Ep 125 Six ways teachers can transform daily struggles into daily wins

As a newer teacher, you're bound to make mistakes, and that's okay. In fact, it's more than okay—it's necessary. Embracing failure allows you to learn from your experiences, adjust your teaching strategies, and improve your classroom management skills.

In this episode, I'm revealing my own struggles that I faced on a daily basis and how I'm actually GRATEFUL for them. These failures have made me the teacher I am today and will help you too!

Still figuring out lesson planning? Grab my free Lesson Planning Guide here 👉🏼https://teachersneedteachers.com/lessonplan

I have a new YouTube channel! Join me over there and subscribe!

Got questions, feedback, or want to be on the show? You can email me at [e-mail]

Connect with me

• Subscribe to Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, or Stitcher
• Join my Facebook Group
• Message me through Instagram

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Welcome to the Teachers Need Teachers podcast, where we help new and beginning teachers
navigate through those crazy first years ofteaching so you can maintain your sanity and
personal life. Here's your host,him Lapree. Welcome to the Teachers Need

(00:27):
Teachers podcast, the podcast for teacherswho don't want to just survive teaching.
But actually, when I started teaching, I was a horrible teacher. In
fact, I don't even know howI was able to keep my job continuously
and never get laid off or Iwas never let go. I mean sometimes
I would come to school without aplan at all and I would just wing

(00:47):
it. And since I was inmy twenties when I started my early twenties,
I thought I was invincible. Andsometimes I would come to school with
barely any sleep and sometimes with ahangover. Yeah, I learned that lesson
really fast. My saving grace wasthe fact that I knew that I was
going to fail a lot, butat the same time I was going to
grow a lot. This despite thefact that I'm just kind of a perfectionist.

(01:10):
But I also knew that the onlyway that I was going to get
better is if I tried and triedagain. And fell and fell again.
I basically approached teaching like a scientist, where I would make a hypothesis about
how something was going to go,and then I went ahead and taught the
class, or you can call thatthe experiment, and then I evaluated the
results afterwards, and then from thoseevaluations, then I decided what I was

(01:32):
going to do next and how Iwas going to improve. In today's episode,
I'm going to be discussing teacher dailystruggles that I have had to deal
with since I started teaching, andthat I actually really grew from and are
grateful for. And I know thatall of you have struggled with these at
some point in teaching, and ifyou're just a brand new teacher going into
teaching, you need to be preparedfor these because they are going to creep

(01:55):
up, probably from day one.And so I'm going to tell you how
I survived these, how I overcamethem, and how they've actually made me
a better teacher. So the firstteacher daily struggle that I've had to deal
with over the years is being unprepared. Now, this, as I mentioned
in the introduction, means coming inwithout a lesson or have you ever had
a lesson planned, but you didn'thave enough plans, so there was like

(02:17):
say, fifteen twenty thirty minutes stillleft in the class and you had nothing
else to do. Or maybe onthe flip side, a lesson took longer
than you had anticipated and so youdidn't get through everything that you needed to
do, so maybe you either justcut it short and didn't teach the rest
of the stuff, which could becut of bad sometimes, or it had
to bleed in into the next class'slesson. I've had that happened to me

(02:38):
many times too. I can tellyou were sure that there have been many
many times over the past twenty twoyears when I would forget on the weekend
to plan out what I was goingto do for the following week. At
that point, I wasn't planning mylessons, you know, two or three
weeks in advance. I was goingsometimes day by day, week by week,
and I would just have to tryto scramble and put something together,

(02:59):
and it was really really stressful forme, and I would just have to
really figure out what I was goingto do on the fly. So that's
actually the benefit of having been abad planner in the past and not being
prepared as the fact that I learnedhow to pivot really quickly. I learned
how to flex that muscle where youhave to figure out what you're going to
do in a matter of seconds beforeyour class falls apart. Because your class

(03:20):
knows when you don't have enough preparedand they know when you don't know what
you're going to do next. Theyunderstand when there's a lull in the lesson,
and it doesn't really take much evenif you have like the best of
classes, it doesn't take much beforeif one person starts to talk to another
and then there's a lot of littlemini conversations and the whole class just loses
it. But it took failing inthis area multiple times to be able to

(03:42):
just pivot in the lesson right away, or if something was thrown at me
that I had to teach right away, or let's say that there was a
drill that I wasn't prepared for.I was able to think on the fly
and know exactly what to do nextand not lose my class. And I'm
sure you've seen this with other teachers, where they just always seem cool and
collected no matter what is happening aroundthem. The fire alarm goes off or

(04:03):
a student just seems to go crazy. They just seem to know what to
do next, even though it's unexpected. How you learn to do that is
by feeling as being prepared. Sothis leads me to my next teacher struggle,
which is time management. So beforeI used to spend so much time
looking for lessons or just going throughevery single step and a lesson and taking

(04:24):
notes. And then also when Iwould grade, I would spend so much
time writing feedback, just really detailedfeedback that students weren't even reading. Or
I'd write these long emails to applyto parents or to apply to my colleagues
or administration. I just didn't havea good sense of how much time I
should spend on each task. Andyou might be guilty of this because you
feel like you had to do everythingat two hundred percent. For some teachers,

(04:47):
it feels like this write of passageor it's just part of our job
to spend hours and hours grading andplanning and replying to emails and things like
that. But actually that's not necessarilythe nor is it healthy. A lot
of the problem that I had,especially in my earlier years of teaching,
was that I didn't have a system. I would show up to school and

(05:08):
just go through my day, andwhen my prep would come, I would
just kind of sit there and justlook around, and the first thing that
I saw, that's what I wouldstart working on. But I didn't have
a plan so that I knew whatto do during my planning time, if
that makes sense. I just sortof use the time and filled it with
whatever came to my mind first.But the problem with that is that you
were then leaving yourself open to runningout of time and then spending your personal

(05:30):
time on school related things, andwe really want to minimize that as much
as possible. So the benefit ofme going through so many years of wasting
time and so many years of spendingcountless hours outside of school doing school related
work is that I finally figured outsome systems and now I barely take home
any work and I pretty much stewthe majority of my school related stuff while

(05:53):
I'm in school during school hours.And this is especially important if you have
a teaching assignment where you don't havea planning period, you might have to
then spend some of your outside timeworking on school related stuff so that you
don't fall behind. But if you'regoing to give up an hour of your
personal time, you want to makesure that you maximize that. So trying
out news systems will really help youfigure out what's going to work for you

(06:14):
so that you can make the mostof the time that you have. The
next teacher daily struggle that I've hadto deal with for quite some time is
planning and teaching a bad lesson.So this is different from the first struggle
where I'm unprepared, because this oneis where I wrote a bad lesson,
or while delivering a lesson it didn'tgo so well. Of course, this
has happened many, many times,especially when I made that transition from teaching

(06:35):
band to teaching English, because breakingdown a lesson is very different when you're
trying to do reading and writing andgrammar and all that compared to teaching a
student how to play an instrument.So it was really hard for me in
the beginning. My lessons are reallyboring. I followed exactly what the textbook
told me to do, but thekids could tell that I didn't know what
I was doing, and so theway that I delivered my lesson was pretty

(06:58):
robotic. Also, sometimes you writea lesson or create materials for the students
that don't actually help them learn,And as you're going through it with them
and kids aren't getting it, youget really frustrated because you're like, why
aren't they understanding this? And thenlater on you come to find out after
some reflection, it's because the worksheetwas bad. Orn there were times when
I just didn't read the room andI couldn't tell that kids weren't getting it,

(07:20):
and so then I would get frustratedwhen it was time for them to
answer out and I hadn't explained theconcept well enough to them in order for
them to really be able to workwith the concept or to be able to
discuss it with each other, anddefinitely not enough for them to answer out
in class. So it took mefailing in that way multiple times for me
to realize that you do have tocheck in with the students. You do

(07:41):
have to make sure that they're payingattention. Sometimes I talk too much and
they're getting really bored and so muchinformation has just gone over their head because
I keep yacking on and on.So then I was able to adjust how
I teach so that that doesn't happenanymore. And the students stay a lot
more engaged. But if I hadn'tfailed by boring the kids or creating bad
materials and bad lessons, I neverwould have gotten better as a teacher.

(08:03):
And this ties in with my nextteacher daily struggle, which is bad classroom
management. I don't know anyone whohas had perfect classroom management from the get
go, or even perfect classroom managementat all. We all at some point
struggle with classroom management in terms ofkeeping our kids engaged, keeping them on
task, and keeping them from goingcrazy in class. This past year has

(08:26):
definitely been a struggle for so manyteachers. But I can tell you,
guys that I've gone through the gamutof different ways that I've handled classroom management,
and in the beginning, a lotof them didn't work. When I
started out teaching, I wanted tobe the fun teacher because I wanted to
be accepted and liked by my students. So I was little more loose in
terms of my rules and implementing myrules, and I was a little too

(08:48):
nice to them because I thought thatif they liked me, then they would
listen to me. I came tofind out that this actually doesn't work in
the long run. Sure in thebeginning, if students like you, then
they were willing to listen to you. But when they start to get out
of hand and you really have tolay down the law because they're being inappropriate
or they're not focusing and you can'tget through the lesson. Now they just
look at you like what's wrong withher? And then they don't want to

(09:11):
listen and they resent you. Andthen I went to the other extreme where
I was too strict with them andvery unbending and inflexible, and students just
didn't like me in general. Nowfor that, I didn't like that feeling
either, because they like to interactwith the kids, and I also know
that when they don't like me,there's always going to be some kid who
wants to rebel and not listen tome just for the sake of the fact

(09:33):
that he or she doesn't like me. Also, over the years, I
learned things like, you shouldn't turnyour back to the class for very long
because that's when all the shenanigans happen. And he also has to just be
able to read the room like Iwas talking about in terms of delivering a
lesson. So these are failures thatI've had over the years that I'm actually
really really grateful for because it's madeit so that I can keep my class

(09:54):
in control but really really engaged andwe have a good time together. But
when it's time to get down towork, they are more than willing to
work. Or comes a point withtime after failing and observing your class that
you're going to be able to predictstudent behaviors before they even happen, and
you can do things to avoid anythingfrom even starting up at all. So,

(10:15):
for example, if you have onestudent who wants to throw something away
and it's across the room, youcould be proactive by the trash can to
them. That way, they don'thave to go and talk to their friends
on the way they are. Thingslike that the next teacher daily struggle dealing
with parents. Now I'm going tomake a whole other video about how to
deal with parents and how to bestbe proactive with them as well. But

(10:37):
this is something that also took sometime, and actually it didn't really hit
me how to do this very welluntil I myself became a parent. In
the beginning, when you get emailsfrom parents that are upset about something that
you said or that you did orsomething that's happening in class, or complaining
about a student's grade. We canget defensive because we feel like we're being
personally attacked. But I found aftera while that they're not exactly attacking me

(11:01):
as much as they're trying to helpout their students. So, you know,
if they feel like their student isbeing picked on by you, then
what they're trying to do is defendtheir student. They're trying to stand up
for their child. And yes,and may feel like it's an attack on
you, but what they really wantis for their students to not be picked
on anymore. Same thing. Let'ssay that they're being bullied in class and
the parent feels like you're not doinganything about it. What they really want

(11:24):
is for their child to not bebullied. So after a while of reading
these emails or having discussions with parents, I finally realize that I had to
look at the situation from their eyes. Now, I can't control what kind
of parent they are, how muchthey enforce consequences or anything like that at
home. The only thing that Icontrol is how I react to the parents.
And I found that the less reactiveand defensive that I am, then

(11:46):
the better the situation ends up.I also learned that starting out the year
really warm and communicating with the parentsas much as possible makes it so that
parents aren't in the dark and theydon't feel caught off guard. Granted,
not all parents will read the emailsor the message that you send out,
but at least you can say thatyou did communicate with them, and so
when they come back to you oryour principles saying I didn't know about this,

(12:07):
who can tell them exactly when youinform them about it, And it's
really on them if they didn't getthe message. But I've had my share
of angry parents sending emails or messages, parent conferences, and you know,
honestly, I know that they justwant to work things out and they just
want to be heard. But Ipersonally don't want to even have to bother

(12:28):
with them. I don't want tobe hassled. So I do everything in
my power to just not have angryparents, something that I just learned along
the way. Similarly, I've hadmy share of bad administrators and not so
great colleagues, and I'm sure thatyou're already in the situation. It would
be great if all of the administratorsout there, and all of our colleagues
were just amazing positive teachers who arejust looking out for the kids and not

(12:52):
for their own interest would just beso harmonious. But we know that that's
not really how it works. Imean, a school runs just like it
does any other business in terms ofhaving people who are at the top and
the rest of us who aren't,and we just have to deal with a
lot of weird personalities. Have youseen the office Just because we're in a
school, that doesn't mean that officepolitics doesn't happen in our schools. And

(13:13):
so learning how to navigate that hasbeen something that I've had to really work
on because I tend to be alittle more meek, and I tend to
be someone who just kind of likelets other people get away with things,
and after a while I learned thatI was resenting them, and it was
affecting how I showed up in schoolas a leader and how I showed up
for my students as well. Soone thing that I've learned is how to
be diplomatic and really work with myadministrator, whether or not I like them.

(13:37):
In fact, there's been quite afew administrators that I didn't like but
all of them like me. Doesthat mean I kiss their butt? No?
But I do want to have aworking relationship with them. I do
want them to think favorably of me, because that way, when I need
something that is going to benefit mystudents or benefit my department, or benefit
the school, they are more willingto listen to me. If you constantly

(14:01):
attack or confront or do anything negativelike that with your administrator, whether it's
the principle or assistant principle, theyare going to be on the defensive and
they're less likely to want to workwith you, even though it's something that
could benefit lots of people. I'velearned, not necessarily through my own experience,
but from observing some of my colleagues, that the more confrontationally you are

(14:22):
with administration, the less you canactually accomplish or get away with at school.
And finally, the teacher daily strugglethat I actually struggle with a little
less now is stress. The biggestlesson that I've learned in terms of stress
is that you just want to focuson the things that you can control and
affect. So I've spent all kindsof time worrying about all kinds of things.

(14:45):
My students and their home life.Colleagues who are being great teachers are
not so great teachers, or administratorswho I feel like are being vindictive or
aren't running this show right. Imean, there's so many things that could
stress you out at school, testscores, things like that. But I
can only focus and control the thingsthat are within my sphere, So that's
what I worry about. I onlyworry about the things that I can personally

(15:09):
affect and control. So if aparent doesn't like me through maybe no fault
of my own, or even ifit is something that I did, I
can't change that. I can't worryabout that. I can just try to
be as diplomatic as I can.But at the end of the day,
if they don't like me, theydon't like me. Same thing with a
student. If a student doesn't likeme, that's fine. I'm not going
to be hurt about it just becausethey don't like me. But I am

(15:31):
going to just focus on the studentswho do like me. And when that
student that doesn't like me, ifthey don't interact in a positive way with
me, I'm not going to treatthem any differently because they're just a kid,
right, I'm not going to sitthere and take it personally. Now,
there have been colleagues throughout the yearsthat I haven't appreciated. And what
do I do when I see them? Do I scal in their face?
Do I get all up in theirface about something that they said or did?

(15:52):
No, I'm pleasant with them.It's not that I'm being too faced.
Is that I don't see a pointin being unpleasant with them. What
is that going to accomplish. IfI'm trying to change them or try to
change the way they act or think, then I shouldn't hold my breath because
you can't change people, but Ican change myself. I can control how
I react to them. And thathas just made school a lot lot less

(16:15):
stressful for me. If students don'tdo so well on an assessment and my
administrator comes and talks to me aboutit because they should have done better,
I'm not going to get upset atthe students. I'm not going to get
upset at my administrator. I'm justgoing to try to do better next time.
And that's all that I can do. And if the administrator doesn't appreciate
that or doesn't like it, thenI can go or I can suck it
up and stay. The one thingthough, that I do sometimes get sucked

(16:37):
up into is just drama. Idon't know why I hear about drama or
I get sucked up into drama.I actually mentioned that in a video about
how things have been really hard forme lately, because sometimes I do get
sucked up into that a politics atschool, and that's the kind of stuff
that stresses me out. And Ireally should just be sitting back and relaxing
and not worrying about it because alot of time is the things that cause

(17:00):
the drama have nothing to do withme, So why am I getting stressed
out? So I'm sure that you'restruggling with some of these and you're maybe
you're wondering, is there something wrongwith me? Is it going to get
better? There's nothing wrong with you. We all go through this and we
all have to learn the hard wayhow to get through it. But just
know that as long as you're learningfrom it and you're getting better and you're

(17:22):
growing, things are going to geteasier and you're going to become an amazing
teacher. You just have to believethat there's a reason why this is happening
for you or happening to you,and then you just got to move forward
and do better. So how manyof these have you struggled with just this
past week. I love to hearabout that, because I can tell you
right now that I still struggle withsome of them. Most of them I

(17:45):
figured out, but from time totime I still have to deal with things
like classroom bad, classroom management becauseI dropped the ball or I wasn't paying
attention, or time management. SometimesI just I'm not using my time to
the best of my abilities. Soyou know, these are things that you
have to constantly work on over andover again, but with time it gets
better. Thanks for hanging out withme today, you guys, and I

(18:07):
will see you next week. Thanksfor listening to The Teachers Need Teachers podcast.
Love this episode, Head over toApple podcast or Google Play to subscribe,
rate and leave a review.