The Minimalist Educator Podcast
A podcast about paring down to focus on the purpose and priorities in our roles.
The Minimalist Educator Podcast
Episode 090: Season 5 Highlights! Courage, Focus, And What Matters Most
Season 5's highlights trace a clear path: protect focus, trust people, and let values drive the work. We pull the best “pare-down pointers” from guests who shared practical ways to simplify coaching, leadership, and classroom practice.
• courage as a contagious practice for starting small
• guard the golden hour and block time for deep work
• align coaching to teachers’ own goals
• use voice-to-text for fast brain dumps
• shift to trust-based observations and cut busywork
• scaffold student ownership with gradual release
• protect the core mission in rural and urban settings
• make decisions based on your best people
• celebrate lived values with public shout-outs
• begin mornings with non-work thoughts to set boundaries
This episode is sponsored by Plan Z Education Services, supporting educators with forward-thinking professional learning that puts both student impact and teacher wellness at the center. Learn more at planzeducation.com
If today’s episode helped you rethink, reimagine, reduce, or realign something in your practice, share it in a comment or with a colleague. For resources and updates, visit plan zeducation.com and subscribe to receive weekly emails. Until next time, keep it simple and stay intentional.
Find our book The Minimalist Teacher and Your School Leadership Edit: A Minimalist Approach to Rethinking Your School's Ecosystem at the links!
Follow on Instagram @PlanZEducation and @minimalist_ed_podcast.
The Minimalist Educator Podcast is a Plan Z Education Services adventure.
Welcome to the Minimalist Educator podcast, where the focus is on a less is more approach to education. Join your hosts, Christine Arnold and Tammy Musiowski, authors of The Minimalist Teacher and your school leadership edit, a minimalist approach to rethinking your school ecosystem. Each week, as they explore practical ways to simplify your work, sharpen your focus, and amplify what matters most so you can teach and lead with greater clarity, purpose, and joy.
SPEAKER_12:Welcome to this special highlights episode for season five of the Minimalist Educator Podcast. This highlights episode gives us a chance to pause, reflect, and revisit some of our favourite moments from the conversations we've had in season five with our wonderful guests. The clips you're about to hear capture the peard-down pointers, the stories, the reminders that are really key to the conversations that we've had. Hopefully they will inspire you too. Our first highlight for today's episode is from episode 82 with Ming Shelby. After a great conversation about courageous conversations and being positive, she shared her pear-down pointer, which was courage is contagious.
SPEAKER_09:I think last time I shared courage is contagious. And just let yourself experience courage, let yourself find joy and courage. And each time that you do it, it gets easier and easier and easier because courage is also a muscle. So keep practicing and find people around to support you, and you'll continue to rise and become even better than you already are.
SPEAKER_12:In episode 79, Stephen Puri shared practical wisdom on productivity and how intentional focus can transform your day. His pear down pointer was make use of your golden hour.
SPEAKER_03:I okay, I will tell you one thing. If if nothing in this episode sticks with whomever's listening at this point, but this, I will simply say this, which is when you figure out when your golden hour is, mine is in the morning before like 10. Before 10, 11 is my golden time. It could be in the evening for some people. A lot of my friends were engineers, developers, anything. When you find your golden time, guard it like gold. Block it in your calendar. If you are part of an organization where people can book time with you, block it in such a way people are like, he's in a meeting with whom? With himself. She's not available right now. What's she doing? She's doing deep work. The actual work that moves your life forward or your organization forward. Not the, hey, I wrote the TPS report. I filed the thing. I, you know, return the emails. They don't move your company forward, your school forward, your life forward. Find that time, block it, guard it like it's gold.
SPEAKER_12:On episode 83 of the Minimalist Educator podcast, we were joined by Amanda Bruggerman to talk about student-centered coaching. Her peer-down pointer was time blocking your important tasks.
SPEAKER_10:So whenever I read that question, at first I was like, oh gosh, there's so many pointers I could give, right? So I would I would actually say that I think mine is blocking time. And I think this kind of connects back to that innovative mindset. And then just as a mindset of what do I have time to do? What do I not also not have control of in my time? That's kind of how I approach it with the strategy in the book. But I feel like it's been something that is a pointer that I've I've used throughout all of my roles. As a teacher, I tried to always allocate specific blocks of time for certain tasks that I knew were like a really important task. Then I went in as a literacy coach and I also would do that, especially on my calendar. Like if I knew that I needed to spend an hour prepping some, you know, collaboration materials. I made sure to have that blocked on my calendar, like before school would start, so that I wouldn't get distracted by something else because there's so many things. And as a teacher, there are always so many things. I still do that as a consultant too. So that's I think that's a skill that or strategy that I've learned because there's my list is like as long as long can be, as I'm sure everybody's is. And I remember that as a teacher, like I I love post-its and I would have all these lists of different things. And it's like you can get very easily bogged down, right? As and get maybe even overwhelmed. So that would probably be like just blocking time to do specific tasks to make sure that I, you know, spent, you know, time doing something. That's probably my big tip.
SPEAKER_12:Episode 86 featured Lindsay Deakin, who shared valuable insights on coaching structures for schools. The peer-down pointer she shared was other people are not motivated by your own goals.
SPEAKER_04:I think for me, my peer-down pointer is just that people aren't motivated by your goal goals. They're motivated by other or by their own goals. And so when we're talking about motivation or how to keep the focus, it really just is about remaining objective and allowing people to work through their own goals and supporting them in that work.
SPEAKER_12:Back in episode 81, we spoke with Monica Burns about all the ways that you can use AI to work as your assistant. The peer down pointer she shared was how to use dictation as a form of brain dumping.
SPEAKER_08:So, my one thing, I talked about it before, um, is using voice to text or dictation. It may be in another tech tool that you love that just makes it a little quicker to jot down a note, or it may be that brain dump into a chat bot. It's a great thing to add into your workflow, particularly if you are exploring tools and haven't, you know, picked your favorite one just yet. If you're into that idea of dropping some information into a space a little bit quicker, maybe on the go. Um, that would be my one thing to try out.
SPEAKER_12:For episode 84 of the podcast, we were joined by Craig Randall to dive into the topic of trust-based observations and its impact on the teachers in our schools. The peer-down pointer he shared with us is to use time effectively to support your teachers.
SPEAKER_06:I mean, I think it does have to do with with time and time spent. And like many models of observation right now, like when I don't see evidence of something, now it's on that teacher to write up and submit uh documentation for why I actually do that, even though you didn't see that. Like if we're gonna be minimalist and use our time productively, like how can we be asking people for that? Like, let's stop that. Let's just trust that they're gonna get there, or I'm gonna coach you to get there. And then if if I'm an observer, like being more minimalist, like what would I rather do? 20 minutes and 20 minutes? Or would I rather like who likes to write up reports? Raise your hand. Yeah, nobody. So let's stop that. Let's make our lives simpler and more joyful. And if we change what we're doing to support our teachers, then that makes our lives more joyful and their lives more joyful.
SPEAKER_12:For episode number 80, we welcomed John Spencer to talk to us about student engagement. His peer-down pointer was talking about a gradual release of responsibility.
SPEAKER_05:You know, one of the things that I would say is I would recommend a quick strategy on the self-direction piece. And so I'm just gonna share a little strategy. Take a gradual release of responsibility towards student empowerment, and so I'm gonna walk you through kind of what what I I've done myself. Step one is ask yourself what am I doing for students that they could be doing for themselves, and make a list of all those areas that students should be owning, and then build in a gradual release. So in week one, we're gonna focus on this. In week two, we're not gonna get students owning the assessment process until week four or whatever, and really take a gradual release approach to student ownership, or in the same way, we're gonna do a mini project first and then a full-blown PBL. We're gonna do a tic-tac-toe style choice menu and then move into an advanced choice menu and then move into something a little bit deeper, like a genius hour project. And the reason I say that is as we think about these challenges, if they really are skills to develop and habits, that's really challenging for a student and can feel overwhelming in terms of building in self-direction and choice. And so taking incremental steps and building on those easy wins helps students feel more confident and it gives you signs of success that you then can build on yourself as you teach. And so I would say that would be my like thing that you could tear down in. I'll just focus on one area, that self-direction piece, and really figure out how to build a plan year-long of how you're gonna gradually add more and more voice and choice.
SPEAKER_12:In episode 87 of the podcast, we welcomed Melissa Sadorf with a really insightful conversation about rural schools. The pear-down pointer she offered for us was to protect the core mission of our teaching and learning.
SPEAKER_01:I I guess I would say minimalism in rural education is about setting boundaries and choosing not to say yes to everything external, all of the demands that are on your plate or time, and instead protecting the core mission of teaching and learning, whether it's in a rural area or anywhere else. Stay true to what matters most.
SPEAKER_12:In episode 88, we had an in-depth conversation with Todd Whitaker all about quality leadership. His peer down pointer was to make sure all of your decisions are based on your best people.
SPEAKER_00:I'm not a big fan of one thing, but here is the one thing. Make every decision based on your best people, and you'll never make a wrong decision. And you know who else they want to be successful? They want you to be successful. They're on your side. They're on your side. They're just scary because they're good. They're just scary because they're right, and they're just scary because they know you know. But that your superstars are the only people in the school that always want the leader to be successful because they know we can't be as successful if the leader isn't successful. So they want the leader to be successful. And you may have some other people that would like it if they could make the leader cry. I mean, I'm just letting you though that, but the best people always want everyone to be successful.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Everyone. They they see the world as an unlimited sum game. So make every decision based on your best people, and you will literally never make the wrong decision. But they can't be perceived as the leader's pet. Because if they become, if they perceived as they can be the leader's pet. But if they can't be perceived as the leader's pet because they lose credibility to influence others then. And your best people don't want to be the leader's pet. Yeah, people don't want to be the principal's pet, but it's never the best people.
SPEAKER_12:The last guest we had in season five of the podcast was Dr. Amanda March. She spoke with us about values and thriving successful organizations. And the peer-down pointer she shared with us was about the public recognition and celebration of living our core values.
SPEAKER_07:Sure. Well, that was one of them. I have a couple of strategies. Another one that I have seen work really, really well in group situations, I call it just a value shout out. So once you've identified your core values, and I will also shout out, I've got a mission, vision, values, and goals facilitated discussion tool for teams. If teams are interested in doing that type of work to identify their core values as a team and then how to integrate it into their work, it's available for you. But once you've identified your core values of the team at any level of the organization, publicly acknowledge not just like when you show up, but when you see another member of your team show up and exemplify and personify that core value. That could be in, you know, a virtual platform. We used to use Jamboards all the time. That went away, some sort of public forum, maybe in leadership team meetings at the start of the day, maybe reviewing the norms, but also provide that quick minute or whip around of celebrating successes and living core values and what that looks like and celebrating that. Again, publicly acknowledging it, even if it's not about you personally, giving that feedback to somebody else not only benefits them with that feedback and boosts their dopamine, you get the hit as well, that positive dopamine. And it's also a nice callback to the purpose of your work, right? And to minimize the noise and refocus. So that is one strategy or peer-down pointer that if anybody takes one thing away from, shout out shout it out when you see other people living their core values or their team values.
SPEAKER_12:Our final highlight today is going to be the wise words of Dr. Helen Kelly, who joined us back towards the beginning of the season on episode 78 with a discussion about school leader well-being. The peer down pointer she left us with is to establish boundaries at the beginning of your day with non-work thoughts.
SPEAKER_11:Right. I think if I'm going to go with one thing that I think helps more than anything else, it's start the day with non-work thoughts. So this is a way that we create boundaries between home and work. So the first thing we do in the morning should not be reach to the bedside table and pick up the phone and look at our work emails. The longer that we can delay that, the better. So if we can get up, we can spend five minutes stretching, we can have a cup of tea out on the patio if it's warm enough without any technology. We can have a shower and sing in the shower. We can do anything that means we're not starting the day with this, that will have a massive impact on our cortisol levels and on our preparation and the way that we cope with things throughout the whole day. And it sounds so simple, but it's really effective.
SPEAKER_12:And that is it for our season five highlights. As we wrap up this season, we want to say a big thank you. We've had such wonderful guests and meaningful conversations, and it really has been a joy to share them all with you. We hope these highlights, these peard-down pointers, reminded you of the ideas and the moments that mattered most in these conversations. We will be on a short break getting ready for the next season, and we are really looking forward to being back with you in a new season soon. So see you then. This episode is sponsored by Plan Z Education Services, supporting educators with forward-thinking professional learning that puts both student impact and teacher wellness at the center. Driven by a vision to teach less, impact more, they help educators find purpose, prioritize what matters, and simplify their practice. Learn more at planzeducation.com.
SPEAKER_02:If today's episode helped you rethink, reimagine, reduce, or realign something in your practice, share it in a comment or with a colleague. For resources and updates, visit plan zeducation.com and subscribe to receive weekly emails. Until next time, keep it simple and stay intentional.
