Educators Among Us

Title: Episode 69 - Don't Take The Ride This episode of the Educators Among Us podcast focuses on the roller coaster ride of being an educator and offers encouragement to stay grounded and true to one's calling. Your Host, Scott Barron acknowledges the challenges and emotional ups and downs that come with the profession of teaching and educating other, but emphasizes the importance of making inten...

Title: Episode 68 - I Hope it Works This episode of the Educators Among Us podcast celebrates and encourages educators who make a lasting difference in the lives of students. Your host, Scott Barron, reflects on the importance of planning and taking action.   You'll enjoy a poignant story about his grandchildren on a recent beach vacation, including sandcastles and the need to solve a problem.   A...

Title: Difficulties Abound:  Overcoming the Challenges to Win Today's conversation concerns educators' challenges and difficulties and how to use them as opportunities for growth and learning. In this podcast, we encourage educators to feed their minds with positive content, surround themselves with positive people, and develop good habits. The conversation concludes with a reminder to embrace dif...

Our conversation today focuses on the importance of maintaining perspective and purpose as educators, and to remember our "Why" as we perform this important work.   In this episode, we "flash back" to our first episode of the Educators Among Us podcast, so you can hear why we do what we do and why it matters.   Then.  Way back in the beginning.  And now. We cap off the program by talking about tha...

To be an educator is a noble calling with motivation that goes beyond compensation. The most effective educators are all in, committed with mind, heart, soul, and body. No one should be deterred from such a meaningful life purpose.   ____ Educators Fellowship is a non-profit organization that encourages educators in their calling and  in their faith.  www. Educatorsamonguspodcast.com www.educators...

Whatever we do should be carried out with intense desire and a fiery purpose, but we must be self-controlled, tempered by humility rooted in a purposeful perspective. Educators who love, teach students to love.   Quotes: Carl Jung: "One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touch our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material,...

When we're called to do something, we can't delay til things are just right with no risks. We may risk restoring relationships, trying new methods, or learning the latest tech. Though the risks are evaluated carefully, we favor action over the fearful status quo because if we hesitate, we might miss the chance of a lifetime at the peak of the mountain.   Quotes: Dale Carnegie: "Take a chance! All...

Prudence is the virtue by which we recognize our divine duty and choose to fulfill it. Prudence enables us to expertly navigate daily decisions with remarkable wisdom and leadership that recognizes different conditions and uses the wisest approach.   Quotes: Dante Alighieri: "Consider your origins: you were not made to live as brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge."   John Ortberg: "Prudence...

Our desire as educators is to communicate expertly in a manner that grows trust and inspires the desired responses. That means we must master a whole new level of habits and skills because communication doesn't just happen. It involves listening, sensing, and talking in order for us to adapt our methods to the way they perceive and process the world.   Quotes: Robert Frost: "Half the world is comp...

When we sustain our serenity, that inner peace, we gain significant advantages in all circumstances because we make wiser decisions, stay on purpose, and are more trusted as leaders. A sense of security returns to our schools when we have a steadfast heart and mind.   Quotes: Henry Fielding: "I am content; that is a blessing greater than riches; and he to whom that is given need ask no more."   Wi...

Breaking bad luck or unfortunate patterns in life is far more likely to happen when we address our own contributions: bad habits, bad attitudes, and bad mindsets. Excellence is not a goal to be achieved, but an attitude to be cultivated.   Quotes: Helen Keller: "Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is n...

Survival is the approach some take to each day, just trying to get through to the end. But not Dr. Amy Swann. She has developed a tenacity for achieving the desired goals, no matter what sacrifices and hard work are required to navigate through the obstacles.   Quotes:   Dr. Amy Swann: "As leaders, we need to go, oh that didn't work. Hey team, let's come together. And how can we strategize this? H...

Educators who love what they do have greater joy and are more productive--they know how to unleash potential through that personal touch.   Quotes: Leo Buscaglia: "Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around."   Plato: "At the touch of love everyone...

The art of teaching, when properly practiced, utilizes the emotion of surprise, helping those we influence see themselves and the world anew through profound truths, reliable principles, and creative solutions.   Quotes: Henri Nouwen: "Each day holds a surprise. But only if we expect it can we see, hear, or feel it when it comes to us. Let's not be afraid to receive each day's surprise."   Ashley...

Each day we make subtle choices that move us closer to or further from our goals. Starting the morning with zealous humility and curiosity to calibrate our expertise enables us to listen to our body, to our soul, and even the One who makes us whole.   Quotes: Margaret J. Wheatley: "Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything...

We're all going to fail—that's life—but victory is won by those who seek wise counsel and convert that pain into opportunity to learn, adjust, and grow.   Quotes: Alfred North Whitehead: "No one who achieves success does so without acknowledging the help of others. The wise and confident acknowledge this help with gratitude."   Jean de La Fontaine: "Nothing is as dangerous as an ignorant friend; a...

In the last quarter of the school year, the opportunities for grace seem to multiply. So we have to dig deeper, stay true to our noble calling, and be disciplined in grace.   Quotes: Friedrich Nietzsche: "He who fights too long against dragons becomes a dragon himself;  and if you gaze too long into the abyss, the abyss will gaze into you."   Mark Twain: "Forgiveness is the fragrance that the viol...

Few talk about the fact that education is a dirty job that even Mike Rowe esteems. Our real impact is providing the best soil and the conditions for others to flourish.   Quotes: Plato: "People are like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die."   Howard Warren Buffet: "Soil is a living ecosystem, and is a farmer's most...

Very little about anger produces righteousness. Instead, it most often reveals the worst of us by escalating reckless thinking and actions that violate our core beliefs.   Quotes: Dale Carnegie: Any fool can criticize, complain, and condemn—and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving."   Epictetus: "Whenever you are angry, be assured that it is not...

Conflict is part of the path, but we refuse to linger long there because the cancer of resentment and vengeance consumes a heart made for joy.   Quotes: Ian Fleming: "You only live twice: Once when you're born and once when you look death in the face."   Steve Jobs: "If you live each day as it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right."   Bible Verse: Matthew 5:24-25 First go and be re...

Scott Barron dives into the opportunities that we have to be exceptional and why it is important that we seek to stand out as exceptional educators.   Quotes: Charles Osgood: "There are no exceptions to the rule that everybody likes to be an exception to the rule."   Sean Dyche: "Consistency of performance is essential. You don't have to be exceptional every week but as a minimum you need to be at...

Scott Barron encourages us to stay focused and committed to completing the plans that we embarked on at the beginning of the school year so that we may receive the full reward that goes with finishing well.   Quotes: Louis Armstrong: "Musicians don't retire; they stop when there's no more music in them."   Tony Robbins: "Life is a gift, and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibili...

Scott Barron looks into the value that dreams play in our own lives as educators and how we can help propel others around us to pursue their dreams,goals and desires.   Quotes: Louisa May Alcott: "We all have our own life to pursue, our own kind of dream to be weaving, and we all have the power to make wishes come true, as long as we keep believing."    Henry Ward Beecher: "We sleep, but the loom...

Scott Barron dissects the way we can add or take away value in a given situation or in an organization and how that implication has an impact far beyond ourselves.    Quotes: John von Neumann: "If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is."   Irvin D. Yalom: "When people don't have any curiosity about themselves, that is always...

Scott Barron explores the leadership potential within everyone and the influence that we, as educators, can have on others, both intentionally and unintentionally.    Quotes: E.E. Cummings: "It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."   Steve Jobs: "Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected."   Bible Verse: Luke 12:48 "From ev...