Taking Time to Learn

What happens when we model for students how we, too, are learners? Join Molly and special guest Muriel Summers, as they talk about the power of the Inside-Out Approach to learning and teaching.

Transcript

09.19.23 Taking Time to Learn (EL) S1 E1 v.2

Molly: [00:00:00] From Leader in Me Studios, I'm Molly Garcia. 

Molly: Welcome everyone to The Empowering Teacher Podcast for elementary. Today we're going to spend some time with Muriel Summers, our Leader in Me  Global Ambassador, but before she joins us, I'm really excited because Dr. Eve is here with me. She will be joining us on our podcast adventure this season

Eve: Hi, Molly. So good to be here.

Molly: We are talking practical and tactical strategies that we can implement immediately in the classroom, and you are going to be addressing the research that supports the learning to help us go deeper into its effectiveness. And this, Eve, has got me wondering.

Molly: What would happen if we disregarded everything that we've told our students about being lifelong learners, that we learn powerfully by engaging in those new learning opportunities. That critical piece around embracing productive struggle, and of course applying new learning and sharing it with others.

Molly: I mean, what if we tried to teach them with words but not [00:01:00] with our actions? That doesn't feel right because students' growth and learning starts with us. So let's invite the power of research into our conversation, Eve. Talk to us about the importance of self-development and why it's important for us to model to students that we invest in our own learning.

Eve: Molly, I love this question and I love this idea of, of thinking about how just modeling can share this important concept. It made me think of a recent study that came out, and it was looking at the impact of distance learning on teachers during the COVID-19 school closures, and I doubt you'll be surprised by what they found.

Eve: Teachers reported record high levels of emotional exhaustion. Yeah, and they also found, and this was unexpected, a small group of teachers that they looked at fared far better, showing little or no sign of emotional exhaustion. So, intrigued by this, the researchers [00:02:00] dug deeper into the data to understand what was different about these teachers. So, what do you think?

Molly: So, I would guess they had probably more online experience, or my brain goes to maybe perhaps they worked in schools with more resources or supports.

Eve: Right yeah. I was thinking that, too, as I was reading it, but they accounted for all of those things and what they found actually was that those were not significant, and what was significant between the emotionally exhausted teachers and those who were not was self-efficacy. 

Molly: Okay. Say more. Say more about self efficacy.

Eve: Yes. Yeah, yeah. Right, right. So, like what does that mean? So the teachers who believed they could do something difficult—that's self-efficacy, right?—were more likely to view the shift to distance learning as an opportunity to learn. While the teachers who reported low levels of self-efficacy [00:03:00] saw the shift as a threat, and it was those teachers who saw it as a threat, who were more emotionally exhausted. And the ones who didn't feel emotionally exhausted, they were the ones who approached this as an opportunity to learn.

Molly: And this is exactly what we want for students, right?

Eve: Right, right, exactly. That they develop a sense of “I can do hard things and we can do hard things,” right? So, as educators, we can take students on our learning journey by modeling to them our own process of self-development and taking on those hard things.

Molly: This is so powerful, Eve. I love it. Thank you so much for this background. Now Let's explore this Inside-Out Approach with Muriel Summers.

Molly: Muriel. Welcome back to The Empowering Teacher Podcast for elementary.

Muriel: Hi Molly. I am so happy to be back with you again.

Molly: It is always such an honor to have just time with you, and we gain so [00:04:00] much insight from your wisdom. I would love to start our conversation around the experience that you've had with the Insid- Out Approach, the intentional choice to start with ourselves first.

Muriel: Well, first of all, Molly, thank you. I'm so honored to be here, and when I reflect back on the teachings of the 7 Habits, of course we know that this Inside-Out Approach is all about working on ourselves first. It's like the Private Victory, Habits 1, 2, and 3. And this is the one thing I think that's my greatest takeaway from the Inside-Out Approach is that we can't help others or we can't fill others' buckets, if you will, if we're empty ourselves. If we feel unfulfilled, others are going to notice that.

Muriel: And so, really taking a look and, and giving yourself permission to grow and to learn and to take care of yourself, because when you [00:05:00] do, uou're much more effective and you're in a much better position to serve and help others.

Molly: I hear that down to the core of my heart. Thank you for reminding us of that. My wondering is, when it comes down to the daily practices, what are some of those practical ways that teachers can be intentional about their own growth?

Molly: And then maybe in your experience, what are some rookie mistakes I think that we can make unintentionally.

Muriel: Yeah, I think we have learned a lot, uh, over the past couple of years about professional development. It doesn't need to be a whole day event necessarily. It can be 15 minutes here or 5 minutes here, or visiting another teacher's classroom, and learning from one another. One of the greatest things that I witnessed and realized, was that often the best professional development we can ever have is right up underneath our own [00:06:00] schoolhouse roof.

Muriel: And that's learning and growing and thinking abundantly with one another, and stretching ourselves to be the very best that we can be. 

Muriel: You know, I have to sometimes think, do I have time for this? And my response would be, we have to make time for this. We are in positions where others are so dependent upon us to show up every day being the best version of ourselves. And the way that we can do that is through giving ourselves permission and time to invest in us. Invest in the best professional development that's out there to help us be the best educators possible.

Muriel: Some of the rookie mistakes that I think that we make is not giving ourselves permission to take the time to grow and develop in the ways that we long to grow and develop in, and ways in which we [00:07:00] perhaps need to grow and develop.

Muriel: So again, recognizing where your strengths are and aligning that with the professional development that is afforded you, as well as, um, stretching yourself to learn something new and making the time to make that happen.

Molly: Yeah, and it's that investment in our own growth because we know that's going to definitely impact our students. So I want us to wrap up with this question, Muriel. When we invest in our own learning, what results do we get for ourselves and of course for our students?

Muriel: Well, you know, Molly, when I reflect back on my 43 years, I don't think I recall one single staff development that I didn't come back fired up about with a new idea, uh, or a new strategy or something that was said that ignited something else. And I couldn't wait to [00:08:00] share with my colleagues what I had learned.

Muriel: And more importantly, I couldn't wait to practice what I had learned with my students. And I think as a result of that, students learned directly and indirectly the importance of us all being lifelong learners and never forgetting the importance of learning and growing to be the very best that we can be.

Muriel: I felt like my students benefited every time I went to a staff development and came back with some kind of new learning.

Molly: It is so inspiring, and so contagious, and our students get to see it firsthand what lifelong learners look and sound like in our teachers. It is always such an impactful and inspiring time when we get to join you for any conversation. So thank you for sharing with us the impact that we have when we invest in our learning.

Molly: And of course, a big thank you to our listeners. Keep shining. You've got this.