Ep 35: Things I Learned From My Kindergarten Students About Life

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In a classroom, students are not the only ones

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who are doing the learning.

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Today I'm gonna share with you four things

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that my kindergarten students taught me about life.

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Hello, and welcome to Making Number Sense Make Sense,

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a podcast for elementary teachers,

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specifically early elementary teachers,

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looking to really make an impact

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in the number sense of their students.

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It can be really easy to get caught up in the rush

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of feeling pressure to get through all of this curriculum

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and make sure students understand.

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And the wins that we can see as teachers,

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especially in kids in math,

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that can be such a difficult topic for kids

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to really engage in and get into can be amazing.

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But that's only a portion of our day.

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And really what's going on is you're in a room

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with 20 other people creating a community

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and a nine month long learning experience together.

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So here are the four things that the kids taught me

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or reminded me that I need to do

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to really enjoy life like a kid.

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The first is to be exuberant.

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Kids don't feel the need to play it cool

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or push things to the side

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or not show how excited they are to do new things.

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They will show you their joy.

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They will show you their sadness,

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but that unfettered exuberance that kids have

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is something I would like to emulate more in my own life.

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And letting other people around me know

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that they are contributing to my joy

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and not enough you need to do this for me kind of way,

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just like I really appreciate

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that you're here with me together kind of way.

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I don't know if any other teachers experienced this,

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but my students when they really like something,

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when they enjoyed a story that I read

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or a new math game that I showed them

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or a problem to solve or a puzzle to solve,

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they would applause, like literal applause

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after I explained something to them

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or showed something to them.

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If they liked it, they were clapping.

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And pre 2020, I don't ever remember this happening,

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but it happened every year after.

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If kids saw something they liked, they would let me know.

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They would clap and I was like,

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feeling like Lady Gaga and her applause song.

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But it was fun for me to know that they were enjoying

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what I was doing because that's what I wanted.

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I want them to enjoy the experience of coming to school,

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want to engage in the things that we're doing

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so that learning can occur in this fun, exciting way.

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So first thing I learned is to be exuberant.

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Second thing is to be curious.

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If you're around little ones,

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you know that there are questions, questions, questions.

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Why are we doing this?

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What is this doing?

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What does that do?

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Are we gonna do this later?

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The questions seem to go on and on and on.

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But little people really do wanna know what's going on.

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They wanna know about the world around them

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and connecting with people is part about being curious.

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What do you want to know?

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What is going on in your day?

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Tell me about your life, tell me about your family.

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That's what can carry a conversation

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and help you get to know people on a deeper level.

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And I am guilty of this too, talking about me, me, me.

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Even here, I'm talking about my experiences with you,

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but that's because you're not right in front of me

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to carry on this conversation,

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but I would love it if you would.

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You can always find me on Instagram.

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The link is in my show notes.

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You can always follow me there, DM me there.

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I love talking with other people

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about what are you struggling with?

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What is a win that you've had?

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So being curious is the second thing

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that I made sure to incorporate into my life

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and reminded to do so by my kindergarten students.

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The next thing that my kindergarten students taught me

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is to be helpful.

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And obviously we're there as teachers

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to help the kids learn, but also just in the little things.

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If I ask for help from a student,

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can you help me with this?

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Can you help me with that?

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They'll automatically say yes.

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If they see a classmate struggling,

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they want to help.

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If they see a classmate has fallen on the playground,

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I always had too many volunteers

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wanting to take them into the clinic for a band-aid

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or to help them feel better.

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And helping others can help ourselves.

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It can calm our amygdala, make us feel less stressed

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and give us a sense of purpose and belonging.

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And being helpful is contagious.

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In a good way, we want to create a community

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of helpful people and hopefully they will help other people

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and help other people and it goes into the world.

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But always not at the detriment of yourself

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because as teachers, we can often take on too much

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or try to do too much and we can't pour from an empty cup,

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which is a cliche admittedly, but something to keep in mind.

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And the last but not least thing

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that I witnessed every day in my classroom

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and I would love to take that out into the world more

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is to be kind.

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You will never meet more sweet, kind and thoughtful people

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than a classroom full of five-year-olds.

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We know that kids can be mean to each other,

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can be cruel to each other, can hurt each other's feelings,

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but that is by no means the norm.

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That happens on occasion.

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But overall, kids genuinely are really kind

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and want to be kind to each other.

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They know what kindness is.

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They can recognize it in other people.

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And just like being helpful, kindness is contagious.

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We do lessons about kindness every year

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and there's a video you may have seen before,

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but my students love it every single year.

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It's the Life Vest Inside kindness video

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and it doesn't have any words,

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but one person helps somebody

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and then that person helps somebody else

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and helps somebody else.

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And it's like a helping chain, a kindness chain

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that gets back to the person who started it.

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I show students that video every year

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and every year they'll say, can we watch it again?

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Can we watch it again?

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They really love it.

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They recognize it, it gives a warm, fuzzy feeling

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and they go out into the world wanting to do.

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So a little bit of a different type of podcast,

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but in case you needed a little reminder

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or something to think on,

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what you can learn from your students.

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First one is to be exuberant.

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Don't be afraid to show people that you are having a good day,

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you're enjoying things

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or when you're not having a good day,

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just be your authentic self.

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There is no need to play it cool.

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The second is to be curious,

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curious about yourself, curious about other people,

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curious about how the world works.

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Third is to be helpful, not just to yourself,

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helping yourself, but helping other people around you.

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And last but not least is to be kind.

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And I am curious about you.

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I'm curious about if there's things that resonated with you,

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if there are things that you've learned from your students,

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I would love to know.

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Make sure to give me a follow on Instagram or send me a DM

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and we can start a chat,

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a helpfulness, curious, kind chat together.

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And until then, I will catch you next time.

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If you're enjoying the podcast,

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it would mean the world to me if you left a review

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and shared it with someone

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who you think might enjoy it as well.