PBL Simplified by Magnify Learning
PBL Simplified Podcast helps innovative principals and teachers like you bring Project Based Learning to your classrooms. PBL Simplified is in the top 5% of over 2 million global podcasts.
Hosted by Ryan Steuer, of Magnify Learning, we strive to empower school leaders and teachers with examples from Project Based Learning classrooms, leadership inspiration, and practical PBL resources.
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Whether you are a teacher or school leader, there is something for you on PBL Simplified:
1st Wednesday: PBL Leadership Episode
2nd Wednesday: PBL Showcase - a PBL facilitator shares a PBL Unit
3rd Wednesday: PBL Leadership Episode
4th Wednesday: PBL Interview.
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PBL Simplified by Magnify Learning
Embracing Gratitude and Purpose in Education: PBL and SEL Connection | E210
Unlock the transformative power of gratitude and purpose in your educational journey with our latest episode! Discover how embracing thankfulness can revolutionize your classroom experience, as we explore the profound impact of recognizing and celebrating student achievements. You'll learn actionable strategies to identify and acknowledge student successes, helping to create a more positive learning environment. By understanding your "why" in education, you'll find renewed motivation and passion, enhancing your ability to navigate challenges with resilience and hope.
Celebrate with us as we express our heartfelt gratitude to our community of listeners and explain how your engagement helps build a supportive network for educators passionate about project-based learning. Your reviews not only help new listeners find the PBL Simplified Podcast but also foster a community of visionary leaders eager to improve learning experiences. Join us on this inspiring journey as we aim to create a movement of hope and inspiration in education, knowing together, we can make a tangible difference in the lives of students and teachers alike.
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The more you practice the art of thankfulness, the more you have to be thankful for. Norman Vincent Peale. Let's find out what we have to be thankful for, friends. This is just an episode that's going to try to help you just be thankful right where you're at right what you have, and we're going to try to be real actionable. We're going to be quick and hopefully we'll raise your spirits just a little bit and get you fired up. We've got three reasons to be thankful. No matter where you're at, no matter what school you're in I don't care if you're an A, b, c or D, a blue, an orange, whatever it is that the outside world might rate your school, whether you're rural, suburban, urban, small, big school wherever you're at, you're a passionate educator that loves kids and we have things to be thankful for and we're going to push that. Just like our quote, the more we practice the art of thankfulness, the more we have to be thankful for. So we're going to just take some take a moment and look around a little bit in three different areas. The first place we're going to look is that students are learning. Students in your class are learning. They're better off because they're in your classroom than if they hadn't been in your classroom, and you might have a hard time seeing that, with 28 kids in your classroom, you've got two that feel like they're just falling off the edge of the world. You've got another 10 that don't seem to care. Whatever the numbers and the statistics are, can we just agree that at this point in the year, in November, that they're better off than they were in August? Right, can we agree on that? Like they are, they've learned something. They've matured in some way. Some way for every one of your learners you could find some positive, some one thing to be thankful for of your learners. You could find some positive, some one thing to be thankful for, and I need you to do that. I don't have to get all 28. If you really want to get after this, you should just take all 28 kids in your class, or the 125, and just look for one win Real quick, bullet, point it. You don't have to do a story for everybody, but what's one thing that you could be thankful for for every one of your learners? If that feels like a lot right now, as you're coming close to break, what if you just took time to write down a couple of student wins. What are the student wins this year that you're like, yeah, that went well, like that was good. Maybe it was a presentation that went well. Maybe it was a learner that doesn't normally do well, but they did. Maybe a learner did an awful job on a presentation that went well. Maybe it was a learner that doesn't normally do well, but they did. Maybe a learner did an awful job on a presentation, but they apologized. Like, oh, look at that. You apologized. That's neat, look at that. Or somebody was having an awful day, but they still took the time to tell you that you're doing a great job and there's some piece that you can pull out. I want you to pull out at least five and I want you to physically write them down. It could be on a post-it note, but before you leave school for a break if you're already on break put it in a journal somewhere, but I want you to have it on your desk when you come back. These five things that you are thankful for and the more you practice the art of thankfulness, the more you have to be thankful for You'll start to see these things pop up and write them down. Start a thankfulness board on your bulletin board If you were like me when I was in the classroom, I was not a bulletin board guy.
Ryan Steuer:I did not do a good job. I always had a learner. It was usually Brooke who did my bulletin board for me. I just came up with one theme that worked for the year. Right, and they're teaching you.
Ryan Steuer:Number one you're making progress. Your students are learning. Number two you're living out your passion. You're living out your why. You got into education for a very specific reason. It might have been because you had a great teacher and you wanted your learners to experience that same thing that you felt. It might be that you had an awful teacher that said some awful things to you and you don't want that to ever happen to any of your learners, so you're there to defend them. It might be that you just see that there's a need, so you've stepped in and you want better opportunities for your learners than they might see on their own. But there's some reason that you are in the profession of education. This is not a place where you just get a gig. You're definitely not listening to this podcast if that's the case. You're a movement maker. You want amazing things for your learners. You are living out your passion.
Ryan Steuer:It doesn't mean that every day is going to be easy. It does mean that you need to know your why. So you're going to have five things that you're thankful for in one post-it note and your next one you're going to have your why. You're going to remind yourself why are you in this profession? What's your why? What gets you fired up? What gets you passionate about the work that you're currently in? You're going to need that.
Ryan Steuer:I've got this kind of mantra that I say, like my why is too strong. When things get hard, when motivation's low and things aren't going the way I want them to, it's just like my why is too strong, I'm going to push through and it works. Right, it works. That's your biggest driver. You can have a lot of other ways to get motivated. I'm all for that. I'm all for discipline. You've got processes, rituals, habits that you do. I also love for you to revisit your why for being in education.
Ryan Steuer:The third reason to be thankful is that you have better days ahead. Things are getting better, and when I look out into the field of education and I talk to educators across the country, I still see schools that are saying, yes, I'm ready to transform, yes, I'm ready to do something different. I see passionate leaders that are willing to step up and say I don't know exactly what the course looks like, but I've got a pretty good idea. We're going in this direction and it's going to be student-centered, it's going to be student-empowering, it's going to be teacher-empowering. Let's get up and do this.
Ryan Steuer:And I see more and more resources. We've got more resources in the field of project-based learning than we've ever had ever Now. At the same time, it means you have to sift through some, because they're not all fantastic, but it does mean that there are some great ones out there. We've got some in our online community, in the PBL Movement online community. We've got all of our resources everything from group contracts to rubrics to planning forms, anything that you could possibly want all vetted, all used in classrooms right now, and it's such a catapult from what 10 years ago was where we were just making up group contracts and trying things out Like we've tried the things. We've got a real good idea of what works.
Ryan Steuer:Are things still evolving, of course, but it is a great time to jump into project-based learning. I'm not sure there's ever been a better time. You've got community partners that are willing to Zoom from around the world, around the country. They're willing to give your learners time. That was harder to do I mean, I think we were trying to do stuff via Skype back in the day, right, and there's so many different ways that you can connect your standards to real-world learning. It is a great day to be an educator. We've got movements forming right. So there's more people in the online community than we've ever seen before. There's more people being trained. There's more model schools than we've ever seen before. There is a movement swelling in different parts of the country.
Ryan Steuer:So, wherever you're at, know that you're not alone and know that it's getting better each and every day, each and every year. Things are getting better and they're getting better for our learners and they're getting better for you as the educator. So know that. Have hope that things are getting better as we go. That's it. That's our episode today. I want you to be thankful, because the more you practice the art of thankfulness, the more you have to be thankful. For Three reasons to be thankful right now your students are learning, they're making progress, you are living out your passion and you've got better days ahead. Have a vision, have hope. There's good things ahead. My friends Go out and lead inspired.
Ryan Steuer:Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the PBL Simplified Podcast. I appreciate you and honor that you tune in each week. Would you please take two minutes to leave a rating and a review. When you leave a review, it lets the next person know that this is a podcast worth listening to. When they go into their player and search project-based learning, and PBL Simplified popped up. When they see those reviews, they know that high quality, visionary leaders are listening, so they tune in too and they can find their way into the PBL journey. Thank you so much for leaving a review. Thank you so much for listening. I appreciate you.
