Today on Beyond My Years, host Ana Torres learns from Fawn Nguyen, a math educator with over 30 years of classroom experience! Fawn tells Ana the story of her near-death experience being lost at sea while escaping Vietnam, and explains how it shaped the sense of gratitude she leads with in the classroom. She also discusses what it means to be yourself in the classroom, the importance of sharing your mistakes with your students, and the merits of advocacy vs. authority with students. Taking all those lessons back to the classroom, Ana and Classroom Insider Eric Cross then discuss connecting with students through shared struggles and challenges.

Show notes:

• Connect with Fawn Nguyen: https://fawnnguyen.substack.com/
• Subscribe to Beyond My Years https://amplify.com/beyond-my-years
• Follow us on Instagram @amplify.education 
• Connect with Eric Cross: https://www.ericcross.org/ 
• Connect with Ana Torres: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anayansi-ana-torres-m-ed-26a10654/

Quotes:
“We spend so much time [in the classroom] day in and day out. For some of us, it's actually more interaction than we have with our own family. And it is family. So be yourself. You're going to make mistakes, but what's nice about it if we think of it as family, is that we get to apologize and tomorrow is a new day.” —Fawn Nguyen

“It has to be an exchange. We can't be just receiving, asking kids to be [themselves], and yet we ourselves are not.” —Fawn Nguyen

“[Seasoned educators] are experienced and experience means good and bad. We want to learn from both. I certainly didn't want a mentor who never made a mistake, ‘cause I'm not gaining anything.” —Fawn Nguyen

“It's about separating the behavior from the person. And another thing, separate what they don't know at the time from what they're capable of.” —Fawn Nguyen

“I don't mind telling kids the mistakes I've made because I'm hoping that they're listening and that, then that’s okay. To move from it, to learn from it, and not repeat it is the whole idea and to admit when we're wrong.” —Fawn Nguyen

“In my next lifetime, I would still teach, I would go back to teaching. That's how much I love it.” —Fawn Nguyen

“The mistake that you make today, what would it look like if somebody else made that mistake, for example, when people share something they did that they're not so proud of, what would be my advice to them? And so I want to give myself that advice because we're hardest on ourselves.” —Fawn Nguyen