The Minimalist Educator Podcast
A podcast about paring down to focus on the purpose and priorities in our roles.
The Minimalist Educator Podcast
Episode 075: Season 4 Highlights!
We've compiled the best "pare down pointers" from our incredible Season 4 guests into one special highlights episode, offering powerful insights and reminders about minimizing complexity in education.
• Craig Rudolph emphasizes being available, responding promptly to inquiries, and genuinely listening to what people need
• Jill Cross shares how color-coding systems help both students and teachers with organization
• Dr. Michele Ogden reminds us "just because you can doesn't mean you should" when making career decisions
• Fred Ende recommends stepping away for 24 hours when facing complex problems
• Lisa Fort discusses classroom organization strategies that save time and reduce stress
• Lori Namey advocates for "people by day, paperwork by night" to prioritize human connections
• Dr. Krista Leh urges educators to remember they don't have to do anything alone
• Dr. Tom Hoerr challenges educators to prioritize self-care amid caring for others
• Lindsay Durkin emphasizes clearly defined objectives by asking "what are we solving for?"
We're taking a break for the summer but will be back with Season 5 featuring fresh conversations, new guests, and more ideas to explore. Thank you for being part of our growing community!
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Welcome to the Minimalist Educator Podcast, a podcast about paring down to refocus on the purpose and priorities in our roles with co-hosts and co-authors of the Minimalist Teacher Book, Tammy Musialski-Bornemann and Christine Arnold.
Speaker 2:Hi there and welcome back to the Minimalist Educator Podcast. On today's episode, we're doing something a little different but very special. We have got one of our highlights episodes for you. Our highlights episodes are always a favourite. In these episodes, we share the pare down pointers that our guests have shared with us all during the season.
Speaker 2:We've had some amazing guests on the show for this season of the podcast experts in their areas of education, who have had some wonderful tips to share with us. So, whether you're new here or whether you've been with us from the very start, this is the perfect chance to revisit some powerful insights and reminders about how we compare back in the work that we do. So let's sit back, relax and rewind the tape to listen into some of the fabulous wisdom from our guests that have shaped the podcast this season. Our first clip is from episode 67 with Craig Rudolph, where he spoke to us about the world of tutoring. His pare down pointer was all about how to be there for people, listening to what they want and getting them the help that they need.
Speaker 3:Well, answer the phone, I mean things like that. Or people come up to you at a show and stuff like be available. It's huge because lots of these places don't get back to you for two or three days Instantaneously. Get back to people. So if I get an online inquiry, if I can't get to it, I'll get to it as soon as I get home and back to people. So if I get an online inquiry, if I can't get to it, I'll get to it as soon as I get home and respond to people.
Speaker 3:Be genuine. I mean, there's times you can't help people, maybe we don't have the tutor, but I'll always point them in another direction, even to a competitor, if I have to. Just try to get them the help, because they'll appreciate that and they may circle back to you, regardless if the student ended up learning and having a good experience, that's really all we want and you show that that's always good. Um, I don't see a lot of other companies out in the community doing things and give. You know, giving stuff back and doing farmers markets stuff. I do a zillion of them.
Speaker 3:It's pretty fun. I love it. Then you're meeting somebody in person maybe the student or the parent or a tutor that you hire. So it's kind of nice. It's like a first meeting right away and you just have a discussion and more just listening to what people want instead of telling them what they want. I think that's massive. And then being able to make that match right away. So we say within 48 hours we can have somebody in place with you. If we can't, we'll try to guide you in the right direction. But 99 times out of 100, we're able to do that.
Speaker 2:Next up, let's revisit our conversation with Jill Cross in episode 63. Her pare down pointer was about color coding to aid with organization.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 4:So I was thinking about this ahead of us, talking and thinking about something that actually helps our students, which I thought might be helpful to people we started and also really helps with organization, which I think is we're always trying to figure that out and also trying to teach and equip our students to be able to be organized.
Speaker 4:We started doing in our middle school a few years ago, color coding, and so our classes are color coded, and so that means that anything that's happening, like the English folder is blue for six, seven and eight. Right, the red folder is this subject for six, seven and eight, and it helps the kids organize themselves a ton, and I think it's, and so I'm actually thinking this year we're going to start to like push it down into our lower school and start having our four and five students do it, and so when I was doing this as a teacher, I actually also used it as my organization tool because it made it super easy. If I needed okay, I need blue English, let me just grab the blue folder, right, and so that, I think, is one of those super simple things that, like, almost anybody can do and implement that is hugely effective and just productivity. So that would be like my teacher and student tip, I think.
Speaker 2:Now here's a standout moment from our chat with Michelle Ogden in Episode 72. She shared with us some great wisdom in her pare down pointer where where she said just because you can doesn't mean you should.
Speaker 5:Well, I was thinking about the decisions I've made in my career and how you know it's not a typical path. So, in that I was thinking about, just because you can doesn't mean you should, and you have to really consider what are the things that bring you energy and what are the things that drain you and how do you align your career to that. So, thinking about those things that you find energizing and where you really want to be spending your time, those are the things. You should say yes to Continue on that path, and it's okay to also say okay, that's not for me, at least not right now. So, making those decisions about where you want to, not just because you can.
Speaker 2:This next clip comes from episode 70, featuring Fred End, where he shares a simple strategy when facing a problem and that is come back 24 hours later with fresh eyes.
Speaker 6:Yeah. So when you said a pare-down pointer, I thought of what has been really helpful in me collecting thoughts, being more concise, sometimes be more balanced in my approach, and so one of the most helpful things that I've done, anytime I'm faced with something that seems like really big or really complicated, or if it's like an email that I can't process because of all of the potential challenges in it, is just give myself I know it's so simple, right, and yet we don't always do it Just give myself 24 hours, step away from whatever it is and come back to it with a fresh pair of eyes, and not always, but the vast majority of time the problem seems significantly smaller and much simpler when I've done that. So, for what it's worth, a simple strategy that has saved me a lot of time and overthinking.
Speaker 2:Let's go back now to our episode 61 with lisa ford.
Speaker 7:Her pairback pointer was also about organization and how to organize the room and consider what needs to be ready from day one I think I might bring it right back around to the start of the conversation, where you flattered me with my organization, and I think that's the big thing is that when you do find things that work or have a system where all the material like for me for science, all the material for that goes into one place so that when I need it I just pull out that bin or that piece, I think that's a big, big piece of the puzzle.
Speaker 7:If you don't have that, then you're scrounging and you're like what can I pull together? And then I think from that that organization piece goes as well, just with how do you organize your classroom? You know, I have my stations up from day one, my agree disagree posters up and day one, and usually students are like what are all those for? And I'm like you'll see, it's all. You know. We're going to be doing lab activities and you're going to move between those lab activities because we can't all do the exact same thing at the same time, because I don't have enough material. But it's knowing that all that material is in one bin, all eight stations come out at the same time, and I think that's the big thing that really helps me in terms of just looking at content and prioritizing, as just staying organized with stuff and knowing exactly where it is.
Speaker 2:In this next highlight, Laurie Namy shared some valuable thoughts on her approach to hard work. Her pare-down pointer was about people by day, paperwork by night yeah, I think it's.
Speaker 8:It's a couple things. I mentioned that people by day, paperwork by night yeah, it's going to require you to work harder. You know it's going to be. There's no substitute for hard work or and being relentless and getting to success, and so hard work, routines, practices and prioritizing people um, yeah, those, those are the big things this next clip comes from our sit down with chris delay.
Speaker 2:In episode 71. She has a very important reminder for us in her pare down pointer, and that is don't do it alone.
Speaker 9:You know what I think it would be that you don't have to do anything alone, like reach out to the people who are around you, your colleagues who can help you relate to a student a little bit better, or somebody who might have a different type of expertise than you do, or to a partner at home to give you five minutes to decompress so you can be your best self for whoever you have in the household. So I think really just how people realize that you don't ever have to walk through any aspect of life alone and that sometimes, when you are asked to just get up and meet with a new group, it could introduce you to new ideas and new people who could really become a solid support structure for you.
Speaker 2:In this next highlight. Our pare down pointer comes in the form of a question. In episode 62, dr Tom Herr challenged us to ask ourselves what can I do to take care of myself?
Speaker 10:Well, coming back to Tammy's point about what's easy, that's not easy. I've given a whole lot of ideas, but I went in by saying that the people who are listening to this podcast, what I would like them to do when they stop listening after they think, well, that guy was interesting. Hopefully. I'd like them to think what can I do to take care of myself? It's too easy and educators are great at this, great's in quotes it's too easy to give all of your time to everybody else and to take everybody else and forget yourself. You know we talk about an empathy deficit and what I don't want people to do is get all charged from this, come back and not take care of themselves.
Speaker 10:So two things. One is, if you get all charged, can't do it by yourself. Talk to somebody else, pick one idea that I talked about and think, hey, what do you think of this, and play with it. You probably change it and that's good. But then your second thing is to say, ok, how much time am I spending on my job? And that isn't just in the building, it's emotionally. What does this look like? What does this feel like? What do I do to need to take care of myself? It's a marathon, it's not a sprint and unfortunately, if you don't take care of yourself, it's also hard for other people to take care of you.
Speaker 2:In our final highlight for this episode, we revisit our conversation with lindsey durkin in episode 68. Her pare down pointer was a reminder that we should always strive for clearly defined objectives, outcomes and deadlines I can actually share something that serves me every day in my current role.
Speaker 11:But, looking at it, it's something that we actually do in teaching constantly. Maybe we don't know it or not, but it would just be to ask yourself the question what are we solving for? So when I get pinged for, hey, I want to build out this training for my team Great, what are we solving for? I have to know where we need to end up in order to and it reminds me of backwards planning and education I need to know what the end goal is before I can kind of think backwards of what are the resources and tools and activities and how am I going to scaffold the learning in order to get there. So that would be still one of the things that was big for me in teaching, and still is, of just understanding what we're solving for and just having very clearly defined outcomes, objectives and, of course, deadlines. Deadlines are huge in the corporate world.
Speaker 2:We love a deadline and with that we are at the end of our special highlights episode and the end of season four of the minimalist educator podcast. A huge thank you to all of our incredible guests this season and to you, our listeners, for tuning in and sharing and being part of this growing community. All of your support and your listens really mean the world to us. We are now taking a break for the summer, but don't worry, we'll be back with lots of fresh conversations, lots of new guests and even more ideas to explore in season five. Until then, please take care, recharge and have a re-listen to a favourite episode or two From Tammy and myself at the Minimalist Educator Podcast. We hope you have a wonderful summer and we'll see you again soon. Today's episode was brought to you by Plan Z Professional Learning Services, forward-thinking educator support. Find out more at planzplservicescom.
Speaker 1:Be sure to join Tammy and Christine and guests for more episodes of the Minimalist Educator Podcast. They would love to hear about your journey with minimalism. Connect with them at planzPLS on Twitter or Instagram. The music for the podcast has been written and performed by Gaia Moretti. Thank you.
