Mastering Your Classroom and Life with Kindergarten Teacher Gina Venancio

What happens when you land your dream job and it feels more like a battlefield than a classroom?

Kindergarten teacher Gina Venancio knows that feeling all too well. After years of struggling to manage her classroom, a heart-to-heart with her teaching partner gave her the wake-up call she needed to take control.

Gina embarked on a journey of researching classroom management and student behavior, learning that effective control doesn't rely on threats or bribes but a sustainable approach tailored to each student.

Gina’s teaching journey didn't stop with mastering classroom management. She had to learn how to balance her roles as a teacher, a coach for other educators, and maintain her personal life. Gina shares how she sets boundaries, lets go of perfectionism, and manages her time intentionally. Trust us, you won't want to miss her thoughts on the art of ‘doing nothing’ and how strategic rest periods can boost your productivity and well-being.

But a teacher's life isn't just about classroom management and work-life balance. Gina and I dive into the challenges of the teaching profession, from the often frustrating reality of micromanagement to the vital role of student advocacy. She passionately speaks about the need for teacher autonomy and the importance of having a team approach to avoid feeling isolated.

Gina has some great tips on how to access resources online without breaking the bank. And, for those considering leaving the profession, she offers some valuable advice and a heartfelt reminder of why you started teaching in the first place. Join us for a conversation filled with practical tips, invaluable insights, and inspirational moments. You won't regret it.

Follow Gina for tips, tricks, and trainings:
IG: @teachingwithheart
https://linktr.ee/Teachingwithheart

Transcript

Miriam: 0:32

Okay, welcome back to the show I have today in. I have the great honor of interviewing Gina Venancio. Is that right?

Gina: 0:44

Well, you made that sound so fancy.

Miriam: 0:46

Okay, venancio and I was just telling Gina that she is a powerhouse of just like resources for teachers, and I'm just blown away by how much she's created and how much effort it's clear and passion she's put into it, thank you. So, gina, tell us a little bit about you know how you got into education and a little bit, maybe just a quick summary of your, your career.

Gina: 1:19

Yeah, sure, I mean I feel like many people wanted to be a teacher since they were little. I remember in first grade like playing classroom with my stuffed animals in my basement and like for Christmas I'd ask for like maps of the world to teach my pretend kids, things like that. So yeah, just since I can remember I wanted to be a teacher but I actually thought I wanted to teach the older kids. I thought I wanted to teach fourth grade because my absolute favorite teacher was my fourth grade teacher. And then when I started, like my internships and my field work and things like that, I was like, oh, the older kids are not for me. First of all, they're taller than me and I just I really connected with the younger kids but I really wanted to teach first grade. That was where I student taught and that's really where my love for teaching was. And I got hired before the school year was even over.

Gina: 2:18

I was still student teaching and they called me and they said you're going to teach kindergarten. And my heart just dropped because I wanted first grade so badly. And I'm thinking to myself all kindergartners do is play all day. I'm not actually going to get to teach, I'm just going to babysit and I was so disappointed. But I was like you know what, my foot's in the door. If there's an opening in first grade next year or whenever you know, then I can switch, I can ask to switch. And that was 12 years ago and I am still in kindergarten.

Gina: 2:50

I absolutely love kindergarten and, shocking to say, we don't actually play as much as I was worried that we did and I do truly, after 12 years, wish that we played even more because that's so important for our young kids. When they are developing. They learn through play. But kindergarten really is the new first grade. So as much as I don't really agree with that, I really do love kindergarten. I just the transformation I see from my kids from the beginning of the year and they come in as babies. I have pretty much a half class of four year olds at the beginning of the year to the end of the year when they're ready to first grade, just to go to first grade. Their growth is absolutely incredible.

Gina: 3:37

But I found it really hard my first few years. My first few years I had maybe one student who would push the boundaries right, who wouldn't follow the classroom rules and expectations, and then I was able to manage them pretty well, you know, just doing the things that I had seen when I was in school and then it was my fourth year teaching. I had just this class. I had three students and I could not manage them. They completely hijacked my class to the point where I like I'd be standing in the front of the room teaching and they would just be running around the classroom jumping on furniture, throwing their shoes, leaving the room, and I was just like, oh my gosh, this is not what I imagined when I was that seven year old, in my basement teaching my stuffed animals, right Like I thought it was going to be this peaceful, lovely, like Kumbaya teaching experience Stuffed animals don't run.

Gina: 4:41

Yeah, they don't run, they don't talk back, like they are perfect. And I just looked around my room and I was like I can't do this, like I, not only can I not manage them, but I how do I teach the rest of my kids when they're just distracted by the kids hanging from the blinds in the back of the room? And I remember this one day so perfectly. I tell the story all the time. I tried to keep it together so, so hard. I walked my kids out to recess and I wasn't on recess due to that day. So I turned around, I went to go check my mail in the office and the secretary's sweetest woman, she looks at me. She goes how's your day going? And I just burst into tears and I can't have anyone see me crying.

Gina: 5:28

So there's this like little room in the office that was like a supply closet but it was like a storage room, and I just hid in the closet just hysterically crying and all of a sudden there's like this little knock on the door and it's my teaching partner, my grade level partner, and she comes in. She's like what are you doing? And I'm just like I can't do it. They just won't stop. I don't know what to do. And she just looked at me and she said well, no one's coming, like no one's going to come save you. So what are you going to do? And I'm like what are you going to do? I thought you're going to tell me, like do x, y, z and it'll get better. And she's like you got to, you got to do something because it's not going to get any better. She said the Calvary is not coming.

Miriam: 6:16

And it's just you.

Gina: 6:17

And I was like wow, like that was a wake up call. There is no like magic wand for this. There is no one who's going to come and rescue me. So if I want to live out my dream and actually stay in teaching, I need to figure out what to do. So I took her suggestion as like kind of my light bulb moment and I started just researching everything I could about classroom management and student behavior, because we really didn't learn much of it in teacher prep programs, or even I have my master's. Really all I learned was like create class and rules and they will follow them, and like that's not how it works.

Gina: 7:02

And I just started going to PDs.

Gina: 7:04

I started talking to BCB gays and reading everything that I could get my hands on and talking to other teachers in my building and I realized no one actually knew what to do and we were relying on all of these systems of threatening kids and bribing kids and giving them parties and then taking away parties just to kind of hope that they wanted something bad enough that they would behave, when that's not really what behavior is about at all.

Gina: 7:33

And luckily I learned enough that I was able to keep those three kids in the classroom, keep their shoes on, have them actually sit down and attend to a lesson, and by the end of it I was like, wow, I can't be the only one who's dealing with this, can I? And the more and more I talk to other teachers, the more I realize like everyone's going through the same thing, whether it's one student or 10 students that they're struggling with and no one really talks about it and everyone just pretends that they're in, like this highlight reel where, in reality, a lot of teachers are out there struggling and they don't say that they're struggling for whether it's a good thing or not, and I think it's fear of other people thinking that you're not good at your job or fear of admin thinking that you're not good.

Gina: 8:28

But a lot of teachers really need help. So I just started sharing on Instagram things that were working for me, and teachers were just resonating with it and sending me messages how do you do this, can you help me do this? And I was like, wow, I would love to help other teachers because I know how I felt like I was so ineffective and so pretty much a failure at my job. But if I could turn it around, I knew I could help other teachers too, and that really is my mission now just to help other teachers figure out how to manage student behavior in a sustainable way so that they can stop constantly trying to manage disruptions and actually have time to teach. So that was kind of the long version of my journey.

Gina: 9:15

But yeah, that's where I am now.

Miriam: 9:18

Awesome. I think it's so needed. I've heard the same thing from other teachers, that the classroom management was touched on briefly, and really that's the foundation of everything. If you don't have classroom management, if you don't have kids engaged really not just quiet, but engaged you have nothing. You cannot teach. First, you have to get their attention and maintain it, and so, and especially at kindergarten level, especially what? What they're teaching at kindergarten level to some some of them are four year olds. You know, it's a, it's a big ask. It's a big ask and it's a stressful ask. Absolutely what do you think? Well, so tell me a little bit about your programs. So I see that you have, like online recorded, pre-recorded programs. So tell me a little bit more about how, like if a teacher was looking to access your help, what would be the best starting point?

Gina: 10:27

Yeah, so I actually have two programs. The one that I started with I launched last year. It's called Cluster Management Made Easy and that is really where I walk people through how I got control of my classroom. So I have five steps that I reproduce pretty much every single year, five parts to a Cluster Management Plan that is not just relying on rewarding your students or threatening your students, but really how to create a comprehensive plan that both allows you to reinforce student behavior and also helps you figure out what to do when students do push those boundaries or break those expectations. And that's a course I actually teach live twice a year. So I teach it on Zoom with educators who will sign on and I teach the content and then you know I'm there to help them implement. They can ask questions, get clarification. It is also recorded in case people can't show up live as well and then. So that kind of teaches people the foundations of Cluster Management, how to create a whole class plan.

Gina: 11:39

And then last year what I noticed was teachers who had gone through that program were asking for a little bit more about specific behaviors. So I created kind of a mini course that's called Teaching Uninterrupted, which really focuses on how to get students engaged in your lessons and how to stop the constant off-task chatting and interrupting and blurting out and things like that. That was the main frustration I heard from a lot of teachers that went through my course was okay, they have this awesome classroom management plan and it's working for most of their kids, but there are still a few kids who are always blurting out, always interrupting, never really paying attention. How do they tackle that? So I kind of made this mini course which is pre-recorded so people can join anytime and go through it and it will teach you exactly how to combat that constant classroom chatter.

Gina: 12:33

And then I actually have a third offer that's coming out right after my course launches next week and it will be for people who went through my course. So we all have kind of the same foundation of classroom management and it will be more of a membership version where teachers will have access to me and a cohort of other teachers and they can get help in real time for things that are happening in their classroom. So we will have some live calls, we'll have some pre-recorded things where I teach and then we'll also have a Facebook group where teachers can pop in and just be like, hey, this happened today, not really sure how to approach it. What would your suggestion be? Some more just like a live coaching program? So those are really the three ways right now that I have to support teachers.

Miriam: 13:23

Wonderful. What a gift you are to the profession, thank you. How do you balance kindergarten teaching and this being a resource to teachers and your own personal life? How are you balancing all that?

Gina: 13:44

That's been something that I still strive for. I don't know that I will ever be in complete balance. During the week, my main focus is teaching kindergarten, and I do most of my work supporting teachers on weekends. And then in the summer I try to do as much as I can to set myself up for the school year. But one thing that, as I've been in the profession longer, I've gotten better at is leaving school.

Gina: 14:15

At school, and I know your first few years that's really hard because you're building everything from scratch, right, and you don't have last year's plans or last year's resources to rely on.

Gina: 14:28

But as I've been teaching for more and more years, you know most things are done. I tweak things for my kids, I might put a different spin on something, but for the most part curriculum is done, and so I really try to take full advantage of my planning periods. I try to just, you know, close my door, get as much done as I can while I have time, and then, you know, work a little bit after school. We have to stay like a half hour after students. I try to take full advantage of that and then at 3.30, when we can leave, I try to leave and just say you know, if it didn't get done today, it will get done tomorrow. And that's been a hard shift for me, as someone who's a perfectionist and, you know, wants to do everything 110 percent, sometimes realizing like OK, not everything needs to be laminated will survive. If it's not laminated will survive. If you know, I draw the picture instead of finding a key rest of clip art and they're done that.

Gina: 15:31

Yeah, that has been a big game changer for me, realizing that not everything has to be perfect. So, yeah, I try to end that at 3.30. I try to put boundaries on. You know, when I speak with parents I try not to really check those things at home unless it's an emergency. And then of course there are exceptions, you know report card time, conference time, where you do have to put a little work in outside. But yeah, for the most part try to keep school at school and work at home.

Miriam: 16:04

And do you have a family of your own?

Gina: 16:07

Well, I have my husband and then I have two dogs. Yes, so one I was telling you before is right here. He's at my feet now. And then we got a puppy a few months ago who's downstairs right now. So they keep me on my toes. But that's been something that's been a big change to just trying to be present with all of them when I'm home. Yeah, rather than you know, for so many years I would sit and watch TV with my husband with my laptop on my lap and, just, you know, create the resources that I needed for tomorrow, but then you're never really in either place, right? Yeah, so that's been something I've been working on a lot and getting better nowhere near perfect, but just really trying to be intentional about my time in both places.

Miriam: 16:55

Yeah, that's something I'm working on. I'm sure most people are working on themselves, but I've been working on myself too, because I feel like it's very difficult to do nothing. You know, I mean I'm watching TV, I want to be present, I want to be with the family, you know, but especially if I don't like the show, you know I'm like I'm here. I could be doing so many other things with my laptop, that is.

Gina: 17:20

That's what I mean. I'm so happy that you say that, because that is something that this summer I've realized I am so bad at relaxing. Yeah, I can't do it. I, even if I'm sitting and just like I don't know cleaning, I have to be listening to a podcast, Like I constantly have to be doing something which is something I should probably work on, but I just I don't know. I function better when I'm busy.

Miriam: 17:45

Yeah, I'm a meditation teacher and I struggle with that.

Gina: 17:50

So the worst part of yoga for me is Shavasana, because I just lay there with my thoughts. It's like oh no.

Miriam: 17:57

Yeah, yeah, I think that's a challenge for a lot of yoga students early on, especially, but especially in this high tech, high, fast pace. You know life of ours, we're constantly doing, doing, doing, especially teachers. I think that there's a lot of perfectionism within the teacher community, absolutely, and we're we're multitasking and we are constantly getting new input and trying to process input and trying to make something of it and and it makes us great but it also makes us crazy. So being able to sit with a sit in stillness with yourself is something that we all struggle with, but the more we do it, the better we are, and as much as I, even if it's like one minute a day or five minutes a day, you know it's something I try to work on, as much as I don't want to.

Miriam: 19:07

Yeah, I just got back from Spain and one of the things that I noticed in Europe, especially the more Latin countries, they are very good at the art of doing nothing and I wonder how we could incorporate that as Americans, you know, especially as teachers, you know, in people, in education, how can we do nothing without feeling guilty? And especially on campus, normalizing rest For the longest time I would sneak off campus during my lunch and I'm a school psych so I have a little bit more flexibility. But I would especially right when I had my son I would sneak off campus, I would go to the park across the street from my campus and I would listen to meditations and set a timer and I fell asleep and I was deathly afraid. I got really good at napping like on cue, but I was deathly afraid of anybody seeing me. Do you feel any of that pressure of like having downtime on the job or leaving campus or doing these little things that like are not necessarily normalized but can be very rejuvenating for teachers?

Gina: 20:51

I don't have the luxury of being able to leave during the day, even like our lunchtime, by the time we drop the kids off and have to go pick them up like it's gosh, like 20 minutes. I like scarf down a salad and then have to go get them. However, I do feel like that's something that is totally missing, because even our like professional developments they are all scheduled out for us right. Like you know, you're going to be learning about this topic from this presenter for these three hours and then you move on to this one for these three hours. There's never any time to sit with what you've learned, to think about implementation, to actually figure out how you're going to implement something. It's just constantly going, going, going and changing that.

Gina: 21:50

I almost feel like the people making the decisions feel like giving teachers downtime is a bad thing and like if they give us downtime, we're going to do nothing with it and be unproductive. Where I kind of see two sides to that, I see one. Well, if we did nothing, is that unproductive though? Like you were saying, like sometimes rest is how you reset and you can then get a longer shelf life of your working moments if you have those moments to reset right, and if you're not constantly going or the other side of that is, just because you're not prescribing something to us doesn't mean that we won't be productive during that time. So I feel like downtime is not something that's normalized in the teaching profession, but I think that it would be so important and I think that's why we see a lot of teachers leaving, not only because you know we're overworked and micro-managed and things like that, but it's because it's go, go, go and we never stop, and I think that's really hard for a lot of people.

Miriam: 23:06

Yeah, I mean it's. It's just not healthy to have our cortisol levels at fight, you know, raised all the time and we're at fight or flight constantly.

Gina: 23:16

And something interesting that I did notice is when I do stop, I always get sick.

Miriam: 23:23

Yes.

Gina: 23:24

It's like my body is constantly in this state of overdrive that when I let it relax, it almost doesn't even know what to do, and I don't think that's good thing either.

Miriam: 23:35

No, it's not healthy. And you see that with a lot of high stress professions, where the cortisol in your system is actually keeping you healthy so that you can burn them in night oil, you know, then when you go on vacation, this would happen to me every single winter and summer, like as soon as I got the vacation, I would, I would get sick. Your body is like, oh, okay, I can be sick. Now, okay, I can fall in, you know Right. And and then you ruin your vacation days.

Gina: 24:11

Especially if it's a short one. We were just away for seven days and I was sick for all of it. I'm like really yeah.

Miriam: 24:20

So how do we combat that? I I kind of think that you know micro moments throughout the day, if we can find moments of rest, and that relaxation, even if it's just for a minute, a few times a day, can be really rejuvenating.

Gina: 24:42

Yeah, I've been.

Gina: 24:43

I've been trying to do this with my kids, you know, we unfortunately get our schedule provided to us. However, after being out of the room like recess, lunch specials, things like that we are supposed to start like right away when we get back. But I've been trying over the past two years just to give them some time when they come back in to, you know, sit with calming music, to do a yoga video, to sit and visit with friends. You know it doesn't have to be 15 minutes, it can be five minutes to get water, to do what they need to do, to set themselves up, to be ready for the afternoon. Yeah, and I find that that's helpful for me too, because you know I can solve problems that happened at recess and lunch, not while I'm teaching math, you know. So it's it's not as downtime for me, but even so, just like the setting and the environment, with the lights off and the calming music, and I think if we normalize doing that with kids, then maybe when they get older they'll feel okay doing that as adults. Mmm.

Miriam: 26:01

And also the adults in the room are benefiting. You know everybody and really if we can retain the adults in the room, then the kids will benefit and our future Absolutely. What do you think is driving teachers out of the profession?

Gina: 26:20

You kind of touched on it, but yeah, I think I was thinking about this before. I think that, definitely being overworked, you know, like we were just talking about, we are constantly go, go, go, even during our lunchtime, right? I think that that makes it so. Maybe it makes it feel so unsustainable for people, especially people who have families. I can't imagine coming home after taking care of 24 kids and having the energy to take care of anyone else. So I'm definitely in awe of teachers who have families who are able to do that. I come home and I just want to sit in silence, yeah.

Gina: 27:04

But I think another big piece of it is just the micro management. We are so not trusted to be able to do our jobs and many of us I mean I know where I teach like you have to have a master's degree to be teaching and we are just constantly told what, exactly what to do at what second of the day. And you know and it's not always best for our kids and really fighting that you know you're telling me that I have to do this, but I know this is best for my kids. That's a really hard mental battle to fight for yourself and to see yourself doing something that you know is not what your kids need. I think that's something that's really really hard and is causing a lot of teachers to leave and to try and do something else.

Miriam: 27:59

Yeah, that makes sense. I mean just the idea of autonomy, you know, and being able to be trusted and know. You know that the classroom is not in like if something happened, if a big to do happened on the playground, then nobody's going to learn. No matter what you start with, nobody's going to learn unless this issue is solved.

Gina: 28:23

Right, and I don't mean like let everyone go rogue, you know like you want to know, but you know we have standards. Most of us have curriculums. Let us use them as a guide instead of. You have to be on page four by Friday at three o'clock when I come in. I want to see you on that. You know, sometimes we have to teach the well, not. Sometimes we have to teach the kids that are in front of us. Yeah, and they don't fit into a box of a textbook.

Miriam: 28:53

So how do you stand up for yourself or or advocate for students when you need to make adjustments?

Gina: 29:03

It's really hard.

Gina: 29:04

As someone who really doesn't like confrontation, I really just try to be honest and you know I try to bring my reasons, you know, like okay, this is what research says it's best for students, this is what I'm seeing in my classroom.

Gina: 29:24

So this is what I want to try, and just try to have those conversations. I am fortunate to have an administrator who listens and who you know will let me try things and then, obviously, if it's not pursuing the results that we wanted, go back. But I have also worked for people who have just not even wanted to hear anything and I've just said you know, nope, this is what you're doing, and just kind of walked away. So I think it's really hard, especially for teachers who don't work, for someone who they feel like they can bring problems or suggestions or ideas to. And that's where I think you really have to rely on your team a lot, because you can't do it ourselves. So really, if you are not comfortable going at it with a team approach, where you know you have people who have your back and have similar feelings as you do, to try to approach it together so you don't feel so alone.

Miriam: 30:37

And when you've been, you know you have. It sounds like you had a sort of pivotal moment where you were ready to throw in the towel and you just went to town on the research and the resources and like talking to people and collaborating and finding out more. What would you say to teachers, or what advice might you give to teachers who maybe aren't able to access that resourcefulness and feel more helpless in their struggle?

Gina: 31:19

Well, first I would say that you know most of the things I did. I didn't spend a ton of money, right Like. I didn't go to different states and go to conferences and things like that. So much can be accessed just by looking online. Obviously, you have to make sure you're reading reputable things, but if you just spend a few minutes you can find so much information. And the other thing is something that I really don't think we tap into enough is just the teacher next door to us.

Miriam: 31:50

Yes.

Gina: 31:51

We at least, I know we don't get any time to go and watch our fellow teachers teach, and then when you hear something you're like, oh my gosh, that is a brilliant idea.

Gina: 32:03

And so I just wish that we had more time to either watch our colleagues teach or collaborate, have them teach us how they do something. You don't always have to bring in an outside person, an expert or something. There's so much value in the educators in your own school building that really just finding one person who you trust enough to tell them you know, hey, this is what's going on. I'm struggling with this, which is a hard thing to do, to just admit that you're struggling with something, but just finding one person and then you know, getting one idea from them, and you try it and it's a little successful and that's just. That just plants the seed to you feeling like you can do it, and then you just get a little bit more and try something else and then maybe you have enough courage to talk to a second person. So just really relying on the people in your building and trying to make those connections can really help you feel less isolated and less like you can't go out and really do that research and stuff by yourself.

Miriam: 33:08

Awesome. And how does your team, or you know your grade level team or your colleagues support you? How do they? How do you support and be supported?

Gina: 33:22

Honestly like this is going to sound biased but I have the best team in the world. Yeah, we I mean not even just in my school, but like our kindergarten team across the district. We have been friends since we all started. We started full day all together and we are just constantly sharing and collaborating. And I think that that is one thing that I didn't realize was not common in other teams until, like, we've had admin tell us that like this is not normal. We're just so, we're so passionate about our jobs that we are just constantly sharing.

Gina: 34:04

Even, you know, we eat lunch together and we're just always talking about the things that we're doing in our room. And we I feel like we really push each other to try new things and to be better at what we're already good at. And the other thing that I think helps is we, we are each good at some different things. So I'm you know, me classroom management. I have a colleague who's really good with teaching math. So, you know, we all know who's good at what specific thing and we try to capitalize on that to make each of us better.

Miriam: 34:43

That's a great strategy knowing your strengths and outsourcing, or getting resources from somebody else. Who, where you're, you need some bull string. You know that. Yeah, that's very smart. What advice would you have liked to have, or what advice would you give to your younger self as the new teacher?

Gina: 35:13

I could go two ways on this. My biggest advice that I always give about behavior because it would have saved me a lot of crying is to not take student behavior personally. All behavior is communication and even though it is hard when a student is engaging in a challenging behavior, to not feel like they are doing it to make your life miserable. You know, like you're throwing your shoes at me because you want to hurt me, right, Like that's the first thing that comes to our mind. You have to remove yourself from the situation because you can't solve any problem when you feel like the student is out to get you. So that really is the biggest piece of behavior advice that I give to others.

Gina: 36:08

But just teaching in general, something that I am still trying to work on is not being afraid to say no. You, I mean, I am still a recovering perfectionist, but I still find it really hard. When I'm asked to be on a committee, when I'm asked to do curriculum writing, whatever I'm asked to do, I find it so hard to say no because I don't want to let anyone down, right, but you can't show up for your students when you have nothing left to get. So sometimes saying no to that extra thing is, you know, saying no to that opportunity, but it's so.

Gina: 36:50

This way you are able to say yes to do something for your students, and that's, I think, a really easy way that people get burnt out is just they are constantly saying yes to everything that they don't have anything left to give. So I have really tried hard to say no and let that be the end of the sentence. Right Like not, just no. I can't do this because right Like no can be a complete sentence and it's uncomfortable, but it is not the end of the world. If you can't be on every single committee, if you can't do every single thing, it's okay to let other people do it, and I think that's something that could be very helpful for new teachers to know and understand.

Miriam: 37:41

There's a lot of pressure to say yes, especially when you're not tenured, you know, to admin, or you want to show that you're eager to please and to be here and teach, and all these things Absolutely and you don't want to let anyone down.

Miriam: 37:56

Yeah, but if it's, I mean, you're going to let future classrooms down if you burn out and have to leave the profession. Absolutely so. It can be. If you, you know, zoom out. It can be that serious. If you have all these micro little things like every committee, every little extra adjunct duty that gets piled on, and if you're still a new teacher and trying to figure your way out, it becomes impossible. It's overwhelming. But one thing that I run into frequently is teachers come to me for classroom management support or behavioral support and I provide some options and either they give me lip service about like yes, I will do this, and then I don't see it when I come back to observe, or or they're like, no, that's not going to work. I've already tried that. What, what do you think might help with receptivity in that situation?

Gina: 39:22

It's a tough one. I think a lot of times we are so. You know we've been doing things a certain way for so many years and it's really hard to change, even sometimes when you know that you should be doing something in different way. Actually taking the steps to do it a different way is really hard. It's almost admitting like that you failed right Because what you've been doing hasn't worked. So I think, at least for me, a having someone there like you to support through a change whether it's like you coming in and showing what it might look like could be very beneficial, because the first hurdle there is just like giving it a try. But sometimes when you hear a suggestion, you're like, oh my gosh, number one, I don't even know where to start with that. Or number two I'm too overwhelmed already that I can't even, you know, give a small piece of my brain power to figuring out how I would make that happen. So having someone be able to be like, okay, these are literally your three next steps, let me show you how that would look can be really helpful.

Gina: 40:48

And also trying to change your mindset from changing your approach. Isn't you failing at something? But changing your approach is just expanding your toolbox of things. I think that's something that we struggle with. Especially perfectionists struggle with a lot. We don't want to ask for help because we think we should already know how to do it. But when you learn new strategies, when you have someone like a school psychologist or an interventionist give you suggestions, you're just adding to the toolbox of tools that you can pull from later. So I think just intentionally trying to make that mindset shift, although hard, could be very valuable for people who are trying to work through accepting health and actually following through with that help.

Miriam: 41:44

That's a skill in itself is asking and accepting help.

Gina: 41:47

It absolutely is. So. If they're coming to you, at least they have the first part of that, the first part of that.

Miriam: 41:56

Yeah, oh boy, I think that's the. That's the one of the biggest struggles of my job. Is people asking for help and me trying to figure out why they won't use my help?

Gina: 42:09

Yeah, I think the other part of that is kind of like when you validate students feelings right, like they could also be coming to you for help just to tell you that they're struggling right and maybe at that moment they're not really ready for another solution. Maybe they just want someone to sit with them and kind of say like I hear that you're having a really hard time. You are, you know, you've tried X, y and Z. Things are still really tough. It's okay to kind of get them feeling validated like you would do with kids before you can move on to problem solving right.

Miriam: 42:56

Yeah, yeah, that's great insight. I love that. How do most of the teachers that come to you for support, how are they funding any programs that are you know that are not free?

Gina: 43:19

Yeah. So I intentionally try to keep them pretty affordable. So this way, teachers can access it. I just want to make it available as many teachers as possible. So I know that, a we already don't make enough money, but as we should. B we already spend tons of money on our own classrooms and students, whether or not we should. And C we have our own lives and families to have to support. Right, all right. We also need to be able to access things to support us to stay in the profession. So I intentionally try to keep things really affordable.

Gina: 44:07

My mini course is only $19. I just try to think of it like a few Starbucks, yeah, and my actual course. Until this year I had kept it under 100 because I have so many live training aspects. I just increased it to 118, but I'm hoping that that's still affordable for teachers. So far, everyone who has come through my program has purchased it on their own, but I do have the option for people to get it funded by their district If they, you know, if it's not something that they can access on their own.

Gina: 44:44

I have a letter that they can share with their admin to get them the price paid for them. So I was just trying to figure out how to cover all of the bases there so that people can get the support they need and not feel like, oh, I can't access it. It's something that I really need, but I can't afford it right now.

Miriam: 45:03

Yeah, that makes sense. Okay, wonderful. Well, is there anything we didn't touch on that you would like to touch on?

Gina: 45:12

Oh gosh, I don't think so. I think they covered a lot.

Miriam: 45:16

Yeah, we did. Oh, I do have one question for you. So, part of behavior management, classroom management, you know there are going to be students, sometimes special education students, who are who have especially significant challenges. How do you, how do you intervene and support them or who do you access to, you know, to support you in supporting them?

Gina: 45:53

Yeah, so it definitely depends on the student In kindergarten. Unfortunately, most of the time, students who are later identified are not when they come to me. So most of the time it is, you know, trial and error on my own. However, you know, I'm always talking to the special education teachers and interventionists at my school, even if they're not formally seeing one of my students, just to tell them. This is what I'm noticing, this is what I'm thinking, what do you think? Or, if I completely don't know how to handle something this is what I'm noticing I have no idea where to start. Can you give me some suggestions? And just trying to be really collaborative.

Gina: 46:40

I'm very lucky that I have supportive teachers who are willing to. You know, pop in, see what's going on, be with me during lunch, give me suggestions and things like that, and it doesn't have to be like a time consuming process for everyone, but just trying to collaborate as much as possible. Sometimes you are too close to something that you can't, even if you have the knowledge, you can't see straight. So just, you know, bouncing ideas off of someone is sometimes very, very helpful. And then, of course, if you, if I do, have students who come to me and they already have services in place, making sure that I'm constantly talking to their service providers, following everything that I need to follow in the classroom, and then also making sure that you know they're getting all the services that they are entitled to as well. So I think, ultimately, just collaboration as much as possible.

Miriam: 47:41

That's so much. When you list it out like that, it's like so much to keep in your brain. It is a lot. What advice would you give to somebody who's sort of on the precipice of leaving the profession?

Gina: 47:58

I would say honestly, to think about why they started teaching in the first place.

Gina: 48:07

Something that I have done since my first year that helped me a lot was I have this box.

Gina: 48:14

I'm sure a lot of people do this, and every time I don't keep every single thing, but when I get something like really amazing from a student, like a note from their parents, a note from them especially if it was one of my really challenging students I just throw it in this box.

Gina: 48:31

It's not organized by any means. It would scare people, but on those days that I have a really hard time just going back to that and looking at it and being like, wow, this student was running away from my classroom six or seven times a day and look what their dad wrote at the end of the year, like just the words of thankfulness and the words of you know, you never gave up on her, and all of the acknowledgement that we don't always get, we don't even necessarily look for, but can help to keep driving us to show up every single day. Just try to focus on that and it's those just little things that you can fall back on that can help you to stay one more day and one more day and eventually you know, when you figure out how things can get better, you have that one more day to actually implement those things. So trying to really focus on the positive and keep tangible things that you can fall back on when things get really hard, I think that that's really important.

Miriam: 49:46

Beautiful, wonderful. Well, gina, you've been a wealth of knowledge and I know that everybody is going to be clamoring to seek out your resources, so how can we get people in touch with you?

Gina: 50:01

Thank you so much. I had so much fun chatting today. I would say the place that I spend the most time is Instagram, so I am teaching with heart on Instagram. You can find me there and you can send me a DM. You can find links to all of my things there. And then my website is teaching wheartcom, where again I have more information about all of the free resources that I offer. A few more new trainings will be coming out in the fall. That will be there, and then information on all of my programs is there as well.

Miriam: 50:37

Wonderful. Thank you so much for your time and for being such a supporter of the teachers out there.

Gina: 50:44

Thank you so much for having me.

Miriam: 50:46

You bet.