Shaping Little Minds

Are you a teacher feeling unsupported or an admin wanting to provide more support for your staff? You’ve come to the right place! Today, I have the honor of speaking to Carla Ward, a fabulous early childhood educator, all about finding and providing support in an early childhood center. Carla has become a great friend and colleague. I am so excited to have had the opportunity to bring her onto the podcast this week and talk about all things teacher support. 

This week’s episode covers:

• The importance of support in your ECE center
• How administrators can provide support for their teachers
• How teachers can find their own support system by finding a community

Thank you so much for listening to this episode today. I have a favor to ask you… if you enjoyed this episode as much as I did, I would be so appreciative if you could share this episode with your friends, leave a review, or just share the episode on Instagram and tag me @shapinglittlemindspodcast. I love connecting with you and I can’t wait to hear from you. 

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Parent Teacher Conference time can be an extraordinarily stressful time. It’s not only the normal day to day teaching work but also preparing materials for conferences, which can be pretty time consuming. My first year doing conferences, I waited until the very last minute to really prepare. If you know me or if you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know that I am the world’s biggest procrastinator. Don’t get me wrong, I am by no means advocating for doing things last minute. Truth is, procrastination will end biting you in the ass. 

In this episode, we cover:

• My experience during my first year teaching
• What I did in preparation for conferences
• Strategies to manage your time 

Which one are you? The procrastinator who waits until the last minute or the one who manages their time in a way that lets you complete tasks before conferences come up?

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If you haven’t already heard, being a classroom teacher means you ARE a leader. You lead your students each year in order to help each of them find success. You lead your classroom in the way you think is most effective. So in order to find that success both in your students and in your classroom, you need to be open to not only giving feedback but receiving it as well. 

In the episode, we cover:

• Definition of feedback & it’s importance in the classroom
• 3 tools to giving feedback in an effective way
• Being open to feedback & how it can help you grow

The only thing I want for you is for you to feel successful; whatever success might look to you both inside and outside the classroom. Feedback is an important part of the growth process both for us, as teachers and for your students.

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Don’t get me wrong, I was not reflective in my first years of teaching. I didn’t really take the time to sit with myself to think and review. It can be scary to sit with your thoughts and feel those feelings. Am I right?! BUT being a reflective teacher actually makes you a better teacher in the long run. Who knew? Being a reflective person can make big changes in your life! Imagine that. 

In this episode, we cover:

• The list of excuses
• What reflective teaching looks like
• How reflection can benefit you and your teaching

If you're interested in starting or continuing your practice of reflection or you just need a push to get you to continue in your reflective practice, this is the episode for you!

Listen now! And dive into my brand new Reflective Teaching Guide for Teachers by clicking the link below! It's waiting for you...

Dive in NOW: https://adva-hanan.mykajabi.com/offers/sBQ3dtkB
Follow: @shapinglittlemindspodcast

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Are you a teacher who’s always been interested in pursuing a leadership role outside the classroom? Do you feel like you’re getting your own way when it comes to actually stepping up and pursuing that role actively? 

Here’s how I did it:

• Mindset shift; believing in myself and pursuing the dream role even if I got turned down more than once.
• Spoke to others who have made the leap
• Surrounded myself with those who pushed me to keep going

Trust yourself and you’ll make it happen. Don’t get bogged down when you get a response like: “we’ve gone with a different candidate”. Surround yourself with those that believe in you. 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shapinglittlemindspodcast 

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Your relationship with each of your students in everything. It is the formation of trust between you and your student. It’s giving your students the feeling of comfort and safety when they walk into your classroom. This year, as teachers we had to figure out how to do all of this virtually. Who would have ever imagined having school online full-time?! Not me, that’s for sure! 

What we’ll cover in this episode:

• Importance of teacher-student relationships
• 3 ways to form those relationships both online and in the classroom
  • Morning Greetings
  • 1:1 interactions
  • Being an active listener

Heading into another school year feeling ready for growth, learning and so much more.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shapinglittlemindspodcast 

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The first weeks of school can feel stressful and overwhelming. When summer vacation began, I thought I had all the time in the world to relax, get ready for a new leadership role, and enjoy the summer. I’m still questioning how the summer is already coming to a close. 

Balancing life and teaching can be a struggle, especially the first weeks of school. Here are 3 teacher tips to help you find a balance:

1. Give yourself GRACE 
2. Work in your contracted hours
3. Make time for self-care each day

I want to challenge you today to tag me in your stories when you do something for YOU. I can't wait to see what you decide to do to fill your cup just a little each day.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shapinglittlemindspodcast 

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I am so excited to introduce you to my special guest on this week’s podcast episode. Sarah is a wife, a mom and an educator of 18 years and counting. A year ago, she stepped out of the classroom to become an entrepreneur and started Sarah Macias Consulting. She uses her life experience and expertise to provide high quality consultations for early childhood programs. Additionally, she is a mindset coach who serves parents and educators towards the best version of themselves.

In this episode, we talk about: 

• Balancing life & teaching; how she did it for 18 years in the midst of getting married and having children
• What kind of boundaries were necessary to find that balance and how they helped make her life that much better
• How mindset is incorporated into her daily life through teaching and entrepreneurship
• Three tips to anyone who is looking to live their life to the fullest

Go check out Sarah’s Facebook group with the link below. She brings so much knowledge and wisdom into a world that can feel overwhelming and stressful. 

Don’t forget to show us some love with a review, a download, or share. Thank you for listening!

Epic Parents & Teachers FB group: www.facebook.com/groups/851369475390532/
Shaping Little Minds Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/shapinglittlemindspodcast

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Can you believe we’re at the beginning of August already?! I can’t believe how quickly this summer flew by! It feels like just yesterday I had decided to leave my full-time teaching job and took a chance on myself. So many of you are starting to prepare to get yourselves settled back into a classroom and if you’ve been virtual all year, I’m sure there are a lot of mixed emotions happening right now.

What we’ll cover:

• Navigating those emotions of heading back into the classroom
• 3 tips to help you get ready to get back into the classroom
  • Give yourself GRACE
  • Self-Care
  • Nourish your body

Starting next week and for the rest of the month of August, I’ll be sharing short videos ALL about the “how” of preparing to get back into the classroom again after a year of virtual learning. Want to be a part of this? The link to sign up will be out next week! Keep your eyes peeled.

Shaping Little Minds Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/shapinglittlemindspodcast

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If you didn’t already know this, you ARE a leader. If you are teaching in front of an entire class of students, you are their leader. Even if you are a student teacher right now, you are still a leader. So, what is leadership? Leadership is defined as: the act of motivating a group of people to act toward achieving a common goal. 

As a teacher in the classroom, you wear a lot of different hats. You are doing so much for the students in your class to help them grow, develop and succeed. Some of those things include:

• Classroom management
• Differentiation
• Student seating
• Lesson Planning

All of the things you do on a daily basis is being the leader you need to be for your students. If you didn’t do these things, your classroom might be a bit disastrous. Being a leader in your classroom shows the students how to behave, what’s expected of them, what’s appropriate and inappropriate for your classroom environment. 

Also…if you missed my live workshop Leading with Confidence, I have recorded it just for YOU! You can grab for the next 24 hours with the link below.

Shaping Little Minds Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/shapinglittlemindspodcast
Lead with Confidence Workshop: https://adva-hanan.mykajabi.com/forms/2147600758

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