#352 – Happy Holidays: Gifts from Us to You

If you are listening to the podcast with your instructional team or would like to explore this topic more deeply, here are guiding questions to prompt your reflection:

• What holidays do you celebrate in the winter months?
• What holiday traditions do you practice?
• How is your school year going?
• What can you do to practice self-care during winter break?
• What strategies did you hear in this episode that resonate with you?

• Books by Elena (Bright Morning)
• Schedule Emails to Send (Google)
• The Disillusionment Phase: How to Get Relief Now (Dr. Lori Friesen)
• Gratitude Journal (Greater Good in Action)

#352 Happy Holidays: Gifts from Us to You

AVID Open Access
23 min

Keywords
holiday gratitude, authentic connection, chat bot, notebook LM, marigold activity, moment of joy, gratitude journaling, two-way journaling, kindness to self, AI proofing, personalized writing, holiday jokes, student smiles, happy holidays, teacher support

Transcript

Rena Clark 0:00
Reminds me some days of my why and why I’m doing what I’m doing, or even gratitude around my family and what matters.

Paul Beckermann 0:07
The more you take care of yourself, the better you are for others, too. So take some time for yourself. You deserve it.

Winston Benjamin 0:13
The toolkit episode. The topic for today’s podcast is Happy Holidays: Gifts From Us to You. Unpacking Education is brought to you by avid.org. AVID believes in seeing the potential of every student. To learn more about AVID, visit their website at avid.org.

Rena Clark 0:41
Welcome to Unpacking Education, the podcast where we explore current issues and best practices in education. I’m Rena Clark.

Paul Beckermann 0:52
I’m Paul Beckermann.

Winston Benjamin 0:53
And I’m Winston Benjamin. We are educators.

Paul Beckermann 0:57
And we’re here to share insights and actionable strategies.

Transition Music 1:02
Education is our passport to the future.

Winston Benjamin 1:06
Our quote for today is from Mary Anne Radmacher. She writes, “May your walls know joy, may every room hold laughter, and may every window open to a great possibility.” That’s heavy. Took me a second to really get a hold of that. So I’m gonna throw it to y’all. What are y’all thinking? Paul, what’s on your mind?

Paul Beckermann 1:27
It’s like one of those Irish sayings. May the wind always be on your back. I love that every window opens to a great possibility part at the end there. There’s so much in that. It’s easy to get pulled under the negativity of the news and social media strings and stuff like that. So I like the optimism of it. Challenges are real, for sure, I’m not discounting that, but still, attitude can be everything, and I hope our listeners are able to find that positivity and possibility outside of their windows during this holiday season. That’s what I’m thinking about.

Rena Clark 2:02
This makes me think about side notes. My children were arguing earlier, and now I say, what are you in control of? In your control of yourself and how you feel, how you act, how you respond. And this made me think of, as Paul said, there’s different things, ups and downs, but it is important that we choose to find and know joy, and that we choose to find and hold laughter, and that we choose to find that window and open it to possibility, rather than going to the dark side. But I think a lot of this to me as we go into the holidays is making those choices. I know this last year I’ve had a lot of different things going on, and it’s choosing to still find that joy, the laughter, and I’ve had a lot of new opportunities. So if we show up, and to find possibility.

Winston Benjamin 2:56
I appreciate both of y’all saying that, because the holiday season is tough for me because of thinking about people I’ve lost. So just the idea of trying to find the joy where the joy is, is a plus. And, for those who are in the midst of missing people, yo, you got a little love from us, thinking about y’all, sending y’all positivity. So for today’s episode, it’s going to be a little bit different, because sometimes we always try to do something nice for the holiday season, something different. So today, we’re going to pop into a new segment. It’s gonna be the toolkit episode! Yeah!

Transition Music 3:32
Check it out. Check it out. Check it out. Check it out. What’s in the toolkit? What is in the toolkit? So, what’s in the toolkit? Check it out.

Winston Benjamin 3:42
I’m going to throw it to everybody. What’s something that you’re thinking about? What’s the tool you want to throw into the mix today?

Paul Beckermann 3:48
It’s like one of those holiday games, Winston. You’re throwing all the shoes in a pile, and then you gotta reach in there and grab a shoe.

Winston Benjamin 3:55
It’s going to be the activity for today. We’ll have a little fun.

Paul Beckermann 4:00
All right, Rena, you can go first.

Rena Clark 4:02
All right. Well, it’s been a theme all year, but this idea of authentic connection, and the more and more I think about it, as I talk to more students, and they really learn best when they know they’re cared about, when you have an authentic connection. Because relationships really are key. And so I think especially on this holiday season, understanding the different ways students and families celebrate or even feel about, not just holidays, maybe other things, as well. So asking open-ended questions, and so my idea was you can create your own chatbot, something like School AI, you can feed it in there. And so you could create your own chatbot to ask open ended questions about favorite traditions, things that students appreciate this time of year, and then have them share out and kind of look through that feedback to gain perspective and genuine understanding of your students. It’s kind of a different way for them to engage in that feedback rather than a form. And then you can also, because we want it to be two-way, you can respond back to them. So just a different idea of using a chatbot.

Winston Benjamin 5:11
Oh, I like that. Cool. Paul, what do you got?

Paul Beckermann 5:14
I got an AI one too, and we’ve talked about NotebookLM on the show before, but lately, I’ve been hearing some new uses for it, and I thought this was perfect for holidays because, at least in our house, the kids always got stuff that meant dad had to put it together. It became project time for dad. But what I’ve been hearing people doing is they’re throwing manuals into NotebookLM, and then they can ask NotebookLM questions about the product, because it learns the manual. It’s like having a conversation with an expert about the manual of whatever you’re trying to put together and stuff. Our tech people are using it. They’re putting like manuals for computer programs and stuff in there. And then you can have a conversation with NotebookLM, about whatever question you can’t figure out with the manual. So, there you go. If you got lots of things to put together over Christmas or the holidays, whatever you celebrate, get NotebookLM.

Rena Clark 6:07
Teacher hack. You can put your teacher contract in there, as well, and it’s a lot easier to ask questions. If you’re like, Oh, I really want to understand my hours. I’m just telling you, put your contract in there. It’s really helpful.

Paul Beckermann 6:19
That’s awesome, Rena. I like that.

Rena with the double up.

Rena Clark 6:23
As I’ve moved to a new district with a new contract, and I’m like, I wanted to really understand and my new contract. And it was a lot easier to have that conversation than to try to find a word and understand.

Paul Beckermann 6:37
That’s brilliant. And you know what? When you click the little Terms of Use Agreement on things, throw that in there first. Say, hey, is there anything I should be worried about?

Winston Benjamin 6:46
True that. I’d say yes for doing that. I think I’m going go a little bit more low tech. One of my favorite activities is reading through Finding Your Marigold, by Jennifer Gonzalez. And what that usually does is help me prioritize who I need to be around. And it’s a good way to help students understand and prioritize like during the holiday season, for some of them, it may not be the best time. They may not really enjoy being around family or friends or miss someone, and this is the opportunity to really help them process like yo, who provides you a good joy, who provides you some opportunities to find some love, or who do you need to stay away from? Who’s a little poisonous? So, sometimes it’s realizing who to be around and how to spend that time with that person is a good thing. So using this as an activity for students and yourselves, Finding Your Marigold by Jennifer Gonzalez, I think sometimes it helps me put a good spin on the holidays.

Rena Clark 7:44
I always love that article. I read it over and over. I’m going to springboard off that, because one of mine, it fits well, is called moment of joy. So you could take it low or high tech. I just like using Padlet. It’s really great for this, and just having a board like a Padlet board, where everyone, your students or even staff, can post pictures, or they can do drawings or recordings or whatever, where they just put “What is a moment of joy? What’s something that brought you a moment of joy?” And they can share that.

Paul Beckermann 8:17
All right, well, I’m going to jump off that one then, Rena. So let’s say you have this great moment of joy, and you put it on the Padlet. I also suggest you email it to yourself with the “delay send” on it, because you can do a delay send on your email so it won’t actually launch and get to you until a predetermined date, but you can surprise yourself with those moments of joy and remember that they happened. And it’s so cool. You might be having a bad day, and you open up your email in the morning and boom, there’s a message from yourself, reminding you of this awesome thing that happened. So there you go. Delay send.

Winston Benjamin 8:52
I like that. Really sometimes I forget that some kids do some good things on a day, and the next day, I’m a little fuming, so that will come in handy. I’m definitely going to take that up, because I got to remember the good days as well as the bad days. Um, something else that I like doing is sometimes I recognize that every year is a different year, and sometimes those ups or downs in the year feels different, but also sometimes every year feels like it has the same motion. So there’s this great little thing that we used to use with our first-year teachers. It’s called “The Phases of First Year Teaching.” It gives a little conversation about the ups and downs. Why you feel some type of way. The disillusionment in the middle of the year. You’re like, “Oh, nothing’s going right.” But it feels logical to first years, but I think it also really works, it applies to anyone, including the veteran, where you can look back and see oh, this is a pattern. But I think it gives people permission to feel what they’re feeling, and to be where they are, and to recognize that it’s like this too shall pass, right? So sometimes, even with this time of year, it feels a little tough with the kids acting up, and it’s been a struggle, you’re just getting through the end of the marking period, or what have you, and you’re just trying to push through. So just realizing that it’s part of the game. Where you at is where you at, and you’re gonna be there, so just push through. I think this gives you a permission to be okay with where you are. So check out the Phases of Teaching. Got a good couple of conversations. It’s a great grab and some nice little explanations about why you’re where you are, or how to get out from where you are, and accept where it is.

Paul Beckermann 10:36
Is that the one, Winston, where, is there a diagram of a big gully, or whatever?

Winston Benjamin 10:42
Exactly. That’s the dip. That’s the disillusionment.

Paul Beckermann 10:47
Right down at the bottom. Then you climb back up to the other side.

Winston Benjamin 10:51
Then at the end of the year, you’re like, “Oh, that little knucklehead, they got it.” And then you revitalized and remember why you love the game. So you know what I mean?

Paul Beckermann 11:00
I’ve seen it. That’s a good one.

Rena Clark 11:06
I’m gonna throw out a goodie, an oldie, but a goodie. And I’ve said it many times, it’s just this idea of gratitude journaling. And they have some fun ones at a bookstore, Amazon, and even like a kid’s version. I had one like where you circle an emoji. It’s like draw a picture and put three words. But I find as an adult, they have like a three-minute gratitude journal. There’s different styles or just a piece of paper, a regular notebook, works. But if you like something that’s a little cuter or more structured, they have all kinds of gratitude journals you can pick out. And I just find taking that three minutes to intentionally give gratitude for something, because, as Winston said, so many things are going on, but there are things to give gratitude for, and then, just like going through that, I find that helps center me, and kind of reminds me some days of my why and why I’m doing what I’m doing, or even gratitude around my family and what matters. I just find it so valuable. And as I’m going to give maybe two here, because I also, when I was searching for these gratitude journals, I found another one. So if you are a parent or someone, it was like a writing journal, or you have a partner or someone, because we communicate, we talk, but I feel like the written letter is awesome. So it’s actually a two way journal. It asks you a prompt, and then you hand it off, and they have one for you. And kids, or you and partner, and then they, like, write back. And it could be you and a parent. It’s, they’re kind of a cool so I took this, it’s a gift that I’m going to try out this year, so to see how it goes with this idea of, like, two-way journaling, because there’s just something different about writing.

Paul Beckermann 12:39
Yeah, that’s awesome. Well, here’s two-way gratitude. So I totally love the keeping those signs of gratitude for yourself. It’s also nice to send those thank-you notes to other people. In the in the holiday season, I feel like sometimes we’re scratching our heads, like, what can I get this person as a gift, because it’s the gift-giving season. Well, sometimes those words of gratitude and thank yous—that can be the most powerful gift that you can give. And I do believe that the more you give, the more you get back in that realm, as well. We can’t have enough kindness, so keep dishing it out and be good to people.

Winston Benjamin 13:17
Yeah, as a New Yorker, this is the one time a year that I actually really, truly love. Even though the city is a monster, everybody’s moving mad quick, it’s cold, it’s bitter, all that, but it’s still…you try to hold the door for the lady with the bag. You still try to do a little bit of nice things just for the person around you. You know what I mean? It’s that season. You know what I’m saying? So I feel you. As a kid growing up, it was still, even though it was a monster, we were still doing those little, nice little things for everybody. So I like that—you get a lot for giving a little. You know what I mean? One thing, I’m gonna throw it out, like something that I actually do since in my role, I’m trying to work with the teachers and students and teams, PLCs. I’m gonna throw in a a couple of books by Elena Aguilar. You can also check out our episode with her. The Art of Coaching and The Art of Coaching Teams, I think are really, really good books because one, yo, I stress about not being good at coaching or supporting a teacher in the in the stages when they’re in that dip. But I think the way she gives conversations of supporting young teachers through growth, also teams through growth, even yourself—to give yourself permission to grow, as well. I think, especially right now when we’re just trying to figure out how to use AI and all these other parts of teaching, I think it gives you a chance to do some really good work on supporting actual growth and also kindness amongst each other. So I throw that in as an extra tool.

Paul Beckermann 14:52
Love it. I just got one more. You said kindness to to others. Kindness to self is important too during the holidays. Take some time for whatever your passion project is. What do you love to do where you get into that flow state and you just lose time? Take some time for that. And it might feel selfish at times, but it is not. The more you take care of yourself, the better you are for others, too. So, take some time for yourself. You deserve it.

Rena Clark 15:20
I’m thinking when you come back, and this kind of connects to both of you, because I was thinking about an article I just read from Catlin Tucker, who co-writes, we’ve had her on the show before. She had like five little tips about, I don’t remember what it was called exactly, but like AI-proofing, because in my role, I’ve been working a lot with ELA teachers, and we’ve been talking a lot about how we maybe can adjust what we’re doing to really support students. And so I was thinking about windows and mirror storytelling galleries for narrative writing, because if we can make our writing more personalized, and they have to write about themselves and their own experiences, we can use things to help, but they’re not going to write that story for you. And students can benefit from seeing themselves in the mirrors and other experiences as windows. And they could also, it could be a short story. They could also do a visual piece, a video, and that way they get to learn more about each other and also share more about themselves. So I like that idea when they come back. And it can also, you know, AI-proof your assignments a little bit.

Winston Benjamin 16:34
Hey, listen. I like that. Those are some real good tools for our toolkit. Appreciate the running through. That’s a really good toolkit episode.

Paul Beckermann 16:45
It’s like Santa has got this bag full of tools that we’ve planted for him today.

Winston Benjamin 16:52
You know, all of the above, right?

Rena Clark 16:54
Well, we got it. I mean, where are the jokes, Paul? Come on.

Paul Beckermann 16:58
I don’t have any this year. I fell down on it. I know. I totally spaced out.

Rena Clark 17:05
I’m like, where’s the joke? Where it’s about a snowman, a candy cane. There’s gotta be a Yeti. Something. He’s searching.

Paul Beckermann 17:15
I could ask ChatGPT. Do you think they’d come up with one? All right. We’ll see what he says. So, here you go. Why did Santa go to music school?

Rena Clark 17:26
Why?

Paul Beckermann 17:28
Because he wanted to improve his “wrap” skills.

Winston Benjamin 17:37
Run-DMC. Run-DMC. It’s Christmas at Hollis. If you know, you know.

Paul Beckermann 17:46
Okay, so ChatGPT is giving me another one. I’m not sure this is great. Why was the snowman looking through the carrots?

Winston Benjamin 17:54
To get 20-20 vision? I don’t know.

Paul Beckermann 17:57
He was picking his nose. You know, he’s looking through them. What do you get when you cross a snowman and a vampire?

Rena Clark 18:11
Frost Dracula.

Winston Benjamin 18:13
Frost bit?

Paul Beckermann 18:15
Yes, you got it!

Winston Benjamin 18:16
Yeah! She threw the frost. And I was thinking frosty. Yeah, teamwork!

Paul Beckermann 18:29
Well done. Well done. Oh, I think I might have told this one all ready. So I think ChatGPT is plagiarizing our past episode. Why did Rudolph get a bad grade on his report card?

Winston Benjamin 18:42
He wasn’t too bright?

Paul Beckermann 18:44
Oh, that’s good. I like it. It could be.

Rena Clark 18:48
He’s too bright, though.

Paul Beckermann 18:48
Because he went down in history. All right. Impromptu jokes there. There you go, everybody.

Winston Benjamin 19:00
Happy holidays.

Paul Beckermann 19:03
All right, you know, we’ve got a song to wrap up. Well, usually we write our own song, but this year, the lyrics are original, but the music is from Suno. So here you go. Happy holidays, everyone.

AI-Generated Song 19:24
This school year is almost halfway done. There have been struggles, but you’ve also had some fun. You shared laughter, stories, heartache, and surprise. You’ve seen the spark of learning light up students’ eyes.

[Chorus] Happy holidays to all of you. We appreciate everything you do. You lift your students higher every day, through struggles they face on the way. You’re smart and giving, full grace, you make a happy learning space. So happy holidays to all of you.

Take some time to care for yourself, get rest and put work on the shelf. And don’t take it down ’til New Year’s comes and goes. Then get ready for your student smiles, you’ll help them grow.

[Chorus] Happy holidays to all of you. We appreciate everything you do. You lift your students higher every day, through struggles they face on the way. You’re smart and giving, full of grace. You make a happy learning space. So happy holidays to all of you.

You’re a gift to everyone around, you help your students feel so proud. I see the love you give and the work you do, so happy holidays—and thanks for all you do.

[Chorus] Happy holidays to all of you. We appreciate everything you do. You lift your students higher every day, through struggles they face on the way. You’re smart and giving, full of grace. You make a happy learning space. So happy holidays to all of you.

Rena Clark 22:19
Thanks for listening to Unpacking Education.

Winston Benjamin 22:22
We invite you to visit us at AvidOpenAccess.org, where you can discover resources to support student agency, equity, and academic tenacity to create a classroom for future-ready learners.

Paul Beckermann 22:37
We’ll be back here next Wednesday for a fresh episode of Unpacking Education.

Rena Clark 22:41
And remember, go forth and be awesome.

Winston Benjamin 22:45
Thank you for all you do.

Paul Beckermann 22:46
You make a difference.