Heart and School Podcast
God's heart. Your school.
Educators and friends, Gina, Nicky, and Laura, share inspiration, practical tips and laughs to encourage you in your calling as a Catholic School educator. Come to have your cup filled with reminders of God’s love for you and your school!
Heart and School Podcast
S1 E1 - Spiritually Preparing for the School Year
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In this episode of the Heart in School podcast, hosts Nicky, Laura, and Gina share a humorous story from their time at Camp along with important beginning of the school year mindsets and ideas for spiritually preparing for year.
In this episode of the Heart in School podcast, you'll hear some funny stories, ways to spiritually prepare for the start of the school year, and lots in between. We're so glad that you're here.
SPEAKER_00Welcome to the Heart in School podcast, where we take time in the middle of our busy educator schedules to consider God's heart for each one of us in our schools. It's a place where you can find inspiration, practical tips, and hopefully a few laughs to encourage you in your calling as a Catholic school educator. My name is Gina, and each week I am joined by my educator friends Nikki and Laura. We can't wait to journey with you as we allow the Lord to fill our cups and remind us of the sacredness of our work in his schools. Hi, friends. Hi. Hello. I've been looking forward to sharing something with you both, which is yesterday I dropped off my youngest two at Camp Tekowitha, which is a Catholic camp for the Diocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin. And it always gives me all the feels because of our own time at Camp Gray, the camp for the diocese of Madison. So there's just something special about being at camp. And it makes me think of you ladies since that's where we all met. And I just really love my kids being there. Yeah, camp is the best. But it was funny like going to bed last night. So my my youngest two are 10 and 11. And my one daughter is quite home. It's like when she leaves. And so me leaving her there is always a bit emotional and just interesting to get her to feel comfortable to stay. But as I was going to bed last night, I was thinking about her and just thinking about, you know, that first night of camp. And it made me remember one of my classic camp stories that I thought I would recount if you guys are up for it. Because as an educator, it taught me some good lessons regarding working with kids in general and might be a nice way to start off our podcast. So can I story time? Take us back to camp for a minute. So this was actually my very first week ever working at camp. Um I worked there for three summers. How many summers did you all work there? I don't think I know that.
SPEAKER_03I was there for I was there about three now and then a year round. Okay, one year.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So I think of all the weeks I worked there for three summers, I worked with middle school and high schoolers every single week, except for my very first week. They put me with the very youngest campers, which are like seven years old. Tiny little gals. And the thing I was looking forward to most about working at camp of all the different activities we did was the nighttime devotions, which was like at the end of the night when they all got in their PJs, and right before they went to bed, we would sit and do some sort of activity or discussion about God. And I was prepping to be a middle school teacher. I had hoped to be a religion teacher. And obviously now I'm a campus minister. So I love teaching the faith directly and I was really excited about it. So I had something planned. I don't even remember what it was. Nikki, I think you were in the co-counselor.
SPEAKER_02I think that's what they called.
SPEAKER_00I was a co-pilot. You got to be a part of this special scene. Um we get all the girls sitting in a circle, which seven-year-olds at the end of the night, that's quite a feat, right? To just even get them sitting in a circle. And I was like ready to launch into whatever, you know, Jesus thing I was gonna teach. And I look across the circle, and this little girl is sucking vigorously on her big toe. Just going at her big toe. And it was like a reaction I couldn't even stop myself to think about, you know, just giving her a look or asking you, Nikki, to like maybe go say something to her. Please stop that. Say something privately. I just like blurted out, you can't suck on your toe. Which made everybody's head turn towards her. And, you know, before you know it, five people are sucking on their toes, and then all of a sudden all ten of the girls are sucking on their toes and they're just laughing and to see to do it.
SPEAKER_01That was why. It became a challenge. Yes.
SPEAKER_00Yes, to see like, could they make it happen? And then it just became giggle fest and like giggles and sucking back and forth, and it was just mayhem. And I did not know what to do. Like, honestly, this was so out of my league, and all I wanted to do was teach them about Jesus. And so what I ended up doing was just saying, like, okay, you can have five more seconds to suck on your toes, and then we're gonna be done. And I counted down from five, and I was like, suck with all your might because we're gonna be done. Five, four, three, two, one. And then it was like, done. And I don't think we ever recovered. Did we recover, Nikki? Like, I think it was like, Jesus loves you. Jesus loves you. We'll try again tomorrow. Um, and honestly, it was funny, but it was like disturbing, and it was also kind of sad that my lesson, because that's what I was looking forward to, didn't go the way that I wanted. Um, but isn't that how it goes with education sometimes? You can plan and plan and be so excited. And it was such a good lesson. They would have loved it. Instead, we sucked on toes. But I think as I think about my own kids being at camp now, and I just I know my sweet daughter, she asked me actually to tell the counselor before I left that she was probably gonna feel very homesick and they could stop and check in with her at her bedside. And it just made me think of that first night, you know, this chaotic toe-sucking story. But then like minutes later, we're at these little girls' bedsides rubbing their back and giving them encouragement and, you know, helping them to feel comfortable and loved when they're away from their homes. And there's such a power in expressing God's love in that way that I think sometimes as educators, we spend a lot of time prepping and God willing, our lessons are gonna go well as well. Um, and sometimes they do, and it's really magical, and sometimes they don't, and that's all a part of it. But I just think there's so many opportunities for us to express the love of God to our students throughout the course of a day, a school year, and we don't want to miss those Holy Spirit moments and the ways God is gonna work through us there. And I think the beauty of being in a Catholic school is that there are so many ways that we can do that explicitly and we can remember why it is that we're there and that even if a lesson doesn't go perfectly, God is still working in all kinds of ways in our schools. Yeah, it's just a good mindset as we get started with the school year and all that we're gonna do. Just wondering as you both think about, you know, the upcoming year, like is there any mindsets that you like to take into a school year that help is helpful for you or might be encouraging to our listeners?
SPEAKER_02For me, it's probably the same mindset every year, and that's like I need to go into my space and prepare my space and make it this home for our class year. So while I'm making sure all my bulletin boards look the way I want them to, I'm also though being prepared on the inside. Like, okay, I'm getting ready to welcome these kids to this space. And it doesn't have to look perfect. Like this year is probably one of the first years I have just tweaked and adjusted. It's not like something glamorous and huge, but I've found that like when this space is ready, I'm able to make it more peaceful and ready to welcome the kids.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's that's awesome. I think there's such an important uh reality of like knowing that you've been thought of and prepared for. So like the students when they walk in the classroom and see their name tags or see those bulletin boards, like and see beauty. Beauty moves our hearts. Definitely and it helps us to see, oh, I was thought of. So like hospitality goes a really long way in the classroom because you are creating a home space away from their own homes. And so for them to be able to experience your love through preparation, I think is really important. And you know, beauty itself isn't functional and it's some it's a way to express love, which again reflects God in a really beautiful way, even just in how you're preparing the space. And it's easy, I think, to get totally overwhelmed by preparing the space. And every start of the school year, you know, there was one year in particular I worked when I was a principal at a Catholic elementary school. I had a newer teacher who was really working very hard to prepare her classroom. She had so many beautiful plans, and it was a lot, like a lot, a lot that she was trying to do. And and there was a retired teacher who came who was helping someone else set up her classroom and you know, just kind of hearing all of the anxiety that was coming out of this young teacher as she tried to prepare her classroom and I think make things perfect, which again is this beautiful desire of her heart to make this place and space welcoming and wonderful for the students. But this older retired teacher just said to her, you know what? The students won't know what you didn't get done. And so, like we oftentimes have all these plans that that might be about more than just welcoming the students, you know. And so, just a way of reminding ourselves, yes, it's important to be prepared and to prepare, but but to not let that overtake all of the preparations that we need to make, particularly interiorly and spiritually, like as we minister in our Catholic schools and you know, just to be attentive to what are some ways we can spiritually prepare for our ourselves and for our students as well. Gina, any any thoughts on that? The spiritual preparation.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think that's really wise. And I think as teachers and educators, we know that our to-do list is endless and you're not gonna get to every single thing. I think a lot of educators too are perfectionists and we have like all these ideas of how we want to make things perfect, and it's it's legitimately not possible. And so you're always gonna have to give and take in different ways. And I think I love that question, Laura, because I think we should put a lot of that first. Like, how do we prepare ourselves interiorly? Like you said, Nikki, and that includes spiritually, so that our person is ready. And I think that's what we like what we're hoping to do with this podcast too, is just give the ability for people to spend a little time thinking about those interior things on a regular basis to be inspired to remember why it is that we're doing what we're doing so that we never lose sight of that in the in the endless to-do list that we have, especially when it comes to like logistics. So yeah, I spiritually preparing for the school year is something that when I was a classroom teacher, one thing I always did was I wrote a prayer for my school year that I wanted to be kind of like a prayer that I came back to. And I tried to do it based on both where I was at in my own life and teaching career, but then also what I knew, like maybe about the incoming class and what I was hoping to do with the Lord for them. And I would keep that tucked in my binder that I kept all of my grading and whatnot in so I would see it, and I would try to pray it on a regular basis. So that's one thing as a teacher that I always did that really helped center me.
SPEAKER_03It's awesome.
SPEAKER_00I'd love to hear other ideas that you ladies have too.
SPEAKER_02I think just starting like as a base level. I don't know if many people feel this way too, but I would venture, guess they do, that at the beginning of the year I always wonder like, do I have enough for this school year? Am I gonna be able to meet their needs? Can I do it again? Because every year feels like a huge feat. And I have those like thoughts creep in that starting your school year at a base level of no, I don't have enough. And just remembering, hey, this is not my year. It's God's year, he's gonna do with it what he wants, and like taking yourself back to that base level of zero.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I think I think that's I think that's great. I think it goes back to the importance of of prayer, like personal prayer too, and like what is what does that look like from the perspective of, oh, I don't have time to pray. And I remember pretty vividly, you know, when I was in graduate school to be a principal, a professor, we we had pretty structured prayer times that we would all gather to pray together. And and he would say, if you don't think you have time to pray, that's when you need it the most. And so when you start to get into a cadence of of prayer, like if you don't, you we should, we all should. Um, but if there's if that starts to lag, that means that it should be prioritized even more. And you know what, bring your students into that, you know. If you're like, oh, you know what, I need a little prayer time. How about we all walk over to the chapel? Because that's probably we could all use it, you know, and that's never time that's wasted. So just a an opportunity to to show them the importance of, you know what, we were gonna do this, but but I think it'd be really good for us to spend some time with the Lord today. So we're gonna walk over and do that. So just taking those opportunities because we have access to churches or chapels, you know, access to Jesus and the Blessed Sacrament. I think that's really important.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I love that. I think that's a great gift of being an educator in a Catholic school, is that we do have access to chapel and to the Lord in the tabernacle. We can pop in and I know that like the Lord is delighted to see us, even if it's like a 15 second, like sometimes I'll just put my head in the chapel and like wave at him and then keep going. You know, it's just there's power in connecting with the Lord even briefly in the midst of our school day. We can bring him our joys. We can, you know, I've been on the ground before before the tabernacle praying about that student I just can't connect with and begging him to help me with it. So I think I love that idea of the the chapel and bringing your students into it as well.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I think one other thing too, like as you prepare your classroom and prepare the space is praying specifically for individual students. There was a teacher that I knew who, as she set up her classroom and periodically throughout the year, so this wasn't a one and done sort of thing, is she would sit in each student's desk chair. So sit in the chair and then offer a prayer by name for that particular student. So she would gradually make her way around the room in each of the chairs, just saying, you know, I pray for Brian today, you know, I know he's going through a lot with his family, and I Lord, I offer him up to you and then moving, you know, I pray for Jessica, you know, who's doing this or that or struggling with this, you know, and just, you know, help me, help me be you to these students. And it was just a really beautiful visual of from seat to seat specifically for each of those students. I mean, you can you can do that. It doesn't take very long to do that, offering those prayers and just doing that periodically for either particular needs or general needs um for the school year. I think it's a beautiful way to bless the space uh that you have and and to keep each student by name at the forefront. Maybe it gets a little trickier if you're teaching high school um and have 200 students, but you can do it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And that that makes me think our campus ministry team for our whole system uh is doing something very similar to start our school year. So before the school year starts, we're going to invite parents and staff who would like to join to come to each campus and we're gonna go through the building and do a prayer in all of the spaces, so you know, in the cafeteria, on the playground, and in all of the classrooms, and then just stop at each desk and say, Come, Holy Spirit. So even like at a high school, if you don't know what, you know, the name of the student or what their particular needs are, even just to say, Come Holy Spirit, like upon this spot, do your work here. And we're planning to do that at all the schools. Another thing that we're gonna do, speaking of spiritually preparing, is we have four campuses of two elementary, a middle school, and a high school. We're gonna have uh a time when there's just work time at each of the campuses for in service. We're gonna bring in a couple of priests to offer confession and blessings for our for our staff members as an optional thing, like to encourage them to get your soul squeaky clean as you're preparing for your year or, you know, come and get just a blessing from the priest for your work. And I'm just really excited to offer that to our teachers. And then one other thing I was gonna throw out that we're doing as our campus ministry team is we have quite a few new teachers coming in from our entire system. And we are going to give them a gift to start the year from our campus ministry team. And what it's gonna be is a spiritual bouquet. So for any of our listeners who aren't familiar with that, it's basically like you just collect prayers from different people. We're gonna do it within our community of other teachers, and you offer to them and say, you know, like 10 Hail Marys and 20 Our Fathers and 50 Glory Bees were offered for you as a spiritual bouquet so that they feel not only do they feel supported, but we believe that those prayers are actually effective and we're gonna just give them the gift of God's grace to start the school year. And I'm just really excited to be giving that to them as a gift, a spiritual gift to start the year.
SPEAKER_02I love hearing that. Like if you read a spiritual bouquet that was like somebody is playing praying for you right now on your first day of school as a first year teacher, that would bring me so much comfort.
SPEAKER_03And just ease the anxiety of like this, you know, like you said, like this is this is the Lord's work, and we should be free. And, you know, we've been invited to cooperate with his work very directly with the the people who are in front of us, be it our students, our fellow, our colleagues, our fellow teachers, you know, all those who are ministering at the school. Like all of those are ways we can witness to the Lord's love. And like part of that is just how we respond. Like when I'm really busy, really stressed out, and that kid asks for the directions, you know, the 15th time, how I respond, like it's gonna happen, you know, and we know it's gonna happen. But how I respond is oftentimes a louder message of the gospel than me explicitly saying something directly about Jesus, you know, and so how we live as Christian witnesses in this vocation to educate, I think really matters a whole lot. And how we witness to the students, but also to fellow teachers and educators and fellow ministers in the school. I think it's really important to be attentive to those relationships and those responses and how are we encouraging people on the way too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I totally agree. And I think that that becomes I don't know if it's ever easy, but we have to keep tapping into the Lord in order to make that even possible. If I'm gonna be patient with my kids, like I need a heap of grace to help me uh do that because we know, you know, our patience can run thin or things just don't go the way that we expect them to go. But if we're full of, you know, the Holy Spirit, it's gonna become more possible. So I just I wanted to throw out we um we have an Instagram page for our podcast, and my hope with that is that we can take some of what we've done in the episodes and bring our community together to share ideas. I love getting ideas from other educators, and so I would love for our listeners to go to our Instagram page and share any other ideas that they have about how to spiritually prepare for the year from their own experience, the experience of the schools that they've been in, and we can just build up our community in that way as well. And then I also wanted to invite everybody, so we are going to start a novena to Catholic schools, so nine days of prayer to Catholic schools on August 18th, once a day for nine straight days. We will put a prayer up on our Instagram for the novena to Catholic schools to pray for the 50 million K-12 age students and the over five million staff members around the world. We'll get our community praying, walking the walk of spiritually preparing together as a community. So I invite everybody to go to our heart and school Instagram. It's heart spelledout dot and spelled out dot school spelled out. And you can find us there. Hope you'll join us. Love talking with you ladies. Laura, would you be up for closing us in a little prayer?
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. Uh, in the name of the Father, and of the son, and the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit. Lord, we invite you to be with us and just ask for uh hearts that are able to receive you and that are disposed to allowing your grace to work in our lives and through our lives to reach those that you place in front of us. We thank you for the wonderful gift of being called to and invited to minister in Catholic education and just ask for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all the students, parents, fellow co-ministers in our Catholic schools, our priests who support our schools and for all those who make Catholic education possible. Lord, we ask that we can humbly serve you this school year and that your will be done in us and through us. And we ask this all in Jesus' name. Amen. Father's Son, Spirit.
SPEAKER_00Father's Son. Amen.
SPEAKER_02Thank you, Laura.
SPEAKER_00Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode. If you enjoyed it, would you share it with a friend or two and leave us a review? We also invite you to follow the Heart and School Instagram page for more encouragement and practical tips for your Catholic educator journey. We are praying for you and your schools. See you next week.