Teaching Humanity Remotely with Dr. Mindy Shaw

In this episode, Dr. Shaw once again takes the opportunity to share how positivity can be found as the silver lining of difficult situations.   Her home in Florida was affected by a recent hurricane and she discusses the fallout from that challenging event and how resilience remains an important trait.

In this episode, Dr. Shaw presents a personal point of view regarding the feelings that some folks are having following the recent US Presidential election.  As an educator, Dr. Shaw focused on teaching humanity (just like with the title of this podcast), and for someone with her history it could be easy to be frustrated or scared or shocked by the recent political outcomes across the U.S. because...

In this episode Dr. Shaw addresses the notion of having confidence.  She begins by noting that, often in life, individuals who have confidence will go further than those who possess actual talent but lack confidence.  Dr. Shaw shares that this is hot topic for her personally, and that in fact while she is working on a new book, she tends to ask the question, "Am I really qualified to create this b...

In this episode, Dr. Shaw discusses how we overcome grief and how we allow ourselves to have the feelings that we have.  We cannot suppress certain feelings.. we have to feel them.  For her personally, self-observation followed by reflection on her own behavior leads her to her own transformation or adjustment from one mood to another.  She questions whether there is sometimes a need to be sad.  S...

In this very brief episode, Dr. Shaw introduces us to a new concept that she is developing as a program to assist families.   In schools, many students will be given an IEP or Individual Education Plan which is a document that identifies a given student's needs and outlines how those needs will be met.  Dr. Shaw believes that given the stresses and strains of life right now, many FAMILIES need a s...

In this episode, Dr. Shaw takes a look at the need to balance the essence of a child with the developing personality of a child during a child's growth and emergence into being a person.  Their essence is that innocence and spirit that a young child has, the purity that enables them to be friendly and approachable and joyful about living and learning.  Their personality is that socialized side of...

In this brief episode, Dr. Shaw puts forth the notion that it is important to see yourself as you are in order to effectuate change in your life.  While working on oneself, we need to be reflective and intentional and monitor our attention.  By doing so we build stamina and increase the muscle of patience and of having objectivity.  We all have blind spots, but when build up our attention we can e...

This week Dr. Shaw follows up on her last podcast where she had discussed those moments when young children are experiencing anxiety.  She begins her parenting advice this week by suggesting that we tell our children that those feelings of anxiety are natural and part of life and that can be done by sharing one's own experiences of feeling anxious, but only if that sharing is developmentally appro...

In this episode you'll find a valuable conversation about something that has become more common among children, the experience of having anxiety.  Dr. Shaw begins by questioning whether not not there is a true and thriving and growing trend for children to experience nervousness.  She tables that discussion and then uses illustrative examples to lay out a real strategy for your children when it co...

In this episode, Dr. Shaw discusses how, while parenting, one must trust the process.  She begins by sharing an example of a parent who was in communication with their family's small private school about classroom assignments and how this one family didn't end up getting the path that they wanted for their child.  Dr. Shaw looks at that situation, evaluates the plusses and minuses of what happened...

In this episode, Dr. Shaw discusses how your perception, particularly about yourself, can impact the way in which you show up in life and manifest your place in the world.  Here she focuses on that notion by recounting a recent interaction she had with a young man with physical challenges.  As a long-time teacher, she made the comment while interacting with this young man and in some ways, everyon...

In this very personal episode, Dr. Shaw reflects on a recent experience during which she participated in the celebration of an old and dear friend.  The friend was also a body-worker/healer who helped Dr. Shaw's family many years ago and through difficult times, and she talks here about what it was like to be included in that recent celebration and to experience the reciprocal exchange of love and...

In this episode, Dr. Shaw discusses the importance of learning from observing yourself.  In order to illustrate how that works, she shares a personal story about giving parenting advice to her own daughter who reacted by resisting taking her advice.  She watched herself feel somewhat hurt and offended and then feel embarrassed and disappointed in herself for being offended.   Her principles, howev...

In this brief but very useful episode, Dr. Shaw talks about the balancing act that parents must maintain with their children when it comes to making commitments that require time, energy, effort and more.   The key is balance... balancing the desire to have your child participate in something fun, healthy and/or productive but then facing the reality sometimes that the commitment you made has pitf...

In this episode, Dr. Shaw tackles the topic of what happens when we defend our positions during the course of disagreements.   Her discussion was spurred by a recent personal experience, and it has been Dr. Shaw's philosophy for a long time to not take things personally.  When confronted, most people get defensive, but when defending your position you are actually not being open to potentially val...

On this episode, Dr. Shaw celebrates the milestone presentation of her 200th podcast.  During this reflective installment of her series, she reviews a number of the concepts that she has discussed throughout the four years that she's been delivering a weekly message via this venue.  She enumerates many of the life-lessons that she has presented throughout this series and she lays out some of the a...

This podcast is an immediate follow-up to last week's episode in which Dr. Shaw speaks about her philosophy that timing is everything.... but she's not necessarily talking about the timing that you might assume she's referring to.... she's really focused on patience in life, not about coincidence and not about immediate gratification.   She's also talking about the kind of patience that allows the...

In this brief episode, Dr. Shaw focuses on how, in life, timing can be everything.   She runs through several examples and scenarios to illustrate how waiting for the right moment can pay off... timing can deliver you the right relationship, timing can help students in school when a child needs an extra moment, patience can keep you centered or when you are waiting for word about a school applicat...

In this brief but insightful episode, Dr. Shaw talks about teaching our children to be flexible.  As with other tenets of Dr. Shaw's philosophy, teaching flexibility begins with proper modeling for our children.  When an adult behaves in a frustrated or inflexible manner, which will happen, it's important to point out that behavior and also explore the situation that you are in for the learning le...

In this very personal episode, Dr. Shaw shares her recent experience of having her adult son hospitalized with an serious condition and what her learning lessons were from that adventure.... and the lesson is that it's all about how you show up.   She discusses some of the ups and downs of advocating for her son Joshua in the hospital and how encountering different personalities among the doctors...

In this brief but important episode, Dr. Shaw discusses the need for setting boundaries for young children and her approach is always that children who, for example, have temper tantrums actually ARE ASKING for and know they need boundaries.  She begins by discussing an example of a substitute teacher who has temporarily taken over an unruly class and suddenly that class is well behaved.   In that...

In this episode, Dr. Shaw takes a look at the use of language and how it can cause misunderstanding or misinterpretation.   She uses the example of the phrase "the universe is testing me," and the framework of that phrase implies a zero sum game where the universe is either for or against us.   What we should say in that situation is the universe presents opportunities, and the manner in which we...

In this episode, Dr. Shaw discusses on one of her most important and frequently mentioned educational tool and that is "noting and marking" occurrences of success.   She shares some of her own experience from her decades of experience, and she then focuses on an illustrative example of noting and marking from her personal life.  She relates a recent story about how she dealt with some anxiety that...

In this brief but insightful episode, Dr. Shaw discusses and illustrates how we are often lucky in our lives when negativity strikes.   While that may seem counterintuitive on the surface, Dr. Shaw provides a few examples of how our challenging moments in life can lead to us being lifted up.   Her poignant conclusion on this topic is worth remembering.... that our moments of suffering are truly gi...

In this episode, Dr. Shaw talks about the celebrations of the Spring Season.  The religious holidays and other celebrations of this season have a focus on re-birth, growth and freedom.  She relates a personal story about her recent experience telling the story of Passover to her young grandchildren and how she handles some of the scary parts of that story.  She talked at that dinner about how the...