Latest / ✨️Aligned and Thriving: For Teachers🌿 / Support Systems: Mentorship, Coaching & the Power of Guidance 💫

Transcript

Support Systems: Mentorship, Coaching & the Power of Guidance 💫 · ✨️Aligned and Thriving: For Teachers🌿

• 0:05
  Hello, lovely teachers, and welcome back to Aligned and
• 0:08
  Thriving. Maybe I shouldn't open with that
• 0:10
  because I know it's not just teachers listening, but hello
• 0:13
  everybody and welcome back. I'm Mel still, and today's
• 0:16
  episode is one that is really close to my heart because it is
• 0:20
  something I honestly wish that more of us talked about openly
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  and especially if you're early on in your career.
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  So let's talk about mentorship or coaching or just asking for
• 0:31
  help and learning from others. Because the truth is, you are
• 0:34
  not meant to do this alone in whatever walk of life you're in.
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  Before I dive in, I want to say this.
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  I am not claiming to be the expert here.
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  I do not have all the answers, and I do not think that all of
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  us, or any of us truly do. But what I do know is that after
• 0:52
  years of teaching, leading, and walking alongside others, is
• 0:56
  that having someone there to support you?
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  To hold space, to listen, to offer perspective, or to just
• 1:04
  say you're not crazy? I've been there too.
• 1:07
  It makes all the difference. So let's be real, teaching is
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  huge. Teaching can feel like you are
• 1:16
  juggling 47 balls in the air with a blindfold on and
• 1:19
  someone's just added fire to one of them because you literally
• 1:22
  you are managing kids data, parents, planning, behaviour,
• 1:27
  curriculum. And then on top of that you're
• 1:30
  probably also trying to tick off some kind of professional goal
• 1:33
  like full registration or prepping for a leadership
• 1:35
  position. And honestly, it's a lot.
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  OK, don't get me wrong, it is a lot.
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  It is easy to get stuck in your own head and feel like you're
• 1:45
  the only one who's overwhelmed but who doesn't know what
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  they're doing. Like who's questioning if
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  they've been even cut out for this job.
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  Spoiler alert, you're not the only one who's asked those
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  questions. So what is mentorship really?
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  Mentorship. It doesn't mean having someone
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  who lectures you or tells you what to do.
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  It's not having someone that is better than you to guide you
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  from above. To me, mentorship is about
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  shoulder to shoulder support. It is someone walking with you,
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  not in front of you. It's someone who's helping you
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  to make sense of things. They encourage your growth, they
• 2:25
  remind you of what you're capable of, and they offer
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  strategies that they might have used when they were in your
• 2:31
  shoes. It's the coach, the colleague,
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  the teammate, the leader, the friend.
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  It's the person who says, hey, I've been through this before
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  and here's what helped me. What do you need?
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  So my journey of mentorship, like giving and receiving, I've
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  done both sides. I've had many mentors throughout
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  my career and they've come in all forms.
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  Some have been older, experienced teachers who just
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  took me under their wing and showed me how to lead with calm
• 3:03
  and kindness. Some were new graduates who I
• 3:07
  worked alongside and they taught me how to use technology more
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  effectively or re inspired me because they come out with a
• 3:14
  fresh new perspective. And some were just colleagues
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  who I could go to, to vent, to cry, to laugh our heads off in
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  the staff room if we were together for like 5 minutes.
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  I've also been the mentor and let me tell you, that was
• 3:31
  equally powerful. I have supported teachers
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  working towards their full registration, early career
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  teachers navigating the chaos of Term 1 and even other leaders
• 3:42
  trying to find their groove. It's why I trained in self care
• 3:47
  coaching, NLP coaching because I love helping people thrive in
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  this career and in life. But here's the thing, even
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  though I am a coach and mentor, I still need support too.
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  We all do. That's why mentorship isn't a
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  one time thing. It is a lifeline at different
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  stages of your journey. So who is actually supporting
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  you? Let's just slow down for a
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  moment and ask ourselves some real questions.
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  And if you've got a journal, now's the time to get it out and
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  answer these questions. Or if you're driving, come back
• 4:23
  to this later and put some notes on your phone.
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  But who are the people in your corner right now?
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  Who do you admire in your current workplace?
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  Are there colleagues who you've wanted to ask for support for
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  from but haven't yet? Could you benefit from having a
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  coach or a mentor outside of your school?
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  Someone with a fresh, unbiased perspective?
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  What kind of support are you craving right now?
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  Is it clarity, encouragement, structure, accountability?
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  And then maybe, just maybe, it is time for you to invest in
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  yourself and say yes to that support.
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  Now, you are allowed to ask for help, and I've told you that
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  before, but there's this unspoken thing in teaching that
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  if you ask for help, it's like you're failing or you're not
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  coping. Like, can we just toss that
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  belief in the bin? Like just Chuck it away?
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  If you imagine I've written it on a piece of paper, screwed it
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  up and done a three pointer into the bin, which we alltel our
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  kids not to do. That's what I want you to do in
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  your mental brain right now. Like in that space, your mental
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  brain. Oh gosh, my brain is not
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  braining, but you know what I mean?
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  I want you to toss that idea out of your head because it is not
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  that at all. In fact, I view asking for help
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  as a sign of strength because you have identified A weakness
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  and you are turning that weakness into a strength because
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  you are seeking support to help you with that.
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  And that's the way I want you to change your thinking and think
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  about that too. There's a theory about your
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  darkness and your light. So as a person, you have your
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  dark sides and your light sides. Your dark sides would probably
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  be your weaknesses and your light side are your strengths.
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  You can't have the dark without the light.
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  Like if you're more than one, they sort of balance each other
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  out. You need to have both.
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  Everybody has strengths and weaknesses, and the best thing
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  is to just own what they are and know what they are.
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  I know that if you get interviewed for positions, more
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  often than not, people will ask you what do you think your
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  strengths are? What are your weaknesses?
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  And then justify, like if you've named up your weakness, what are
• 6:52
  you doing about trying to turn it into a strength?
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  What are you doing to actually support yourself to move that
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  from a weakness to a strength? OK, so asking for help is
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  actually one of the strongest things you can do.
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  It is smart, it is proactive, and it is what good leaders do
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  too. So even if you are not aiming
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  for a leadership role right now, you still are a leader because
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  you're a leader within your school and within your
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  classroom. You are also a strong, grounded
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  and resilient teacher who holds space for others.
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  And that is huge. And to be that, you still need
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  someone holding space for you. OK, so if you're listening to
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  this and thinking, OK, Mel, yes, I need this, I want you to know
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  that number one, I am here. I can offer you mentorship and
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  coaching for teachers who want to feel more aligned, supported
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  and confident without the burnout.
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  I have my coaching skills, my teacher experience, my real talk
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  perspective. We walk shoulder to shoulder and
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  we figure things out together. Whether it's about navigating
• 8:08
  your full registration, building your leadership capacity, or
• 8:11
  just needing someone in your corner who gets it, I'm here for
• 8:15
  it. So if you want to actually talk
• 8:18
  to me, feel free to send me a DM, flick me an email, or just
• 8:21
  let this episode be the permission slip you needed today
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  to ask for support from me, from someone else, from whoever feels
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  right, from someone that you know in your corner, in your
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  space right now. Because it is not weak to ask
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  for help and support in any area of your life.
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  So let me make that very clear, People, I think people who ask
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  for help and support are some of the strongest people in the
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  world because they are willing to put their hand up and say, I
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  need help, please help me. And then others can come and go,
• 9:03
  yeah, sure, no worries. I can give you a hand or I can
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  do this. And I, I had to learn that over
• 9:08
  years. Over the years, I hated asking
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  for help in my first few years of teaching because I thought it
• 9:13
  was weakness. I thought if I couldn't do all
• 9:15
  of this on my own, what are people going to think of me?
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  I'm not. I'm a terrible teacher because I
• 9:20
  don't know how to do this. I can't do this on my own.
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  I'm always doing these things wrong and I just don't know what
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  else to do or ask for help. If I could go back and tell
• 9:29
  myself that I would, mate. There were teachers offering me
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  help. Oh no, no, it's fine.
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  I'll work it out. I'll do it myself.
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  And they're going, oh, but if you tried this mail or have you
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  tried that? And yes, yes, yes, no, of course
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  I hadn't. And of course, I was going to go
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  look that up later and figure it out for myself.
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  Why did I make my life so hard when there was no need to?
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  Now I go into leadership positions and I am the first one
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  to go, oh, I've got no idea. Can I please have some help with
• 9:59
  that? Like technology and I, we're not
• 10:01
  friends, not at all. We argue all the time.
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  I have to ask someone for help because I am not an expert in
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  that area. So I will go and seek the
• 10:11
  teacher or the student, whoever it may be to help me with that
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  because I, I need help and I need to ask for help, but I
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  might be the an expert in another area.
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  And so then people can seek my support and I can help them.
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  That way people might feel comfortable in coming and
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  sharing things with me. So then I can offer them advice
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  of where to next. I know there's been lots of
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  people that have come and talked to me first before going to talk
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  to someone else because they just wanted to know my opinion
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  of this, this, this before I go to there, what do I do?
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  That's what we're here for. We support each other.
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  So it is not a weakness. It is a sign of strength.
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  At the end of the day, this is about all of us supporting each
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  other and me doing things like this podcast.
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  This is my way of trying to support as many teachers,
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  educators, friends, people who just want to work on their
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  mindset, just to support as many people as possible.
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  Because that to me it, there was something there that I was
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  missing. I was listening to podcasts and
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  I'm going, there is nothing out there for me.
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  I really wanted to hear this when I was a beginning teacher.
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  I wanted someone to tell me to give me permission.
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  And this is what I'm doing. Because the most powerful
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  teachers I know, they're not perfect, they're not experts.
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  They are still learners. They're the ones that ask
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  questions, they stay open, they lift others up, and they receive
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  the support when they need it. And one day, without even
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  realising it, you might become that teacher for someone else.
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  I mean, I didn't think that I could teach my mom anything.
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  She's been teaching for a very long time and I, I just thought,
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  Oh no, she can't learn anything from me.
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  She's an expert. That was my perception.
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  But no, things have changed a lot in her teaching career.
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  And sometimes I was aware of how to do things before she was and
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  I could support her. Just like she had supported me
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  very early on in my career and still supports me now and is a
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  great sounding board when I need to bounce stuff off and figure
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  stuff out because I can ask for help and I'm comfortable with
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  that. There might be teachers that
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  work at other schools that you can do that with as well.
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  You might have your teacher besties talk to them.
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  You are there and we support each other.
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  So let let's just be the mentors that we wished we had.
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  Let's show up for ourselves and let's show up for each other
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  because let's on, let's be honest, we are here to thrive,
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  not to just survive. This is why I called the the
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  podcast Aligned and Thriving because that's what I want all
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  of us to be aligned on the path to where we want to go and
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  thriving in it. So heading in the right
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  direction and absolutely smashing it out of the park
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  because that's what we're going to be doing.
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  That is our aim. So I hope that message was
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  really clear that you need to get yourself a mentor or a coach
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  or someone to walk alongside you, whether they're at your
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  same school or whether they're from another school, whatever it
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  might be. You need someone in your court
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  to bounce stuff off, to give you support.
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  You have full permission to ask for help.
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  And it is not a sign of weakness.
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  It is a sign of strength. And don't ever think that there
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  are expert teachers out there. They might be expert in a
• 13:42
  particular field, but they might still need support.
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  And they might learn something from you too.
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  You just don't know, OK? Because no one's perfect.
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  I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but no one is perfect.
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  But we are all doing our absolute best.
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  So thank you for hanging out with me again today.
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  I am so proud of you showing up for yourself and aiming to make
• 14:08
  your lives better just by listening to my really inspiring
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  words. Well, I actually hope that they
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  will. I hope that you are getting
• 14:16
  something out of these podcasts. And if you are, please let me
• 14:20
  know. Please send me messages, DM me
• 14:23
  on Instagram or Facebook. Send me an email.
• 14:26
  I've got an email. Aligned and thriving teachers
• 14:28
  aligned and thriving for teachers at Gmail dot com.
• 14:31
  Feel free to share this episode with someone who you think
• 14:36
  really needs to hear it to get that message through and remind
• 14:40
  them of these things. And just until next time, keep
• 14:45
  being aligned, keep thriving and supporting each other and just
• 14:49
  have the most amazing day week wherever you're up to.
• 14:55
  I hope that you enjoy and until next time, I'll talk to you
• 14:58
  again soon.