Hi, friend, and welcome back to the Smarter Literacy podcast from Ascend Smarter Intervention, where we simplify effective literacy instruction so every student gets what they need and every educator gets to breathe a little easier. So I'm Corey. And if you are listening to this in real time, we are stepping into a brand new year.
I love a new year. It feels like a fresh page or a clean notebook. I don't know if you're anything like me, but having a clean new notebook with all of the empty pages just feels absolutely incredible.
And I think what it does is it just offers us this opportunity where we feel like we can breathe and begin again. Right? So it's this white space that you have that really does feel like a fresh start. And that's what a new year often feels like for me.
And I've really been thinking a lot about what it really means to start a new year. So not in this, like, new year, new goals kind of way. And, hey, if you know me, you know that I am here for a good goal. But I really wanted to think about what this looks like in a deeper and more grounded way.
Just a way that feels maybe more aligned is the best way to put that. I don't know.
But if I'm being honest, twenty twenty five was heavy. It was a year of pushing for me, for our team, and I know for so many of you in your classroom or your instructional setting as well.
It felt like pushing to keep up or pushing to stay ahead, pushing through these shifting expectations and limited time and just endless plates that felt like they were spinning in the air. At least that's how it felt for me. And by the end of the year, I honestly felt pretty drained, not because I didn't love the work. I absolutely do, but because the pace and the pressure weren't aligned with the kind of educator or the kind of leader that I really wanted to be.
And so a couple of weeks ago, we had our twenty twenty six strategy meeting. So every year, we hold a strategic planning meeting. And a few weeks ago, we held that meeting. And we did something honestly kind of simple.
We went back to the basics, and we actually used the exact same executive functioning process that we teach our students, and we applied it to ourselves step by step.
And I wanna share what that looked like because I think it could be something so helpful for you as you're beginning the new year and really thinking about what you want this year to look like and how you can apply this executive functioning framework to yourself. And the beautiful thing is is that once you start to internalize what that looks like for you, you can start to model that in your classroom or in your instructional setting. And so I am so excited because I am going to walk us through exactly what that looks like. Now what I wanna be clear about is this isn't meant to be a checklist where it's like done, done, done, done, done. That feels like just one more thing to do, and that's not what we're going for here.
What I want this to feel like is more of an invitation to yourself to really come back to this place where hopefully you feel calmer, more clear, more steady, and just capable of so much impact because that's why we do what we do. Right? We want to make an impact. We want to make a difference.
And sometimes with all the extra stuff, it starts to feel like we lose sight of that a little bit. And so I want to invite you into this process so that you can reconnect to that feeling of impact and just everything that it is that you want to do. So the first step in the executive functioning framework is goal setting. Now I know that feels like every New Year's resolution ever. And I just said that's not exactly what we were talking about.
But we have to do this differently.
So when we stepped into our goal setting for twenty twenty six, what we did is we decided to ask ourselves a very simple question.
So instead of what are our goals for the year, which is typically the question that we ask, we stepped back and said, what do we want this year to feel like? So not what do we need to accomplish, not what should we build, what programs are we focusing on, what student growth impacts are we looking for, but what do we want this year to feel like? And the answer was incredibly clear.
We want to help educators reclaim calm, clarity, and a sense of ease so they have energy left for the things that matter most, for their students and for them.
Because we believe that when educators can show up feeling calm, feeling clear, feeling a sense of peace, that students will feel that too. Right? They carry that. They hold that as well, and it creates this sense of relief for them, almost this sense of everything's okay, and the future is is good for everyone. And I think we all need that right now.
So that became our north star. That was really what we decided. This is the intention for the year. We want this year to feel calm. We want it to have clarity. We want to have a sense of ease and peacefulness.
And honestly, when we stepped back and looked at it that way, that changed the way that we planned or thought about everything that came next. So I think that's an important step back to really think about if we are goal setting. It's not about what do we want to accomplish, but what do we want the year to feel like? And so what I'd love to invite you to do is take a moment to reflect on that for yourself.
And what do you want this upcoming year to feel like? And, again, if you're listening in real time, that could be twenty twenty six. Right? We're at the beginning of the year.
However, you can do this at any time. This doesn't require a new year. You can decide that you are ready for a fresh start at any time.
But the question becomes, what do I want this year to feel like? What do I want the rest of the year to feel like? What do I want it to feel like? Not what do I want to do?
All right. So that brought us to the second step in the executive functioning framework, which is regulation.
So given that we had established a goal of feeling calm, clear, peaceful, connected, we had to ask ourselves, how are we really feeling right now? So how are we feeling coming into this next year? We know that our goal for this next year is feeling calm, clear, connected, peaceful. But how are we feeling right now?
And the reason that that's important is because you can't plan. You can't move forward from a place of burnout. You can't think clearly when you are dysregulated. And you can't build a sustainable year if you are still carrying the weight of last year.
And what I have to say is that when we went into this strategic planning meeting, we realized that twenty twenty five took a toll. It was fast. It was heavy. And, again, while the work mattered deeply, the pace just was not sustainable.
And so when we went into the first part of our strategy meeting, all I could come up with was what I didn't want twenty twenty six to look like, which is not quite the visionary role that I'm supposed to have as the leader of this company. And so I think that's telling, though. If you go into your next year and all you're feeling is kind of burnout and, oh, I'm tired or, oh, I I don't know, then perhaps what you can do is start with, well, this is what I don't want. And ultimately, that started to open up for me was, okay, well, what do I want? If these are the things that I don't want, then what is it that that creates if we can say we're not doing that anymore?
And so what I realized by stepping back and considering what I didn't want for twenty twenty six was that we actually needed to realign both emotionally and energetically so that we could have the kind of presence that we wanted to bring to our work. So, again, having that calm, that grounded, that just peaceful alignment where it wasn't feeling frantic or rushed, not this sort of try harder and do more.
And for me, that's hard because that has been really everything I've ever done, harder, more. I know I brought up a few times in the past, but I am a runner. And so this last year was really a year of that, like, dig deep, be afraid, and do it anyway. Find it from within.
And I think a lot of that can be good in certain situations and in certain phases of your life. It's just not good if you continue to do that. So if you're feeling like you're in this place of pushing, grinding, pushing, grinding, then you may need to step back and determine, alright, is that what we're looking for as we move into twenty twenty six? And if so, amazing, beautiful.
There can be so much growth that can come from that too, but that just may not be the season that you are in.
And so what I want to ask you as you consider your goals as an educator, where are you right now? Are you in a place where you're feeling ready to focus on that next step, or do you need to give yourself some space to just reregulate and just take that step back and breathe again?
In our next episode, we're gonna talk about how important this is for our students.
So as we think about doing the work and just getting into the work, we need to determine, hey, where are we right now? Is there anything that we need to release before we can do whatever it is that we're asking of them, before we can read this passage or before we can complete this assignment or this project. Where are we? How are we feeling? And I think if we can all come back to, hey, I need to take a minute to just take sort of account, if you will, of where I am right now. That can be really, really helpful.
So again, you start with goal setting of this question, how do I want this year to feel?
Then you move into the next step, which is that regulation step of, okay, awesome. That's my goal. But where am I at right now? And what is it that I might need right now before I can start getting into the work?
And then that's going to move us into step three of the executive functioning process, which is attention.
And so for us, once I was able to get into this space where I was regulated enough to look forward, where I was out of that space of, well, this is what I don't want and able to say, you know what? No. This is really what we're looking for. We're looking for this calm, groundedness, this clarity.
Then I was able to start to ask what deserves our attention this year and what doesn't. And this question created so much clarity for me.
And essentially, what we came up with is that this is the year where we reflect, realign, and reignite. So if that's the focus is what are we doing to reflect, realign, and reignite, we can start to get really tactical there. So we want to make sure that we are focusing on helping educators feel calm and prepared, not pressured. Sometimes things feel a little chaotic where you're trying to follow the evidence based practices.
You're trying to do all of the things. And it just feels like a frantic energy. And I know that was something that I have felt in the past. And I know that we've seen educators that are in that space as well.
And so what we wanted to do is make sure that we are helping to create systems and routines that will help educators to have that calm and prepared feeling as they move into the new year.
Also, creating clearer systems and simpler routines, just making sure that we are trimming clutter. We are Marie Kondo ing, if you will. So in content, in programs, in just our messaging, and just hopefully how we can connect with you.
And then bringing an even higher level of intention to everything we create and asking ourselves, how does this particular resource, how does this particular program, how does this particular training create calm and clarity and confidence in your day?
And ultimately, the bigger picture of all of that is that we hope that that can reignite joy and spark in teaching because we know that students are going to be the most successful when the educators that are there supporting them have that spark. And that spark can get dimmed for so many reasons. And none of those reasons are your fault. Right? But they are things that we need to be aware of. And so our goal is to help give you the tools that you need so that you can find that spark again.
What that means is that we have to let go of this kind of overpacking of programs and trainings to give you a little more space to breathe and to relax.
But that clarity has already shifted everything.
So when you're ready to look forward to what needs to happen this year to create the feeling that you are looking for, we would love to ask you what deserves your attention this year and what does not.
So then once we had really thought through again, step one, what is the goal? What do we want the year to feel like? Step two, how can we regulate? How are we feeling right now?
Step three, what do we need to focus our attention on? And what do we not need to focus our attention on? Then we can move into the fourth step in the executive functioning process, which is planning.
And so typically, to be honest, in years past, our strategic planning meetings started right there. That was exactly where we started was with the planning aspect.
But for us, once we were able to set the goal and intention of having a year that felt calm, that had clarity. We were able to regulate ourselves to be in that space for focusing on the right actions where we realized that our attention needed to go to this sort of less better mentality, this finding sustainability, everything started to feel so much more clear. So instead of this huge checklist of, okay, our plan is to accomplish this, this, this, this, this, and this, or we're just gonna go check, check, check, check, check, it felt completely different.
So as we plan for this year and that started to come together, we realized that for us, we want to make some very intentional changes coming into twenty twenty six. So for example, some of those things that we have planned out are giving our five CCL Learning Lab more space and breathing room by shifting some of the content that is currently in there to more clear pathways that would help address very specific needs for educators because we wanna step away from overwhelm and into clarity. So what does it look like to help provide that clarity?
We are also creating a literacy reset for this summer, which will be a virtual three day reset experience for educators that I am honestly so excited about. I cannot wait for this. I feel like we can do a reset at any time. But I think sometimes after the school year is over, it's a really good time to really go through this process that we're talking about right now where we can reflect on what went well and what do I feel good about and what created friction and what what do I wanna change and what does that look like coming into the new year? So that's gonna be so exciting.
And then another plan is supporting teachers with a brand new Delivering Smarter Intervention summer kickoff, which is a four week coaching and prep experience to help our DSI members walk into the next school year really feeling grounded and calm and confident and having that clarity. All the things that we are looking for this year, that's what we're looking to translate over for our educators and our programs. And so our planning became rooted in the simple idea of, you know, less, better, and coming from a place of clarity and not from just this kind of more, more, and more. The more that you have, the more that you can do.
I think for a long time, that was sort of the idea. And now it's really about trimming back and creating the clarity for how do you use these resources and how do you use this training. And again, that can look completely different for you. So as you think about your plan, you're really doing the same thing of reflecting back to what is the goal?
How am I feeling about it? Where do I need to focus attention? And then what is the plan that I can put in place so that I can start to achieve those goals that I have for the year?
And then what that will do is that will bring us into our fifth step in the executive functioning framework, which is reflection.
And we will continue reflecting as the year goes on. And that's something that we'd love to invite you to do as well.
Now when we think about reflection, we also wanna be clear this isn't in a place of of judgment, but rather curiosity. So what we'll be doing is asking what is working, what isn't, what is draining, what lights us up, Where do I feel aligned? Where do I feel overwhelmed? What is bringing joy or sparking joy, Marie Kondo would say, and what is creating friction?
And keep these questions handy. It's going to be a good way to make sure that you are on track to reach the goals that you've set for yourself. And so we've put together a simple PDF actually that walks through this five step executive functioning framework that has these questions that will allow you to walk through this process for yourself as we step into the new year or, again, at any time, any time that you are looking for a reset where it feels like, you know what? I just need to kind of set that down and take a deep breath.
This is here for you. And so you can grab it at smarter intervention dot com forward slash reset. And we'll have a link in our show notes as well.
So to keep this actionable, as always, definitely download that PDF to walk you through the process. Or you can also just work through each of the five steps. So step one, goal setting. How do you want this year to feel?
Step two, regulating. How are you feeling right now, especially as you think about what that goal will look like?
Step three, attending. So what do you need to focus on to create the feeling that you want to bring into the new year? Step four, planning. What are the specific action items that will allow you to make your goal a reality?
And then step five, reflection. So as you move through the year, make sure to set time to reflect on how things are going. What's creating friction and what is running smoothly? Let's hold on to more of what feels smooth, and let's figure out what we can do to reduce the friction. So in our next episode, we're gonna be sharing how you can use this exact same executive functioning process for your students. So make sure to subscribe so you don't miss it.
And, again, as I say, I'm so grateful that you are on this journey with us. Your students are so lucky to have you. And I think if you can take the time and space to look inward to what is it that you need, it's going to help you to be able to show up for your students. So I really want to invite you to follow through with this process to really think about what does that look like for you. Now here's to a beautiful year of reflecting, realigning, and reigniting together, and I look forward to seeing you on our next episode.
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Smarter Literacy Podcast. Make sure to subscribe for more strategies and insights to make delivering effective literacy instruction easy or at least easier. And if you found this episode helpful, share it with a friend or leave a rating and review wherever you get your podcasts. It really does help others find the show, and we are beyond grateful for your support.
Thanks for listening. Until next time. Happy teaching.
