Face the Sun and The Shadows Will Fall Behind You

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[00:00:03.10] INSTRUCTOR: Welcome to Corwin's Teacher to Teacher podcast with host Carol Pelletier. Carol is an experienced classroom teacher and university educator, founder of mentoring and action.com, and author of four bestselling professional books for teachers. She believes the best form of professional learning happens when teachers engage in authentic conversations and share their wisdom.

[00:00:23.99] In every episode, Carol and her guests share stories about pivotal moments in their careers, successful classroom strategies, and personal actions they take to minimize stress and stay healthy. The Teacher to Teacher podcast is a place to engage in authentic conversation and reflection with experienced educators. We hope these conversations will energize you, keep you inspired, and remind you why you chose to become a teacher.

[00:00:49.34] CAROL PELLETIER: Welcome to season three of the Teacher to Teacher podcast. I am your host, Carol Pelletier Radford. And I am happy to be part of a conversation with two very experienced educators. The theme for season three is based on the book I wrote titled Teaching With Light, 10 Lessons for Finding Wisdom, balance and Inspiration.

[00:01:16.12] Each of the 10 episodes for this season mirror the 10 lessons in the book. And today's episode is titled Face The Sun and the Shadows will Fall Behind You. And before I introduce our guests, I just I just want to share with the listeners that in this in this book, the 10 lessons, this was the most challenging story for me to retrieve and share with the public, because this was a time in my teaching career when my father was very sick, dying of cancer. So I was dealing with a death of a parent.

[00:02:01.51] I was going through a divorce for a variety of reasons that I won't share. And I was writing my dissertation at the-- completing it, hopefully completing it at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. So this, Face the Sun and the Shadows will Fall Behind You is could tap into some of your more vulnerable stories and moments.

[00:02:30.20] And our guests are going to help us have a conversation where we can actually reflect authentically and retrieve some of those, but actually look at what we can do and what that sun, if you will, is that can heal us and move us forward so that we can be the best educators and teachers that we can be. So I just wanted to put that out there so that our listeners would know that it's a serious conversation, but it also has a lot of hope and sun in the room.

[00:03:09.15] So here our guests. Michelle and Noa, I'm so happy to have this conversation with you. And let's begin with Noa. Would you just share what your role in education is now, how did you get into teaching, and what are you interested in?

[00:03:30.99] NOA DANIEL: Well, my name is Noa Daniel. This is going to be my 30th year in the classroom teaching, and I still love it, maybe more now than ever. I went from being a classroom teacher only to being part-time in the classroom and consulting. I am the co-founder of The Mentory.

[00:03:48.68] I write children's books. I have contributed to several chapters. And one of the things I'm so excited about today is to have the conversation on the metaphor of what you're talking about with facing the sun and letting the shadow fall behind you. I think it's such a beautiful message, especially for teachers. There are so many suns out there, and so many ways to face challenges and to discover our potential through the work that we do.

[00:04:12.98] What was the second part of your question? Because I think--

[00:04:15.79] CAROL PELLETIER: No. You got it. I mean, we're going to keep going. And I'll ask you more.

[00:04:20.38] MICHELLE TRUJILLO: Nailed it, Noa.

[00:04:20.80] CAROL PELLETIER: Noa, you nailed it. Hi, Michelle. How are you? Introduce yourself. Let's get started here.

[00:04:27.20] MICHELLE TRUJILLO: Well, thank you. I am so happy to be here. And really like Noa, for me, this theme, this message today really is what my entire career was about. So I spent 25 years, over 25 years in the realm primarily of alternative education as a teacher and then as a high school administrator. And I just love it. My heart is still in the classroom.

[00:04:54.23] But today I have the honor and privilege of working with teachers and educational leaders and social workers and school counselors. And I do that because I truly believe in what we were able to create in our realm of alternative education, that place of finding the sun for our students. And I want to share that message with educators. And I am blessed to be able to do that today.

[00:05:22.00] CAROL PELLETIER: I'm so glad you're both here. We talk about teaching and education being really, really hard, especially right now. We do the pre COVID, the post COVID. But I really want to remind everyone that it was hard before COVID. It was hard. It's always been a challenging career.

[00:05:43.66] And yes, right now, retention of teachers and administrators and school leaders seems to be a little harder. But I am hopeful with this conversation and the work that both of you are doing, that we can shine that light on some messages.

[00:06:03.70] But before we get to some practical things, I really like to dive into stories, your stories of when did you have a time in your career that you relate to this message of facing the sun and using something around you to pull you out of the challenges that were going on. Noa, what comes up for you?

[00:06:33.19] NOA DANIEL: Well, I'm seven years through this story on the other side of it feeling pretty wonderful. But at the time I was facing many years of discovering that my principal hated me and in the most complete and negative way possible. And I'm the kind of person who faces the sun right away. And I'm like, oh, I'll just work harder and I'll be nicer. And the more I leaned into it, the worse it got. So

[00:06:57.16] I had to find my humility. I had to make a decision to give up my tenure and my seniority in the private school that I loved so much and jump into what was the abyss at the time, hoping that I would land on my feet, hoping that all of my planning for the other side would allow me to start in public school where I am and be the teacher that I wanted to be in that world, but also get to have autonomy and self-direct. And I got to do that. But getting there was really, really hard.

[00:07:26.33] And Glennon Doyle talks about we can do hard things. And we say that to our students all the time. But in going through this really transitional experience of facing a gatekeeper and not letting them keep me out of what I wanted to do and be and not letting them decide my fate was one of the most important lessons of my life. And I'm so proud to be in this place. And it was a really tumultuous journey. But here I am.

[00:07:50.28] CAROL PELLETIER: Yay! Let's get a reaction because Michelle, you've been a principal and hearing from a teacher like, wow, my principal hates me, and that reaction--

[00:08:02.77] MICHELLE TRUJILLO: It made my heart hurt, Noa, when you said that.

[00:08:05.57] CAROL PELLETIER: So-- but it's a leadership perspective that might-- I don't know-- relate to things that had to be done at the school. We take things personally. And of course, it's personal, obviously. But what's your reaction to that kind of a story as a leader? And then we'll get to your story.

[00:08:27.40] MICHELLE TRUJILLO: Yeah, absolutely. Well, my first thing, as I said, it made my heart hurt, Noa, to hear you say that, because our feeling-- what we feel is what we feel. And no one can deny that. If you were to say that to your administrator, he or she may have said, oh, I didn't hate you. But if you felt that they hated you because of their actions and their behaviors, obviously you can't take that away. And that's painful. It's really painful.

[00:08:55.78] So I guess my first thought is we all have to be able-- accountability is big in my world and high expectations. We have to be able to look at what's our part in something. And I think educational leaders find it very easy to tell their teachers or tell their students what they need to do. But sometimes as educational leaders, we forget to look at ourselves.

[00:09:20.54] And so I often tell principals, same thing that my grandma told me as a kid. You're pointing the finger at your teacher, which your administrator was doing to you, but there are three pointing back at ourselves. And so we have to be able to own our stuff and look at what's within our realm of control. And my hope would be that if you were able to articulate to your administrator how you felt, that that person would have owned their part in it and said, gosh, sincerely, I am sorry. I had no idea I was making you feel that way. So often--

[00:09:57.64] CAROL PELLETIER: Or if they did, that was Noa saying, I need to move on. So these choices, that was brave. I mean, and look at the life that you've created, Noa, out of that emotional interaction. Any reaction to or feedback on your story, hypothetically, from Michele's reaction?

[00:10:22.46] NOA DANIEL: I think Michele's reaction is important. Especially as leaders in education want to look at impact over intention, although it turned out it was her intention. But that took me years to figure out.

[00:10:33.10] CAROL PELLETIER: Yeah, yeah.

[00:10:34.90] NOA DANIEL: What you were saying, Michele, and validating. And it's true with our students to our students can misperceive our feedback and take it really personally. And it's important to unpack it and create those opportunities for relationship building and self-reflection. When you have power, you want to make sure you're using it to empower others. And so often we forget that the words that we say, the interactions we have, have huge impact.

[00:10:58.19] CAROL PELLETIER: Yes, thank you for underscoring that. So--

[00:11:01.36] MICHELLE TRUJILLO: Noa, I'll add one more thing, Carol. This is so important because what you did know was created boundaries for yourselves and for yourself, high expectations for yourself. And you said, I won't tolerate it. Like you-- it took you time to realize it, you said. And you had to reflect back. Self reflection is so important.

[00:11:20.46] But we as educators, we have to create boundaries, just as we do for our students. We have to do that for ourselves. So I'm really-- you inspire me.

[00:11:30.42] CAROL PELLETIER: Yes, that's inspiring story. So what's your pivotal, hurtful story. Not that we're trying to-- we're trying to retrieve things to learn, to learn what we did. And we get to acknowledge and celebrate the success that Noa that was the learning. That's why we're having these Teacher to Teacher podcasts. So we can hear each other and someone might say, you know what, oh my god, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to wait that long. I'm going to do my boundaries now, or I'm going to make a decision now. So what's your message story facing the sun?

[00:12:08.15] MICHELLE TRUJILLO: As Noa began sharing, something occurred to me that was big in my life as a young teacher. And I had always been living and working in this world of alternative education. However, there's a part of me, a big important part of who I am as a person is faith and family.

[00:12:31.62] And I was invited to join a staff at a private Lutheran high school. And I was so excited about that thinking, oh, not only can I teach, but I can be in ministry at the same time. And so I left my public education system, and I went into this new school. And I had all of this hope that this is where I was supposed to be, to be in ministry.

[00:12:59.24] And every day my heart just told me, this is not right. This is not-- it just doesn't feel right. And I was so discouraged because I felt like I was taking a step for the right thing. And what I realized was I was in ministry in public education. Up against all odds.

[00:13:26.35] So sometimes, we think about-- we don't reflect enough, enough really on our purpose. Why do we do what we do as educators? Where does that come from? And in my heart, it was about really being with students who were up against all odds.

[00:13:47.27] Sometimes in the private sector, we end up interacting and supporting students who have had some privilege and opportunity that other students hadn't. So to be able then to look at myself and say, can I admit that this wasn't the right choice for me and step back into the public setting, and gosh, just like you know, for me, things blew up then these opportunities to lead and to open, to found and open an alternative education school.

[00:14:20.01] CAROL PELLETIER: Wow. So both of you were talking about the listening. It's like the listening to whatever we're calling it, our hearts, our intuition, our emotional reactions, our behaviors to make choices to bring the sun. And then we know instantly, wow, I feel I feel good now. This is working.

[00:14:44.17] But we can't ignore the shadows because the shadows are part of how we make the choice to move forward and make the choices. And you would have done great work in the ministry. It isn't that, but those subtle reactions I'm just in awe that you each knew to listen. And look at you now and how much you're influencing others, which we're going to get to, all of the ways in which your messages are bringing sun to many people. Any reaction, Noa, to that story?

[00:15:23.11] NOA DANIEL: Oh yes. The sun isn't always an external mechanism influencing you. Sometimes the sun is a compass point inside of you, that when you take ownership of that, both the positive and the negative, both the shadow and the joy are drivers for you. And grounding yourself in purpose and knowing your why is an essential part of an educator in a lesson or a unit. But it's also in navigating their professional career.

[00:15:53.23] [INAUDIBLE] the self word that you have directionality with inside of you. And that can help you find your next step. And it's hard to be true to it. It's hard to trust it. But I think both of those stories really exemplify that reality, that the sun isn't always outside of us.

[00:16:08.77] CAROL PELLETIER: I love that. And one of the quotes that I have in the book on a different chapter is "Travel light, live light, share the light, be the light." And that's the message for our teaching with light is really we have to stop and find the light inside us, if we have messages that we want to share with other people. And we're all authors and hosts and we have a lot to say, the three of us.

[00:16:34.26] So if we want people to listen, what we want to do is ground or have that internal compass guiding us as to where am I doing the best work. And Michelle, made that decision because I think we want to be our authentic selves and be that sun. So thank you for that, Noa. I appreciate that.

[00:16:57.36] For the listeners, I just want to remind you that you can do these prompts yourself and look to where the sun has not been shining for you in the past as in my story, and find out who your suns are around you, and how does this message relate to you.

[00:17:20.16] And on the bonus track of this podcast, you can hear me read my story. So we'll include that if you're also interested in hearing how that evolved in a very positive way. So let's move along to practice. How do we practice? How do we find our suns around us?

[00:17:42.61] Noa, you've got Ted Talks and podcasts and books and children's story. You have so many resources. What's your message? What do you want to share with us practically that the listeners can take away?

[00:17:58.82] NOA DANIEL: I think that everybody has avenues out of themselves, and you should explore different mediums for expressing that. I do a lot of work with student voice. It's something that I've written about. But ultimately we can't determine what voice is for our learners. We just need to create space. And we have to do it for ourselves too.

[00:18:15.56] How do we amplify voice? How do we exercise voice and the mediums that work best for us? I didn't know I was going to become a podcaster, but I love it.

[00:18:25.45] CAROL PELLETIER: How did-- yes, that came to you by accident in some ways. So tell us a little bit about your podcast and how people can listen to it.

[00:18:35.48] NOA DANIEL: Sure well, I started out as a member of the panel of what's a podcast show that started for pre-service teachers, and then it evolved into becoming the show that I hosted for five years on Ed mentors, where I would invite a panel of educators each week on a different topic related to education that we were hearing buzz about, that we at the mentor were trying to respond to. And we did our best to listen to the voices of the educators and be responsive to them in not only hearing the different perspectives that they had on each of those topics, but being able to share them with faculties and with pre-service schools, universities.

[00:19:11.27] So we now have a collection that you can search for by subject on our mentor website. But you can also go to voice Ed radio and find all of our shows archived. And it's a really good way to talk about professional learning and to hear from people in a very short and user friendly amount of time. But the amount of thinking and the catalyst for conversation that happened in a podcast, it's a superior platform for learning and listening.

[00:19:37.59] CAROL PELLETIER: I love that. Now I'm interested in the one minute mentor story. I saw that you did. Is that part of a podcast too, or do you did you just post? Because I'm into mentoring and supporting mentors and novice teachers with my books, mentoring in action and my website. So I saw that and I'm like, what's that all about? The one minute mentor story. How did that come about?

[00:20:06.38] NOA DANIEL: Well, I like to name things, but really mentor minutes. I think that there are-- get out of mentorship. And we try to capture the stories of our mentors who are part of the community who for free, offer their time and support to teachers at any stage of their career, which is important because the most support comes in pre-service in the first few years. But teachers change jobs and roles and want to learn new things.

[00:20:30.36] So mentorship should be a career long experience. And those nuggets of wisdom that come out of some of those conversations or even podcasts we try to capture. But I don't always do the best job because I'm trying to do too many things at once. But I'm glad that you found them. And it's a good--

[00:20:44.25] CAROL PELLETIER: Yes yes. So we have to get those out there. We'll talk later of how I can link it to my mentoring and action website somehow so that those stories will continue to inspire. And then let's just have a little-- what's your student voice, your book, you have a children's book? What's the title, and what's the purpose, and why did you write a children's book?

[00:21:06.67] NOA DANIEL: Well, it's my third children's book, but was never-- again. It's called Strumming the Wild Turkeys. It's one of my favorite things.

[00:21:12.65] CAROL PELLETIER: Say it again, more slowly, Strumming the Wild--

[00:21:16.14] [INTERPOSING VOICES]

[00:21:19.19] OK.

[00:21:20.12] NOA DANIEL: Wild turkeys and finds his voice and his band and becomes not only a part of the band, but the lead singer. And it's a musical adventure of being yourself and finding belonging, actually. Anyway--

[00:21:32.59] CAROL PELLETIER: Oh, I love that.

[00:21:33.77] NOA DANIEL: I love the work I get to do with it. I created the website and all the copy. And I'm working with some people to take it to the next level.

[00:21:40.04] CAROL PELLETIER: All right, we'll get that on the description so people that are interested can do that. Thank you for sharing all the practical ways people can connect with your message. Michelle, you have so many books, several books, bestselling, a new book coming out. Let's hear about your two books. And then we'll talk about your new book when we celebrate at the end of the show.

[00:22:04.47] Tell me about the-- start with-- share the titles, because I think titles really tell us what the author-- where the author's going. So say the titles of your books.

[00:22:18.20] MICHELLE TRUJILLO: OK. The first one is Start With The Heart. That's my first core one book. And Start With The Heart-- Igniting Hope in Schools Through Social Emotional Learning. And really, when I look at who I was as an educator, I really see myself more as an advocator of hope. I advocate for hope. And our students often found hope in living and in learning through the culture that we were able to create at school.

[00:22:48.98] And at the time, social, emotional learning, that term, that wasn't what it was. The term really was family, second chances, love. These behaviors that our staff was able to just really embed into who they were as educators to create a climate for students. And so as you said in the beginning, somebody said something about we're writers because of the message. It's about I didn't write because I wanted to become an author, I wrote because I really believed in what we were able to create.

[00:23:30.02] And then we wanted to be able to share that vision and that message with others so that they could create it too. We would have administrators. Many of my students were suspended or expelled from their traditional setting schools. And they were sent to our school.

[00:23:44.84] We would have administrators walk through the school and they would say, who is that child? Why are they accomplishing so much here? This doesn't make sense. And I would say, ask the kids. And the kids would say, it's about family. It's about love. It's about second chances.

[00:24:01.44] CAROL PELLETIER: I love it.

[00:24:02.90] MICHELLE TRUJILLO: It doesn't mean that we didn't have amazing teachers that were very committed to best instructional practices. We had to have a rigorous academic setting to prove that these kids were achieving at the level that they needed to be achieving at to graduate from high school. However, if you don't create that culture first, it's very difficult to help them to open their hearts and minds to learning.

[00:24:31.50] So that's what Start With the Heart was about was that we really need to meet kids right where they are in order to help optimize their own learning.

[00:24:40.95] CAROL PELLETIER: And then that's when all the educators say, so what about me? It's like, yes, I want to go to the counselor. Why are kids getting all these private sessions with a counselor? If you help me, then I can do my-- I might influence and ripple out more energy. So you kind of shifted to educators after that.

[00:25:02.57] MICHELLE TRUJILLO: I did. Yes, I did. So that the book that was released just a year and a half ago or so, Social Emotional Well-Being for Educators. And the idea around that book, as you stated at the at the beginning today, it's not just COVID that created this overwhelming feeling that teachers are experiencing.

[00:25:24.33] Even prior to COVID, I was hearing from teachers, we have more behaviors in younger ages than we've ever seen before, and we don't know what we're going to do. We're just overwhelmed. I want to walk away. And then so with that, and then COVID, there came all this talk about adult self-care. Well, unfortunately, you say that to a teacher and they just want to scream.

[00:25:50.10] CAROL PELLETIER: They cringe. They like, I don't need self.

[00:25:53.18] MICHELLE TRUJILLO: Yeah. We don't need one more thing to do. You're going to tell me one more thing I have to do, and I don't have time for that. So the idea of social, emotional well-being is it was built around a framework for educator well-being that really was about identifying behaviors, specific behaviors. And these came from many, many interviews with many, many teachers, but behaviors that are inherent to our daily routines already, and how do we leverage our strengths and identify opportunities where we need support or growth in these areas.

[00:26:30.89] And the six areas were aligned with social emotional learning competencies. But they are be reflective, be intentional, be empathetic, be connected, be accountable, and be equitable. So if we were really able to look at these six ways of being and say-- and in the book, we have a self reflection check in so I can look at myself and say, what's really natural to me here and what's really challenging. And in that, I can identify my individual strengths as well as where I need to ask for help. And the best part about this, this is what thrills me.

[00:27:11.13] CAROL PELLETIER: I love this. You're so excited. We got the-- we got the sun, sunshine.

[00:27:16.37] MICHELLE TRUJILLO: Well, and this brings hope to schools because you have everybody independently check in with themselves. And then I've created this activity where they can highlight one strength and post it and highlight one opportunity for growth and post it. And if they do that as a staff, they can stand back and they can look, and they can go look at all of these post-it notes on be connected. We are good at that at our school.

[00:27:47.90] We all need help with being intentional. [INAUDIBLE] can create a goal for our school.

[00:27:55.55] CAROL PELLETIER: I love it. We're getting the-- I hope our listeners are hearing all the practical ways in which [INAUDIBLE] reaction to what Michelle's offering us as ways to stay hopeful. What are you hearing?

[00:28:09.81] NOA DANIEL: I'm hearing listening. I'm hearing feeding back that data to whether it's staff or students, so that they can be part of the goal setting experience. And that the language of that goal setting is both affirming and also the kinds of growth minded next steps that people need to action them. That's what--

[00:28:27.63] CAROL PELLETIER: Wow. Yeah. We've got it. So thank you both for all of this. This has been a really important conversation and one that can be vulnerable, but also hopeful as we take our challenges head on. It's like, let's just take them head on and look at them and apply what the two of you are saying to enhance that feeling of community really, of connecting and everybody helping each other.

[00:28:59.93] But I think the teacher is able to ripple out more effectively when we give these skills and practices and mindset, if you will to all of us and we practice them. So that kind of leads me as we're winding down to, OK, how do you to actually stay so positive? As all of our listeners are going, oh my god, they're dealing with all these challenges, how do you stay inspired? Because part of that is what keeps you going. So Noa, what do you do that our listeners might want to do too? I don't know.

[00:29:40.78] NOA DANIEL: For me and for my family and for my students, I like to make a playlist. I catch a vibe that can change your mood, that can give you the inspiration that you need, that can help you kind of check out of the feelings that you have--

[00:29:53.71] CAROL PELLETIER: Like music playlist. So you go on and you pick out songs. So what would we find on your playlist?

[00:30:01.75] NOA DANIEL: Oh, you will find a lot of classic rock on my playlist.

[00:30:04.36] CAROL PELLETIER: Oh. Classic rock. Woo.

[00:30:06.97] NOA DANIEL: Just have a lot of Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo lately. And to be honest with you, Chappell Roan, even though there's some swearing in there is kind of amazing. That's a really fun way. But when my students make a playlist, there's like a requirement it has to be certainly appropriate.

[00:30:24.69] But they love to be played out at the end of the day to one of their songs, and it's a really nice way--

[00:30:29.43] CAROL PELLETIER: Oh, so you pick a song? The students can contribute. You make up the playlist. You can put one on. And then everybody kind of dances.

[00:30:36.27] NOA DANIEL: Playing the class with your song today. And then [INAUDIBLE] and everybody gets to rock it out as they pack it.

[00:30:41.45] CAROL PELLETIER: I love it. Classic rock. Very good. OK. And so-- what do you do, Michelle?

[00:30:47.70] MICHELLE TRUJILLO: I love that. Well, first thing I'm going to do when I get off the podcast is I'm going to create a playlist to rock out each day. I love that. Love it a lot. For me, it's about seeking joy with family. And one thing that comes to mind is I ride my bike with my dad, something we started during COVID.

[00:31:08.24] He's 83 years old. It used to be-- I'd be in front, and I'd kind of loop back to catch up. Now he is kicking my butt, and I'm trying to stay caught up with him. And it's just-- it's a beautiful. We take time. We have to take time, I think to be still.

[00:31:27.73] I go 120 miles an hour. My husband told me once, babe, you've got to close your tabs. He says, you're-- and I got--

[00:31:37.00] CAROL PELLETIER: Oh, the tabs.

[00:31:39.25] MICHELLE TRUJILLO: Like, what are you talking about? And he goes, you're like a computer with 20 different tabs open. And not only you don't shut them down, but you open more. And so we have to take time, he's absolutely right, to just be in the moment, to be present. We don't do that enough. I know I don't.

[00:31:58.76] CAROL PELLETIER: So that's. I like that. Close your tabs. Yeah. As I look at all 20 that are open at the same time. So we're winding down. And I have two questions for you as we close this episode. How have you changed over time in your view of either helping people face the sun or your view of the work that you're doing?

[00:32:27.34] I use Dick Elmore's prompt to guide me. I used to think this and now I think this. Noa, how would you respond to that?

[00:32:39.22] NOA DANIEL: I used to think learning was about what I was told I needed to learn or what conferences made me learn. And now I understand that learning is about me, how I need to learn, and what I need to learn, and my students guiding me in, helping me fill in the gaps to become the educator that I want to be. And I'm always evolving. And it's in my control. And that's a pretty empowering thing.

[00:33:02.32] CAROL PELLETIER: Yeah. Thank you for that. What about you, Michelle?

[00:33:06.37] MICHELLE TRUJILLO: Yeah, I'm going to piggyback right on that. I used to think as a young teacher, so much was out of my control and so much was out of the control of my students. And I would get discouraged about that. And now I know there is so much within our realm of control, so many strengths we can reframe our thinking and so many strengths that we can leverage in order to really focus on creating intentional change around what is within our realm of control.

[00:33:37.90] CAROL PELLETIER: Thank you for that. All inspiring and wonderful messages. So let's end with some good news again, inspired by John Krasinski, who had his COVID show called SGN, Some Good News. So I love to end the podcast with some good news. What do you want to celebrate? What should our listeners hear? Noah, what are you celebrating?

[00:34:05.69] NOA DANIEL: I want to celebrate how I got to get to know you. So--

[00:34:08.48] CAROL PELLETIER: Yay!

[00:34:09.83] NOA DANIEL: After from the entry in mentoring for wellbeing in schools, edited by Benjamin Katsiroubas and Frances Cochrane. And you also have a chapter there. And you came on the show. But I really I love the opportunity to share what we do at the mentoring and how we support teachers. So that's pretty great news to me.

[00:34:27.94] CAROL PELLETIER: Oh yes, we will be following up. You'll be helping me create podcast PD. We're going to we're going to keep moving forward. And what would you like to celebrate, Michelle, as we wind down?

[00:34:41.30] MICHELLE TRUJILLO: Yes, I am so excited to celebrate. I've got a new book coming out co-authored with Douglas Fisher and Nancy Fry in September. It's called-- really goes well with the theme of your podcast. It's called Teaching and Learning in the Face of Adversity. And the subtitle is Strategies That Inspire.

[00:35:04.17] And really, that's what it's about. How do we engage our students? How do we nourish wellbeing? And how do we ignite hope? Because that is within our realm of control. Even though adversity is central to the human experience, there are skills we can develop and help our students to develop in order to elevate their adversity quotient.

[00:35:26.52] CAROL PELLETIER: Yeah. So what's one strategy that you're willing to share? Is there one off the top of your head that just kind of ends? I know there's 1,000, but--

[00:35:35.48] MICHELLE TRUJILLO: There are 1,000.

[00:35:36.57] CAROL PELLETIER: But is there one?

[00:35:38.18] MICHELLE TRUJILLO: Yeah, we really focus on four, but I will pick one. And one would be create authentic opportunities to connect. Smiling authentically. Looking people in the eye when appropriate. Sometimes it's not. We've got to honor that. Use our students names.

[00:36:02.24] CAROL PELLETIER: I love that.

[00:36:03.65] MICHELLE TRUJILLO: Yeah rather than walking by someone and saying, how are you, and we keep walking. Stop, look at them, say hello, ask the question and listen for the answer.

[00:36:14.97] CAROL PELLETIER: Thank you.

[00:36:15.50] MICHELLE TRUJILLO: Because authentic connections matter.

[00:36:18.05] CAROL PELLETIER: And you did that with your dad? Because we can say find joy. That's not enough for us anymore. We have to be specific. We have to say find joy by dancing in your kitchen to classic rock. And I would like you to add to your list is the group, I love Lake Street Dive. Are they on your playlist?

[00:36:41.52] NOA DANIEL: No, but I'm putting them on right now.

[00:36:43.23] CAROL PELLETIER: Put them on. Lake Street Dive. But that's authentic. It's like what we're doing. I think on this podcast we want Teacher to Teacher to be an authentic podcast conversation with all the flaws and blips and vulnerabilities.

[00:37:01.80] To our listeners, hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for tuning in to Teacher to Teacher podcast. I want to remind everyone who's listening to stay inspired, stay healthy, and don't forget to share your good news. And I hope you'll join us in the next episode, which is titled Be a Ripple.

[00:37:23.84] INSTRUCTOR: Thanks, everyone, for joining today's Teacher to Teacher conversation. We hope this time together energized you, inspired you, and reminded you why you chose to become a teacher. You can purchase any of Carol's books and any books mentioned in the podcast online at www.corwin.com.

[00:37:40.19] Please leave a review and share this podcast with your colleagues. Thank you for listening to the Corwin Teacher to Teacher podcast. A place to share teacher wisdom and engage in authentic conversations with experienced educators.

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