Teaching Middle School ELA
Welcome to the Teaching Middle School ELA podcast, where we are dedicated to helping English Language Arts teachers create dynamic and engaging lessons for their students, while also managing the day-to-day responsibilities that come with being a Middle School ELA teacher.
As educators ourselves, we understand the challenges of finding a work-life balance that allows us to pursue our passion for teaching while also enjoying our personal lives. That's why each Tuesday, hosts Caitlin Mitchell and Jessica Cannata share practical and innovative solutions for managing your workload and staying inspired in your teaching practice.
Whether you are looking for fresh ideas to inspire your students, strategies for improving your writing instruction, or tips for managing your time more effectively, this podcast is designed to provide you with the tools you need to thrive as a Middle School ELA teacher.
Join us each week for curriculum and lesson ideas, classroom stories, and interviews with fellow educators who are experts in the field. We believe that with the right support and resources, you can create a classroom environment that encourages students to become strong and passionate learners.
If you teach reading and writing to middle schoolers and want to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices in ELA education, then this is the podcast for you! Tune in every week and let us help you make a difference in the lives of your students and in your own teaching career.
Teaching Middle School ELA
Mindset Favorite: Protecting Your Energy
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Let’s take a moment to revisit one of our favorite Monday Mindset episodes!
Your energy has the power to transform every interaction—are you elevating those around you?
Learn practical strategies to protect and project positivity, reflect on your energy levels, and align your actions with your best self. Surround yourself with uplifting individuals and discover the profound impact of intentional energy on your journey to fulfillment.
Here’s to another day of living intentionally.
Caitlin
Well, hello teachers, and welcome to your Monday Mindset podcast episode. These are short, little snippets of thoughts, reflections that I share with you on a weekly basis, that are focused around mindset things that we can do to live our best lives, to live an intentional life, and I invite you to not just listen to these for yourself and how they apply to you in your life, but consider sharing them with other people too. Consider sharing them with your students every Monday and having a conversation about it and doing a reflection together, because I think a lot of these thoughts, these topics, these questions are just a part of being human, and sometimes being human can feel lonely and to know that other people are struggling through some of the same challenges that you are and are benefiting from having these types of conversations is hugely powerful in allowing us to get to be the best version of ourselves, to take who we are and who we be and who we show up in the world as to that next level. So I really hope that you enjoy these Monday Mindsets and, if you do, let us know over on our Instagram at Evie Academics. Thanks so much for listening and let's dive into our Monday Mindset.
Speaker 1:For today's Monday Mindset, I want to focus on our energy and how much our energy, you know, what we put out into the world really matters in how we show up and how people respond to us in our interactions with our daily lives. And I think that we don't realize how much the energy we give off to others is reciprocated back to us. And you know, I think a lot of us fall into this like victim mentality sometimes, that, oh, it's a bad day, everything's going wrong, all of these complaints, whatever it might be and yes, of course there are bad days, of course things happen to us that we maybe wish wouldn't happen to us. And you look around, there are always people who, no matter what, are positive or happy because they choose to be. And I'm not talking about toxic positivity, by any means. I'm talking about the energy that we choose to hold onto and the energy that we choose intentionally to show up with in the world.
Speaker 1:And someone said to me once I can't remember who it was, in the exact phrasing, but it was something like you know, are you an energy giver or are you an energy taker? And we all know that person who walks into our classroom or who walks into our office or walks into our home who's an energy taker? And we think to ourselves, oh man, here we go right. Or we have that person who's an energy giver who walks in and we're excited to see them and we want to be around them and we want to have interactions with them. And I invite you to consider and think about who you are.
Speaker 1:How do you show up on a daily basis? I have this conversation with myself all the time. Am I being an energy taker or am I being an energy giver? Because, at the end of the day, taker, or am I being an energy giver Because, at the end of the day, it's not about the things that we say yes, those matter, and it's about who we be. It's about our beingness, our energy level, and to protect your energy is so incredibly important. So what can you do in your life to protect that energy, to ensure that you are able to create a positive energy about you, to be around people that are like, yes, you are an energy giver, I want to spend more time with you, as opposed to the opposite of people feeling about you oh man, I wish they weren't in my classroom. We don't want people to feel that way about us, right. And so it takes a lot of self-reflection, because I was there.
Speaker 1:I was definitely an energy taker, especially in certain relationships in my life, and when I took a step back and I really looked at myself and I really looked at who I wanted to be and who I was being and what parts of who I be, was I going to get to change in order to be the person that I wanted to be?
Speaker 1:And I don't think that there's anything wrong with that, and I invite you to think about too are you being the person that you want to be, or is there a different way of being that you get to show up in the world as?
Speaker 1:And how can you make that adjustment? How can you make that shift? And I think the first thing is and starting with the recognition of self that I'm not being who I want to be, and the beautiful thing about that is that we have the conscious and subconscious power to change who we be, to adjust how we be, to adjust those energy levels and the way in which we show up for other people in the world as an energy giver instead of an energy taker. And so sit with yourself for a little bit. It's hard, absolutely, and it's a massive shift that gets to happen in your life, where you get to decide your level of positivity, your level of energy, your level of your way of being, and no one else, not the external circumstances that does not control your life you get to. So some food for thought. Hopefully that serves you, and here's to another great week of living intentionally.