lastly, Amélie shares her advice for first year teachers and any teacher that wants to incorporate social-emotional learning and mindfulness into their classrooms to improve classroom management.
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
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111. Strengthening School Communities Through Social-Emotional Learning With Tre’ Gammage
Jul 20, 2020
In this episode, we’re talking about how social-emotional learning strengthens school communities with Tre’ Gammage. Tre’ is an Educational consultant with the Gammage Consulting Group. He helps k – 12 schools implement school-wide social and emotional learning programs.
In this episode we talk about:
How Tre’s experiences led him to helping schools implement SEL programs.
Common problems that schools are struggling with and which solutions are working.
How implementing social-emotional learning programs can help students and teachers to have success and strengthen school communities.
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Subscribe to The Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes: iTunes | Spotify | Google Play
110. Self-Love and Personal Growth with Amy Tung of the I Am Love Project
Jul 06, 2020
In this episode we’ve invited Amy Tung of the I Am Love Project onto the show. She shares about self-love, relationships and letting go of what isn’t working in our lives to make space for intentional change.
Kailey and Amy discuss mindfulness, self-love, self-reflection, living with intention, surrender, and choosing again from a space of love.
Sign up for the full Educalme program to get all the resources you need to teach your students about Positive Self-Talk, Self-Acceptance and Self-Love, mindfully.
Thank you to Amy for sharing a guest blog post. Here it is!
Letting go of being a perfectionist is a gift to yourself. This was the absolute biggest challenge for me, yet the most rewarding. Does this sound familiar to you?
I use to set absolute ideals. There was only black and white, no grey. I had an all-or-nothing approach and feared failure because it suggested imperfection. I was my harshest critic and would beat myself up for the smallest things.
Finally, I got sick of mulling and crying over outcomes if they did not turn out as envisioned. I realized I was being a perfectionist to prove to everyone that I AM WORTHY, not realizing that I am already worthy in many ways. I am perfectly imperfect!!! My journey is to strive for growth and development. I am deemed worthy because I will drive my goals forward. When you lead with intention, when you embrace who you are, the impossible becomes POSSIBLE.
By all means, this didn’t happen overnight. It did take 35 years of hardship in order for me to realize and to finally seek out help. I am so blessed to have met some incredible coaches, therapists, counsellors, and mentors along my journey. They have given me the tools to help me succeed in my career, relationships and finances.
Do you want to achieve success and live an abundant life? Join our monthly pop-up events, where you’ll be engaged in self-enquiry and be given the right tools and strategies from professionals. Wear comfy clothes, our workshops always end with a workout session!
Share this post on Pinterest so other educators can learn about growth, self-love and living with intention too!
A special thanks to our sponsor:
Use the code EDUCALME to receive 15% off your order!
Let us know in the comments, how do you live with more intention?
109. Wind Down with a Gratitude Meditation by teacher Carolina Smith from the Living in Alignment Project
Jun 22, 2020
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, Carolina Smith from the LIA Project (Living in Alignment) and also a grade 1 teacher, hosts a meditation on gratitude.
Carolina starts by talking about the importance of tending to our mental wellness as teachers and how it benefits our students as well.
She then dives into a gratitude meditation, which will help you to wind down from this school year (one we will never forget) and to feel calm, relaxed, and ready for summer!
Enjoy feeling all the good feels with this one!
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
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108. Making Your Classroom a Safe Space for Students Experiencing Trauma with Jacob Chastain
Jun 08, 2020
How can we support our students that have a traumatic home life?
In this episode, we invited Jacob Chastain to share his story. Jacob grew up in a household filled with drugs and violence. He tells us how school was his safe space. He explains what his teachers did to support him that made a lasting impact.
Jacob shares how his traumatic experiences have informed who he has become as a teacher. Plus, he shares how we can make our classroom a safe and fun place that our students love to be in.
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Subscribe to The Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes: iTunes | Spotify | Google Play
107. Laughter Yoga to Relieve Stress and Increase Happiness with Rolande Kirouac
May 25, 2020
Get ready to laugh until you cry!
In this episode, we’ve invited Rolande Kirouac, to teach us about emotions and the healing benefits of laughter. Rolande will lift your spirits with her positive energy and get you laughing until your belly hurts. She also teaches us laughter yoga exercises that we can do every day to get a burst of feel-good emotions and help us feel more joy.
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Subscribe to The Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes: iTunes | Spotify | Google Play
SHOW NOTES
You can get in touch with Rolande at rkirouac@mts.net
Watch our laughter yoga mini-tutorials on Instagram
Share this post on Pinterest so other educators can learn all about laughter yoga, too!
106. Solutions to Remote Teaching Challenges
May 11, 2020
In this episode, we talk about common remote teaching challenges and possible solutions that you can try out to make teaching from home easier. We talk about strategies for managing emails, staying focused, connecting with our students, handling technology and managing parent expectations. In this episode, you’ll get ideas for how to make remote teaching more enjoyable. Plus, you will gain some perspective shifts to help you get through the challenging days.
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Subscribe to The Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes: iTunes | Spotify | Google Play
105. Remote Teaching Essentials: Connection, Intentionality and Perseverance with Jennifer Scott from Peg City Teachers
Apr 27, 2020
In this new reality of remote teaching and learning, how do we set our students and their parents/guardians up for success? We’ve invited Jennifer Scott, mother and support teacher from Peg City Teachers onto the show! We talk about focusing on what matters most. Jennifer shares the importance of connection, intentionality and perseverance from a teacher and a parent’s perspective. We also discuss the importance of taking a less-is-more approach to learning and working from home.
In this episode, Jennifer shares lots of great tips for teachers and for parents! Learn how to navigate remote teaching and learning with less stress and more grace.
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Subscribe to the Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes: iTunes | Spotify | Google Play
How can we be there for our students in these times of heightened anxiety, worry and stress without being physically in the same space as them? How do we address their social-emotional needs?
As teachers, we are currently facing the reality of remote teaching and learning – just when students need tools and strategies to manage their emotions the most.
How do we continue to support our students’ needs from a distance?
What resources do we use?
How will we ever explain to parents how to teach this to their kids?
Navigating all of this can be so overwhelming!
To make this transition easier, we invite you to join our free online training where you will learn exactly how to help your students face life’s challenges… from a distance!
You will even leave the workshop with a ready-to-use online social-emotional learning resource (in English and French) that can effectively be used remotely by both you and your students’ families.
The best part? There’s no prep required on your part. Everything is ready for remote teaching and learning.
Give your students and their families the tools and strategies they need to manage their emotions in these difficult times.
Are you a credible teacher? We’ve invited Mike Huebner from The Credible Teacher onto the show to talk about the importance of teacher credibility in student learning and what we can do to be perceived as credible by our students.
You’ll learn:
What it means to be a credible teacher and why credibility is important.
How to be more human in the classroom so that our students feel connected to us and view us as credible.
The power of storytelling to connect with your students.
The importance of developing self-awareness and self-love as a teacher and how this improves our effectiveness in the classroom.
How meditation and mindfulness can help us to be better teachers.
What we can do to have a deeper impact on our students’ wellbeing and learning.
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Subscribe to the Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes: iTunes | Spotify | Google Play
How can we be there for our students in these times of heightened anxiety, worry and stress without being physically in the same space as them? How do we address their social-emotional needs?
As teachers, we are currently facing the reality of remote teaching and learning – just when students need tools and strategies to manage their emotions the most.
How do we continue to support our students’ needs from a distance?
What resources do we use?
How will we ever explain to parents how to teach this to their kids?
Navigating all of this can be so overwhelming!
To make this transition easier, we invite you to join our free online training where you will learn exactly how to help your students face life’s challenges… from a distance!
You will even leave the workshop with a ready-to-use online social-emotional learning resource (in English and French) that can effectively be used remotely by both you and your students’ families.
The best part? There’s no prep required on your part. Everything is ready for remote teaching and learning.
Give your students and their families the tools and strategies they need to manage their emotions in these difficult times.
103. New Research Reveals that Greater Mindfulness is Associated With Better Academic Achievement
Mar 30, 2020
We are loving the new research on mindfulness in school proving the benefits of this practice and its positive impact on kids! Today, we are sharing very recent studies that share data very similar to what we’ve been collecting here at Educalme. In this episode and blog post, you’ll learn first off what mindfulness is and how to get started with this practice. You’ll also learn how and why mindfulness can transform the classroom and improve student wellness and learning.
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Subscribe to the Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes: iTunes | Spotify | Google Play
Mindfulness is simply the act of paying attention to the present moment on purpose. It’s a simple concept in theory, but it’s difficult to achieve. It takes time and practice.
To learn to live in the present moment, it’s important we create a dedicated, daily practice. We call this the formal mindfulness meditation practice.
How do we get started with mindfulness?
First, find a quiet spot where you can sit without disruptions. Put your phone on airplane mode and the set a timer for 5 minutes. And if 5 minutes seems too long, make it 2! Find a comfortable and alert seated position, and close your eyes.
Focus all of your attention on your breath, notice the feeling of your inhalation and your exhalation.
When you notice that your brain starts thinking of other things (which it will… we call this puppy brain!), without judgement, refocus on your breath. Every time you bring your attention back to your breath you are training your brain to appreciate the simplicity of the present moment.
Just like with any new exercise, this will not be easy in the beginning. But with time and practice, you will see that your concentration on the breath will improve and a sense of calm will follow.
We take 5 minutes a day for ourselves, but we also take 5 minutes a day to do this with our students. Learn exactly how to do this in your classroom successfully here. Keep reading to find out how this simple daily practice changes everything for us in our classrooms!
The more we practice formally, the more we notice the effects of mindfulness meditation and its benefits seep out into our regular lives!
How does mindfulness support academics?
Two research studies came out very recently showing the benefits of a daily mindfulness practice in the classroom.
What we’ve observed in our own classrooms and in over a hundred classrooms using the Educalme Classroom program is very similar to what is shared in this article. Check out our podcast show notes above to read both articles!
As a result of this daily practice,
Students are better able to recognize and name their own emotions.
They are better able to manage their emotions and behaviours (self-regulation).
Students can focus on a task for longer periods of time.
Teachers are getting more academics done and they’re seeing faster progress in their students because they don’t need to focus their energy on classroom management. (Less fires to put out!)
Students are better able to resolve conflicts independently.
Teachers are more patient with their students and feel they have acquired the skills to better support their students when they are struggling.
In the MIT study, not only do they report that students did better with academic achievements, there were less suspensions and absences!
In the 8-week research, they found that students’ brains actually changed physically. Students are also better able to manage stressors because the amygdala response was lowered.
How fascinating is that?!
Repetition is key
Both studies stressed the importance of continuing this mindfulness practice. This isn’t something we can do for a little while and reep the benefits in the future. If we want to see its benefits, it has to be an ongoing daily practice. Routine is SO important and repetition is the key to success!
How do we create this routine in the classroom?
Join the Educalme Free trial! Not only will you learn how to set up the routine successfully, but you will also gain access to a ready-to-use resource! Get ready to thrive in a calm and focused learning atmosphere!
Share this post on Pinterest so other educators can learn how to get started with mindfulness in their classrooms and how it will benefit their students!
A special thanks to our sponsor (Use the code EDUCALME10 to receive 10% off your first order!):
102. Fewer Things, Better: Focusing on What Matters Most with Angela Watson
Mar 16, 2020
Do you feel like you’re always working and yet you’re never done (and are never doing enough)? We’ve invited Angela from Angela Watson’s Truth for Teachers Podcast to share how we can gain the courage to focus on what matters most and how we can do fewer things better. Angela shares ways to make teaching more effective, efficient, and enjoyable!
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Subscribe to the Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes: iTunes | Spotify | Google Play
In this episode, you’ll learn:
Why it’s important to challenge the narrative of the overworked and unappreciated “super teacher”.
How to begin choosing a new narrative for yourself which is healthy and focused on what matters most.
How to be more intentional with your time so you can focus on what matters most.
How to define your values and spend more time on the things that bring you joy and less time on the things that drain your energy.
How to let go of the guilt you might feel for saying no to tasks that don’t align with your values and talents.
How to find the courage to focus on what matters most and do fewer things, better.
It’s been a while since we’ve just chatted with you and let you know what we’ve been up to – That’s exactly what we’re up to this week on The Balanced Educator Podcast!
We are simply updating you on what’s been going on behind the scenes, some of the changes we’re making to serve you better, and some exciting things we’ve got on the go at the moment!
We loved recording this episode for you and we’re so happy to just hang out with you today!
In this episode, you’ll learn:
About a competition we recently won and what’s next
All about the Educalme forum – a brand new feature we have to build community!
Which grades Josianne is currently teaching and how that’s going
The new podcast format for the upcoming year (we reevaluated at episode 100!)
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Subscribe to the Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes: iTunes | Spotify | Google Play
Grab your free mindfulness resource for the classroom and thrive in a calm and focused learning atmosphere:
Share this post on Pinterest so other educators can learn about Educalme and our free mindfulness for the classroom!
100. Mindfulness and Mindful Movement with Stéphanie Van der Linde
Feb 24, 2020
Teaching mindfulness to your students, no matter what subject you teach, helps them to gain the skills they need to be effective learners.
In this episode, Stephanie van der Linde, elementary and middle school Physical Education teacher, shares how she teaches mindfulness using the Educalme program, and how she incorporates mindfulness with movement.
Stephanie shares how she adapts the program to different age groups, how she attaches the program to Phys. Ed. curriculum, how she incorporates student choice in the Educalme practice and which resources in the Educalme program she uses at different times and with different grades.
No matter what subject or grade you teach, you will learn so many practical tips from Stephanie for how to successfully share mindfulness with your students using Educalme.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
How having our own self-regulation toolkit as teachers has a positive domino effect on our students
How to incorporate mindfulness in the physical education class – Don’t be fooled, the information you learn here is also SO helpful for the regular classroom!
About mindfulness across different grade levels and the long term impact
How to teach about physiology through SEL
The skills students can acquire through mindfulness
How to structure this practice in the gym
How our thoughts can impact our performance as athletes
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Subscribe to the Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes: iTunes | Spotify | Google Play
Get our free mindfulness resource for the classroom:
Share this post on Pinterest so other educators can learn how to incorporate mindfulness in their phys.ed or regular classroom!
99. Mindfulness and Growth Mindset with Teacher Jenelle Gagné
Feb 17, 2020
Are you thinking about starting a mindfulness practice in your classroom but you’re not sure how to fit it into your day? We’ve invited Jenelle Gagné, grade 4/5 teacher and mom of 2 onto the show to talk about how she teaches mindfulness using Educalme, what the routine looks like and how she finds the time to integrate social-emotional learning by linking Educalme Classroom lessons to her language and health units. She also shares a great activity that she created to go with the Educalme Classroom Growth Mindset units.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
How to get your students ready to learn with a daily Educalme practice.
How to use the Educalme audios and printables.
How to create a strong sense of community and connection in your classroom.
How to teach growth mindset.
How Educalme supports both student and teacher productivity, giving you more time in the classroom for teaching and learning and more time at home with your family.
How an Educalme practice supports your wellbeing in the classroom and in your personal life.
The ripple effect Educalme has in students’ lives, how they share it with their families.
How to get over the initial worries you might have when starting Educalme.
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Subscribe to the Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes: iTunes | Spotify | Google Play
Get our free classroom mindfulness resource:
Share this post on Pinterest so other educators can learn how to use Educalme to support social-emotional learning and mindfulness in their classrooms.
A special thanks to our sponsor:
Let us know in the comments why you want to share mindfulness with your students.
98. A Mindfulness Lesson Plan to Leave for Subs
Feb 10, 2020
If you have a regular classroom mindfulness practice using Educalme or the Educalme Free Trial, you know that this daily practice helps your students’ brains and bodies to be ready for calm and focused learning. You’ve also probably noticed that if you skip a day, your students ask for the practice and you can tell that they have a harder time self-regulating and staying on task.
If you’re away from the classroom, you probably want your students to continue their routine of an Educalme mindfulness practice with your substitute teacher so that they’re ready to be their best selves even in your absence. In this podcast episode/blog post, we’re sharing a ready to use lesson plan to leave for your sub as well as the guided audio so that your sub doesn’t have to create an Educalme Classroom account.
Follow these steps to easily prepare your sub for the Educalme mindfulness practice.
If you don’t have an Educalme Classroom account yet, sign up for the Free Trial at www.educalme.com/free
Once you’re in your member area, click on the Educalme icon.
Then, click on the Start Here theme.
Next, click on the Introduction to Mindfulness tab.
Then, click on the Lesson Plan dropdown and open the Lesson Plan PDF.
Print the lesson plan for audio 1 on p.2 of the PDF.
Write on the lesson plan that to play the audio for this lesson, go to www.educalme.com/tbe098, then fast-forward the audio player on this webpage to 7 min and 30 sec to listen to the English audio or to 12 min to listen to the French audio.
And there you have it, a ready-to-use sub plan so that your students can continue their Educalme Classroom mindfulness practice even when you’re away.
If you’d like to extend the activity, print page 1 of the student booklet as a writing reflection activity and print the My Calm Place Activity so that students can visually represent their calm place.
Do you have any tips for leaving mindfulness with a sub? Let us know in the comments below!
Share this post on Pinterest so that other teachers can learn how to leave mindfulness with a sub too.
97. Inside Sara’s Educalme Classroom: How She Provides all Students with an Inclusive and Caring Learning Community
Feb 03, 2020
Observing and learning from other teachers is an awesome and often underused source of professional development! Learn how Sara Tham, grade 2 French Immersion Teacher has been using the Educalme Classroom social-emotional learning program to provide all students with an inclusive and caring learning community that promotes well-being, risk-taking, and growth. Sara shares so many awesome ideas in this episode that you’ll definitely take into your own classroom!
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Subscribe to the Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes: iTunes | Spotify | Google Play
In this episode, you’ll learn:
Why Sara decided to teach mindfulness in her grade 2 classroom.
What her biggest hurdle was when she was just getting started with mindfulness and how she overcame it.
How Sara uses the Educalme SEL and mindfulness program in her classroom.
What her favourite Educalme Classroom units are and why.
What differences Sara notices in her students from the beginning to the end of the school year with their emotions and their behaviours by practicing mindfulness daily using Educalme.
How mindfulness and SEL has influenced her students’ ability to self-regulate.
How Educalme Classroom has supported her as a teacher.
How Sara’s teaching has changed since starting to use Educalme Classroom/integrating mindfulness into her classroom?
What advice Sara has for teachers that are thinking of starting a mindfulness practice in their classroom.
Read this blog post to learn exactly how to teach mindfulness in the classroom for social-emotional learning.
We’ve created a social-emotional learning resource that makes teaching mindfulness in your classroom as easy as pressing play! It’s called Educalme and it’s a ready-to-use, daily, bilingual (English and French), social-emotional learning program made by teachers, for teachers.
96. Social-Emotional Learning is the Foundation of a Smooth-Running Classroom
Jan 27, 2020
This week on The Balanced Educator Podcast and Blog, we’re talking about why, based on psychology and biology, social-emotional learning is the foundation of a smooth-running classroom. We talk about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as it pertains to learning and we talk about the biology of stress and how it hinders learning from a physiological perspective. Then, we explain how to use a daily mindfulness practice to meet our students’ basic needs so that they are ready for learning.
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Subscribe to the Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes: iTunes | Spotify | Google Play
Abraham Maslow was a leader in the humanistic movement of psychology and he created an influential theory of motivation. He proposed that human motives are organized into a hierarchy of needs which is often depicted as a pyramid in which basic needs are at the bottom and must be met before a human is able to move onto the higher levels of needs and motivations.
Based on his theory, there are many levels of social-emotional needs that must be met before our students’ minds and bodies are ready to learn. In fact, there are four levels of needs that must be met before the cognitive needs for knowledge and understanding arise.
How to Prepare Students for Learning
Before students are ready to learn, we must first do our best to meet their physiological needs (hunger, thirst, etc.), their needs for safety and security (long-term survival and stability), their needs for belongingness and love (affiliation and acceptance) and their esteem needs (achievement and gaining recognition).
Once those basic needs are met, then they are ready to satisfy their cognitive need for knowledge and understanding. But you might be wondering, once their physiological needs are met, how can we support the other levels of needs in the classroom before moving on to academics?
From our experience, doing a 5-minute daily mindfulness practice with your students followed by a community-building practice like a morning meeting or a sharing circle (more on that here) is the best way to support these levels of need for social-emotional learning and connection.
Read this blog post to learn exactly how to teach mindfulness in the classroom for social-emotional learning.
We’ve created a social-emotional learning resource that makes teaching mindfulness in your classroom as easy as pressing play! It’s called Educalme and it’s a ready-to-use, daily, bilingual (English and French), social-emotional learning program made by teachers, for teachers.
95. Mindfulness for Social-Emotional Learning in Primary School with Katelyn McGuffin
Jan 20, 2020
Are you curious about how to teach mindfulness for social-emotional learning in primary school?
In this episode, Katelyn McGuffin gives you a behind the scenes look at how she teaches mindfulness for social-emotional learning using Educalme in her French Immersion kindergarten classroom. You’ll learn everything from what her daily routine looks like to how Educalme Classroom has helped support classroom management and improve academic outcomes.
Register for the free trial of Educalme and you’ll get unlimited access to 5 weeks worth of ready-to-use, bilingual (English and French) daily mindfulness audios and printables.
Listen to this episode to learn how to use this social-emotional learning resource made by teachers, for teachers, to create a calm and focused learning atmosphere in your classroom!
Share this post on Pinterest so other educators can learn how to teach mindfulness for social-emotional learning in primary school
94. How to Use the Educalme Free Trial for Social-Emotional Learning
Jan 13, 2020
Do you want to create a calm and focused classroom atmosphere where students’ brains and bodies are ready for engaged learning?
If you said yes, then we have the perfect social-emotional learning tool for you – Educalme Classroom!
Educalmeis a ready-to-use, bilingual (English and French) social-emotional learning program that teaches students how to manage their emotions and self-regulate through mindfulness. Just press play and listen to a 2 or 5 minute daily guided mindfulness practice with your students so that everyone can thrive in a calm and focused learning atmosphere.
If you haven’t already signed up for the free trial to Educalme which gives you unlimited access to the first theme of the program in both English and French and never expires, you need to do that right now! It will only take a minute and then you’ll have an AMAZING free resource at your fingertips.
How to Use Your Educalme Free Trial
We’re committed to making the learning curve of teaching mindfulness using Educalme super easy, because you’ve got a lot going on and you don’t have time to waste on trial and error!
So we’ve taken our experience and the feedback and data from over 100 other teachers using Educalme to create a simple and easy-to-follow training guide so you can get started with your Educalme free trial stress-free. We’ve even adapted it for various learning styles.
Choose your own learning adventure!
If you like reading to learn, we’ve written a step-by-step training article for you in English et en français.
If you like watching video to learn, we’ve created a short-and-sweet training video for you in English et en français.
If you like listening to learn, we’ve created a podcast episode for you that you can listen to on iTunes, Spotify and Google Play or right here our website.
We are so excited to be a part of your mindfulness journey! No matter what step you’re on, just getting started or committed to a daily classroom practice, we’re here to support you and cheer you on!
Thank you for being a part of this amazingly kind, supportive and uplifting community!
93. From Burnout to Thriving in a Calm Classroom Atmosphere
Jan 06, 2020
Happy New Year! This is a time to reflect on the past so we can dive into the future year with a fresh start. And that’s just what we’re talking about today! We are sharing the right questions to ask yourself in order to make the changes you want in your life.
Specifically, Josianne shares her story of a particularly difficult and stressful school year she had and how in the beginning of January, she adopted some healthy habits and mindset shifts using these useful questions that completely transformed her life! If you feel like last term was difficult or you felt like you were burning out and you want to thrive in a calm and focused classroom atmosphere, this episode is for you!
Listen to our The Balanced Educator Podcast episode below and scroll down to dive even deeper into this topic!
Be sure to subscribe to the Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes as we continue to teach how to avoid teacher burnout. iTunes, Spotify, Google Play
Do you feel tired? Stressed? Overwhelmed with all of your students’ individual needs?
We get it. Teaching isn’t easy, and we know the feeling of burnout all too well.
Whether you’re in the beginning, middle or end of your school year and you’re starting to feel like you just can’t keep going the way you are, ask yourself the following questions. These have helped us to take on new habits and mindset shifts that completely transformed our lives both in and out of the classroom. Take out a pen and paper and write down your answers!
1. What went well in and out of my classroom these past few months (or days)?
List everything off! Look for things that are going well both on the professional side of things and the personal side. What’s going well at home? What good habits are you managing to stay on top of? What’s been going well at school? During class time? What are small wins you’ve had lately? Start listing! Point form will do!
2. What did I struggle with in my classroom these past few months (or days)?
Again, look at what’s been difficult for you both in and out of your classroom. What has been daunting, tiring, what are you struggling to do on a daily basis?
3. How do you want to feel moving forward?
This is the big question. We tend to ask ourselves what we want to do instead of how we want to feel, but unfortunately, asking ourselves what we’ll do only perpetuates the cycle of exhaustion and stress. So ask yourself, how is it that you want to feel moving forward? Think deeply about this and see what emotions come up for you.
4. What actions will you take to feel the way you want to feel?
Start thinking about what you can do to feel the way you want to feel, and what you can take off your plate to feel that way. What will be your focus to change the way you feel? What actions will you take to ensure this feeling you’re seeking?
If your goal is to feel more calm both in and out of the classroom, we have a free tool that will help you achieve this feeling, while helping your students feel that way as well!
We are passionate about helping teachers create a focused, calm, well-managed and healthy learning environment using Educalme, our online classroom mindfulness program.
This program will help you and your students find calm during the busy, often hectic school day. You and your students will learn to manage your emotions mindfully which will help you both to thrive in a calm learning atmosphere.
What teachers love about Educalme? There’s no prep required!
Share this post on Pinterest so other educators can learn what questions they need to ask themselves to avoid burnout and to thrive both in and out of the classroom!
Let us know in the comments, what feeling are you seeking?
92. The Gift of Presence Guided Mindfulness Meditation
Dec 16, 2019
The holiday season can feel stressful and overwhelming. Connect back to the gift of the present moment with this guided mindfulness meditation practice and go into your day primed to notice all there is to appreciate when you’re present in the now.
To listen to the guided mindfulness meditation, play our episode on The Balanced Educator Podcast below.
Be sure to subscribe to the Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes as we continue to teach how to avoid teacher burnout. iTunes, Spotify, Google Play
Show notes
Listen to our most popular episodes of the 2019-2020 school year so far:
Avoid teacher burnout: How to Create Good Habits that will last Throughout the School Year (Part 1 of 5): www.educalme.com/tbe074
Avoid Teacher Burnout: How Being Mindful of Your Thoughts can Change Your Experience in the Classroom (Part 2 of 5): www.educalme.com/tbe075
Avoid Teacher Burnout: How to Manage Your Emotions in the Classroom (Part 3 of 5): www.educalme.com/tbe076
Avoid Teacher Burnout: Shift Your Perspective to Feel More Calm, Balanced and Joyful in and out of the Classroom (Part 4 of 5): www.educalme.com/tbe077
Avoid Teacher Burnout: 10 Self-Care Practices to be Your Best Self in and out of the Classroom (Part 5 of 5): www.educalme.com/tbe078
91. Food, Family and Functioning in Everyday Life With Shawna Lapointe from Too Busy Livin’
Dec 09, 2019
When we get home, tired after a long day at work, deciding what to cook for supper can feel stressful! We’ve invited Shawna Lapointe, full-time teacher and mom of 4 from toobusylivin.com, onto The Balanced Educator Podcast & Blog to teach us all about meal planning so that we can simplify our evening routine and find joy in cooking stress-free meals.
Applying your teaching skills to your home life
On the heels of report cards and
parent-teacher conferences, one of the busiest times of the year for us
teachers, I thought I would write this post for all the people that I spend
most of my days with. A typical day for any teacher could include a wide range
of tasks and responsibilities. When we get home from work, we. are. spent. (and
still thinking about school until we go back the next day.) Teaching isn’t one
of those jobs that just ends when we leave the building. So, as we try to
manage all the tasks and responsibilities of work life, home life may sometimes
take a backseat.
Meal plan the way you lesson plan
Finding balance can be a challenge.
While our home lives and school lives can be often unpredictable, taking
control of the predictable aspects, like preparing and eating food to sustain
ourselves will help reduce some of our daily stress.
At school, we know that there will
be students and that we will most likely teach something. That is predictable.
At home, we know that there are humans that need to be fed, and we will most
likely feed them something. In the same way that we wouldn’t go in to work
without, at the bare minimum, a plan of how we would like our day to go, it’s
helpful to treat meal planning for our families the same way.
Have a plan…and a plan B
Just how we would have a plan for how we’d like our school day to go, having a meal plan for how we’d like our meals to go is the equivalent. Creating a 5-day plan allows for flexibility on the weekends. Being flexible and open to changing the game plan helps. Stocking your pantry with essentials that will allow you to pull together a healthy meal, is your back-up plan. Should your schedule or meal-time plans change at the last minute, you’ll be in a better position to adapt and change the plan.
Use your schedule as a guide
Following your schedule when
planning your classes just makes sense. You wouldn’t plan your French lesson
for your Spanish class, just like you wouldn’t roast a chicken for dinner when
you know you have to drive your kids to their music lesson twenty minutes after
you get home. Applying this principle to your family meal plan works just the
same. During the week, I generally won’t make a meal if it takes longer than 30
minutes to make.
Hands-free, make-ahead meals for busy days
If we have meetings or activities that will impede my cooking time, I make something in the slow cooker before I leave for work in the morning. Green chili and Minestrone Soup are some of our favorites. If we are rushing in from work, then rushing out again to an activity, I’ll make something the night before like a salad or a grain bowl, which can also travel well if you have to eat on the go. Other quick options are breakfast foods! They too are portable and cook up quickly. Try a breakfast bagel, burrito or mini quiche. Burritos and mini quiche can be made in large quantities on the weekend and frozen for whenever you need a healthy lunch or dinner.
Be inclusive and encourage risk-taking
This tip is specific to teachers
who also have children at home. When lesson planning, it’s important to
consider your audience and each student’s individual needs. Accommodating
special needs and encouraging students to push their limits and step slightly
outside their comfort zones come with the territory. Factoring these variables
into your plan mirrors what meal time with your kids might look like. Everyone
has different tastes and let’s be honest, some of our kids “don’t
like” (insert any food you just prepared).
Be considerate without catering
Making sure that there is at least
one item on the table that everybody likes, will prevent you from becoming a
short-order cook and will encourage your kids to try new foods that they
currently “don’t like”. What this looks like in my house is a plate
of raw veggies at every meal. In another family, it may be a glass of milk or a
piece of bread. When kids know that they have to eat off the menu, they choose
what they like and if they’re hungry, they’ll try more than just what they
like. If they know we’ll go to the kitchen and make them a different meal, they
will wait. us. out until we do.
Prep for a sub
It’s no secret that some teachers
would rather go into work sick, than prepare for a substitute teacher. It’s so
time-consuming and the end result may not what you had in the plan. When you
are the primary cook at home, planning for a sub for when you’re not there can
be helpful. If Dad or Grandma is your usual stand-in, a simple conversation
about what is on the menu and where to find the food might be sufficient. If
it’s the new babysitter, maybe more detailed instructions or a simplified
dinner option is the route to take. Either way, being flexible and willing to
adapt is key to reducing stress in meal planning for your family and in
teaching.
A summary of this lesson
Don’t go in blind! Make a plan. Even if you stray from it, make it.
Also, have a back-up plan. Stock food in your pantry, fridge, and
freezer that you can easily use to throw together a quick meal in a pinch.
Be inclusive and encourage risk-taking. Don’t stress yourself out by
becoming a short-order cook for your family. Make one meal that includes at
least one item that everybody will eat.
Know your schedule. Plan your meals according to your activities.
Plan for a sub. Sometimes you just can’t be there, so set someone else
up for success.
A final thought
Meal planning is one aspect of our
lives that we can 100% control. Letting go of that control means more
variables, which means more unpredictability and more stress. You do this every
day in your job, you can do this every day at home. You got this!!
To go even deeper on this topic, listen to our episode on The Balanced Educator Podcast below. You’ll learn:
How to plan simple meals for the week and where to find inspiration.
Shawna’s efficient system for grocery shopping when you don’t have time to waste.
Quick and easy meal ideas.
How to make lunches efficiently so you have more time to spend with your family.
Lots of tips to make planning, shopping and cooking more enjoyable and time-efficient.
Be sure to subscribe to the Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes as we continue to teach how to avoid teacher burnout. iTunes, Spotify, Google Play
Learn more about easy meal planning and get in touch with Shawna: www.toobusylivin.com
90. From Overwhelm to a Sense of Accomplishment: Master Your To-do List
Dec 02, 2019
Do you ever feel like your to-do list only ever gets longer instead of shorter? Do you get overwhelmed and stressed thinking of everything that’s on your to-do list? Do you struggle to get through your to-do list? If your answer was yes to any of these questions, this The Balanced Educator Blog & Podcast post is for you!
Who’s in control? Your to-do list or you? Take back your power!
This is a powerful perspective shift! We hate to say it, but you’re the one who creates your to-do list, you’re the one who executes your to-do list. You’re the one choosing to check things off the list. That’s right. You have the power to choose what needs to get done! You don’t actually need to get anything done!
Ask yourself what you actually have to do from your list. Ask yourself questions like:
Is this thing more important than my family?
Is this thing more important than feeding myself at lunch?
Is this thing more important than spending time with my students?
Another thing. You have to remember that perfect actually means complete. As teachers, we tend to be perfectionists. Sometimes, done is better than perfect! Next time you’re trying to do each task perfectly, ask yourself if this is a situation where good enough is good enough.
Is this item on your to-do list really that important?
Our next tried and true tip for mastering your to-do list. At the end of each day (or pick a time of day that works for you), first, consolidate your list (you know when you end up with 20 post-its on your desk with reminders to do something? That only causes more overwhelm!) and then, pick the 1 to 3 most important things to get done the next. Circle or highlight these things.
This will do 2 things for you: You’ll be more focused on what’s actually more important to get done, and therefore, you will feel more accomplished. Your brain will no longer be all over the place. Secondly, you will end your day knowing exactly what’s going on, which means less stress in your life and a greater sense of control.
Don’t multitask!
It’s hard for educators to hear, but the human brain is not made for multitasking! Studies have shown that it takes your mind time to switch gears from one task to another, so everytime you change tasks you lose time. So put that phone away, close your inbox, and set yourself up to eliminate all distractions as much as possible.
Focus only on your 1-3 things mentioned above and commit to doing just one thing at a time, no distractions! See how quickly you get through that (now) short list and feel a sense of accomplishment!
Rewire your brain so you feel more accomplished
Ok, so you may have heard some of the tips we’ve already shared here. But this one was the major game changer for us!
It’s called gratitude.
When train our brain to focus on and notice the good things, over time it will become a habit. And when we notice things for which we are grateful, we feel better, less stressed, anxious, overwhelmed and worried, and instead, we feel happy, calm, and accomplished.
So at the end of each day, on your to-do list itself or in a journal, write down in point form 3 or more things you’re grateful for or that you’re grateful to have checked off your to-do list! This simple 2 minute activity will leave you with that oh-so-needed feeling of accomplishment.
To end…
We hope these simple yet powerful practices are helping you to improve your relationship with your to-do list.
Remember, it will take time for these new habits to become concrete (you are literally changing the wiring of your brain!). Have compassion and patience with yourself along the way to mastering your to-do list! As you develop these habits over time, we hope you feel less overwhelmed and more accomplished!
To go even deeper on this topic, listen to our episode on The Balanced Educator Podcast below.
Be sure to subscribe to the Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes as we continue to teach how to avoid teacher burnout. iTunes, Spotify, Google Play
Share this post on Pinterest so other educators can learn concrete strategies to form healthy habits this school year.
Let us know in the comments, which of these to-do list strategies will you put into action today?
A special thanks to our sponsor:
Use the code EDUCALME10 for 10% off your first order!
89. How to Find Time for Social-Emotional Learning
Nov 25, 2019
How do you find time for social-emotional learning in the classroom? With so much on our plates and so many academic outcomes to cover it can feel impossible to dedicate precious time to teaching our students the skills they need to manage their emotions and behaviours independently.
We know that once our students develop their self-regulation skills we will spend less time putting out fires. AND we will have more time to teach the academics. BUT taking the leap to invest precious class time in a mindfulness practice or other social-emotional development tool feels scary.
In this post, we explain how making social-emotional learning part of your routine with a daily mindfulness practice actually gives you more time for academic teaching and supports deeper learning.
What Other Teachers Say…
We recently had a teacher that uses our Educalme daily mindfulness program share the following feedback with us:
“Educalme helps my students prepare their brains for learning. After our Educalme mindfulness practice, my students are more focused. They are able to pay attention to instruction better and they’re able to get more work done. This means we are doing so much learning in a day and getting through so much more content than in previous years, before I started using Educalme.”
We get lots of feedback like this from teachers that realize they gain back even more time than they invest in their daily mindfulness practice. They’re amazed at how much more smoothly their days go. They love how much easier it is to get students to focus during instruction. Plus, students become more able to manage their emotions and behaviours independently once they make Educalme part of their daily routine – like a warm-up for learning.
How to Save Those Precious School Hours
The key to gaining more time for academics is to make social-emotional learning part of your daily classroom routine. And more importantly, sticking to it. Add a social-emotional development activity, like mindfulness, to your daily schedule. Soon you’ll see your students using the skills they’ve developed to support their learning in the classroom.
Dive Deeper Into This Topic
Listen to this podcast episode on how investing class time in SEL gives you more time for academics.
Be sure to subscribe to the Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes! iTunes, Spotify, Google Play.
Share this post on Pinterest so other educators can learn how to prioritize social-emotional learning in their classrooms too!
Let us know in the comments, how will you implement what you learned today?
88. Using Wellness in the Classroom as a Vehicle for Social Change with Dr. Ilana Nankin from Breathe For Change
Nov 18, 2019
Stress, anxiety and teacher burnout are a reality in today’s schools. When teachers are struggling to manage their emotions, students are more likely to be dysregulated as well. We’re always talking on The Balanced Educator Podcast and Blog about the importance for us teachers to care for ourselves first, to fill our cups first so that we can be our best selves in the classroom and be positive models of self-regulation, kindness and compassion for our students.
Dr. Ilana Nankin is helping teachers learn to care for themselves first and how to share wellness in their classrooms as a vehicle for social change with her innovative organization Breathe For Change. We are so excited to share her story and her message with you today on The Balanced Educator Podcast and in her guest blog post below.
Why I Breathe For Change
By Dr. Ilana Nankin
Founder & CEO, Breathe For Change
“In a community, first you have to love yourself, because if you don’t love yourself, you can’t love anybody else.”
As educators, we give, give, give so much of ourselves to our students. On the one hand, this willingness to give of ourselves to others is what makes us such amazing leaders and human beings. Yet, on the other hand, when we forget to give that same self-love and self-care to ourselves — and no longer embody the present, loving, and kind ways of being we hope to instill in our students — we limit our capacity to do the critically important work we are here to do for our students and our world.
Teacher well-being is the foundation of a thriving education system and society, and it is needed now more than ever. 73% of teachers report feeling extreme stress everyday, and more and more teachers leave the profession each year. As my Ph.D. research and other studies have revealed, this diminishing cycle of well-being negatively impacts our students social-emotional and academic outcomes. As a profession and society, we must change. We must take better care of our teachers. For, as my great teacher and mentor, Parker Palmer, reminds us, “Self-care is never a selfish act – it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer others. Anytime we can listen to true self and give the care it requires, we do it not only for ourselves, but for the many others whose lives we touch.”
The beauty of it all is that change in education is happening. And I am starting this blog to reveal the stories behind this change.
Bay Area, Fall 2018, 200-hour Training Cohort
My WHY: Why I am called to start this blog
I am starting this blog to bring to light what can become possible when we, as educators and community leaders, actually commit to taking care of our own well-being and prioritize the most important person in our life (yes, that’s you!).
I am launching this blog to create a platform that honors and highlights the inspiring stories of the thousands of Breathe For Change Wellness Champions who are creating positive ripple effects in their lives, classrooms, and entire school communities. I am launching this blog to share my authentic voice, passion and love for using wellness as a vehicle for social change, and to continue building a community of inspiring, diverse, brilliant educators and community leaders who share this life-giving purpose. I am writing this blog to unite experts in the field of education, wellness, and social justice – and to recognize that together, we create a more socially just and peaceful world. And, last but not least, I am writing this blog because Breathe For Change is building a movement and facilitating a societal shift toward collective well-being, and I want YOU to join us in Changing the World, One Teacher at a Time.
How Breathe For Change Was Born
As a Pre-K teacher, I loved my students beyond words, but remember constantly feeling stressed, overwhelmed, and overworked, with little to no tools to take care of myself… That is, until my dear friend, fellow pre-k teacher and roommate Lauren came home looking absolutely blissed out. “Why do you look so calm?” I asked, defeated. “Come try yoga with me,” she insisted. I resisted for weeks: I don’t do yoga, I’m an athlete! When I couldn’t take the stress anymore I begrudgingly went along… and I never looked back since.
Practicing yoga and meditation each morning before school completely transformed my life and my well-being. Because of the inspiring change I was experiencing in myself, I decided to integrate some of the wellness practices into my classroom, and saw remarkable transformations in my students, both social-emotionally and academically. The ripple effects only grew from there… and I couldn’t help but want to take my exploration further. The powerful connection between teacher well-being and student learning that I was experiencing first hand was too important to stay within the walls of my own classroom. So I made the leap of faith to become a teacher educator and pursue my Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin to explore the critical connection between teacher well-being and effective teaching.
For my dissertation, I followed 8 amazing pre-service teachers I had taught for 2 years in UW’s teacher education program into their first year of teaching to explore how they would take up their ideals of social justice in action in diverse classrooms around the world. These passionate educators who, like me, had intended to stay in the profession for life, quickly became so stressed and overwhelmed, and this negative cycle of well-being impacted their ability to meet the social-emotional and academic needs of their students.
As Christa, one of the eight teachers I followed, put it, “When I am calm and collected, my students are calm and collected.” Or as Cynthia would say, “When I go insane, the kids go insane.” The critical connection between teacher well-being and student learning was evident, and I knew something needed to change.
As the universal issue of teacher stress and burnout continued to surface through my research and outside studies, I was simultaneously teaching courses to pre-service teachers who were working in schools throughout Madison. When my wonderful students found out that I was a newly-certified yoga teacher, they thought it was “so cool,” and decided to rent out space in the student union for me to teach them yoga and mindfulness each week in addition to my three-hour education course. Naturally, I was obsessed with this idea, and said “YES!”
Each day, different teachers would come up to me and enthusiastically say things like: “Oh my gosh, Ilana! The kids who typically have anxiety attacks before tests are now utilizing the mindfulness techniques you taught us, and their test scores are increasing!” Or, “the students who experience so much trauma in the home are learning how to breathe and everything is improving!” Story after story after story continued to come my way. And, I knew I had to do something.
On December 11, 2014, the last day of my course, I looked at my phenomenal pre-service teachers, and said “We have 3 hours left together… how do you want to spend it?” “Let’s take this international!!” they collectively screamed. “Train us, Ilana. We need more, this is just the beginning.” I could feel the infinite potential of what couldbecome possible if we, as a society, actually prioritize teacher (and student) well-being. And, I knew in that moment that I would not stop pursuing this mission until collective well-being becomes a reality for all teachers, students, and communities, everywhere. In those three hours of dreaming big, the vision for Breathe For Change was born.
The Impact We’ve had in 4 Short, Momentous Years
Since then, I have been unstoppable in my pursuit to Change the World, One Teacher At a Time. In January, 2015, I set out to start the world’s only internationally recognized 200-hour Wellness and Yoga Teacher Training specifically for educators. In just a few months, I (miraculously) managed to inspire 34 educators to commit 16 days of their precious summer to this “thing” that had never existed before. And, while my vision was huge from the start, I could never in my wildest dreams have imagined what would unfold:
2015: 34 educators in Madison, WI
2016: 185 educators in Madison, San Francisco Bay Area and New York City (hosted at Sesame Workshop… when Elmo and Big Bird walked in, I knew we were onto something!)
2017: 600+ educators with the additions of Los Angeles, DC and Austin
2018: 1,100+ educators in eleven major U.S. cities
It’s now 2019, and since 2015, we have certified more than 3,000 educators as Breathe For Change Wellness Champions and Yoga Teachers. They are changing the world, and I am simply blown away.
Inaugural B4C Training in Madison, 2015
First NYC Training @ Sesame, NYC, 2016
I am thrilled to share that our graduates are now collectively enhancing the health and well-being of more than 500,000 students across the country. Both qualitative and quantitative surveys of our graduates report the following outcomes:
Enhanced overall well-being, physical well-being, and emotional well-being.
Increased energy levels, and perceived ability to positively influence others’ lives.
Increased perceived ability to control the important things in their lives and teaching.
Increased confidence in their ability to address personal issues and deal with emotional challenges calmly.
Increased ability to create a relaxed atmosphere with their students.
Strengthened capacity to build community and cultivate human connection.
NYC, Summer 2017, 200-hour Training CohortLA, Fall 2017, 200-hour Training Cohort
The beauty of our training is not that our teachers walk away with yet another scripted curriculum to teach to students. They walk away having lived, breathed, and experienced the change they want to see in their lives and their classrooms – and recognize the value of first and foremost, taking care of themselves. They walk away personally transformed and empowered and equipped with tools use wellness and social-emotional learning as vehicles for social change in their classrooms and communities. Branigan, one of my remarkable Boston Summer 2019 Wellness Champions couldn’t have described it better: “I have truly discovered and learned to value myself, which has empowered me to bring substantial change to my community in loving, supportive, and inclusive ways. My eyes have been opened to so much beauty and value in the world around me, and given me the tools to share this with others. My community, my relationships, and my soul are forever changed.”
Breathe For Change Curricular Progression
Her words, along with the thousands of Wellness Champions who I get the honor of keeping in close touch and collaborate ongoingly with, inspire me everyday to continue standing for a world where we all feel inspired, worthy and called to lead with love – and where we all recognize how amazing we are inside and out. And I won’t stop.
Where We Are Headed
With each new educator in our movement, we get one step closer to living in a world where all people are inspired, educated, and healthy inside and out. We must ensure that wellness and social-emotional learning becomes accessible to all educators and embedded into the fabric of entire schools. To get there, we are now partnering with schools, districts, and organizations to bring professional development to a broader community. We also launched our digital ChangeMaker program, which provides educators access to free monthly resources and webinars (led by me!) so that every educator has the opportunity to join our movement in a meaningful way.
And, of course, we will continue to bring together wellness-minded educators to build a strong foundation of community, well-being, and knowledge through our 200-Hour Wellness, SEL Teacher Trainings.
Our 200-hour wellness and yoga teacher training for educators, as well as our self-care and social-emotional learning (SEL*F) professional development for schools, districts, and organizations move through a four-layered transformational curricular progression: from Transformation of Self → Transformation of Relationships → Transformation of Community → Integration and Renewal. Patrick so eloquently reminds us, “If we don’t love ourselves, we can’t love anybody else,” which is why we always begin from within. And, from this foundation of well-being within ourselves, we can create ripple effects of well-being in our relationships and communities.
My WHY: Changing the World, One Teacher at a Time
I believe whole-heartedly that transformation in education starts from within, and that it is essential for us, as educators, to take care of ourselves so that we can do the critically important work of taking care of our kids and communities. I also know that we cannot do this alone… and we don’t have to. We can lean on one another and be each other’s “Accountabili-buddies.” Helen Keller reminds us, “Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.”
Every conversation I have, every page of curriculum I write, every new person I meet, every training I lead… somehow, someway is connected to our cause to cultivate collective well-being. I dream about Breathe For Change being accessible to educators everywhere. When obstacles get in the way of our big vision to enhance the health and well-being of teachers, my heart breaks (for a moment) and I reconnect to my WHY: my students who are my greatest teachers, and my mission to transform lives through humanizing education. Many people say it’s important to separate professional and personal, but I live for this vision. There is nothing that lights me up more than supporting my fellow educators to realize their own light, embrace their dreams, and step into their leadership. My profession is personal, and I love that. There’s no way I’d rather live than for a cause far greater than myself, yet so deeply connected to who I am.
While I know that my fiery passion has allowed educators to breathe change into their lives and communities, I recognize that my drive to constantly grow bigger and impact more people can get in the way of me “practicing what I preach.” I teach others to take time to pause, relax, and self reflect; yet, if I am being totally honest with myself, that’s what I struggle with the most. I am focused on where we need to go and how we can improve; I often forget to take those precious little moments to be present with what is, and appreciate all that has unfolded. I forget to take time to actually feel the impact of what we’ve built.
This is what this blog is about for me: a space to reflect, cherish, and celebrate the journey, a space to embody what I teach. At Breathe For Change, we call our social-emotional learning curriculum, SEL*F (social-emotional learning and *facilitation*); we add the “F” because we must embody the self-care practices we teach. So cheers to writing to you, my version of that.
Let’s bring teachers’ and students’ inspiring voices to the forefront of education. This is my chance to reveal what becomes possible when we prioritize the WHOLE in every teacher and student, as opposed to just the holes students fill out with their #2 pencils on standardized tests. So, let’s take 3 collective breaths, and begin.
You can learn more about Breathe For Change in the following ways:
Let us know in the comments below, how will you breathe for change in your classroom?
If you would like ready-to-use mindfulness resources made by teachers for your classroom, start your free Educalme Classroom trial to get unlimited access to the first unit of our full-year program!
Share this post on Pinterest so other educators can learn how to share wellness in the classroom for social change!
A special thanks to our sponsor Little Love Home. Use the code EDUCALME10 for 10% off your first order.
87. How to Fund School Projects Through Grants with Brigette Depape from The Winnipeg Foundation
Nov 11, 2019
Applying for grants to fund school projects is a great way to ensure we’re able to support our students’ needs even if our school doesn’t have the money required for the project or resource in the budget. However, applying for grants can feel daunting.
In this post, we’ll be sharing the steps for how to find a grant for your school project. Then, we’ll walk you through the steps for how to apply for a grant to fund your school project so that you are most likely to receive the grant.
Grant Application Vocabulary
Before we explain how to search for and apply for a grant, let’s go over some of the vocabulary you will need to be familiar with when researching and applying for grants.
What is a foundation?
The group that gives grants is called a foundation. There are two different kinds of foundations.
Community foundation: A community foundation is a non-profit organization that exists to improve the lives of people in their community. Anyone in the community can donate to the organization and the foundation exists because of the donations from the community for good, forever. There are community foundations in small towns as well as large cities. To find a community foundation dedicated to improving the lives of people in your community just research “foundations in [your city]”.
Ex. If you search for “Foundations in Winnipeg” on the internet, you’ll get a list that includes several foundations including The Winnipeg Foundation.
Private foundation: A smaller group of people that create the foundation and give to them. A private foundation is often set up by a family that contributes to the foundation themselves.
What is a donation?
A donation isn’t for a specific purpose. The organization or individual receiving the donation can put the funds towards anything they choose. Ex. When Winnipeg Harvest receives a donation, they can use those funds to buy food or to renovate their building or for anything that they choose.
What is a grant?
A grant is for a specific purpose. When an organization or individual receives a grant, it must go towards the purpose stated in their grant application. Ex. If you apply for a grant specifically to purchase an Educalme Classroom Membership, the funds would go towards the membership and couldn’t be used for other classroom resources.
How to Find Grants to Fund your School Project
A grant is a great way to fund a school project and grants are usually offered by foundations. As you learned above, grants are awarded for a specific purpose. Therefore, you must get clear on the purpose of your project and then find grants that align with your goals.
Step 1: Define Your Project
Define the goal of your project. What is the problem you are trying to solve? What is the solution you are proposing? Who (what population) are you supporting with your solution? How much will it cost? What are the outcomes you are aiming for?
Step 2: Research foundations and grants whose priorities align with your project
Once you’ve defined the goal of your project, search the internet for foundations and grants that prioritize those outcomes and the population your project is serving. For example, if your goal is to support your grade 4 students in their mental health and wellness with Educalme Classroom you would search for mental health and wellness grants for youth in your community.
Look for foundations and grants that align with the priorities and the population of your project. The better the grant and the project priorities align, the more likely you are to be awarded the grant and the less time you will waste applying for grants that aren’t a good fit.
Step 3: Look for the application deadline
Once you’ve found a grant that aligns well with your project, look for the application deadline and make sure you give yourself lots of time to register for the grant application process, write your grant proposal, edit it and send it.
Applying for grants
Once you’ve found a grant that is a good fit, make a compelling case for your project. In your application, include statistics that demonstrate the depth of the problem your community is facing and then how your project will solve the problem. In addition, use stories that demonstrate the struggles your community is facing and how the grant will solve or is solving those problems. Remember that it is is a kind and caring person that wants to make a positive impact in their community that is reading your application. They want to understand how the grant will make a difference in the lives of their community members.
Are there long term grants?
You might be looking for a grant that will fund your project for several years. Those long term grants are available. It is a good idea to give the grantmaker updates on how their funding is making a difference so that they can see that their funds are making a difference and are motivated to continue supporting your project. It’s important to remember that the grantmakers are real people that care deeply about supporting their community really appreciate knowing that their choice to fund your project is making a real impact.
We hope that this blog post helps you to successfully find and apply for a grant to fund your school project!
Blow is a list of foundations and grants in Manitoba, Canada that you might want to look into.
If you know of any grants that could be a good fit for school projects in your community, share it with us in the comments so we can add it to our list.
To go even deeper on this topic, listen to our episode on The Balanced Educator Podcast below.
Be sure to subscribe to the Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes as we continue to teach how to avoid teacher burnout. iTunes, Spotify, Google Play
Share this post on Pinterest so other educators can learn concrete strategies to form healthy habits this school year.
Let us know in the comments, how will you implement what you learned today?
A special thanks to our sponsor:
Little Love Home – Use the code EDUCALME10 for 10% off your first order
86. Self-Regulation in the Classroom with Occupational Therapist Lauren Casey
Nov 04, 2019
Have you ever been in a situation where you are trying to help one of your students better manage a behaviour by offering them strategies, but it seems like no matter what you do, the student can’t seem to correct it? As teachers, I think we’ve all been there! That’s why we invited occupational therapist Lauren Casey on the podcast to talk to us about how to reframe the behaviour so that we can understand it better and then respond to it in a more efficient way. We are diving into the topic of self-regulation in today’s podcast episode & blog post!
To start off, what is self-regulation?
According to expert Stuart Shanker, it is: “The ability to manage stress and refers to the neural processes that control the energy expended to deal with a stressor and then recover. When an individual’s stress levels are too high various systems for thinking and metabolic recovery are compromised. The signs of dysregulation show up in the behaviour, or mood, or attention, and physical well-being.”
Explicit teaching is key
We can teach our students to self-regulate in the classroom, but it has to be done explicitly. We can’t expect a student to use a sensory tool properly if they’ve never been taught how or if no boundaries are set around the use of it. We can’t expect a student to react appropriately to another student if they’ve never been taught how. It’s up to us as teachers to teach our students to self-regulate if we want to see progress.
Fill up your own cup
According to Lauren (listen to Lauren’s episode by scrolling down the page!), if we want our students to self-regulate, first we need to regulate ourselves as teachers. That means we need to take care of ourselves and fill up our own cups, as well as learn and use strategies that will help us regulate ourselves in stressful moments in the classroom! For example, when a student behaves inappropriately, we can count two breaths in our heads before responding to the situation. This will help students remain calm and regulate themselves as well!
Reframe the behaviour
In this week’s The Balanced Educator Podcast episode, Lauren shared some great questions we can ask ourselves to reframe student behaviour so we can understand it better:
How can we look at the behaviour in an inquisitive way?
How can we manage the environmental components around the student to help them better regulate?
What strategies and skills can we teach this student to help them with their struggle?
Teach self-awareness skills
Lauren also talked about the importance of helping our students develop their body awareness so they can better understand the bodily signs they are feeling in a moment of stress. When they can gain awareness of what’s going on within themselves, they can learn how to listen to the signs of stress and in turn, learn how to self-regulate.
How can we teach our students to become more self-aware? Through a daily mindfulness practice!
Mindfulness in the classroom
With our online mindfulness program for the classroom, Educalme Classroom, students learn how to become more aware of their thoughts, emotions and behaviours. This leads to self-regulation. The best part? There is no prep required with this program!
Get unlimited access to the first unit of the Educalme Classroom online mindfulness program (that’s one month of free ready-to-use mindfulness practices for the classroom!). Watch the step by step teacher training video and feel confident bringing mindfulness into your classroom with success.
To go even deeper on this topic, listen to our episode on The Balanced Educator Podcast below. Lauren shared so many useful strategies to use in the classroom for self-regulation!
Be sure to subscribe to the Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes as we continue to teach how to avoid teacher burnout. iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play
85. Success Mindsets with Ryan Gottfredson
Oct 28, 2019
Unlocking Greater Success by Developing a Growth Mindset
Ryan Gottfredson, Ph.D.
Each of us has two basic needs, but unfortunately, they are competing. Thus, we have a tendency to choose one or the other.
Before I present these needs, I want you to take a minute to ask yourself which of the two needs you primarily focus on fulfilling:
Looking Good
Learning and Developing
Looking Good
When we primarily focus on looking good, we:
Always try to be seen as successful and competent
Avoid putting ourselves in situations where we may display a weakness or fail as a way to protect ourselves and our image
Come to believe that success should come naturally and that putting forth effort is an admission of weakness, frailty, or limitations
Focus on proving that we are smart and talented, and on validating ourselves
These are the hallmarks of someone with a fixed mindset. They believe that their abilities, talent, and intelligence are fixed, something they cannot change.
When we do not believe their abilities, talent, and intelligence are fixed, we become preoccupied with avoiding mistakes and failures. This is because if we fail, and we do not have the ability to change, we are left to interpret that as though we are a failure.
Learning and Developing
When we primarily focus on learning and developing, we:
Look at challenges as opportunities to learn and grow
Are willing to put ourselves in situations that will test us
Believe that effort is the path to success
Respond positively to failure
These are the hallmarks of someone with a growth mindset. They believe that their abilities, talent, and intelligence can grow, and thus they thrive on the very things that those with a fixed mindset try to avoid.
Fixed/Growth Mindsets in Action
Let me give you a few examples about how these mindsets affect us.
Because everyone can relate to school/education examples, let me start with a couple.
First, when you were in school, if you were going to comment, would you only comment when you knew the answer (fixed mindset), or were you willing to comment at any time, seeing it as an opportunity to learn and be corrected if you were wrong (growth mindset?
Second, in school, were you primarily focused on getting a good grade (how you looked; fixed mindset), or on learning and mastering the material (how much you grew; growth mindset).
Third, if something is challenging to you, do you see it as a sign that you are on the wrong path (fixed mindset), or do you see it as an opportunity to further develop yourself.
Impact of Fixed Growth Mindsets
Let me give a couple examples. One from an education setting, the other in more of a corporate setting.
First, educational researchers Benjamin Matthes and Heidrun Stoeger found that parents’ mindsets influence the mindsets of their children, how they work with their children related to their academics, and ultimately how well their children do academically. Comparing parents with a growth mindset to parents with a fixed mindset, they found that when parents have a growth mindset, their children are more likely to have a growth mindset, they are less likely to engage in controlling behavior to do homework or perform at a certain level, they are less likely to engage in homework-related conflict, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, their children are more likely to have higher academic performance.
Second, Peter Heslin, Don Vandewalle, and Gary Latham found that fixed-mindset managers give less quantity and quality feedback to their subordinates because they do not feel they can develop or improve; whereas growth mindsets give higher quantity and quality feedback to their subordinates because they believe that they can improve.
Who would you want to work for? Someone who encourages your growth, or someone who is continually looking for signs of failure?
Illuminating the effect of having a fixed mindset when in a leadership position, in her book Mindsets, Carol Dweck states the following about fixed-mindset leaders:
“They didn’t set out to do harm. But at critical decision points, they opted for what would make them feel good and look good over what would serve the longer-term corporate goals. Blame others, cover mistakes, pump up the stock prices, crush rivals and critics, screw the little guy—these were the standard operating procedures.”
Power of Learning about Mindsets
At times I have struggled with a fixed mindset. But now that I know about fixed and growth mindsets, I am able to recognize the mindset that I am wearing, and I am empowered to change it.
For most people, their problem is that they do not know about fixed/growth mindsets, so they overlook their mindset and are powerless to change them.
I hope this post helps you to better evaluate your mindsets, and empowers you to develop more of a growth mindset.
If you would like a more objective assessment of the degree to which you have a fixed or growth mindset, take this FREE personal mindset assessment, which includes specific recommendations for developing more of a growth mindset: https://ryangottfredson.com/personal-mindset-assessment
To go even deeper on this topic, listen to our episode on The Balanced Educator Podcast below with Ryan.
Be sure to subscribe to the Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes as we continue to teach how to avoid teacher burnout. iTunes, Spotify, Google Play
84. Five Ways to Promote Growth Mindset in the Classroom
Oct 21, 2019
Growth mindset is a huge topic in education today. And rightfully so. If we can teach our students to have a growth mindset, their possibilities in life are endless, they have a perspective on the world that will give them so many options in life.
As big of a topic as it is, it’s not always clear how to teach our students how to adopt a growth mindset. So what are effective ways to promote growth mindset in the classroom?
Read on to learn five concrete and applicable growth mindset strategies to take your students from having a fixed mindset to a growth mindset!
First off, what is growth mindset? Simply, according to Carol Dweck, author of the super informative book Mindset, “in a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.”
How can we promote growth mindset? Try these 5 strategies in your classroom!
1. FRAMING
A proven way to teach growth mindset is to use the right vocabulary as teachers to prepare our students for challenges by framing learning for them.
For example, before giving our students a certain task or worksheet in the classroom, we can say something like, “What I’m about to teach you isn’t to see if you’re good or bad at something, it’s to challenge you so your brain works hard and therefore, grow.”, or “Ok, I’m going to give you a big challenge and it’s not going to be easy, but when we struggle, that means we’re growing our brain and learning something new.” Repeating this each time you give your students an academic challenge in the classroom will help them realise that they are capable of anything and in turn, develop their growth mindset!
2. PRACTICING AFFIRMATIONS
An affirmation is simply a simple phrase we repeat over and over again until we start to believe it. We can easily work in affirmations in our daily classroom routines as we teach in our online mindfulness program for the classroom, Educalme.
For example, if a student says something like “I’m not good at math”, or “I’ll never understand this math problem”, we can create an affirmation with them like “I am developing my math skills” and practice repeating it a few times every day as we start math class.
One affirmation that’s more general than the example above that we absolutely love is the following (grab your free poster to put up in your classroom!):
3. COACHING INSTEAD OF CORRECTING
Less red pen all over your students’ work is better. Make time in your daily schedule to meet one-on-one with a few students to coach them on their work instead of correcting the errors for them. It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it! Growth Mindset is about the journey, not about what’s “right” and what’s “wrong”.
For example, when students write a text of any sort, meet with them to first celebrate what they’re doing well in their writing, then to talk about what needs to be worked on. Spin what needs to be worked on in a positive and constructive way. This will help them to see that they are always learning and improving, which will help them develop their growth mindset!
4. EXPLICIT TEACHING ON GROWTH MINDSET
There are many, many resources out there to explicitly teach students what growth mindset actually means! If they understand growth mindset vs. fixed mindset is, they are much more likely to adopt the right mindset that will help them grow.
Start by explaining to your students that when you are learning something new, their brains are actually growing and changing because they are developing new neural pathways. That’s why it isn’t easy to learn something new – Our brains have to use up a lot of energy to learn! But when they learn new things, they are becoming more resilient, and are proving to themselves that they can learn anything which will help them in their life path to take on challenges and do what they love!
5. TRAINING THE BRAIN
A growth mindset is much easier to acquire if we have developed our self-awareness. Why? Because when we are more self-aware, we can recognize what our perspectives and mindsets actually are, and then deliberately change them to something that suits us better.
We believe the best way to become more self-aware is to practice mindfulness. Through the practice of mindfulness, we come to understand our emotions, thoughts and perspectives, which helps us to understand our mindsets. With your students, try a daily 5 minute mindfulness practice to help them become aware of their mindsets. We have the tools to get you and your students there with our online classroom mindfulness program!
Try out our Educalme free trial and be sure to put the poster up in your classroom and to repeat it with your students each day to help them grow and develop their mindset! With a growth mindset, your students will thrive in and out of the classroom!
To go even deeper on this topic, listen to our episode on The Balanced Educator Podcast below.
Be sure to subscribe to the Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes as we continue to teach how to avoid teacher burnout. iTunes, Spotify, Google Play
83. From Fixed Mindset to Growth Mindset
Oct 16, 2019
I walked into my professor and mentor’s office, embarrassed by the tears streaming down my 19-year-old, exhausted cheeks. I felt bad for coming to her in such an emotional state (I was an adult, after all, I should be able to hold back my emotions), but I didn’t know what else to do. I needed advice.
She offered me a seat and with kindness in her eyes and a tissue in her outstretched hand she asked me what was wrong.
With desperation in my voice, I told her the whole story:
“I stayed up most of the night working on an extra credit assignment for my biochemistry course to make up for my unsatisfactory midterm grade. I’m not good at memorizing, you see, so I don’t do as well on tests as my friends. Assignments are my only chance to boost my marks up to where I want them to be.
Well, anyway, I worked so hard on this assignment in an effort to do well in this class and this morning, due to circumstances beyond my control I got to class 5 minutes late. My professor refused to accept my assignment, even after I explained why I was late. He didn’t care that I worked my butt off on this assignment and he wouldn’t make an exception to his rule.
It just isn’t fair! Is there anything you can say to convince him to accept my assignment? My grade depends on it!”
I looked at her pleadingly, waiting for her to take pity on me and offer to help.
She squared her shoulders and looked me right in the eyes with a mix of compassion and fire and told me something I never expected to hear from a teacher.
“Kailey, it’s just a grade. Simply a number. It has nothing to do with who you are as a person. It does not define you or decide if you are good or bad. It doesn’t even indicate if you will successfully do good in the world. It is just a number.”
I was shocked.
Until that moment I hadn’t even realized that I was measuring my worth by my grades.
This was the first time I was able to step back and ask “Why?”
Why am I studying for this test? Is it to get a good grade or to actually learn the material so it can serve me in the future.
Why am I in this class? Is it to prove that I’m smart or is it to gain a deeper understanding of a subject that interests me?
Why am I striving for good grades? Is it because I want to be able to compare my intelligence to others or am I looking at my grades to inform me of where I still have space to grow and learn?
This was the first time that I realized I had a fixed mindset when it came to my education. A fixed mindset meant that I saw grades as a measure of my fixed intelligence, something that was set in stone. This fixed mindset created an urgency to prove myself over and over and also made me give up easily in areas that didn’t come naturally to me.
I’m so glad I had this experience that shifted me out of a fixed mindset and into a growth mindset. With the growth mindset, I gained the belief that my basic qualities are things I can cultivate through my efforts, my strategies and help from others. A “bad” mark wasn’t a final indication of what I could learn, it was just a reflection of where I was that day and I had a whole life ahead of me to keep on learning.
This experience completely changed how I viewed my education. The beautiful thing was that this shift in perspective actually, inadvertently, helped me to do better in university while getting much more joy out of the learning process.
My experience was just like what Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D. found in her studies on the mindsets of university students and shared in her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.
“We found that the students with the growth mindset earned better grades in the course. Even when they did poorly on a particular test, they bounced back on the next ones. When students with the fixed mindset did poorly, they often didn’t make a comeback…The students with growth mindset completely took charge of their learning and motivation. Instead of plunging into unthinking memorization of the course material, they said: “I looked for themes and underlying principles across lectures,” and “I went over mistakes until I was certain I understood them.” They were studying to learn, not just to ace the test. And, actually, this was why they got higher grades- not just because they were smarter or had a better background in science.”
This shift from a fixed to a growth mindset allowed me to enjoy the process of my own education and led me to view learning as a never-ending journey rather than a finish line.
Growth mindset informed my values once I became a teacher and became the foundation of my teaching methods. I chose to teach growth mindset explicitly to my students as well as instill a classroom culture and systems that promoted and fostered growth mindset.
At Educalme, we believe that teaching growth mindset to our students is so important that we have two whole units on growth mindset in Educalme – our online mindfulness program. These units include guided mindfulness audios, student activity booklets, posters, activities and projects – all to teach and instill a growth mindset.
Start sharing growth mindset with your students today with this growth mindset poster from Educalme. It reminds your students that learning is a journey and that each step is important with the phrase “Where I am right now is perfect. I’m learning new things every day.”
If you would like to go deeper on this topic of growth mindset, listen to this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast.
82. How to Create Community and Connection in the Classroom for Deeper Learning
Oct 07, 2019
Taking the time to develop a connection with our students isn’t easy with our never ending curriculum to teach. Yet, research shows that relationships are crucial to a child’s success. So how do we create connection and community with our students in the classroom with what feels like little time? We absolutely love doing this through morning meeting in our classrooms!
That’s what we’re sharing about today on The Balanced Educator Blog & Podcast!
Students can’t learn unless they feel safe, seen and heard.
We find the most efficient way to make them feel this way is to create connection, relationship and community by having a daily morning meeting with our students!
A simple and effective classroom routine.
We noticed that as the school year goes on, students become more and more willing to share on deeper topics, talk about feelings and emotions and they develop compassion for themselves and the others in the classroom.
Here is our process for morning meeting:
1. Before sitting in a circle with our students, we like to do a five minute guided mindfulness practice with our students to bring them to a place of calm and focus.
If you want to try this in your classroom, be sure to join our Educalme Free Trial where you will have enough five minute guided mindfulness practices for an entire month!
Educalme Classroom is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning.
Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required!
2. Create expectations as a class.
Create expectations for morning meeting and then start each morning meeting by repeating expectations. This ensures the success of morning meeting! Repetition is key!
3. Ask your students to say hello to one another.
This takes about two minutes but ensures each student has had a greeting in the morning from someone in the classroom. This helps them feel like they’re a part of the community!
The first student says hello to the person beside them, then that person says hello to the student beside them, etc. You can also make this more animated by throwing around a ball while saying hello or even having their names on popsicle sticks so they can pick names and say hello!
4. Ask your students a question.
Ask students a question like, “What did you notice during today’s practice?” (referring to the mindfulness practice), or “How are you feeling today?”, etc.
Don’t force each student to share as this may make certain students feel like they’re not safe, seen or heard. What we like to do is to have a talking stick or rock and students can share once they have it, and if they don’t want to share, they can simply pass it along to the next person. This still gives them a little moment in time where they can feel special, whether they choose to share or not!
5. If you have time, play a team-building game or a game that relates to your curriculum!
Morning meeting isn’t only for building trust and community, it can also be a great opportunity to get some teaching and learning in. For example, when we taught grade 5, we would play games around memorizing base multiplication or play a game where they need to use their oral French and/or English language arts.
For this daily routine to actually help in building community, it has to be a routine.
Whether daily or weekly, students have to know it’s coming and look forward to it. We can’t stop building those relationships just because it’s report card season! Get creative, shorten it if absolutely necessary, but make it a class habit.
To go even deeper on this topic, listen to our episode on The Balanced Educator Podcast below.
Be sure to subscribe to the Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes as we continue to teach how to avoid teacher burnout. iTunes, Spotify, Google Play
Share this post on Pinterest so other educators can learn concrete strategies to form healthy habits this school year.
Let us know in the comments, how do you build connection and community in your classroom?
81. How to Introduce Mindfulness in the Classroom for the First Time
Sep 30, 2019
Often, the biggest hurdle in starting a classroom mindfulness practice is getting started. So how do you introduce mindfulness to your students, get them on board and explain to them why it’s important?
In our experience, once teachers finally decide to implement a mindfulness practice in their classroom, they wished they would have done it much, much earlier.
Why?
Because a daily mindfulness practice gives your students the tools, strategies and common vocabulary to manage emotions and behaviours.
Unfortunately…
For most teachers, it always comes back to the fear or the hurdle in getting started, being afraid to be doing “wrong”, or just not being sure how to start this and introduce it in the classroom.
Good news!
We’re here to change that for you.
If you would like a simple way to introduce mindfulness to your students in early and middle years before diving into Educalme Classroom, we’ve got a great pre-teaching activity!
First, you’ll need a sparkle jar.
To make a sparkle jar, grab a jar, add sparkles, a little bit of liquid dish or hand soap and fill almost to the top with water. Seal the jar well. You may even want to glue it shut, depending on if you will allow students to use the sparkle jar or not and the age of your students.
You’ll be using the sparkle jar to explain that when we as humans are experiencing a big emotion, it’s like we’ve shaken up a sparkle jar in our mind. It becomes difficult to see clearly and make good decisions.
When we take a moment to let the sparkles settle, we feel more calm, our mind becomes clear and we can make good decisions.
We’ve got the entire step-by-step lesson plan laid out for you here – In this document, we explain how to introduce mindfulness to early, middle and high school ages!
If you want to start a classroom mindfulness practice with your students, take it a step further and use our ready-to-use online mindfulness program, Educalme.
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning.
To go even deeper on this topic, listen to our episode on The Balanced Educator Podcast below.
Be sure to subscribe to the Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes as we continue to teach how to avoid teacher burnout. iTunes, Spotify, Google Play
80. The Balanced Teaching Approach to Lesson Planning with EB Academics
Sep 23, 2019
When we first began teaching, our Sundays looked something like this: Spend the afternoon with our planbook, grammar workbook, and current class novel spread out before us. Pencil in our daily objectives for the upcoming week, realize we need an engaging lesson for Chapter 7 of The Outsiders, go on Pinterest (we joined early – back when you needed an invitation!) and look for an engaging lesson, click a pin about trending hair accessories for Fall, and whoooosh, get sidetracked for the next twenty minutes. End up with a “blah” activity for reading Chapter 7 of The Outsiders. Go back to our planbook and schedule a grammar quiz for next Friday. Realize there’s a school-wide assembly on Thursday, and we’ll miss a day of review. Erase Friday’s plans, and reschedule the quiz. Take a break and watch Grey’s Anatomy (this was the early 2010s!). Plan some more. Fall asleep already dreading Monday morning.
We knew we couldn’t go on planning like this. We were feeling the burnout (lunch periods were spent planning and prepping some more!), and our students weren’t getting the best of us or our curriculum. Something had to change. Something had to shift from chaos to clarity. In fact, three things had to shift, and while we didn’t know it then, these three shifts in our planning process formed the basis for what we now call The Balanced Teaching Approach: concrete strategies for streamlining your lesson planning and going from stressed and overwhelmed to gaining confidence and clarity in your teaching.
Strategy #1: Organize your yearlong curriculum in a manageable format.
Figure out the texts, standards, and projects you will be doing for the whole year. (If that seems too daunting, do it for a grading period.) Batch lesson planning and mapping out EXACTLY what you’re going to teach each day, week, and month will ultimately free up hours of your time and give you a clear roadmap to follow when it comes to lesson planning. Knowing exactly what standards you’re teaching during the year and WHEN you are teaching them, helps eliminate the weekly Pinterest and blog searches for the perfect lesson. Leaving 1-2 blank “floating days” in your planbook will help you plan around unexpected assemblies or days you might be out sick.
Imagine on Sunday night, you already know exactly what’s happening that week in your classroom and what standards you’re addressing that week. Sundays are no longer that pit in your stomach feeling of, “I don’t know what I’m teaching this week,” and you’re frantically searching online for a good lesson. Instead, you know exactly what’s happening … maybe you even made your copies on Friday, and now the weekend is yours to enjoy! This frontloading planning will help you feel calm, confident, and in control of your curriculum!
Strategy #2: Create a structured daily format.
Many teachers are worried that having a structured daily framework for their lesson plans will result in redundancy, a lack of creativity, and take away any ability to have fun in your classroom. This is a dangerous assumption to make, and we don’t want you falling into this trap. But at some point, most of us believe this is true – ourselves included!
In fact, the opposite is true. Just like strong classroom management, having structure in your lessons, actually allows you to build in fun. Because you are consistent with your daily lessons, you are able to cover more content, which frees up time, allowing you to build in fun and engaging lessons.
When we taught ELA, (Jessica in 5th grade and Caitlin in 8th grade) we had 60 minutes per day with our students, and we followed a very specific framework when planning our daily lessons. It included the following in this order:
Bellringer (But, not just any bellringer, a spiraled, Common Core-aligned, engaging bellringer!)
Lesson following “Into, Through, or Beyond”
Silent Reading
Keep in mind students’ attention span in middle school is between 12-15 minutes, so it was important to us to switch up activities
There are several benefits to having a structured framework when planning your daily lessons, some being that it lets students know exactly what to expect and it streamlines the learning period … no wasting time on transitions. Another benefit of having a structured framework is that it SAVES YOU TIME PLANNING! For example, once you find a good bell ringer, now you’re done for the year! This part of your lesson is planned for the ENTIRE year!
Strategy #3: Determine if your daily lesson is “into,” “through,” or “beyond.”
If you follow this system for big units and everyday lessons, you provide consistency for students and YOU! Simply fill in your lesson plans with an “into,” a “through,” or a “beyond” activity … then rinse, and repeat.
Check out these ideas for “into,” “through,” and “beyond” lessons:
Into: Hook students and get them interested in the lesson/unit, front-load them with necessary information; specific examples: build vocabulary, get them curious (popcorn predictions), provide necessary background information (historical context of story, biography of author – show short content-related videos), etc.
Through: Once students are prepared to begin the unit, the through portion of the lesson focuses on comprehension and exploring new material. It can last days or sometimes weeks if you’re doing a novel unit. Some specific examples include reading response quilts, evidence trackers with reading material, games that practice ELA standards, etc.
Beyond: The focus is on expanding and deepening students’ thinking/analysis. Students apply what they learned in the “into” and “through” lessons in enriching and empowering activities. Specific examples include responses to literature, narratives, research projects, original poetry, one-pagers, etc.
Making these three shifts in how we approached lesson planning, completely transformed our teaching. No longer were we burnt out before the school day even began. Instead, we were enthusiastic and confident knowing our lessons were organized and engaging!
Just by learning what we covered today, you’re one step closer to your ultimate goal, which is to find balance, clarity, and confidence as an ELA teacher. But we have to say, it’s SO much more than just finding that.
Because learning about and implementing this approach to lesson planning means you’ll have the clarity in your lesson planning and delivery of content, and the peace of mind that you’ll finally have time for the things you love to do outside of school. And that’s what really matters. Because when you’re happy, well-adjusted, and spending time with the ones you love, that’s ultimately going to make you a better teacher.
So take what you’ve learned here today and start putting it into practice. Maybe you’re just in the beginning stages, or maybe you can apply it right away. The key thing is to get moving! You’ll want to take these small steps which will get you where you want to be.
To go even deeper on this topic, listen to our episode on The Balanced Educator Podcast below.
Be sure to subscribe to the Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes as we continue to teach how to avoid teacher burnout. iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play
79. How to Instil Habits in our Students
Sep 16, 2019
You know when your student asks where to hand in their homework for what feels like the thousandth time? As teachers, sometimes it feels like we’re repeating ourselves over and over again. One way to reduce repetition is to instil and solidify good classroom habits in our students from the beginning of the school year.
In this week’s The Balanced Educator podcast and blog, we’re teaching you exactly how to instil habits in your students by working with how their brain functions to create habits. Once you understand how to use James Clear’s 4 laws of behaviour change in your instruction, your students will catch on to your classroom rules and procedures much faster, allowing you to spend less time repeating yourself and more time teaching.
How to Create Habits that Stick
If you followed our 5 part series on how to avoid teacher burnout, you understand how the brain forms habits and how to work with your brain to create habits that stick.
If you haven’t read or listened to those posts yet, we suggest that you check them out. They will open your eyes to a new way of approaching everything in your classroom! Here’s a list of those posts so you can go back and check them out.
When we’re teaching routines and procedures in the classroom, the intention is to keep the classroom organized, to reduce time spent on transitions and to help the day run smoothly. It can feel really frustrating when after a couple months with our students, they’re still struggling to follow the routines and procedures we have in place and we feel like we’re repeating ourselves over and over again. This can be a huge energy suck in our day, not to mention a waste of precious class time.
Let’s start working WITH how the brain forms habits when we’re teaching our classroom routines and procedures.
If you follow these 4 laws of behaviour change that James Clear outlines in his book Atomic Habits, you’ll see your students catching on way faster and you’ll gain back time and energy in your school day.
Law 1: Make it Obvious
When our brain is forming a new habit, it needs an obvious clue that indicates “it’s time to play out this action habit”.
Repetition is incredibly important, really it’s THE most important factor in creating habits that stick. So when there is something you want your students to do automatically in your classroom the cue has to be the same every time and it has to be clear, distinct and obvious.
For example, if you want your students to clean their work area before moving to the next activity there has to be an obvious sign that NOW is the time to clean and that cue need to be consistent.
The cue could be shutting off the light, playing a song, ringing a bell, a song that you sing together. Anything that disrupts what they’re doing and clearly indicates that NOW is the time to start the cleanup routine.
It’s also very important that it’s obvious to your students what they are meant to do to have success. Just saying instructions out loud isn’t enough. Having a cue that uses more than one of the 5 senses (ex: visual AND auditory), will be really helpful in instilling habits in your students. It is always a good idea to have clear instructions written or symbolized up in a place that is easy for your students to see and follow.
Law 2: Make it Attractive
When the brain is forming new habits, it’s always asking “what’s in it for me?!”. If an action takes a lot of energy but doesn’t give an equal or greater reward, the brain simply sets it aside and deems it not worth doing again.
If an action is fun, interesting, challenging (in a good way) or gives your students a sense of accomplishment their brains will be more likely to make that action an automated habit.
The challenge here as a teacher is that each of our students are motivated by different things. Some students might enjoy cleaning up because they like working in a tidy space so cleaning gives them a sense of accomplishment and they enjoy doing it. Some students just aren’t motivated intrinsically to clean.
Your task as the teacher is to find ways to make the habit you want to instill in your students fun for them. There are lots of ways to do this, play fun music or sing a cleanup song during cleanup time if you have students that like to move and dance. Cleaning can become a fun movement break that they look forward to.
If you have a competitive group of students, they might enjoy a little friendly competition to see which group cleans up the fastest. Assigning students different tasks during cleanup time and then rotating so they get a new job after a couple weeks can give them a sense of ownership and also some variety to keep things interesting.
Be creative to see how the habit you want to instill in your students can be something their brain deems as “worth the energy”.
Law 3: Make it Easy
If you confuse, you lose. If the steps that lead to success are not clear for your students, the habit you are trying to instil in them will not become automatic.
Make the expectations clear and easy to follow. Do lots of pre-teaching and modeling. Use clear instructions, checklists and visuals.
Colour coding bins and having a consistent system for handing in work makes it more obvious to your students where they should be putting their assignments. If you’re always changing the location that you want them to put things, you confuse them and you lose them.
Make it clear, make it consistent, make it easy. Don’t underestimate the power of labels!
Law 4: Make it Satisfying
If you want to instil a habit in your students it has to be satisfying for them. They need to feel a sense of accomplishment, joy, enjoyment or pride in the task they completed.
Focus on the positive, thank and praise your students that are modeling the habit you are teaching them. As teachers, we’re often quick to correct and notice the negative. Pointing out the negative is not satisfying for your students and that makes it less likely that they will create the habit you want to instil.
Be generous with your appreciation and over time you will see more and more students automatically and habitually following the classroom rules and procedures which will make your life easier!
Instil Habits in Your Students to Reduce Transition Time and Teacher Stress
Using the 4 laws of behaviour change when we’re teaching classroom rules and procedures means that we are working with our students’ brains instead of against them. Following these 4 laws will make instilling habits in our students easier and quicker.
Law 1: Make it obvious
Law 2: Make it attractive
Law 3: Make it easy
Law 4: Make it satisfying
Making Mindfulness a Habit in the Classroom
Making mindfulness a part of your daily classroom routine helps prepare students for learning and creates a calm learning atmosphere. We have an excellent resource that makes teaching mindfulness in your classroom as simple as pressing play!
With Educalme, you get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try it for free!
To go even deeper on this topic, listen to our episode on The Balanced Educator Podcast below.Be sure to subscribe to the Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes as we continue to teach how to avoid teacher burnout. iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play
Share this post on Pinterest so other educators can learn concrete strategies to form healthy habits this school year.
Let us know in the comments, how will you implement what you learned today?
78. Avoid Teacher Burnout: 10 Self-Care Practices to be Your Best Self in and out of the Classroom (Part 5 of 5)
Sep 09, 2019
Us teachers tend to have a habit of putting the needs of everyone else before our own. When we’re busy caring for others, it’s easy to run out of time and push self-care to tomorrow…and then the next day and before long it’s been weeks since you’ve clipped your toenails and now they’re getting out of control.
Learning how to make self-care a realistic part of your daily routine can help you to ensure that you’re caring for your own needs so you can avoid teacher burnout. In this post, we’re sharing 10 ideas for self-care activities and teaching you how to make self-care a habit so that you can be your best self both in and out of the classroom.
What is Self-Care?
Self-care is the practice of taking care of your own health and wellbeing. It’s important to practice self-care because taking care of your own needs makes you more energetic and more effective. It also helps you to reduce stress and overwhelm, two emotions that teachers experience a lot, and feel more calm and balanced.
Although it’s tempting to always put the needs of our students first, setting time aside to rest, reset and replenish allows us to be much better teachers because then we have plenty of energy for our students when we’re with them.
How to Make Self-Care a Habit
The first step to making self-care a habit is to choose activities that you love that help you to reset. The goal of self-care is up to you. Do you want your self-care time to be about relaxation? About getting exercise in a way that you enjoy? Is it about solitude or about connection? No matter what your reason for taking some you-time choose an activity that is all about you and what you need at this moment.
The next step is to make your self-care time a habit so that it doesn’t fall to the bottom of your list and get forgotten. We explained how habits are created in the brain and exactly how to use the habit loop to your advantage when creating new habits in this post. Keeping the four laws of behaviour change that James Clear outlines in his book Atomic Habits in mind when creating your habit will really help to make it stick.
How to Make Your Self-Care Habit Stick Using the The Four Laws of Behaviour Change
Law 1: Make it obvious
Make sure your new self-care habit is at the forefront of your mind so you don’t forget about it and fall into old routines. Ex: Leave your running shoes in the hallway so you have to walk over them which will remind you to go for a run. Have a dedicated meditation spot in your house so when you walk by it you’re reminded to meditate. Keep your ukulele out in the open so you see it and are reminded to practice.
Law 2: Make it attractive
Make sure it’s an activity that you actually enjoy doing or find a way to make the activity more fun.
Ex: Pick out a cute outfit for running that you’re excited to wear. Use essential oils that you love and a comfortable seat for your meditation practice. Choose to learn songs on your ukulele that you love and are excited to master.
Law 3: Make it easy
If your self-care activity is hard to do, your brain will try to convince you not to do it to conserve energy. Make it really small, easy and manageable so that your brain doesn’t fight against you. Don’t do more that what your brain feels comfortable with.
Ex: Running? Start by JUST putting on your shoes. Meditation? Sit in your spot for 1 minute. Learning an instrument? 5 minutes of practice only.
Law 4:Make it satisfying
When you feel satisfied after your self-care practice, your brain will see that it was worth the effort and want to make it a habit.
Ex: Listen to an awesome playlist that makes you feel good during your run. Pay attention on purpose to the calm feeling you feel when you’re finished meditating. Pay attention to the progress you’re making after each practice session.
10 Self-Care Practices That Take Less Than 10 Minutes
We’ve put together a list of our favourite self-care activities that can easily follow the four laws of behaviour change. Is there anything on this list that sounds like fun to you?
Go for a walk.
Stretch.
Watch a funny Youtube video.
Read a book just for fun.
Make tea and really enjoy it.
Use essential oils. Learn more about essential oils episodes 61. Learn how to use essential oils to improve your emotional wellbeing in episode 62.
Take a fancy bath or shower by using a great smelling soap, a bath bomb or essential oils.
Take 10 deep breaths.
Take a nap.
Repeat an affirmation 5 times. We’ve created a free affirmation PDF for you to print and keep on your desk or at home to help you think good feeling thoughts on purpose.
Write it Down and Make it Real
When life gets busy, it’s so easy to put everyone else first, let your own wellbeing slip and put self-care at the bottom of your to-do list. We challenge you to write out your plan for making self-care a habit this year so that you stick to it which will help you to avoid teacher burnout and be your best self in and out of the classroom.
What is your self-care activity?
How will you make this activity obvious, attractive, easy and satisfying?
Self-Care in the Classroom
Worry, stress and anxiety are a reality in today’s schools. When students are distracted, their brains aren’t ready for learning. Giving our students 5 minutes a day to care for themselves with a mindfulness practice teaches them to create habits for self-care that will support them throughout the ups and downs of their lives.
We’ve made it easy for you to practice mindfulness with your students with Educalme.
With Educalme, students and teachers learn concrete skills for emotional wellness and mental health. You’ll both leave the classroom better equipped to overcome life’s challenges.
Don’t waste another minute searching the internet to piece together videos and lessons that won’t systematically teach your students social-emotional skills. Get Educalme, the step by step, full year, online mindfulness program that is transforming classrooms and improving student wellness and learning.
Avoid Teacher Burnout: 10 Self-Care Practices to be Your Best Self in and out of the Classroom
We hope that this post will help you to create self-care habits this school year that will help you to avoid teacher burnout and be your best self both in and out of the classroom.
To go even deeper on this topic, listen to our episode on The Balanced Educator Podcast below.
Be sure to subscribe to the Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes as we continue to teach how to avoid teacher burnout. iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play
Share this post on Pinterest so other educators can learn concrete strategies to form healthy habits this school year.
Let us know in the comments, what activity will you do as part of your self-care routine?
77. Avoid Teacher Burnout: Shift Your Perspective to Feel More Calm, Balanced and Joyful in and out of the Classroom (Part 4 of 5)
Sep 02, 2019
“When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change.” – Dr. Wayne Dyer
Teaching is hard! We have so much on our plates and we’re responsible for something HUGELY important: caring for the hearts and minds of humans in development. Young souls that are newer on on this earth than us and need to make lots of mistakes so they can learn how to overcome challenges and be a good citizen.
It’s a BIG responsibility and it takes a lot of grace to support our students through thick and thin. When things aren’t going the way we’d like them to go (ie. perfectly…), it can feel overwhelming and like we aren’t living up to our own expectations.
We ask everyone that joins the Educalme community the same question – “What is your #1 challenge” and without fail everyone answers with a version of:
“I don’t feel like I’m doing enough”
So what do we do when we feel like we aren’t doing enough to meet all our students’ needs? You guessed it…we overwork. Which eventually leads to… you guessed it again: teacher burnout.
Carrying the perspective that we aren’t doing enough for our students or that we aren’t good enough teachers feels unbearably heavy.
Sometimes, to avoid teacher burnout we have to take a good hard look at our perspective. Have we fallen into the trap of looking at our jobs in a negative light? Have we gotten in the habit of expecting things to go badly? Are we being too hard on ourselves? Have we even become a little jaded? Are we taking all the problems of the world onto our shoulders and giving ourselves the impossible task of solving them all?
In this post, we’re continuing our five part training series on how to avoid teacher burnout by creating healthy habits that last.
Last week, we explained how how to manage our emotions in the classroom and talked about the importance of taking time for an emotion reset during the day. You can read that post or listen to that podcast episode here.
This week, we’re teaching how to shift our perspective to feel more calm, balanced and joyful in and out of the classroom.
Specifically, we’re going to talk about how to get into the habit of catching ourselves when we’re taking on a perspective that doesn’t feel good and how to find new ways to look at our situation so that we feel better.
In this training series, we’ve been diving deep into habit formation and looking at how our habits of action, thought, emotion and perspective influence our experience in and out of the classroom.
If you missed our first post of this series where we explained how habits are created and how to work with your brain when creating new habits or breaking old habits, you can go back and read it here.
To start today’s lesson, let’s apply the four stages of the habit loop, as explained by James Clear in his book Atomic Habits to a very common perspective that we as teachers take on – that our students’ parents are judging us during parent-teacher meetings.
The Four Stages of the Habit Loop When you Have a Parent-Teacher Meeting
Stage 1: Cue
You’re feeling anxious, worried or stressed about an upcoming parent-teacher meeting. This feeling of stress and lack of control leads to a craving.
Stage 2: Craving
You don’t want to feel anxious, stressed or worried anymore. You crave feeling calm and in control because you want the meeting to go well. This craving leads to your brain looking for a way to achieve a feeling of control over the situation.
Stage 3: Response
You respond to the craving by overthinking and imagining all the ways that the meeting could go wrong.
Stage 4: Reward
When you imagine the ways that the meeting could go wrong, you also plan how to respond to your imagined negative outcomes which gives you the sense of control you were craving.
The Problem With This Response
The problem with this response is that, although you feel a sense of control over the situation, it still leaves you feeling stressed, anxious and worried because you EXPECT the meeting to go badly. Rather than looking at all the ways this meeting could go right, your brain (that just wants to protect you) spirals into thinking stressful thoughts, which make you feel stressed, which make you act stressed, which doesn’t give off the impression of you being a calm, collected teacher that has it under control, which actually makes the parents perceive you in exactly the way you DIDN’T want them to – as a teacher they can’t trust with their child’s education. The thing you worried about became your reality. Yikes!
Your Perspective Creates Your Reality
If you believe your students’ parents won’t trust you, you’ll act in a way that makes you seem untrustworthy and therefore they will perceive you as untrustworthy.
Our thoughts create our emotions, our emotions create our perspective, our perspective influences our actions and our experience. Which is great news! This means that if we mindfully shift our perspective, we can change our actions and our experience.
You Have the Power to Shift Your Perspective to Change Your Experience
Let’s look at how we can intentionally take on a perspective that leads to a better experience which will help to avoid teacher burnout.
We’ve created a free Perspective Shift Worksheetto help you practice noticing and shifting your perspective on subjects that cause you stress, worry or overwhelm.
Step One in Shifting Your Perspective: Take Note of Your Current Perspective
The first step is to start noticing when we feel negative emotions and then asking ourselves “what perspective am I taking on here that is creating discomfort for me?”. Notice what thoughts you’re thinking, what assumptions you’re making and what you’re imagining in your mind.
Our brain gets trained to take on perspectives based on our past experiences. All it takes is one colleague to warn you about a “difficult parent” or one past experience with a parent that didn’t go well for your brain to take note and say “Oh, I see, parent-teacher meetings are a bad thing, I need to protect myself and expect the worst next time”. Your brain is going to keep taking on a negative perspective until you consciously choose to shift your experience and gather evidence to prove your brain wrong.
Use this free worksheetto take note of a perspective you have that is causing you distress and could lead to teacher burnout over time.
Example: I’m feeling worried about a parent-teacher meeting. The thoughts I’m thinking and the negative outcome I’m imagining is that the parent doesn’t think that I’m a good teacher and so I have to find ways to prove that I’m both professional and caring.
Step Two in Shifting Your Perspective: Try a New Perspective Out
Once we bring our old perspective to light, we can start playing with taking on new perspectives to see if there’s a new way of looking at the situation that feels lighter, better, more comforting, more empowering or more calming. Think of this process as trying on new clothes until you find the perfect outfit that makes you feel great, except here you’re trying on new thoughts.
Use the free Perspective Shift Worksheet to write out different perspectives you could take that would feel better.
Here are three ideas to help you get started with taking on new perspectives.
“How would a person I admire look at this?”
A great way to shift your perspective is to put yourself in the shoes of someone you admire. Ask yourself: How would [seasoned teacher that I look up to as a mentor] look at this? If you’re having a hard time seeing a new way to look at the situation, go to a colleague that you admire and say “I’m worried about [situation], how can I look at this differently so that I feel more confident?”. They will likely be able to offer a fresh perspective that will help you to see the situation in a new light.
In our example of being worried about a parent-teacher meeting, if we go to a colleague and tell them that we’re worried about the parent thinking we aren’t a good teacher and then asking how we could look at this differently, they will likely remind us that we are in fact a good teacher and that the parent is more interested in talking about their child and how to support them than worrying about how “good” of a teacher you are. It’s not about you, it’s about the student.
“How is the other person in this situation perceiving it?”
Looking at a situation from the other persons’ perspective is another great way to shift your emotions. We often get caught up thinking that other people’s perspectives are all about us. The reality is that their perspective was shaped by a lifetime of experiences before they even met us! What past experiences do they have that are leading to their perspective? What worries or fears do they have? What are they trying to protect themselves (and their children) from? Getting out of our own mind and taking a tour of the thoughts and emotions of the other person helps us to see how we can support them and soothe their fears rather than feel defensive.
In our example, instead of worrying what the parent will think of us, we can shift our perspective by imagining what they might be worried about. They might be worried that we’ll judge them as a parent just as much as we’re worried about them judging us as a teacher. The reality is, we both just want the best for their child.
Maybe they’re worried that we’ll give homework, or maybe they’re worried that we won’t give homework. Maybe they’re worried that their child is talking too much in class, or maybe that they aren’t talking enough. Again, their perspective isn’t based on us, it’s based on their past experiences and their personal values which we have zero control over.
Remembering that both you and the parent just want what’s best for the child is a great way to take on the perspective that the goal of a parent-teacher meeting is always to be able to better work as a team in support of the child.
“How would past or future me see this?”
As we grow and evolve, our perspective changes because we have more experiences to base our judgements on. Sometimes, when we’re feeling overwhelmed with teacher tasks, it can help to ask “What would past me, right before I got my first teaching job, think about this?”. Tapping into the bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, full-of-excitement-and-energy version of yourself can help you find fun feelings again.
When a situation feels really big and overwhelming it can be helpful to take a step back and ask yourself “How will I feel about this in 5 or 10 years?”. Usually, when we zoom out, we realize that what we’re really worried about right now actually isn’t quite as big of a deal in the grand scheme of things.
To go back to our example of being worried about a parent-teacher meeting:
“How did I feel about parent-teacher meetings when I first started teaching?” – Excited!
Once you remember that you used to feel differently about a situation, it opens up the possibility of changing your perspective to something that feels better now.
“How will I feel about this parent-teacher meeting in 5 years from now?” – I probably won’t even remember it.
This can help you remember not to perceive the meeting like such a big deal. Everything will work out in the end and you will move on with your life having learned something new that will help you to be a better teacher in the future.
Use the free Perspective Shift Worksheet to test out different perspectives you could take on in situations that commonly stress you out so that you’re ready to think differently next time you’re presented this that type of situation.
Perspective Creates Actions and Experiences
Let’s review what we covered in this post on how to avoid teacher burnout by shifting your perspective to feel more calm, balanced and joyful in and out of the classroom.
“When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change.” – Dr. Wayne Dyer. There is no “one way” to experience a moment. Everyone experiences each moment differently. The perspective that we take creates our experience.
We get in the habit of taking on the perspective we’ve learned from past experiences, even if that perspective causes us stress.
We have the power to change our experience and avoid teacher burnout by:
Step 1: becoming aware of our perspective
Step 2: choosing a new perspective that makes us feel better
Avoid Teacher Burnout: Shift Your Perspective to Feel More Calm, Balanced and Joyful in and out of the Classroom
Keep a copy of our free Perspective Shift Worksheet handy and use it whenever you’re feeling stressed, worried, anxious or overwhelmed to help you shift your perspective and create better feeling emotions.
Teach Your Students How to Shift Their Perspectives
Take what you’ve learned about shifting your perspective a step further and share it with your students using Educalme. Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try it for free.
We hope that this post will help you to add “shifting your perspective” to your wellness toolkit so that you feel more calm, balanced and joyful in and out of the classroom.
To go even deeper on this topic, listen to our episode on The Balanced Educator Podcast below.
Be sure to subscribe to the Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes as we continue to teach how to avoid teacher burnout. iTunes, Spotify, Google Play
76. Avoid Teacher Burnout: How to Manage Your Emotions in the Classroom (Part 3 of 5)
Aug 26, 2019
In this post, we’re continuing our five part training series on how to avoid teacher burnout by creating healthy habits that last.
Last week, we explained how being mindful of your thoughts can change your experience in the classroom. You can read that post here. This week, we’re teaching how to manage our emotions in the classroom.
Specifically, we’re going to talk about how to get into the habit of choosing actions that help us to shift our emotional state from stressed/overwhelmed/frazzled (you know, all those big emotions that we feel as teachers on the regular…) to calm and in control.
In this training series, we’ve been diving deep into habit formation and looking at how our habits of action, thought and emotion influence our experience in and out of the classroom.
If you missed our first post of this series where we explained how habits are created and how to work with your brain when creating new habits or breaking old habits, you can go back and read it here.
To start today’s lesson, let’s review the four stages of the habit loop, as explained by James Clear in his book Atomic Habits and apply it to our habits of responding to emotion in the classroom.
The Four Stages of Habit Formation
Stage 1: Cue
The cue is a situation or feeling that triggers your brain to initiate a behaviour. It notices something in your inner or outer environment and leads to a craving for a specific reward.
Example: It’s been one of those mornings where everything is chaotic (is it a full moon or something?!) and you’re constantly putting out fires. By the time the bell rings for your break, you feel frazzled and stressed. This feeling of stress and lack of control leads to a craving.
Stage 2: Craving
The craving is the motivational force behind the habit. It’s the change in state you want to achieve.
Example: You don’t want to feel stressed and frazzled anymore. You crave feeling calm and in control. This craving leads to your brain looking for a way to achieve that feeling.
Stage 3: Response
The response is the actual thought you have or action you take to satisfy your craving.
Example: Instead of taking a break and getting out of your classroom to recharge, you start to organize your classroom and then you complete some tasks on your to-do list. Before you know it, the bell rings and you didn’t even get the chance to go to the washroom.
Stage 4: Reward
The reward is the end goal of every habit, it satisfies your craving and/or teaches you something. If the response satisfies your craving, you will learn that the response was worth doing again in the future and it can become a habit. However, if the response took too much energy or wasn’t satisfying enough then your brain will learn that it isn’t worth doing again in the future and will resist making it a habit.
Example: When you organized your classroom and skipped your break, you regained the sense of control you were craving.
The Problem With This Response
The problem with this response is that it didn’t satisfy your craving to feel calm and didn’t reduce your feelings of stress. You didn’t get to reset your emotions before your students return to your classroom. Which, as you learned in last week’s training, is likely to lead to more chaos like you experienced in the morning all over again.
Let’s look at how we can create a new response that will help us to shift our emotions in a healthy way and how we can make that response a habit that will help us to avoid teacher burnout.
But first, we have to understand how emotions actually work.
How Emotions are Created in our Bodies
Emotions don’t just happen out of nowhere. They start with a thought. Your brain thinks a thought and then communicates that thought to your body as an emotion. Once your body feels the emotion, your brain and body can now work together to properly understand your environment.
Try this experiment to experience how your thoughts make you feel emotions:
Close your eyes and use your imagination to go back to the best day of your life. Remember how that day looked. Notice all the details you can remember of what you could see on that day. What could you smell? What could you hear? What was the temperature that day? Can you feel it on your skin? Do you remember any tastes from that day?
As you formulate a detailed memory of the best day of your life and you get all your senses involved in the memory, can you feel any warm and fuzzy emotions? Our emotions are how the brain communicates with the body. You can learn even more about how our thoughts create our emotions in this podcast episode.
So now that you understand how thoughts create emotions and you understand that a cue in our environment triggers a habit loop of thoughts and emotions, let’s look at how we can intentionally use this knowledge to create better feeling emotions during the school day.
How to Manage Your Emotions in the Classroom to Avoid Teacher Burnout
Let’s go back to our example of it being a crazy morning that leaves you filled with stress, frustration and a feeling of loss of control. While you’re still in your classroom, your brain keeps getting the same cues that trigger the same habit loop of thoughts and emotions.
This means that by staying in your classroom during your break, the environment keeps telling your brain to relive what stressed you out this morning in your imagination which sends the same difficult emotions into your body. When your body is feeling the emotions of stress and frustration, it signals your brain to keep thinking stressful thoughts and you get stuck in a loop. Over time, this habit loop of negative emotion can lead to teacher burnout.
To shift out of the difficult emotional state you’re in, you have to get off the ferris wheel.
We’ve created a free Emotion Tracker worksheet to help you track your emotions over the next week to see which emotions might have become a habit.
How to get out of the Cycle of Stressful Thoughts and Emotions
To get out of the cycle of stressful thoughts and emotions you need a NEW CUE. The best way to signal to your brain to start thinking new thoughts and creating new emotions is to give it new information to take in so that it stops focussing on the thing that was stressing you out. A great way to do this is to take an action that feels fun, good and uplifting.
Take an Action That Feels Good to Shift Your Emotional State
Teaching is difficult. As teachers, we deal with so many emotions! Our students’ emotions, our emotions, parents’ emotions, colleagues’ emotions. It’s a lot to take on! Our break during the day MUST be a time for us to reset our emotions so that we can enjoy our job rather than get burned out by it!
So, during your break, what action can you take that feel fun and uplifting for you and gets you into a new environment. Here are some ideas:
Actions to Shift Your Emotional State
Walk to the staff room and make yourself a cup of tea. Make it mindful by listening to the water boil and standing still until it’s ready. Allow yourself to settle and rest.
Meet up with a colleague that is a generally positive person and walk laps of the school. Getting your body moving while chatting with an adult will get you in a new state of mind and emotion. Be mindful of your topic of conversation. Try not to tell the story of how crazy your morning was (unless you need advice). When you retell the story, you keep making the same negative emotion and you stay in the emotional loop you were stuck in. The goal with this walk is to shift your emotional state by thinking new thoughts.
Go outside and use your five senses to appreciate what you experience.
Listen to a guided mindfulness practice (you can use the guided mindfulness practices in Educalme Classroom, try it for free!).
Go to the bathroom. Peeing actually helps to shift you out of the fight, flight or freeze state!
Make a List of Actions you can Take When you Need an Emotion Reset
Come up with a list of realistic actions you can take during the day to help you get out of negative thought and emotion loops that could lead to teacher burnout. We’ve created a free Emotion Tracker PDF for you to help you track your emotions by time of day and make a list of actions you can take to reset your emotions.
Keep Your List Handy
When you’re feeling a big emotion, your brain wants to conserve energy by falling into old habits of thought and action. Keep this Emotion Tracker PDF on your desk or in your lesson planning book so that you have easy access to ideas that will help you create new habits to manage your emotions in the classroom and avoid teacher burnout.
Teach Your Students how to Manage Their Emotions in the Classroom
Take what you’ve learned about managing emotions a step further and share it with your students using Educalme Classroom.
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try it for free.
To go even deeper on this topic, listen to our episode on The Balanced Educator Podcast below.
Be sure to subscribe to the Balanced Educator Podcast so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes as we continue to teach how to avoid teacher burnout. iTunes, Spotify, Google Play
If you have a mindfulness practice, you may have noticed that the same kinds of thoughts repeat themselves in your mind. (If you haven’t tried a mindfulness meditation before, we have a free practice for you to try here.) If you sit in silence and become mindful of your thoughts, it will only take a few minutes before you notice your mind reviewing the same ideas, the same worries, the same problems on a loop. That’s because we get into habits of thought.
How Thoughts Create Emotions
Thoughts create emotions and our emotions shape our perspective. Getting into negative habits of thought can flood our bodies with difficult emotions like stress, worry and frustration and make us perceive our jobs as teachers in a negative light, which over time can lead to burnout.
Say you’ve been struggling to support a student that has been acting out. You’ve had a few encounters this week with this student that have not gone well and they led to feelings of frustration and stress.
Now, if you wake up in the morning and begin to think worried thoughts about your day, and imagine what might go wrong again today with this student your body begins to actually create the emotions of stress and frustration as though what you’re imagining were really happening.
How Emotions Create Your Perspective
Now that your body is flooded with stress hormones, it tells your brain to look for signs of danger. Your mind is now expecting the day to go badly and it puts you on high alert, at the ready to defend yourself. With this perspective, you surely act differently towards this student. You’re expecting them to act out and therefore putting up a wall to defend yourself emotionally.
Have you ever watched America’s Funniest Home Videos where a dad gets hit in the stomach by his kid that’s trying to hit a piñata? Don’t you physically feel pain as you watch that poor Dad?
That’s because us humans have something called mirror neurons which allow us to feel what other people are feeling. It’s these neurons that allow us to read a room. They allow us to notice when someone is mad at us and get ready to defend ourselves and they get us to smile back at someone that smiles at us in the hallway, mirroring their kindness.
When you expect your student to act out, they can sense that – it’s a natural human superpower. And so they do. They sense you’re defensiveness and become defensive too. And now the loop is complete.
If I think negative thoughts, I feel negative emotions. Then, I perceive the negative in my surroundings (rather than noticing the positive) and I therefore have a negative experience. I’ve fulfilled the prophecy and created the experience I EXPECTED to have.
We have a lot of power over our experience, but it takes a conscious effort to train our brain and make a habit of using our thoughts to create good experiences.
How to Create Positive Habits of Thought
We explained how our brain forms habits in detail in our last post. But let’s review the four steps of habit formation according to James Clear in his book Atomic Habits and look at how thoughts become habits.
The Four Stages of Habit Formation
Stage 1: Cue
The cue is a situation or feeling that triggers your brain to initiate a thought behaviour. It notices something in your inner or outer environment and leads to a craving for a specific reward.
Example: Your struggling student interrupts the class while you’re teaching a lesson. You feel frustrated by this disruption. This feeling of frustration leads to a craving.
Stage 2: Craving
The craving is the motivational force behind the habit of thinking. It’s the change in state you want to achieve.
Example: You don’t want to feel frustrated anymore. You crave feeling calm and in control. This craving leads to your brain looking for a way to achieve that feeling.
Stage 3: Response
The response is the actual thought you have to satisfy your craving.
Example: You think to yourself “They don’t respect me, what’s wrong with them?” This response gives you the shift in emotion you were craving and leads to the reward.
Stage 4: Reward
The reward is the end goal of every habit, it satisfies your craving and/or teaches you something.
If the response satisfies your craving, you will learn that the response was worth doing again in the future and it can become a habit. However, if the response took too much energy or wasn’t satisfying enough then your brain will learn that it isn’t worth doing again in the future and will resist making it a habit.
Example: When you responded with the thoughts “They don’t respect me, what’s wrong with them?”, you’ve eased your frustration because you have something to blame it on. It gives you the sense of control you were craving.
The problem is, it didn’t satisfy your craving to feel calm. Plus, you love your students, and thinking negative thoughts about them doesn’t make you feel good in the long run and can ultimately lead to teacher burnout. Which is good, because it means you can teach your brain to choose a new thought response in the future that feels better. Once your brain sees that there’s an alternate response that feels better, it will lean towards making that your new habit of thinking.
How Being Mindful of Your Thoughts can Change Your Experience in the Classroom
Practicing being mindful of your thoughts is incredibly illuminating and can be huge in helping you to avoid teacher burnout. Remember, thoughts create emotions, emotions create your perspective and your perspective creates your experience. Your thoughts are at the root of it all and can create an awesome experience or a negative one no matter the situation. You can learn more about this in this podcast episode.
If you aren’t convinced that being mindful of your thoughts is super important, consider this: two people go to the same movie. One person loves it, one hates it. The movie (the neutral situation) isn’t what creates the experience, it’s the person’s thoughts ABOUT the movie that create their unique perspective and experience. This is why people can have different opinions on the same subjects.
The best way to become mindful of your thoughts is through a daily mindfulness practice. Mindfulness is the practice of paying attention to your thoughts and feelings with openness and non-judgement. The point here is to simply begin to notice the types of thoughts you’re in the habit of thinking. Once you’re aware of your old programming, you’re empowered to begin making changes.
Learn how to start a mindfulness practice in this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast.
Change your thoughts, change your emotions, change your perspective, change your experience.
How to Create New Thought Habits
So, let’s look at our last example and see how we can make changes so that we actually feel better.
Your struggling student interrupts the class while you’re teaching a lesson. You feel frustrated by this disruption. This feeling of frustration leads to a craving.
Stage 2: Craving
You don’t want to feel frustrated anymore. You crave feeling calm and in control. This craving leads to your brain looking for a way to achieve that feeling.
Stage 3: NEW Response
You notice the familiar feeling and catch the old thought. Then, you consciously choose to think a better feeling thought: “They’re having a hard time, how can I help?”. This response gives you the shift in emotion you were craving and leads to the reward.
Stage 4: NEW Reward
Thinking “they’re having a hard time, how can I help?” rather than “they’re giving me a hard time, what’s wrong with them?” leads to feelings of compassion and gives you the sense of calm control you were craving because now you’re focussed on finding a solution rather than dwelling on the problem.
Not only did this response satisfy your craving of feeling calm and in control, it also taught you that this thought felt better than the old one, so your mind is more inclined to reach for this thought in future frustrating situations.
Now, let’s review what we’ve covered so that we can avoid teacher burnout by creating good habits of thought.
How to be Mindful of Your Thoughts to Change Your Experience in the Classroom
Step 1:
Use a mindfulness practice to become aware of your thought habits. (Learn how to start a mindfulness practice in this blog post or listen to this free guided mindfulness practice). Notice during your mindfulness practice how your thoughts make you feel. Soon, you’ll be better able to catch your negative thoughts during your day and choose better feeling thoughts before they snowball and lead to teacher burnout.
Step 2:
Use the Four Stages of Habit Formation to Create a New Thought Habit
Download this free Habit Formation Worksheet PDF to help you use the cue, craving, response, reward habit loop to change your experience in the classroom.
Step 3:
Know that this practice of catching thoughts that make you feel bad and switching them to better feeling thoughts is an ongoing practice. Have compassion for yourself as you practice and keep working at it. You’ll find that over time it will become a habit.
We explained the importance of repetition in habit formation in part 1 of this training series here.
We hope that this blog post has been enlightening, empowering and that it will help you to avoid teacher burnout by creating positive habits of thinking that make you feel better emotions more often.
Teach Your Students How to be Mindful of Their Thoughts
Take what you’ve learned here a step further and integrate social-emotional learning into your classroom. Teach your students how to become aware of their thoughts and emotions and give them mindfulness strategies to manage their big emotions. We have an entire unit that teaches this to your students in our online, ready-to-use mindfulness program, Educalme!
To go even deeper on this topic, listen to our episode on The Balanced Educator Podcast below.
Be sure to subscribe to the Balanced Educator Podcast on iTunes, Spotify or Google Play so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes as we continue to teach how to avoid teacher burnout.
74. Avoid teacher burnout: How to Create Good Habits that will last Throughout the School Year (Part 1 of 5)
Aug 12, 2019
You know when you’re mid way through your summer break and you think to yourself “if only I could feel this relaxed all year long!”.
Unfortunately, feeling calm and balanced during the school year is a struggle for most teachers. This is because our profession comes with a unique set of challenges. Jessica R. Danilewitz hit the nail on the head when she stated in her research thesis titled Quality of Life and Sources of Stress in Teachers: A Canadian Perspective that
“Most professions allow workers to leave their tasks at the office. However, teachers are expected to care for their students by providing them emotional support similar to a family, in addition to meeting their educational objectives. This unique responsibility embedded within the role of a teacher, highlights the unique work-life balance stressors that teachers experience.”
So, let’s talk about teacher burnout.
Teacher Burnout:
According to Mariam Webster dictionary, burnout is defined as exhaustion of physical or emotional strength or motivation usually as a result of prolonged stress or frustration.
Now, get this… when they give examples of burnout in a sentence, this is what they use:
Teaching can be very stressful, and many teachers eventually suffer burnout.
the burnout rate among teachers
Even the dictionary seems to know that teacher burnout is far too common!
The stats show it too, 30% of Canadian teachers (Allen, 2015) and more than 41% of U.S teachers leave the profession within five years of starting, and teacher attrition has risen significantly over the last two decades (Rankin, 2016).
In addition, The U.K.’s 2014 Education Staff Health Survey indicated 91% of school teachers suffered from stress in the past two years and 74% experienced anxiety (Stanley, 2014).
It’s no secret that teaching is a challenging profession. But, we went into this career KNOWING it would be hard. Because we CARE about making the future even brighter!
We love making a difference in our student’s lives, but we can’t be as effective as we’d like if we’re exhausted physically and emotionally.
How to avoid teacher burnout:
To avoid teacher burnout, it is important that we create solid habits of self-care so that we can fill our cups and continue to be our best selves in the classroom.
We’re committed to helping you learn concrete ways to avoid teacher burnout! So, we’re sharing a (free) 5 part training series on The Balanced Educator Podcast and Blog to teach you how to avoid teacher burnout through habit creation, thoughts, emotions, perspective and self-care.
Be sure to get on our mailing list because we will be giving you exclusive freebies to help you implement what we’ll be sharing in our training series!
So make sure you follow along over the next 5 posts to set yourself up for success so you can feel more calm, balanced and joyful all year long. (Yes, even during report card season!)
To start our series, we’re getting right down to the foundation: How habits are created in our brain.
How to create good habits that will last throughout the school year
Once we know how our brain creates habits, we can follow its natural steps to successfully create new, positive habits that help us to feel more calm, balanced and joyful!
Listen to this week’s episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast below or keep reading to learn how to implement the 4 laws of habit creation to create positive habits that will support you all year long.
But first, download our free Habit Formation Worksheet so you can follow along.
In order to avoid teacher burnout, it’s important to have positive habits that help you to feel more calm, balanced and joyful. However, creating a new self-care routine is hard if you don’t understand how the brain creates habits.
The books The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg and Atomic Habits by James Clear taught us how to create good habits that last. In this blog post, we’ll guide you through creating a new habit by following James Clear’s framework from his book Atomic Habits so that you can avoid teacher burnout and feel more calm, balanced a joyful all year long.
How the Brain Forms Habits
The first thing you should know about habits is that when you’re forming new ones, you’re actually creating a new connection, a new neural pathway in your brain. This means that naturally, it’s going to be hard! Your brain is always trying to conserve energy, so when you ask it to do a huge task like learning something brand new or create a new routine, it will fight back and try to convince you to stick to your old habits. Don’t judge yourself when you slip up or start to lose motivation, you aren’t lazy, your brain is just trying to conserve energy!
Which leads us to the next thing you should know about how habits are formed: The brain is always trying to be efficient. Your brain is always looking for actions that you repeat. If you do something repetitively, it isn’t a great use of your brain’s energy to pay close attention to each step every time you do that action.
Take driving to work for example. The first few times you drove to work, you had to pay close attention to road signs, traffic lights, stop signs and speed limits. You had to consciously think about where to turn, where to slow down or speed up and where to stop. All this conscious thinking is a lot of work for your brain.
After you took the same route to work several times, your brain noticed a pattern, created a solid neural pathway and recognized that it could free up brain energy by making the actions of driving to work unconscious. Meaning that your body goes through the motions of getting you safely to work without having to pay close attention. This frees up space for you to think about what you’ll be doing that day, who you’ll sit with at lunch and daydream about that yummy tea you’ll make yourself during your break.
The things you repeat become an automatic program.
This means that when we’re creating a new habit, our goal is to consciously repeat the steps of the habit in the same way, at the same time, over and over until our brain makes it an unconscious program.
According to James Clear in his book Atomic Habits, there are four stages to habit formation: cue, craving, response reward. When we break a new habit down into these four stages, we’re setting ourselves up for success by working with our brain instead of against it. Even further, Clear gives four laws of habit formation which helps us to make habits stick.
Let’s break down these four stages and laws of habit formation and use an example of a new habit we want to create – starting a daily mindfulness practice.
Click here to download our free Habit Formation Worksheet so you can plan your new habit with the four steps we will cover.
The four stages and laws of habit formation according to James Clear in his book Atomic Habits
Stage 1: Cue
Law 1: Make it obvious
The cue is a situation or feeling that triggers your brain to initiate a behaviour. It notices something in your inner or outer environment and leads to a craving for a specific reward. If you feel stressed, that’s a cue that makes you crave a behaviour that will make you feel better. The feeling of stress sets your habit of sitting on the couch and watching Netflix in order to relieve that stress in motion.
Example of creating the habit of a daily mindfulness practice:
Cue : My morning alarm clock goes off.
Law: I always practice mindfulness meditation in the same place, in my chair in my living room. The location I have to go to after my alarm is obvious and always stays the same.
Stage 2: Craving
Law 2: Make it attractive
The craving is the motivational force behind the habit. It’s the change in state you want to achieve. So you don’t actually want the habit, you want the change in state it will deliver. If you’re stressed, you want to watch TV because it will distract you and make you feel better. You want the feeling watching TV will bring, not the TV itself (which explains why we’ll watch a show we don’t even really like).
Example of creating the habit of a daily mindfulness practice:
Craving: I want to feel calm and peaceful before I start my day.
Law: I create a peaceful space that I love meditating in with a cozy blanket, an essential oil diffuser and I use a guided mindfulness meditation audio that I love following along with.
Stage 3: Response
Law 3: Make it easy
The response is the actual habit you perform. This can be a thought or an action. You taking action requires that you are motivated enough to expend the energy it will take. So if the craving isn’t intense enough or if your motivation for the reward you’ll feel from having completed the action isn’t high enough, you won’t do it. Which is why your new habit should feel easy, so that your brain and body are willing to actually do it.
Example of creating the habit of a daily mindfulness practice:
Response: I will sit down in my meditation spot, close my eyes and listen to the entire guided mindfulness audio.
Law: My brain tries to fight against spending more than 5 minutes meditating, so I will keep my mindfulness meditations under 5 minutes until it becomes a habit.
Stage 4: Reward
Law 4: Make it satisfying
The reward is the end goal of every habit, it satisfies your craving and/or teaches you something. If the response satisfies your craving, you will learn that the response was worth doing again in the future and it can become a habit. However, if the response took too much energy or wasn’t satisfying enough then your brain will learn that it isn’t worth doing again in the future and will resist making it a habit.
Example of creating the habit of a daily mindfulness practice:
Reward: The peaceful feeling that I get after doing the practice. Plus, I only allow myself to continue my morning routine of making tea once I’ve completed my mindfulness meditation practice.
Law: The cozy space I sit in amplifies the peaceful feeling I get from the guided mindfulness practice, it makes it more special and luxurious. Plus, the reward of making my morning tea after my practice helps to solidify this habit into my morning routine.
In summary:
How your brain works
Your brain is always trying to be efficient and conserve energy. A habit will only stick if the action is repeated enough that your brain notices a pattern and if the action is beneficial to you and therefore worth repeating.
When you get the steps for creating your new habit down on paper, you are much more likely to stick to it and reap the benefits of habitually caring for yourself so you can avoid teacher burnout.
To go even deeper on this topic, listen to our episode on The Balanced Educator Podcast below.
Be sure to subscribe to the Balanced Educator Podcast on do you don’t miss our upcoming episodes and we continue to teach how to avoid teacher burnout. iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play
Share this post on Pinterest so other educators can also learn concrete strategies to form healthy habits this school year.
Let us know in the comments, what healthy habit will you form this year to help you avoid teacher burnout?
73. Getting the Brain Ready to Learn with Jen Kreitz
Aug 05, 2019
As teachers, we want to see our students succeed academically, but it can often feel like social emotional problems are getting in the way of academic learning.
Have you ever experienced something like this…
You have an engaging and fun lesson planned that you think your students will love and you’re so excited to teach. You created an introduction activity to pique their interest on this new topic, it will take 10 minutes. Then, you’ll move on to the lesson that teaches them a new skill in an outside-of-the-box way. That will take 20 minutes. Then, you have an exit activity to solidify what they’ve learned and help you to assess what needs to be worked on further in the next lesson. That will take 10 minutes.
Perfectly planned. Well organized. Down to the minute timing.
The bell rings and you walk to the door, excited to welcome your students into the classroom and get started on the lesson.
Then, your heart sinks as your students trample into your classroom after lunch up in arms about a disagreement that happened between two groups of friends. It feels like chaos as some students argue loudly, some students begin to crowd around you to tell you what happened, and some angrily stomp over to their desks.
You can feel frustration bubbling up because it is very clear that in the state they’re in, there’s no way you’ll be able to settle them down fast enough to get through the lesson that you carefully and painstakingly planned for them.
When students are feeling big emotions, the brain is not ready to learn. We know from experience that trying to force them to settle down and go along with our lesson just isn’t going to work. Learning isn’t going to happen if they can’t get their minds off the drama.
We need to address their social-emotional needs before we can get anything done. And often, this feels like a waste of time!
This example is an obvious moment where we have to support our students’ emotional needs, but what about all the other times that their brains aren’t ready to learn and it’s invisible to us?
What about the student who’s parents are fighting and they’re so worried about them splitting up that they can’t concentrate on your lesson.
How about the student who’s living in poverty and isn’t sure what they’ll eat for lunch.
What about the student who’s silently struggling with their mental health.
When the brain is worried, stressed or anxious it isn’t ready to learn. The body and brain go into protection mode and use all their energy to try to solve the immediate perceived danger. The brain isn’t going to spend it’s precious resources learning new skills and information if it thinks it has to figure out how to survive.
So what can we as teachers do to help our students get out of the fight or flight response that their perceived danger has put them in so that their brains have the freedom to use their energy to learn new things?
First, we have to remind ourselves that taking the time to support our students in their social and emotional learning actually leads to improved academic learning. Which means that it isn’t a waste of time, quite the opposite. When we start a lesson by helping our students to calm down and focus on the present moment, they will be more engaged in their learning and will therefore need less time to understand the new concept.
A great way to get your students’ brains ready for learning is to start your class with a mindfulness practice.
Mindfulness is the practice of paying attention to the present moment on purpose. You can learn more about mindfulness in our blog post What is Mindfulness?.
When you practice mindfulness with your students, they are learning to pay attention to their thoughts and to notice when their thoughts are distracting them from the present moment. They are also learning to notice when they are in a heightened state that is making it hard to concentrate on their learning. During the mindfulness practice, they learn breathing and thinking strategies that can help them to calm down physically and emotionally so that their brain is ready to learn.
When students practice mindfulness on a regular basis, their brain creates and solidifies new connections that favor learning and make it easier to appreciate the present moment rather than get swept up in negative thought patterns. The more often they practice mindfulness, the stronger the connections in their brains become and the more likely they are to use mindfulness strategies independently to meet their own needs.
Mindfulness is also a great tool to support struggling learners, the ones that need extra help to focus on and integrate what they are learning. Practicing mindfulness actively trains students to notice when they are distracted and to independently refocus on that they are learning.
Just like any other skill, students won’t learn mindfulness overnight. Repetition and daily practice are key to allow students to build the connections in their brain that will allow them to integrate mindfulness into their lives.
We make it incredibly simple to practice mindfulness daily with your students with our full-year, online, mindfulness program Educalme. In our program, you get 2 and 5 minute guided mindfulness audios created by teachers for the classroom as well as printable posters, reflection activities, lesson plans and more.
Click here to try Educalme for free to see if it’s the right fit for you!
If you’ve ever struggled to get your students ready to learn or felt frustrated because you have to spend so much time managing your students’ emotions, Educalme may be the resource you’ve been searching for.
In this week’s episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’ve invited Jen Kreitz, resource teacher with a masters’ degree in special education as well as an Educalme Ambassador, to talk to us about how taking the time to support our students in their social and emotional learning actually leads to improved academic learning. Jen shares super valuable information, strategies and ideas that will help you to best serve your students.
Show notes
Jen’s previous episode on The Balanced Educator Podcast: Episode 55
Connect with Jen on Instagram @teacherJenK204 or email her at jkreitz@pembinatrails.ca.
Share this post on Pinterest to help other educators learn how taking the time to support our students in their social and emotional learning leads to improved academic learning.
Let us know in the comments, what do you do to support your students in their social-emotional development? Do you practice mindfulness with them or do you have other social-emotional learning activities that you’d recommend?
72. Free Guided Mindfulness Practice to Feel Calm Now
Jun 24, 2019
Do you want to feel calm and awesome right now? If so, scroll down and listen to this week’s The Balanced Educator Podcast episode where we guide you through a growing roots guided mindfulness practice. The most calming and grounding mindfulness meditation practice ever!
Also, we’re taking a break from The Balanced Educator Podcast to relax and recharge over July so we can be our best selves for the 2019-2020 school year!
If you’re new to the show and you want to binge listen while we take a break in July, here are our top 5 most loved episodes for you to enjoy:
71. 5 Visualizations to Find Calm When You’re Feeling Stressed or Anxious
Jun 17, 2019
Do you ever struggle to find calm when you’re feeling stressed or anxious? We’re sharing our favourite visualizations to reduce stress and anxiety.
Our brain is a powerful thing!
When we think about things that worry us, when we imagine all the things we have to complete on our to-do list and when we picture the situations that stress us out, our body thinks that we are actually in those anxiety inducing settings in this moment.
Wherever we go with our mind, our body follows.
We created a whole podcast episode about how our thoughts create our emotions. Click here to check it out.
Luckily, we can use this mind-body connection to our advantage!
We can choose to visualize images, scenes and situations that make us feel calm and joyful and our body will begin to lower its stress response and start producing feel-good emotions.
Visualization is a great strategy to use when we’re feeling stressed or anxious to help us feel good and calm again.
Here are our 5 favourite visualizations to help us feel our best again when we’ve got thoughts flying left, right and center and we’re struggling to shut em’ down:
Scuba diving visualization:
Imagine yourself at the surface of the ocean, where things are currently feeling a little chaotic. As you dive beneath the surface, it becomes more calm and serene. The deeper you dive, the calmer it gets. If your thoughts go a little crazy, dive a little deeper. Notice how you feel.
Light bath visualization:
Imagine your body slowly filling up with a bright liquid light, from the toes, up the legs, filling the body, the arms, the tips of the fingers, all the way up to the top of your head. Bask in your light bath for a minute and notice how you feel.
Flashlight visualization:
Imagine there’s a flashlight in your mind, your flashlight of attention. Point your flashlight at your feet, notice how they feel. Now your legs, observe the sensations. Continue pointing and noticing how each part of your body feels using your flashlight of attention. How do you feel?
This visualization is a great one to use with your kiddos too, and surprise! We’ve got a flashlight guided mindfulness practice in our free Introduction to Mindfulness program.
Imagine your body from the bones outward. Focus on the inside of your bones, then the tissues surrounding your bones, then the feelings on your skin, then the space that surrounds your body. Do this for each part of your body. Notice the sensations.
Growing roots visualization:
As you sit on the floor, imagine growing roots below you, roots that are helping you nurture your body and give you life. Feel the calming and grounding sensations.
Pick one of these visualization strategies, try it out and let us know how it went below!
With calm and appreciation,
Kailey and Josianne
Dive deeper into this topic by listening to the following episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast:
70. Classroom Organization to Simplify your Life with Kelly Jackson
Jun 10, 2019
Do you find it difficult to stay organized with all of the moving parts of teaching? We hear you, we struggle with this too!
That’s why we invited Kelly Jackson from The Simply Organized Teacher on the podcast to chat everything organization and how it can help us simplify our lives.
From your desk, to planning for a sub, to doing stations, to student papers, to file folders, to student jobs in the classroom… You’ll know exactly how to organize your classroom by the end of this episode!
Scroll to the bottom of this page to tune in now and to check out the show notes!
Dive into this topic even further as we’ve asked Kelly Jackson, Classroom Organization and Management Coach, to write a guest blog post as well! Enjoy!
With calm and appreciation,
Kailey & Josianne
Dive deeper into this topic by listening to the following episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast:
Share this post on Pinterest to help other educators find more calm, joy and balance in their lives too!
69. 5 Personal Development Books That Will Change Your Life
Jun 03, 2019
Are you looking for a fun, easy to read, book to help you feel awesome? Here are our top 5 recommendations for personal development books that will shift your perspective and change your life for the better!
Summer’s almost here, and we’ve got books on our minds. We love to read “feel good” personal development books that help us grow into better versions of ourselves.
Today, we’re sharing the top 5 personal development books that changed our lives:
This book offers concrete, applicable strategies to apply in our lives to feel more balance and joy. The idea is that you have “Good Life Buckets” that you need to fill. By the end of this book, you’ll feel awesome, more balanced and ready to take on the world!
This book is like a giant pep talk! Do you have hopes and dreams and things you wanna do in your life? This book will give you the courage you’re looking for to pursue your wildest dreams!
Learn to shift your perspectives and your beliefs with this beautiful read. This one is awesome for helping you love your students even though they may challenge you as a teacher!
This one is meant to be read in tidbits, reflected on and absorbed slowly. It’s the least fluffy read in this list, but my goodness, it really does teach how to live in the present moment and to be the best version of yourself. This book teaches us to live more mindfully and intentionally.
If you’re a parent or a teacher this is a MUST READ. This book will teach you all about brain development, emotional intelligence, and how to foster growth in your children and students. This book completely transformed the way we manage our classrooms and support our students! It also gives practical strategies you can use to help your kids or students when they are feeling a big emotion.
Your turn now! Pick one of these books and read it over the summer. Let us know what you learned in the comments below!
Happy summer reading teachers!
With calm and appreciation,
Kailey & Josianne
Dive deeper into this topic by listening to the following episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast:
Share this post on Pinterest to help other educators find more calm, joy and balance in their lives too!
*As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. This means that when you make a purchase from one of the links above, you are helping to support this blog and podcast. Thank you!
68. How to Stop Feeling Guilty for Taking Time for Yourself with Keith Macpherson
May 27, 2019
We all have an inner teacher, it’s called our intuition.
That part of you that just knows what’s right. Your gut instinct, your heart, your soul, that feeling of curiosity, of following your path, of being in the flow, your sixth sense, your inner knowing.
Our intuition is wise, peaceful and loving.
But in this busy and often chaotic life of being an educator, the voice of our intuition can easily get drowned out by the noise, the endless to-do list and the needs of others.
When we can no longer hear that guiding calmness of our intuition we are left feeling confused, frantic and like we’re running around like a chicken with its head cut off with no clarity on the direction we’re supposed to be going.
Have you ever felt this way? A little lost, overly busy, like you’re running on a treadmill, not really getting ahead.
We’ve all been there.
Here’s how to slow the crazy and get back to yourself:
Stop. Sit. Be quiet. Listen.
Simple but not necessarily easy.
Guilt creeps in and makes us feel like we don’t have the time to stop and listen to our inner voice. We don’t have the time to find the wise answer. We should be moving, going, doing. That guilt convinces us that we should keep on running blindfolded in hopes of somehow landing on our goals.
Intuition says. Shhhhh. Stop. Sit. Be quiet. Listen.
Intuition pulls the blindfold off and reveals the answer that has always been there. In your heart. In your gut.
Intuition shows you the most direct and easeful path, removes the clutter and gives you the space to have fun along the way.
So when you’re feeling stressed out…
Stop. Sit. Be quiet. Listen.
Guilt will try to stop you from following your heart. It will say “that is too easy, life needs to be hard”.
It is your job to honor the whisper. The voice, the feeling, the knowing inside of you that gently and oh-so-lovingly guides you to where you are meant to go.
As Keith Macpherson, mindfulness coach and author shared on this week’s episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast:
“Guilt is a distraction from our intuition. When we listen to our intuition, not our guilt, we end up earning more respect from the people around us, we end up being leaders in our community, we show others what’s possible when we listen fearlessly and unapologetically to our inner truth.”
May you have the courage to stop, be quiet, listen and follow your intuition.
With calm and appreciation,
Kailey and Josianne
If you would like to go into more depth on this topic, listen to this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast.
Falling asleep and staying asleep, especially during stressful seasons, is a challenge that many teachers face!
We’ve experimented with many strategies to help us wake up feeling rested and the following 8 are our favourites. Give them a try and see what works best for you.
Listen to a guided meditation before bed.
We love doing a guided body scan to help our minds get out of thinking and into sleeping! (Insight Timer is a great free app that has lots of guided bedtime meditations to choose from.)
Try a calming Yin Yoga session.
We find this helps us to feel “heavy” before bedtime.
Try rubbing lavender or cedarwood essential oil on the bottoms of your feet before bed.
The scent helps your mind and body to relax and the chemical constituents of these oils reduce stress and anxiety in the body. You can learn more about what essential oils are and how they support emotional wellbeing on The Balanced Educator Podcast.
Try keeping a journal next to your bed.
Often what stops us from falling asleep is our mind running through the things we’re worried about or don’t want to forget. Every night before going to sleep, write down everything that’s on your mind. Get it all out on the paper so that your brain knows it’s safe to stop thinking about it. Then, write down 5 things you’re grateful for. Gratitude helps reduce stress hormones and gets your body in a state where sleep is accessible.
Exercise daily, but don’t do vigorous activity a minimum of 4 hours before bed.
Intense physical activity wakes your body up so it’s better for your sleep cycle to get your movement in the morning or afternoon.
No screens before bed!
The light from phone and computer screens tricks your body into thinking it’s morning time so it doesn’t start producing the chemicals you need for sleep. Try putting all screens away at least 1 hour before bed.
Try cutting out caffeine.
Everyone is different, so you’ll have to experiment. Does cutting out caffeine after 10 am help you to sleep better? Or maybe you need to stop drinking caffeine completely. The good news is that if cutting out caffeine helps you sleep better, you won’t even need it anymore.
Create a bedtime routine.
Most of our actions are unconscious, meaning that we follow a set of steps all day whether we notice it or not. Our brain is constantly going through “if this then that” steps. For example “if my alarm goes off, then I press snooze” if that is the routine we have created. If you can have a specific set of steps that lead to sleep your brain will go “I’ve brushed my teeth, then turned on my essential oil diffuser, that means it’s now time for sleep”.
Use this list as a set of tools you can choose from when the time is right. Experiment to see which strategies work best for you and let us know how it goes!
Have a great week!
With calm and appreciation,
Kailey and Josianne
Dive deeper into this topic by listening to the following episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast:
Show notes
Listen to Episode 61 and 62 to learn more about essential oils.
66. What do you Want to be Remembered for?
May 13, 2019
Are you grappling between putting emphasis on your students’ social-emotional development or on academics?
We’ve struggled with this a lot.
Our curriculum is ginormous, there is so much to cover academically that there literally aren’t enough hours in the school year to get through it all. When we think of this, it makes us want to buckle down and just teach teach teach in our best effort to get it all done.
But the reality of the brain and learning is clear – students can’t learn new things until their emotions are in check, their brains are turned on and they’re in the right state for learning and remembering. So what is the point of jumping right into academics if our students aren’t even absorbing it?
Furthermore, we question what’s most important and what our true role as a teacher is in our current society. Is it more important that our students know and have memorized the parts of a tree or that they are able to face life’s challenges with ease and become good citizens in our world?
We don’t have the answer.
The answer has to come from each individual teacher based on what they believe is their role, the mark they want to make in the world.
BUT we do have awesome guiding questions to help you explore this topic and find the answers within yourself.
We encourage you to grab a journal and write down your thoughts on the following questions to help you find clarity on the social-emotional or academics balancing act.
Reflect on the teachers, coaches and adults you had in your childhood.
What do you remember them for? Why were they important in your development? What did they do or say that impacted you. Why do they stand out in your memory over all the other adults in your life? How did they make you feel and why was that feeling important?
Now, reflect on notes your students have shared with you or things they’ve said to you or about you.
Is there something about how you teach or how you run your classroom that your students appreciate? What makes you stand out to your students?
Now, explore your values as a teacher.
How do you want your students to feel when they’re in your classroom? What skills do you want them to have gained by the end of their time with you? What values do you want them to have learned from you? Think of your students when they’re 35, what do you want them to remember about you and have learned from you that helps them in their adult life?
Finally, read over what you’ve written and complete this sentence:
I want my students to remember me for _______________________.
Check in with your teaching practices from time to time and notice if you are staying true to your values.
Let us know below what you want to be remembered for!
With calm and appreciation,
Kailey and Josianne
Dive deeper into this topic by listening to the following episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast:
If you want your students to remember you for teaching them how to live mindfully, click here to get our Introduction to Mindfulness unit in Educalme for free.
65. How to Structure a Mindfulness Practice Into Your School Day
May 06, 2019
Are you thinking of starting a mindfulness practice in your classroom, but you’re not sure where to start?
Follow these 4 easy steps and as a result, you and your students will thrive in a calm learning atmosphere.
1. Schedule mindfulness into your timetable. It doesn’t matter when you do it, what matters is that you keep the very same routine every day.
Routine and structure are so important when it comes to student learning. When you teach mindfulness every day, students aren’t just exposed to strategies that will help them to manage their emotions and behaviours, they begin to actually use the skills they are learning independently.
2. Create the expectations for the mindfulness practice with your students.
Most of your students have never done a mindfulness practice, so it’s up to you to be clear on what they can do to have success. Explain the importance of listening actively to the Educalme audio guided practices and decide as a class what active listening looks like, sounds like and feels like. We recommend displaying the expectations in your classroom and reviewing them daily as your students are learning this new practice.
3. Listen to the audio guided mindfulness practice in our Introduction to Mindfulness program with your students.
You don’t have time to waste searching through YouTube to find a practice that is age-appropriate and the correct length. That’s why we’ve created a month-long series of 5-minute audio guided mindfulness practices that work in a classroom. It’s available in both English and French and it’s FREE! Click here to access it now!
For younger grades, listen to audio 1 for a week and then move onto audio 2 the following week. Continue until you’ve used all 5 audios. For older grades, listen to audio 1 on Monday, audio 2 on Tuesday and so on. Repeat for at least 1 month.
Be sure to sit and practice with your students, it’s important that you model what mindfulness looks like since it’s brand new to them.
4. Reflect as a class. Have a sharing circle and ask your students, what did you notice during today’s mindfulness practice? OR use the booklet provided in our Introduction to Mindfulness.
Reflection and discussion helps students to understand how mindfulness helps them and to envision how it can help them when they’re facing a challenging emotion or situation.
Now, you’re all set to start a mindfulness practice in your classroom!
When setting up a classroom mindfulness practice, it’s important that you make your expectations for behaviour during the practice very clear to your students so that they can have success. Better yet, come up with expectations together as a class so that your student’s feel like they have ownership over their practice.
A simple place to start is with the expectation that everyone listens quietly to the audio guided mindfulness practice without disturbing their classmates.
Once the expectations are clear, don’t worry if your students aren’t all sitting perfectly still with their eyes closed during their mindfulness practice. It may seem at first like your students aren’t “getting it” because their mindfulness practice doesn’t look like an adult’s practice or because you aren’t seeing immediate shifts in their ability to self-regulate but this is totally normal! In fact, it’s an important part of the learning process.
If your students fidget, wiggle and whisper to their friends here and there that’s ok! This doesn’t mean they aren’t learning. They’re just being kids!
Stick to your daily mindfulness routine and you will see transformations in time.
In our experience (and teachers we work with), we see a positive impact in the classroom after several weeks. For example, when you continue to practice mindfulness in your classroom daily you’ll start to notice:
The student who walks away when in a fight with a classmate rather than saying or doing something they’ll later regret.
A student who takes a breath before tackling a difficult math problem instead of giving up when they feel frustrated.
A student who takes more risks in the classroom instead of being afraid of failure.
The list goes on…
Here’s what a grade 5 student says about their classroom mindfulness practice:
“It’s easier to learn when I’m not feeling stressed and agitated. Educalme calms me down and helps me learn. It helps me to deal with big emotions and it helps me get through hard things.”
Do you want to dive into a classroom mindfulness practice and see a total transformation in your students and classroom atmosphere?
Click here to access our FREE Introduction to Mindfulness unit, the first unit in Educalme, our online program that teaches students to self-regulate so that they can manage their own behaviours and teachers can teach in a calm classroom atmosphere.
Have fun experimenting. And don’t forget, STICK TO IT if you want to see results!
With calm and appreciation,
Kailey and Josianne
Dive deeper into this topic by listening to the following episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast:
TBE #063: Creating Smooth Transitions and Returning to Calm in the Classroom
Apr 22, 2019
In today’s post, we’re sharing about two things we often get asked about: transitions in the classroom and finding calm.
Transitions in the classroom are never easy. So here’s some concrete ideas to make them run more smoothly.
Write down each step students have to go through in the transition on the board. Refer to it often before and after each transition. Keep the routine the same. always.
Reorganize your schedule in a way where there are less of them. Can you do math for an hour instead of half an hour? Less transitions means more time for academics.
Stagger your students during transitions. Get the class to continue working, and ask only 4 to 5 students at a time to go through the motions of the transition. Every minute, ask another group to go through the motions until all students are done.
When it comes to finding calm, we’ve got a few tricks up our sleeves.
Do you have a mindfulness practice in your classroom? Do you use Educalme? If so, start applying the strategies when students are either excited or being silly. One of the strategies we love is the 5-Finger Breathing. Ask your students to place one hand in front of them. Take your index finger and place it where your wrist and your thumb meet. Trace up the thumb as you inhale, trace down the other side of the thumb as you exhale, up the index finger as you inhale… you should be able to figure out the rest! And good news, we’ve got a free 5-Finger Breathing poster!
2. Shut the lights in your classroom. Ask your students to put their heads down on their desk and to hide them with their eyes.
Try one of these options out for a minimum of a week before you make a decision on how you feel about it, and let us know how it goes. We love to connect with our community of mindful superstar teachers!
With calm and appreciation,
Kailey and Josianne
Dive deeper into this topic by listening to the following episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast:
TBE #062: Using Essential Oils to Improve Your Emotional Wellbeing with Rosetta Matthews
Apr 15, 2019
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast we invited Rosetta Matthews back on the show to teach us how to use essential oils to improve our emotional wellbeing.
Rosetta Matthews is a Certified Rehabilitation Counsellor (CCRC), Human Ecologist (B.H.Ecol.) and a Certified AromaTouch Instructor. As a Wellness Advocate (doTERRA) she has focused her career for the past 8 years on inspiring individuals to transform their lifestyle though empowering them to engage in holistic, self-directed healthcare with naturally sourced solutions. She is also a passionate doTERRA Leader and Mentor who inspires people to overcome obstacles, limiting beliefs and to set action based steps to achieve their goals.
Rosetta explains how to incorporate essential oils into our lives as a therapeutic benefit when it comes to our holistic health.
Rosetta explains that essential oils have medicinal qualities such as sedative qualities, anti-anxiety qualities, anti-depressant qualities and uplifting, mood boosting qualities. And gives examples of essential oils that have each of these qualities.
We share lots of different ways to incorporate specific essential oils into our daily routine to help us with our emotions.
We talk about essential oils that can help us to sleep better, to reduce stress and anxiety and to uplift and boost our mood.
Rosetta explains how to use essential oils safely with babies, children and adults.
We talk about the best essential oils to start incorporating into your life when you’re just getting started.
This episode is perfect for you if you want to know how to use essential oils to improve your emotional wellbeing or if you want ideas of how to incorporate essential oils into your self-care routine.
Show notes
If you would like more information on essential oils as well as a list of great DIY recipes, click here.
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #061: Essential Oils 101 – What they are and how to use them
Apr 08, 2019
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re interviewing Rosetta Matthews to learn what essential oils are and how to use them in our lives.
Rosetta Matthews is a Certified Rehabilitation Counsellor (CCRC), Human Ecologist (B.H.Ecol.) and a Certified AromaTouch Instructor. As a Wellness Advocate (doTERRA) she has focused her career for the past 8 years on inspiring individuals to transform their lifestyle though empowering them to engage in holistic, self-directed healthcare with naturally sourced solutions. She is also a passionate doTERRA Leader and Mentor who inspires people to overcome obstacles, limiting beliefs and to set action based steps to achieve their goals.
In this episode, Rosetta explains what an essential oil is and how we extract the oils from plants.
She explains the importance of researching where the essential oils we are using come from to ensure that we are getting pure therapeutic grade essential oils and not a synthetic version.
Rosetta explains how essential oils can be therapeutic and we talk about the medicinal properties of the oils.
She explains how to get started with essential oils.
We talk about switching from chemical cleaners and synthetic skincare products to natural options that we can make ourselves using essential oils.
Rosetta explains and gives examples of how to use essential oils in our lives aromatically, topically and internally.
This episode is perfect for you if you want to gain a better understanding of where essential oils come from, how to choose the right essential oils for you and how to use essential oils in your daily life.
Show notes
If you would like more information on essential oils as well as a list of great DIY recipes, click here.
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #060: 5 Fun Mindfulness Activities to Try in Your Classroom
Apr 01, 2019
Today on The Balanced Educator Podcast, we are sharing 5 fun mindfulness activities you can do in your classroom:
Five Finger Breathing, a visual way to breathe tracing your fingers as students inhale and exhale.
Flower petal breathing, a printout where students trace the petals as they inhale and exhale.
Mindful Eating, a script to walk your students through an activity where they use their 5 senses to experience eating mindfully.
Mindfulness Scavenger Hunt, a worksheet where students are asked to use their 5 senses to discover their surroundings.
A Memory that Brings me Joy script, a script you can use to guide your students through a mindfulness practice.
This episode is perfect for you if you want simple, fun activities to use in the classroom, no prep required!
Show notes
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #059: Self-Regulation Tools to Empower Kids to Breathe and Relax with Nicola Harvey, Part 2
Mar 25, 2019
Today on The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re continuing our conversation with Nicola Harvey, author of Mindful Little Yogis.
Nicola is an experienced and qualified Special Needs Educator, Therapist, and Children’s Yoga and Mindfulness Practitioner. She has written articles for SEN Magazine, Twinkl Education Publishing, and Ambitious About Autism.
Today, we focus on concrete and applicable ways to practice mindfulness with our kiddos and to help them develop their self-regulation toolbox.
We explore many strategies, including mindful movement, yoga, diaphragmatic breathing, visualization, calm down jars, music therapy, lego-based therapy and more!
We talk about the importance of helping our kiddos’ to develop their mind-body connection.
This episode is perfect for you if you’re looking for ideas you can apply right away!
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #058: Self-Regulation Tools to Empower Kids to Breathe and Relax with Nicola Harvey, Part 1
Mar 18, 2019
Today on The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re interviewing Nicola Harvey, author of Mindful Little Yogis.
Nicola is an experienced and qualified Special Needs Educator, Therapist, and Children’s Yoga and Mindfulness Practitioner. She has written articles for SEN Magazine, Twinkl Education Publishing, and Ambitious About Autism.
Nicola talks about how mindfulness leads to self-regulation and what we can do as educators to help this process along for our kiddos.
She shares the S.T.A.R. model, a development tool for children, and how she applies it in her special education setting.
Nicola shares how we can teach our students about managing their emotions and to develop their emotional regulation using the “Flipping your lid” hand model created by Dr Dan Siegel and Dr Tina Payne Bryson.
She talks about the importance of making mindfulness fun, modelling the practice as an adult and she shares practical strategies to use with kiddos.
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #057: How to Apply the Law of Attraction and Confirmation Bias to Improve Your Life
Mar 11, 2019
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast we explain how to start applying the Law of Attraction to your life.
We explain that the Law of Attraction acts on emotions more than thoughts. We teach how to start making the Law of Attraction and confirmation bias work for you in three steps.
Step 1: Start paying attention to your emotions.
Step 2: Become aware of the thoughts you’re thinking when you’re feeling those emotions.
Step 3: Choose a better feeling thought and emotion that will help you to attract what you do want.
We talk about the importance of viewing negative emotion as a guide post that helps us to see what we do want.
This episode is great for anyone that wants clarity on how to use using the Law of Attraction and confirmation bias to their advantage.
Educalme Classroom is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme Classroom for free!
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #055: Focusing on Student Needs before Academics with Jen Kreitz
Feb 25, 2019
Today on The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re talking with Jen Kreitz, a K-4 resource teacher and also an Educalme ambassador.
Jen talks about how her Masters of Education and where she started and how it involved into a focus in Special Education.
We chat about the importance of focusing on the social-emotional needs of our students before teaching them things like literacy and numeracy.
Jen talks about why mindfulness is an awesome tool for the classroom and how it can help our kiddos with academic success.
She shares about how she implements mindfulness in her school as a resource teacher.
We talk about how to respond when a child is in the red zone.
Show notes
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #054: Understanding Beliefs and how to Change them
Feb 18, 2019
Today on The Balanced Educator Podcast, Kailey is explaining beliefs.
She explains how our beliefs are created when we’re children, how our beliefs affect us as adults and how to recognize when a belief isn’t serving us.
Then, Kailey explains how we can change our beliefs using her top four favourite methods.
Show notes
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #053: Coping with Anxiety as a Family with Melissa Russell
Feb 11, 2019
Today on The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re having Melissa Russell from Simple Lionheart Life on a second time, but this time, we’re talking about mindful parenting.
Melissa writes about creating a simpler, more intentional life by decluttering and embracing minimalism at Simple Lionheart Life. Minimalism and simplifying have had such a positive impact on Melissa’s life, giving her so much more time, space and freedom. So much so that she’s made it her mission to share the benefits of creating a simpler life. Melissa shares motivation, encouragement and practical advice to help people get rid of the clutter and create a life with less stuff and more living!
Melissa shares how she practices mindfulness in her own life and how she practices with her 4 and 7 year old kiddos.
She talks about how practicing mindfulness and learning concrete breathing strategies as a family has really helped them as they’ve gone through a challenging time.
She shares about her daughter’s journey in being diagnosed with anxiety and OCD and what’s helping her to work through it.
She talks about the importance of using humour and positivity in this journey!
Educalme Classroom is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme Classroom for free!
TBE #052: 5 Things you can do when you’re Feeling Anxious
Feb 04, 2019
Today on the Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re sharing 5 simple and quick things you can do when you’re feeling anxious to help you get back to feeling calm.
The strategies that we explain are :
Belly breathing – Place both hands on your belly and feel it fill up like a balloon as you inhale and empty out when you exhale.
Essential oils – Keep some calming essential oils in your desk, like cedarwood or lavender and in moments of stress, place a drop in your hands, rub them together and take in the smell.
Legs up the wall – Lie on the floor close to a wall and bring your legs up onto the wall. This pose really helps with relaxation and calming the body.
Affirmations – Practice saying an affirmation in your mind over and over again to help you feel less stressed and anxious, like “I am calm and balanced”.
Think of something for which you’re grateful to help you focus on the positive in your life.
Show notes
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #051: Q&A – On Intrinsic Motivation and Handling Others’ Negativity
Jan 28, 2019
Today on the Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re doing something a little different, we’re answering the questions you’ve been asking us in the past few months!
In this Q&A episode, we answer your questions about:
Motivating students to want to learn
Using reward systems in the classroom
Handling being around negative people and what to do to improve the situation
Taking small steps to get out of a funk
Motivating ourselves to do physical activity
We loved answering your questions and would love to do more episodes like this one! Share with us your questions by emailing us bonjour@educalme.com
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #050: Equanimity, Self-Compassion and Mindfulness with Tamara Hackett
Jan 21, 2019
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re interviewing Tamara Hackett, the owner of Sweet Clover Studios and the author & illustrator of the children’s books Mindful ABCs and Mindful 1,2,3.
Tamara Hackett is a mindfulness-based Children’s author/illustrator and designer of creative and purposeful materials for all ages. Tamara aims to create moments of awareness, intention and inspiration through all of her work.
Tamara talks about her journey to writing her books and her journey into practicing mindfulness for herself and with the kiddos in her life, her own and others!
She talks about how her children collaborated with Tamara in the creation of her children’s books and shares the process of self-publishing a book.
She explains ways that teachers are using her books in their classrooms.
She talks about how she’s created cues for herself to remind herself to be in the present moment and shares what her morning rootine looks like.
We chat about what equanimity means, how to practice it, and the importance of developing and having self-compassion as adults and teaching it explicitly to our kiddos.
Show notes
For more information about Tamara, and her publishing company (Sweet Clover Studios) and new releases please visit: www.tamarahackett.com or www.sweetcloverstudios.com. She’s also on Instagram at @sweet_clover_studios and would love to see you there.
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #049: Using the Past to Inform the Future – Reflecting on 2018!
Jan 14, 2019
In this episode The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re chatting about what we learned in 2018 and what we’re looking forward to in 2019!
We share our gratitude for 2018… Mostly, we are SO GRATEFUL for you, our audience!!
We talk about the growth in ourselves and in our business and how important it was for us to have our many failures in order to learn and develop ourselves personally and professionally.
We share with you simple and fun ways to reflect on the past year and to set new intentions in the new year.
We share a FREE resource to help you remember and reflect on the past year to help you inform your future year!
Show notes
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #048: A Little Story about Heartfulness and Mindfulness with Charlotte Jackson
Jan 07, 2019
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re interviewing Charlotte Jackson, a special education teacher and the author of the children’s book, Finnigan’s Bliss.
Charlotte Jackson is a special education teacher and mindfulness educator in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She is committed to teaching children how to live heartfully (with a loving heart) and mindfully (with a peaceful mind) in order to help them regulate their emotions and live with a greater sense of resiliency, positivity, compassion and selflessness.
Charlotte shares about her beautiful children’s book on heartfulness and mindfulness and the inspiration behind the story. She explains what lead her to the writing of this book.
She explains the process of writing the book and how one of her students, Helen Yang, created the images for this book.
She talks about what mindfulness and heartfulness mean to her, how she practices mindfulness in her own life and how she shares mindfulness with her students.
She talks about the impact of this practice on herself and her students. She shares how she finds balance in her life.
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
Bonus – Learn how to reduce overwhelm today! Feel calmer and more balanced with this mindfulness strategy.
Jan 07, 2019
In this bonus episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re sharing our popular online workshop Educators: Learn how to reduce the feeling of overwhelm today. Feel calmer and more balanced with this strategy.
You’ll learn:
What really causes overwhelm
How overwhelm works biologically in our bodies
How to use our powerful mindful three strategy to use your biology to your advantage
If you enjoy this episode, you’ll love our online course Educalme Teacher where we help busy teachers gain a sustainable work-life balance. In this 4 week, live, online program, we guide our Educalme Teachers in instilling mindful habits and mindsets that reduce feelings of overwhelm and create more calm, joy and balance.
Registration closes on January 10th at 11:59 pm CST.
TBE #047: When we Grow, so do our Students – with Amanda Warren
Dec 17, 2018
In this episode of The Balanced Educator podcast, we’re interviewing Amanda Warren, an Educalme Teacher alumni and Educalme Classroom teacher.
Amanda Warren lives in a small town in Vermont with her husband, and their one-year old kiddo Hattie. Amanda is Co-Director and a teacher at Bridge School, a small, independent elementary school that focus on the four key values of: community, creativity, exploration, and communication. Amanda studies Conservation Biology, and Education at Middlebury College, and has a M.Ed. in elementary education from Lesley University. When not at school, Amanda can be found training for marathons, birding, and serving as Vice President of the Board of Directors at her local natural foods Co-op.
Amanda tells us about how her independent school is structured, it is quite different from a traditional school. With the small class sizes and mixed age learning environment teachers are able to support their students with student led learning and they tailor topics and projects to their students’ unique interests and needs.
Amanda talks about how looping in her school has allowed her to develop great relationships with her students and has allowed her to really get to know each students’ learning styles. The small school and teaching team allows them to remain flexible and adapt to their students’ needs.
Amanda explains how they turned the challenge of fidget spinners being brought to school into a rich learning topic across the curriculum.
Amanda compares her experience and the challenges in a more traditional school to her small independent school.
Amanda explains how the older students in her school mentor the younger students and how they develop meaningful relationships across K-6.
Amanda explains why, even though she’s trained in teaching yoga and mindfulness, she chose to take Educalme Teacher and use Educalme Classroom rather than teaching it herself.
Amanda talks about how her students are transferring what they’re learning during their Educalme Classroom practice to their lives inside and outside of the classroom.
Amanda explains what her biggest takeaways are from taking the Educalme Teacher course and who she would recommend this course to.
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #046: Integrating Self-care “Rootines” into your Day-to-day with Carolina Smith
Dec 10, 2018
In this episode of The Balanced Educator podcast, we’re interviewing Carolina Smith, a grade 1 teacher, Educalme Teacher alumni and Educalme Classroom ambassador from Calgary, Alberta, a second time!
Carolina talks about her new business venture, the LIA project, a community of women finding ways to connect with themselves and each other.
She shares what her self-care practice looks like and how she implemented her morning rootine since the Educalme Teacher course, and how she sprinkles self-care into her school day.
She explains how affirmations have become an integral part of her morning rootine and how it’s been helpful in her day-to-day.
She shares some of the challenges she’s had this school year and how she’s been managing them.
She talks about how she’s created a great routine transitioning from work to home in the evening.
She chats about the feeling of guilt and how she’s working toward moving past it.
She shares her perspective of sick days.
Show notes
Connect with Carolina on Instagram @yogawithcarolina!
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #045: How to Form Healthy Habits with Renée Lapointe
Dec 03, 2018
In this episode of The Balanced Educator podcast, we’re interviewing an Educalme ambassador, Renée Lapointe!
Renée is 23 years old and a first year teacher! She teaches grade 1 in a French school in Winnipeg and spends her leisure time traveling. She believes in a balanced life and does so by practicing yoga, going to the lake, spending time with her amazing friends and her wonderful family, all while practicing meditation on a daily basis. Renée has a strong inclination for adventure and has learned to surf, longboard, skate and hoop as an adult!
Renée chats about her experience taking the Educalme Teacher course before starting her first year of teaching and how that was one of the best things she could have done for herself to be well prepared to start her career.
She talks about the importance of taking care of her own mental and physical health so she can be the best version of herself as a teacher.
She explains how she’s been applying what she learned in the course in her day-to-day teaching her grade 1 classroom.
She talks about her biggest takeaways from the Educalme Teacher course. She loved being held accountable for a month while establishing new healthy habits and routines. She chats about how practical the course was and applicable to real life.
She shares her new routines and how they make her feel. She talks about how her self care routines are completely doable on a day-to-day basis.
She talks about how she’s using Educalme in her classroom and how she shares mindfulness with her kiddos.
Show notes
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #044: Real Talk About Dealing with Anxiety
Nov 26, 2018
In this episode of The Balanced Educator podcast, Kailey gets real and talks about a difficult time she’s been going through these past few weeks.
She shares how she’s been feeling more anxious than ever and strategies she’s using to manage her anxiety mindfully.
She talks about how her daily mindfulness practice really helps her with difficult emotions.
She chats about The Mindful Three strategy and how it helps her cope. This strategy will be taught in our upcoming free online workshop!
She shares concrete strategies that you can use when you’re going through something difficult too!
Show notes
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #043: Being a Full Time Mom and Running a Business with Amelia Barnes
Nov 19, 2018
In this episode of The Balanced Educator podcast, we’re interviewing Amelia Barnes from Prana Vida Style a second time!
Last time, we chatted with Amelia about living with zero waste. Today, we’re having her back to chat about mindful living and parenting.
Amelia Barnes is a mother, yoga teacher and creator of Prana Vida, an eco-friendly and made in Canada clothing line that is known for exceeding ALL your expectations. Her leggings have received over 450 raving five star reviews and are designed to help women feel comfortable in their bodies through all stages of life and body fluctuations, including pregnancy and postpartum. Her new collection of Eucalyptus leggings is taking the sustainability and conscious clothing revolution to new heights, flowing perfectly with her own recent shift to a mindful zero waste and vegan lifestyle which she loves sharing with the world.
Amelia talks about what mindfulness means to her and how she practices mindfulness with a toddler at home.
She shares about how it’s important to do things coming from a place of alignment and joy and some of the mindset shifts she’s been working on in the past few years.
She talks about what her day to day looks like running a business and being a full time mom to her daughter Lily.
She chats about the importance of being a model to her toddler instead of telling her what to do!
She talks about how kids feed off our energy as adults and what we can do to keep our energy calm.
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #042: Kailey’s Tips and Tricks for Classroom Routines
Nov 12, 2018
In this episode of The Balanced Educator podcast, Kailey shares what her daily routine looks like in her classroom.
She chats about how she starts her day with her kiddos. She talks about how she manages her classroom and shares some of her tips for a calm classroom.
She explains how she practices mindfulness with her students. She shares some of the challenges she’s having in her routines around the classroom mindfulness practice and how she’s working on overcoming them with her kiddos. She also talks about how she integrates mindfulness with her regular curriculum.
She talks about the importance of creating an environment conducive to good behaviour and learning in the classroom.
Show notes
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #041: Less Stuff and More Life with Melissa Russell
Nov 05, 2018
In this episode of The Balanced Educator podcast, we’re chatting with Melissa Russell from Simple Lionheart Life about decluttering and owning less.
Melissa writes about creating a simpler, more intentional life by decluttering and embracing minimalism at Simple Lionheart Life. Minimalism and simplifying have had such a positive impact on Melissa’s life, giving her so much more time, space and freedom. So much so that she’s made it her mission to share the benefits of creating a simpler life. Melissa shares motivation, encouragement and practical advice to help people get rid of the clutter and create a life with less stuff and more living!
Melissa talks about how she’s embraced minimalism in her own life and some of the simplifying projects she’s tackled.
She talks about how she lives a minimalist lifestyle with her family, how she has more time to spend with her kids and how her household is overall more joyful!
She talks about how now, she has the financial freedom to go on adventures with her family because she isn’t buying things anymore.
To Melissa, minimalism is about making choices and choosing what you love and what matters the most to you.
Melissa talks about how minimalism has had a positive impact on her life and has also lead her to mindfulness!
Melissa shares how she’s practicing mindfulness with her kiddos!
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #040: How Kailey is Finding Balance Teaching Full Time and Running Educalme at Once!
Oct 29, 2018
In this episode of The Balanced Educator podcast, we’re simply catching you up on what we’ve been up to now that we’ve both been back in the classroom for awhile!
We mostly focus on Kailey’s news: She’s back in the classroom full time and is teaching a grade 5 classroom!
We chat about what lead her to this position. We talk about interdisciplinary teaching and how well it can work in the elementary classroom. We chat about how fun it is that we’re teaching the same grades and can bounce ideas off each other!
We talk about how Kailey practices self-care, how she juggles her full time teaching job and running our business.
We talk about our recent experience presenting at our provincial teaching conference, SAGE, and having a booth set up at an international conference, ACPI.
Show notes
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #039: Growth Mindset and Flow for Kids with Author Catherine Greer
Oct 22, 2018
In this episode of The Balanced Educator podcast, we are chatting with Catherine Greer, the author of the amazing book, Jacaranda Snow, on growth mindset and flow for kids.
Catherine Greer is a Canadian-Australian author, writing coach and happiness blogger. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Honours degree and a Master’s degree in English, and loves to write, teach and inspire.
Her debut thriller set in Sydney – Love Lie Repeat – will be published by Penguin Random House in March 2019. Her growth mindset picture book, Jacaranda Snow (Wombat Books), will launch in September 2018.
Previously, Catherine collaborated on Choosing Happiness, an award-winning non-fiction book available worldwide. Today she blogs at catherinegreer.com.au giving readers around the world a little slice of happiness.
Catherine also helps aspiring new writers with their books in her online course, WRITE YOUR BOOK THIS YEAR.
With a unique mix of Canadian optimism and Australian savvy, Catherine loves connecting with people and sharing her wisdom about writing and life.
She lives in Sydney with her husband, two teenage sons, and a fluffy fur-baby named Holly Golightly.
Catherine gives the story of Jacaranda Snow and how the story came to be.
She talks about the flowyness and magical unfolding of the creation process of the book, from the story to the publisher to having a composer create a piece of music to go with the book to the illustrator to working with us.
We talk about the Jacaranda Snow Educalme lesson – Yes, we created a lesson and resource toolkit for this book – and it’s free!
Catherine talks about growth mindset and how Jacaranda Snow teaches children about having a growth mindset.
Catherine talks about how working from a place of joy is so important and how Jacaranda Snow teaches this to children.
Show notes
You can find Catherine and her offerings (Happiness Blog, Jacaranda Snow, Love Lie Repeat, etc.) at www.catherinegreer.com.au
Follow Catherine on Instagram @catherinegreersydney
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #038: Why it’s Important to Make Mistakes – For Recovering Perfectionists
Oct 15, 2018
This one is for all of you recovering perfectionists out there…
In this episode of The Balanced Educator podcast, we chat about why it’s important to make mistakes – something so many of us are so afraid to do!
We talk about the word perfect and the perception we tend have around it.
We talk about how we are often so hard on ourselves and we create these stories around how we should have a better job.
We share about the importance of failure and modeling that to our students – it’s about the growth and the development, not making things perfect!
We talk about some of our personal experiences trying to be perfect, and how these situations have taught us so much!
Show notes
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #037: Our Top 5 Ways to Stop Bringing Work Home
Oct 08, 2018
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we share our top 5 ways to stop bringing work home.
We talk about how when we bring less work home, it can truly benefit both us as teachers and our students.
We share about how when we stopped bringing work home, we since feel less guilt and we are more productive during the school day. We feel more efficient and intentional with our time.
We feel that we have our evenings to fill up our own cups so we can be the best teachers we can be during the school day.
For us, it’s truly a win-win for everyone when we keep work at work!
Educalme Classroom is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #036: How to Embrace a Growth Mindset
Oct 01, 2018
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we talk about growth mindset.
Kailey explains the science behind growth mindset. She explains what is happening in our brain when we are learning something new.
Kailey explains the difference between the conscious and the unconscious mind.
Kailey and Josianne chat about why it’s so hard to learn new things and how to stay motivated when we encounter a challenge.
They talk about why it’s important to take breaks when we are learning new things and why repetition is so important.
We also discuss how we can continue to learn and grow even as we age. Old dogs can learn new tricks, as long as you have a growth mindset.
We talk about how important a growth mindset has been for us in the past year at Educalme and how we have shifted our mindset to believing that we can learn anything we put our mind to.
Show notes
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #035: Preparing Kids for Jobs that don’t Exist yet with Sam Squire
Sep 24, 2018
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we interview Sam Squire on how to prepare kids for jobs that don’t exist yet.
Sam Squire is a yoga teacher and meditation guide currently living in Vancouver, BC. After high school, she went right into pre-pharmacy at the University of Winnipeg only to discover a more traditional education was not for her. So she jetted off to Greece and did a yoga teacher training instead. Eventually came back, did some more expensive soul searching at University then landed on the Creative Communications program at Red River College. She graduated with a diploma in Public Relations and Communications Management. Sam is a creative entrepreneur who wears many different hats. Right now, she spends her time working on her latest entrepreneurial endeavour, the Soul Squad Community, an online yoga and meditation program.
We discuss how we can prepare our students for jobs and careers that don’t exist yet.
Sam explains what skills she has that are required for running her online business, The Soul Squad Community. We discuss how she couldn’t have planned or prepared for what she does today because it is a role that didn’t really exist when she was in high school.
Sam explains that the fundamental qualities she learned to embody through both her yoga and meditation practice as a teen and the values and attitudes that she learned from her teachers at school have been the biggest contributors to her success. Those qualities are compassion, kindness, citizenship and creativity.
Sam believes that by modelling and teaching these qualities we are preparing our students for any future they might encounter.
Sam explains what one of her most influential teachers did in her classroom that still sticks with her today.
Sam, who runs an online business and thrives on social media, explains why, in this digital world, she does not suggest that teachers actually teach their students how to use the apps and platforms that exist today. Rather, she suggests that we teach students how to properly communicate.
We talk about how to support students in this digital world where cyber bullying is a current reality.
Sam shares the mindsets that help her to be a successful entrepreneur.
Show notes
You can find out more about Sam and The Soul Squad Community at www.samdsquire.com
Educalme Classroom is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #034: 10 Ways to Infuse Mindfulness into the School Day
Sep 17, 2018
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we explain the difference between a formal mindfulness practice and an informal mindfulness practice.
We have a program called Educalme that teaches you and your students the formal mindfulness practice. You can learn about our program here.
Then, we give 10 ways that you can infuse your school day with little mindful moments with informal mindfulness practices.
These 10 practices support our students by helping them to calm down during the school day, prepare their mind for learning, become more self-aware and self-regulate.
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #033: 5 Steps to Introducing Mindfulness in the Classroom with Josianne Barnabé
Sep 10, 2018
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, Kailey interviews Josianne about how she’s implementing the 5 steps to starting a mindfulness practice in her grade 5/6 classroom.
Josianne shares how she talked to her administrators about mindfulness and how she communicated with parents.
She explains how scheduled mindfulness into the school day and what she is doing to set her students up for success. Josianne shares how she introduced mindfulness to her students on the first day of school and how she plans on using Educalme Classroom in her class.
This episode is perfect for anyone interested in in starting a mindfulness practice in their classroom and anyone that would like to know how our Educalme Classroom mindfulness program is used.
Show notes
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #032: Mindfulness in the Classroom with Danielle Lefko
Sep 03, 2018
In this week’s episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re talking to Danielle Lefko about how she taught mindfulness in her kindergarten class last year and about how she plans to use Educalme Classroom in her new classroom this year with her grade 8 students.
Danielle talks about how she used Introduction to Mindfulness in her classroom and how she set her students up for success. She shares what worked and what didn’t work and gave some great ideas for how we can teach mindfulness to the younger grades.
Danielle shares about the importance of making the mindfulness practice a daily routine in order to see progress and she explains how she has scheduled mindfulness into her timetable for this year.
Danielle gives some great advice for any teachers that are thinking about starting a mindfulness practice in their classrooms but are still on the fence.
This episode is perfect for anyone that wants to start a mindfulness practice in their classroom and is looking for tips on how to make the practice a success.
Show notes
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #031: How to have an Intentional Start to the School Year
Aug 27, 2018
In this week’s The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re talking about how to have an intentional start to the school year for back to school.
It’s really important to ask ourselves what impact we want to have to help us choose some concrete goals for the school year.
We walk you through how we did the goal-setting process in our business for the year and how you can do the same as a teacher.
Every time we say yes to something, we are saying no to something else. We have to choose how we spend our time in a way that contributes to our goals and values. When we’ve established our goals it’s easier to be more intentional with our time!
Since we’ve gone through this process, we’re seeing a lot more progress in our business – we hope it will have the same impact for all of you wonderful listeners!
If your goals are around mental health, social-emotional development, self-regulation or having a calm classroom, you won’t want to miss our free online workshop coming up at the end of the month: Teachers: Say goodbye to meltdowns and say hello to self-regulation! 5 steps to starting a mindfulness practice in your classroom with success.
Show notes
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #030: Mindful Classroom Management
Aug 20, 2018
In this week’s The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re talking about a BIG topic in education – Classroom Management.
We’re redefining this term and challenging you to take on a different perspective on classroom management.
We ask ourselves, instead of managing our students and our classroom, what if we taught them how to self-regulate and supported them in learning how to self-regulate? What if we taught them how to develop an intrinsic motivation to learn?
We talk about how to get our students to possess intrinsic motivation so that they can motivate themselves to act a certain way or to learn something.
We share two classroom routines that can really help to teach kids how to self-regulate: a mindfulness practice and intentional discussion times on a daily basis. We dive into how to implement this in the classroom!
Show Notes
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #029: Time Perception and the Word “Busy”
Aug 13, 2018
In this week’s The Balanced Educator Podcast, we talk about time perception and how we feel about the word “busy“.
We all have 24 hours in the day, and it’s up to us to choose how to use this time. When we say we’re too busy to do something we’d like to do, we need to reevaluate what’s important to us. In reality, we often waste time doing things like scrolling on social media. We can be more productive with our time by becoming fully aware of how we’re using our time.
When we are saying yes to something, we are saying no to something else. In this episode, we talk about how this concept has helped us to choose what to say yes to!
We also chat about how when we say we’re busy, it’s usually a story we’ve created in our minds. We talk about how we can change that story to one that feels better for us!
Show Notes
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #028: How to Juggle it all with Carolina Smith
Aug 06, 2018
In this week’s The Balanced Educator podcast, we chat with Carolina Smith about how she infuses mindfulness in her own life and in her classroom.
Carolina has just wrapped up her 2nd year as a grade one French Immersion teacher in Calgary, Alberta. After having hit full burnout in university, she decided to take off to South America to travel and pursue her yoga teacher training. This experience launched her on a path of teaching yoga, practicing mindfulness and continuously developing her personal self-care tool kit to juggle all the roles of being a teacher.
Carolina talks about how she infuses mindfulness with grade 1 students and how she uses Educalme resources with them. She shares concrete strategies that can be applied right away to bring more calm into the classroom.
She talks about her mindfulness practice and how she fills her cup up at the beginning of each day so that she can start her days feeling her best.
She chats about how she‘s created a habit for herself checking in on her quality of breath, which has helped her immensely to respond to life rather than react
She chats about how she finds balance in her own life and how important it is for her to create a concrete transition between home and work to keep that balance.
We share with you a HUGE FREEBIE – a month’s worth of ready-to-use mindfulness for the classroom, you don’t want to miss out on this!
Show notes
To get your FREE one month worth of ready-to-use mindfulness for you and your kiddos, go to www.educalme.com/intro
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #027: How to Choose a Better Feeling Emotion
Jul 30, 2018
In this episode of The Balanced Educator podcast, we are chatting about how to get out of having negative emotions and to move into positive ones with a clear, concrete 2-step strategy.
Scientifically, our brains are always looking for something wrong in our lives, so it’s normal to feel negative emotions… It’s simply how we’re programmed as humans!
We refer to the emotional scale from the book “Ask and It Is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires” by Esther and Jerry Hicks, which lists 22 emotions in order of the one that feels worst to the one that feels best. We talk about how to slide up the emotional scale, one emotion at a time.
We talk about the importance of having compassion for yourself when climbing up the scale feels impossible. Guys, it’s normal to feel negative emotions… Don’t be so hard on yourself!
We also share how to teach kids to move up the emotional scale when they’re feeling negative emotions.
We love Keith’s book and we think you will get tons of value from reading it! When you purchase Keith’s book through this link, we will receive a commission for referring you at no extra cost to you. How cool is that? We share what we love, you benefit from an awesome book and a portion of the sales helps to support our podcast.
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #026: Going Zero Waste with Amelia Barnes
Jul 23, 2018
In this episode of The Balanced Educator podcast, we are chatting with Amelia Barnes on a topic that has been of high interest for us here at Educalme, zero-waste living. Through our mindfulness journey, we have also become more mindful of the waste we produce and we are working toward zero-waste living.
Amelia Barnes is a mother, yoga teacher and creator of Prana Vida, an eco-friendly and made in Canada clothing line that is known for exceeding ALL your expectations. Her leggings have received over 450 raving five star reviews and are designed to help women feel comfortable in their bodies through all stages of life and body fluctuations, including pregnancy and postpartum. Her new collection of Eucalyptus leggings is taking the sustainability and conscious clothing revolution to new heights, flowing perfectly with her own recent shift to a mindful zero waste and vegan lifestyle which she loves sharing with the world.
In today’s episode, Amelia defines zero-waste living and she talks about what is actually happening with the waste we produce. Some of the information we learn from Amelia is shocking!
She chats about the importance of reducing plastic rather than simply recycling it, since most plastics don’t actually get recycled.
She shares how to get started with zero-waste living. She lists a few resources we can use and stores where we can shop.
She also talks about her new AMAZING line of leggings, which are made out of lyocell and are more environmentally friendly. They are the absolute best leggings on the planet, and we at Educalme can vouch for that as we each have a few pairs!
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #025: EDUCALME TEACHER: Why we created this summer course and who it’s ideal for. Registration is open!
Jul 16, 2018
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast we are finally announcing our 4-week personal development course for educators that we will be teaching on Mondays and Thursdays from July 31 to August 23 2018:
Educalme Teacher: Gain mindful tools and habits that will help you prevent burnout, gain a better work-life balance and feel more joy in and out of the classroom.
In this episode, Kailey tells the story of how Educalme Teacher came to be and why her and Josianne are so passionate about supporting educators.
Finally, Kailey answers some of the frequently asked questions about the course.
We hope you enjoy this episode and if this course feels like a good fit for you, we look forward to working with you this summer!
With calm and appreciation,
Kailey and Josianne
Show notes
Educalme Classroom is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme Classroom for free!
TBE #024: 5 Ways Self-Care Makes you a Better Teacher
Jul 09, 2018
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we share why it’s so important to take good care of ourselves as teachers!
We chat about why educators should stop feeling guilty about taking time out of their day for self-care.
We elaborate on 5 ways self-care makes you a better teacher:
1 – You’ll feel calmer and this will be reflected in your students.
2 – You’ll have the space to respond rather than react as a teacher.
3 – You’ll become more compassionate with yourself and with your students.
4 – You can’t pour from an empty cup, so when you fill up your cup first it will spill out to your students and you will become the best version of yourself for them.
5 – You’ll learn a toolkit of strategies that you can then share with your students and help them develop a toolkit of strategies. Watch them apply these strategies in their day-to-day and become well-balanced people!
Show Notes
We love Keith’s book and we think you will get tons of value from reading it! When you purchase Keith’s book through this link, we will receive a commission for referring you at no extra cost to you. How cool is that? We share what we love, you benefit from an awesome book and a portion of the sales helps to support our podcast.
Read The Whole Brain Child by Dr. Dan Siegel to learn all about mirror neurons and so much more. We recommend this book for anyone who has kiddos in their lives, it’s influenced our classroom management style immensely!
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #023: How to Ditch the Feeling of Overwhelm
Jul 02, 2018
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we are sharing strategies that we’ve learned to ditch the feeling of overwhelm.
We talk about how we’re the ones creating the feeling of overwhelm in ourselves. We share a tool with you that we use to help ourselves feel more calm and balanced.
We chat about how when we feel overwhelmed, we need to change our perception of the situation, not the situation itself. We have the power to choose how we look at things. When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change.
This is a powerful strategy to apply in our lives, but it takes practice. Today, we share 3 concrete ways we can practice changing our perception to one that makes us feel better.
By having a mindfulness practice and becoming aware of our emotions, we can catch ourselves before the feeling of overwhelm becomes too great.
We also share how we can teach children about perception with the use of a visual image.
Educalme is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme for free!
TBE #022: Making Sense of Mindfulness with Keith Macpherson Part 2
Jun 25, 2018
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re continuing our interview with Keith Macpherson. Keith is a mindfulness trainer, life coach and author of the new book, Making Sense of Mindfulness. Through his work in the field of mindfulness, Keith has created a five principal framework to assist the masses in comprehending the buzzword “mindfulness” and integrate this practice into their daily lives.
Aside from his work in mindfulness, Keith is also known as a professional musician, most notably being a top finalist on the hit television series, Canadian Idol. As a professional speaker, presenter and musician, Keith has spent over twenty years touring globally in countries including Canada, The United States, Mexico, Africa, Dubai and The United Kingdom.
He is currently a regular columnist in The Balance Magazine and inspires thousands of people around the world with his daily intentions on social media.
In this episode, Keith explains the five principles in his mindfulness framework.
We love Keith’s book and we think you will get tons of value from reading it! When you purchase Keith’s book through this link, we will receive a commission for referring you at no extra cost to you. How cool is that? We share what we love, you benefit from an awesome book and a portion of the sales helps to support our podcast.
Educalme Classroom is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme Classroom for free!
TBE #021: Making Sense of Mindfulness with Keith Macpherson Part 1
Jun 18, 2018
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re interviewing Keith Macpherson.
Keith is a mindfulness trainer, life coach and author of the new book, Making Sense of Mindfulness. Through his work in the field of mindfulness, Keith has created a five principal framework to assist the masses in comprehending the buzzword “mindfulness” and integrate this practice into their daily lives.
Aside from his work in mindfulness, Keith is also known as a professional musician, most notably being a top finalist on the hit television series, Canadian Idol. As a professional speaker, presenter and musician, Keith has spent over twenty years touring globally in countries including Canada, The United States, Mexico, Africa, Dubai and The United Kingdom.
He is currently a regular columnist in The Balance Magazine and inspires thousands of people around the world with his daily intentions on social media.
We discuss how mindfulness isn’t just a seated practice, it is a way of being in the world.
Keith explains how our mind and body are in a relationship and he talks about the importance of listening to our bodies and our gut instincts.
Keith explains how all our power is in the present moment and how to harness our power.
Keith shares a great idea for what to do when we are feeling stuck during the creative process and we discuss how to bring this into the classroom.
Keith talks about how to teach from a place of intuition rather than being too stuck in just teaching the curriculum.
Keith shares how and why he wrote his new book Making Sense of Mindfulness.
Educalme Classroom is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme Classroom for free!
TBE #020: What We’ve Learned From Working in Multiple Schools This Year
Jun 11, 2018
In this week’s episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re reflecting on some of the things we’ve observed and learned this year while working in many schools in many different school divisions.
We talk about the one common thread between all of the schools with the most positive atmosphere and the happiest students and teachers.
We discuss what we’ve noticed about the calmest classrooms.
We talk about growth mindset, how we taught it to our students and how, now that we’re business owners and learning so many new things all the time, we understand the importance of teaching this mindset more than ever.
We share one of the guided mindfulness practices we’ve created for our growth mindset module in Educalme Classroom.
Have a wonderful week!
With calm and appreciation,
Kailey and Josianne
Show notes:
Educalme Classroom is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme Classroom for free!
TBE #019: Mindful Fashion with Jess Sternberg of Free Label
Jun 04, 2018
In this episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we interview Jess Sternberg about mindful fashion and her company Free Label that creates thoughtful yet elevated basics ethically in Canada with sustainable fabrics.
While working in the fashion industry, Jess learned a lot about the problems that exist in the industry and was inspired to create comfortable clothing that was ethically made in a sustainable way.
We chat about how we shopped in the past versus how we shop now and give ideas on how to build a mindful wardrobe in a way that works for you.
Jess talks about how she infuses her workday with mindfulness which helps her to enjoy her days more fully and how she isn’t an extremist in any of her practices but rather finds a balance that feels good for her.
In this episode, Jess mentions the following documentaries on the fashion industry:
If you want to see what we’re up to between now and next week’s episode, you can connect with us on Instagram @educalme.
If you enjoy the show, we would really appreciate if you write us a review on iTunes! Reviews help people like you that are looking for the content we share to find The Balanced Educator Podcast.
You can contact Jess by email at info@shopfreelabel.com
Educalme Classroom is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme Classroom for free!
TBE #018: How Doing Something Different Changes you
May 28, 2018
In this week’s episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we discuss how changing up our routines can help us to gain a new perspective.
We talk about simple things we can do in our lives to get out of our regular routines and begin to see our lives from a new vantage point.
We discuss how travel has been such a huge influence on us and has helped open up our minds to new ways of seeing the world. This has allowed us to intentionally choose new ways of being in our lives that felt good.
We talk about the transformative experience of doing a yoga teacher training and how it changed our lives.
Show notes:
Educalme Classroom is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme Classroom for free!
TBE #017: How Mindfulness Inspired us to Simplify our Lives
May 21, 2018
In this week’s episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we talk about how our mindfulness practice inspired us to simplify many areas of our lives.
We talk about how our mindfulness practice started as a formal seated meditation and evolved into us being more present throughout our day. Our seated practice taught us to notice our thoughts and catch ourselves when we get swept away in thinking about the past or future. The more we practice watching our thoughts, the more present we become. As we become more present, we learn to really appreciate the moment and life seems to slow down.
As we slowed down, we began noticing when the “stuff” in our environment made us feel overwhelmed. This brought us to simplifying our wardrobe to make getting dressed in the morning smoother and simpler. It also led us to simplify our home decor and declutter our classrooms.
In the classroom, our mindfulness practice led us to simplify the school day, to reduce transitions and to connect different subject matters in one project so that we could seamlessly flow from one task to the next with our students and reduce the number of items in the classroom.
If you want to see what we’re up to between now and next week’s episode, you can connect with us on Instagram @educalme.
If you enjoy the show, we would really appreciate if you write us a review on iTunes! Reviews help people like you that are looking for the content we share to find The Balanced Educator Podcast.
With calm and appreciation,
Kailey and Josianne
Show notes:
Educalme Classroom is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme Classroom for free!
TBE #016: Simplifying with Graphic Designer Sara Barnabé
May 14, 2018
Today on The Balanced Educator Podcast, we interview an amazing graphic designer and the creator of our logo, Sara Barnabe, on living simply, slowly and mindfully.
She talks about how she lives a busy life, working full time and doing graphic design and content creation on the side and how she finds balance in it all by taking moments out of the day for herself, where she’s fully present, mindful and simply taking it all in with her 5 senses.
Sara explains that her side business is mostly working with startups, and how this has given her a creative outlet that is really fulfilling for her. She likes to create simple design with a unique flair.
She tells the story of how she got to where she is now, embracing the slow, simple living lifestyle and how it opened up her world to being more minimalist, and how she feels liberated because of it.
We chat about how it’s important to create healthy environments and to be models of mindfulness and simple living to the next generation so that they can thrive and live their absolute best lives!
We finish off the interview by talking about the advice Sara would give her younger self!
This episode is perfect for you if you have been curious about simplifying your life and living more minimally and mindfully.
If you want to see what we’re up to between now and next week’s episode, you can connect with us on Instagram @educalme.
If you enjoy the show, we would really appreciate if you write us a review on iTunes! Reviews help people like you that are looking for the content we share to find The Balanced Educator Podcast.
With calm and appreciation,
Kailey and Josianne
Show notes:
Educalme Classroom is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme Classroom for free!
TBE #015: Why it’s Important to feel Negative Emotions
May 07, 2018
In today’s episode, we’re talking about why it’s important to feel negative emotion as it arises in order to move past the feeling and then get back into a positive feeling state. Often we try to ignore our negative feelings, which actually keeps us stuck.
In a mindfulness practice, we observe the present moment with non-judgement. This includes noticing when we are feeling a difficult emotion and observing it without trying to alter or change it. What’s interesting is that by observing the tough stuff, it tends to pass quicker than if we try to ignore the feelings.
We explain that holding uncomfortable feelings in takes a lot of our energy. The fear of feeling difficult emotions is actually more painful than allowing ourselves to just feel and release the feelings.
We talk about how all emotions pass, feeling a difficult emotion right now does not mean we will always feel this way. If we can sit and experience the physical sensations of the emotion we observe that the emotion passes quite quickly.
When we take time to meditate, it gives us the space to observe how we are feeling and notice if we are holding anything in. If we feel discomfort in our body, it is often caused by a thought-emotion pattern that we have been resisting.
We discuss different ways that we like to observe and release our negative emotions so that we can move forward and begin to create positive feeling emotions.
We discuss how we can support children when they are feeling difficult emotions.
We have two modules in Educalme Classroom that teach children and parents how to observe their emotions without judgement and allow them to pass.
This episode is perfect for anyone that wants to learn more about how to deal with negative emotions.
If you want to see what we’re up to between now and next week’s episode, you can connect with us on Instagram @educalme.
If you enjoy the show, we would really appreciate if you write us a review on iTunes! Reviews help people like you that are looking for the content we share to find The Balanced Educator Podcast.
Educalme Classroom is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme Classroom for free!
TBE #014: What is Educalme Classroom?
Apr 30, 2018
Today on The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re bringing back Janelle Laflèche, a grade 2 teacher that teaches in a French school!
Janelle has been using École Educalme (Educalme Classroom in French) in her classroom since September 2017.
Janelle talks about how she implemented École Educalme in her classroom and how easy it was to start a mindfulness practice in her classroom! You just need to press play and voilà!
Her biggest hurdle in starting this practice was the how to implement this, and she explains that the answers were addressed in the actual audio-guided mindfulness practices in the subscription. She talks honestly about her students’ reaction to the practice.
Janelle explains what her Educalme routine looks like in her classroom.
She talks about how students use what they learned in their regular day. or example, when in a fight at recess, they’ll choose to breathe instead of reacting to the situation. This melts our hearts!
She talks about how her classroom has developed a common language when it comes to emotions so that they are all on the same page and understand each other.
She walks us through exactly what she does every day during her mindfulness practice with her students and how much they all love it!
This episode is perfect for anyone that is curious about what Educalme Classroom is and how to use it.
If you want to see what we’re up to between now and next week’s episode, you can connect with us on Instagram @educalme.
If you enjoy the show, we would really appreciate if you write us a review on iTunes! Reviews help people like you that are looking for the content we share to find The Balanced Educator Podcast.
Educalme Classroom is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme Classroom for free!
TBE #013: How gratitude can change your life
Apr 23, 2018
In today’s episode, we are talking all about gratitude and appreciation!
We talk about the meaning of gratitude and we go on a few rampages of appreciation!
We also talk about the science behind gratitude and why this practice works. The more we practice gratitude, the more grateful we become!
We share many ways we practice gratitude and ways we can implement this with the kiddos in our lives.
Gratitude is something close to our hearts because for both of us, this is really where our mindfulness practice started.
This episode is perfect for you if you want a variety of ways to cultivate gratitude in your own lives and in your kiddos’ lives!
If you want to see what we’re up to between now and next week’s episode, you can connect with us on Instagram @educalme.
If you enjoy the show, we would really appreciate if you write us a review on iTunes! Reviews help people like you that are looking for the content we share to find The Balanced Educator Podcast.
With calm and appreciation,
Kailey and Josianne
Show notes:
Educalme Classroom is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme Classroom for free!
TBE #012: An uplifting interview with Grade 2 teacher Janelle Laflèche
Apr 16, 2018
Today is an extra special day because we have our first awesome guest, Janelle Laflèche!
Janelle is a really, really amazing grade 2 teacher! She’s been doing Educalme in her classroom since September 2017!
Janelle talks about how her relationships give her light and joy and they energize her!
Janelle and Kailey talk about how as we are ageing, we get to know ourselves better and better and life seems to only get better as a result. It’s all about knowing what works for ourselves and doing the things that make us happy!
They chat about how education is an interesting career to choose because you yourself were a student once upon a time, and now you’re a teacher – which gives you the chance to think of the students’ perspective!
Janelle describes what mindfulness means to her and how she practices mindfulness in her life. Mindfulness can be practiced a million ways and we loved hearing Janelle sharing her take on it all!
She talks about how she loves the Educalme mindfulness practices that she does with her students and feels that their Educalme time is as important for her as it is for them.
Educalme Classroom is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme Classroom for free!
In this week’s episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re talking about how reality isn’t real.
Our thoughts create our emotions. That means that our thoughts about anything we experience dictates whether that experience feels good or bad for us.
Two people can go to the same movie. One may like the movie and the other may dislike it. It isn’t the movie that is good or bad, it’s the watcher’s thoughts about the movie that makes them feel good or bad while they’re watching it.
We break down many of the stories that society has told us to see if we can look at a situation in a new way that will make us feel better.
We outline the steps we take to shift a negative experience into a positive experience just by changing our stories.
We discuss how we can help our kiddos to shift their experiences from negative to positive by shifting their perspective.
If you want to see what we’re up to between now and next week’s episode, you can connect with us on Instagram @educalme.
If you enjoy the show, we would really appreciate if you write us a review on iTunes! Reviews help people like you that are looking for the content we share to find The Balanced Educator Podcast.
With calm and appreciation,
Kailey and Josianne
Show notes:
Educalme Classroom is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme Classroom for free!
TBE #010: How our thoughts create our emotions, part 2
Apr 02, 2018
In this week’s episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re talking about how to teach children about emotions.
We talk about how empowering it is for children to understand that their thoughts create their emotions and that they have the ability to choose the thoughts that create the emotions they want to feel.
We share a guided mindfulness practice from our Mindfulness and Emotions unit in Educalme Classroom that you can do alone or with your kiddos. You will learn the 5 finger breathing strategy – a great tool to use when you are feeling a big emotion.
We talk about how to use stories and imagination to demonstrate to children how our thoughts make our bodies feel sensations and emotions.
If you want to see what we’re up to between now and next week’s episode, you can connect with us on Instagram @educalme.
If you enjoy the show, we would really appreciate if you write us a review on iTunes! Reviews help people like you that are looking for the content we share to find The Balanced Educator Podcast.
With calm and appreciation,
Kailey and Josianne
Show notes:
Educalme Classroom is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme Classroom for free!
TBE #009: How our thoughts create our emotions, part 1
Mar 26, 2018
In today’s episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re explaining one of the most empowering things we’ve learned – how our thoughts create our emotions.
We talk about how it isn’t the situations we encounter that create our emotions, it’s actually our perception and our thoughts about the situation that create the emotions we feel.
It’s our thoughts that create our emotions.
We talk about mindset shifts that we’ve used to move out of feeling negative into feeling more positive, simply by changing our thinking.
This episode is perfect for you if you want to learn how to manage your thoughts to create awesome emotions in your body!
If you want to see what we’re up to between now and next week’s episode, you can connect with us on Instagram @educalme.
If you enjoy the show, we would really appreciate if you write us a review on iTunes! Reviews help people like you that are looking for the content we share to find The Balanced Educator Podcast.
With calm and appreciation,
Kailey and Josianne
Show notes:
You are the Placebo by Dr. Joe Dispenza
Educalme Classroom is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme Classroom for free!
TBE #008: How to practice mindfulness when you don’t have time
Mar 19, 2018
In today’s episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we talk about how to make time for mindfulness even when you think you don’t have a second to spare in your day. We are sharing some mindset shifts you can try out to help make mindfulness a daily habit.
We talk about how habits are formed in our brains and why it’s difficult to start. Our brains like to make all sorts of excuses when we are creating new habits. We talk about how to get past this.
We tell you about how we tricked our brains so that we could create this habit of practicing mindfulness daily.
We discuss ways that we can practice mindfulness during our other daily routines if we really can’t convince our brains to make time for a seated practice.
We also talk about how teachers and busy parents can start a practice with their kiddos.
This episode is perfect for you if you want to shift your mindset from “I don’t have enough time” to “I choose how I spend my time”.
If you want to see what we’re up to between now and next week’s episode, you can connect with us on Instagram @educalme.
If you enjoy the show, we would really appreciate if you write us a review on iTunes! Reviews help people like you that are looking for the content we share to find The Balanced Educator Podcast.
With calm and appreciation,
Kailey and Josianne
Show notes:
Educalme Classroom is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme Classroom for free!
TBE #007: The Mindfulness Experiment, Part 2
Mar 12, 2018
In today’s episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re talking about how to start a formal mindfulness practice with the kiddos in our lives and how to infuse mindfulness authentically into our day with our kiddos.
We share the logistics of how we practiced mindfulness with our students in our classrooms and we bring up some do’s and don’ts of beginning the practice so that you can have a smooth start. We also talk about how mindfulness can help students deepen their learning of the regular curriculum.
We give ideas for how parents can start a mindfulness practice at home with their children.
We discuss the major benefits our classroom mindfulness practice had on our students and on us as teachers. When students who are used to practicing every morning miss their practice, they usually ask for it – they understand the importance of mindfulness!
If you want to get started with a mindfulness practice and you’d like to learn WITH your kiddos, we’ve got the right tool for you.
You don’t need to know anything about mindfulness to practice with your students. Everything is included: the audio-guided mindfulness practices, the curriculum that goes with it and a lesson plan!
This episode is perfect for you if you want clear steps to follow to start a mindfulness practice with your kiddos in the classroom or at home!
We want to say a huge thank you to everyone that has been leaving reviews on iTunes!
When you rate and review the show, it helps people to find us when they are searching for podcasts on education and mindfulness.
Show notes:
Educalme Classroom is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme Classroom for free!
TBE #006: The Mindfulness Experiment, Part 1
Mar 05, 2018
In today’s episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re defining mindfulness and sharing how you can get started with your own practice!
We talk about the two sides of a mindfulness practice. The first side is the formal practice, where mindfulness is practiced explicitly with an exercise, and the second side is the informal practice, where mindfulness is infused into everyday activities.
We share some of the challenges that we’ve had in beginning our own mindfulness practice and how with time, we’ve noticed the positive effects our daily practice has had on us.
As a result of our formal and informal practice, we’ve become much more self-aware, appreciative, happy, compassionate and we are better able to respond to difficult situations instead of reacting to them (most of the time!).
This episode is perfect for you if you are interested in starting your own mindfulness practice but you’re not quite sure where to start.
If you want to see what we’re up to between now and next week’s episode, you can connect with us on Instagram @educalme.
If you enjoy the show, we would really appreciate if you write us a review on iTunes!
Reviews help people like you that are looking for the content we share to find The Balanced Educator Podcast.
Interested in bringing mindfulness into your classroom?
Educalme Classroom is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme Classroom for free!
TBE #005: The Morning Rootine Experiment
Feb 26, 2018
In this episode, we’re talking about experimenting with creating a morning rootine.
We’re discussing how we start our days from a place of joy by creating a morning rootine – yes, ROOTing in the awesome emotions we want to have, first thing in the morning!
Kailey, the science gal, explains the brain science behind the morning rootine.
This episode is perfect for you if you want to train your brain to create the emotions you want to have during your morning rootine. Then, learn how to apply it with your kiddos and see them gain tools for self-regulation. Then, see how this experiment takes you through the rest of your day!
If you want to see what we’re up to between now and next week’s episode, you can connect with us on Instagram @educalme.
If you enjoy the show, we would really appreciate if you write us a review on iTunes! Reviews help people like you that are looking for the content we share to find The Balanced Educator Podcast.
With calm and appreciation,
Kailey and Josianne
Show notes:
Educalme Classroom is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme Classroom for free!
TBE #004: The Slowing Down Experiment
Feb 19, 2018
In this episode, we’re experimenting with slowing down.
We talk about what we mean by slowing down, it’s not necessarily slowing down in time, but really taking in the present moment, for example, actually smelling our coffees in the morning.
We discuss how we slowed down as teachers in our classrooms and how it benefited both us and our students.
This episode is perfect for you if you’re looking for ideas on experimenting with slowing down in your personal life and in the classroom and gain time to breathe.
If you want to see what we’re up to between now and next week’s episode, you can connect with us on Instagram @educalme.
If you enjoy the show, we would really appreciate if you write us a review on iTunes! Reviews help people like you that are looking for the content we share to find The Balanced Educator Podcast.
With calm and appreciation,
Kailey and Josianne
Show notes:
Educalme Classroom is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme Classroom for free!
TBE #003: The Fill Your Cup First Experiment
Feb 06, 2018
In this episode, we’re talking about the fill your cup first experiment.
We bring up the guilt that we felt at the beginning when we started prioritizing self-care, and how we overcame that feeling with time. It’s a work in progress!
We compare how being a teacher (or a parent!) is like being an apple tree. If we nurture our tree, delicious apples will be made for others to enjoy.
We talk about the many gains we noticed from filling our cups first and how we are working on not feeling any guilt in putting ourselves first.
This episode is perfect for you if you are interested in learning why starting a self-care practice is important and to gain some ideas on how to get started, guilt-free.
If you want to see what we’re up to between now and next week’s episode, you can connect with us on Instagram @educalme.
If you enjoy the show, we would really appreciate if you write us a review on iTunes! Reviews help people like you that are looking for the content we share to find The Balanced Educator Podcast.
With calm and appreciation,
Kailey and Josianne
Show notes:
Educalme Classroom is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme Classroom for free!
Today on The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re sharing why we decided to leave our classrooms and support other educators by creating mindfulness curriculum for the classroom.
We talk about some of the practices we implemented in our own lives and then in our classrooms.
We discuss the transformations we saw in our students and why we wanted to share this on a larger scale.
We talk about the hurdles we faced when we first started teaching mindfulness in our classrooms. and how it inspired us to create super-easy-to-use curriculum.
This episode is perfect for anyone that wants ideas for how to start a mindfulness practice in the classroom.
If you want to see what we’re up to between now and next week’s episode, you can connect with us on Instagram @educalme.
If you enjoy the show, we would really appreciate if you write us a review on iTunes! Reviews help people like you that are looking for the content we share to find The Balanced Educator Podcast.
With calm and appreciation,
Kailey and Josianne
Show notes:
Educalme Classroom is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required! Try Educalme Classroom for free!
TBE #001: Welcome to The Balanced Educator Podcast – Meet Your Hosts!
Feb 05, 2018
Today on The Balanced Educator Podcast, we’re sharing our story and what brought us to starting Educalme.
We talk about the struggles we faced early in our careers as educators and what we learned from them. We discuss how our drive to be amazing teachers and our perfectionism led us to feeling overwhelmed and burned out and what giving so much of ourselves taught us about self-care.
We talk about some of the first changes we made in our lives that helped us get out of overwhelm and feel more balanced.
This episode is perfect for anyone that is interested in how we began our mindfulness practices in our own lives and wants ideas of small habits they can experiment with to feel more balanced.
If you want to see what we’re up to between now and next week’s episode, you can connect with us on Instagram @educalme.
If you enjoy the show, we would really appreciate if you write us a review on iTunes! Reviews help people like you that are looking for the content we share to find The Balanced Educator Podcast.
With calm and appreciation,
Kailey and Josianne
Show notes:
Educalme Classroom is your clear roadmap & simple action plan to prioritize social-emotional development so that your students are ready for calm and focused learning. Get a full year of ready-to-use audio, video and printable mindfulness lessons for the classroom. No prep required!
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