EP299 A spring cleaning classroom guide: what if you didn’t need all that STUFF to teach well?

Angela Watson's Truth for Teachers

Angela Watson

Teachers, Courses, Education, Teaching

4.9 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 14 April 2024

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Do you refuse to throw anything out because you MIGHT need it one day, or find yourself holding on to worthless stuff “just in case” you need it?

In this episode, I’ll share 10 things you can get rid of in your classroom this spring to make space for what you actually need and use.

And, I’ll help you establish a mindset of abundance rather than scarcity, so you can approach spring cleaning with a perspective that will help you feel good rather than apprehensive about getting rid of the things you worked so hard to accumulate:

I like to streamline and simplify how my classroom runs.
I don’t keep things I don’t really need.
I could still teach well with a fraction of the materials I’ve accumulated.
If there is something that I need later and don’t have, I trust that I will be able to find it again, or borrow it, or be able to do without it just fine.
The foundation of my classroom is my energy, enthusiasm, and know-how, not my stuff.
I feel good about clearing away the things that drain my energy and enthusiasm by creating a cluttered, disorganized work space.
I can let go of things I don’t need in order to make space for things I do.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to episode 299 of Angela Watson's Truth for Teachers. I'm your
0:07.3	host Angela Watson and I'm here to speak encouragement into the hearts of
0:10.9	educators and get you informed and energized for the week ahead.
0:15.0	Today I'm offering a guide for spring cleaning in the classroom and guiding you to
0:19.8	examine what you actually need in order to teach well.
0:24.0	Visit truth for teachers.com for an easy to read, easy to share version of this podcast episode.
0:32.0	You can elevate your career in early child development at Ericsson Institute, a trusted and respected premier graduate school.
0:40.0	Ericsson's online masters in early childhood education provides the expertise to lead initiatives that shape young minds.
0:48.0	Balancing your life, work, and studies is made easier with this fully online program, offering part-time or full-time study
0:55.4	options.
0:56.6	Join a community of nationally recognized faculty and learn alongside experienced practitioners.
1:03.0	apply today at Ericsson.edU.
1:06.0	That's E-R-I-K-S-O-N dot edu.
1:10.0	I'm talking today about all that stuff that we accumulate in our classrooms.
1:18.0	Now I don't like to have a lot of knickknacks and clutter in my home, but I had a very different approach to accumulating stuff in my classroom.
1:27.0	For my first six years as a teacher, I refused to throw anything out because I might need it one day.
1:35.0	I remember washing every plastic container that came into my household,
1:40.0	empty butter containers, detergent boxes, takeout packaging, and so on.
1:44.2	I stuffed everything into this overflowing cabinet in my classroom,
1:48.0	just in case I needed it, for organizing or for a project. This habit was built on a scarcity mindset. I didn't believe that I had
1:58.1	the resources that I needed in order to teach well, and therefore I had to hold on to anything and everything that crossed my path in order to
2:07.8	be able to make do.
	...

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