Season One is Done! Final Thoughts and Plans for the Future (EP 41)

Season One is Done! Final Thoughts and Plans For the Future

Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Elementary Math Chat. Today’s episode is a special one because it is the final episode of season one. I cannot believe we are here already. But with summer being right around the corner, I feel like this is the perfect time to put a big pink bow on this first season.

Today I’ll be answering a few questions I received from a Q & A survey I put out, and I will also share my plans for the future of the podcast. And of course, I have one final teaching tip of the week that I will share at the end.

The first question submitted was from Jessica, and she wants to know what my favorite episode is and why. I love this question, by the way.

I think I enjoyed the content-specific episodes the most. Those were the easiest for me to record I think because it just felt more like teaching. A lot of times I was looking through my old lesson plans and my Smart Notebook slides to get these ideas. 

And you know, sometimes you forget all the fun ideas and all the creative things you did with your class. So, it was kind of fun to go back and revisit those ideas and share them with you. So, I think that’s why I enjoyed those episodes the most.

Thank you, Jessica, for that question!

The other question I got was from Maria, and there are two parts to this. She wants to know what I enjoy the most about podcasting and what I enjoy the least. Well, I actually have two answers for you.

Number one, I enjoy seeing my new episode come up each week. It’s such a great feeling of accomplishment. There’s so much work that goes into it. So, I always get a little excited every Tuesday morning when I wake up and I see that my new episode is ready to go.

And then the second one would be hearing the impact that it’s had on other teachers. I’ve had a couple people here and there in my email list, they’ll reply to my emails and tell me how much they’re enjoying it. 

I’ve also had others connect through social media, either Facebook or Instagram, and they’ve also shared different ways that the podcast has helped them. So, that is definitely my favorite part about hosting the podcast.

My least favorite part I would have to say is probably the recording only because it’s a lot of time on my computer, a lot of time staring at a screen, and I’m used to working on a computer. But the difference when I record is I am staring at a computer for hours. And you know, you only hear 15-minute episodes, but these take me a lot longer to record.

So, that is definitely the part I enjoy least just because it wears on me a little bit. But it’s always worth it in the end when I have that final product.

Thank you, Maria, for that question!

All right. Next, I want to take some time to share my final thoughts on the season, and then I’ll go into my plans for the future.

When I was thinking about what to say in this final episode, it dawned on me that I never really shared the way that it all happened. I talked about why I wanted to start this podcast. But it’s kind of a neat story as to how it kind of fell into my lap and what those early days were like. So, that’s what I’m going to do today.

So, as you know, I left the classroom in 2022, and I knew that I didn’t want to just forget about teaching. I wanted to be an advocate for teachers in some way, shape, or form. I wasn’t sure what that would look like, but I knew I wanted to help in a way much bigger than a blog post, or an Instagram post, or even a TPT product ever could.

It wasn’t my initial plan to go back and sub, but I decided you know what, this is a way I can give back. So, I spent the majority of my first year out of a classroom subbing, usually two to three times a week, and I thought that might be my answer. I knew subs were hard to come by. I knew they needed me, and I really enjoyed it.

But one day I was on a walk, and I was listening to a TPT podcast that I listened to every week, and a new episode appeared with the title, “Why You Should Start a Podcast.” I almost didn’t listen because I never considered podcasting as an option. But I hit play anyway, and I remember halfway through the episode I stopped dead in my tracks, and I thought, this is it. I should start a podcast.

This felt like a great option for me because I’ve always been someone who has enjoyed sharing ideas and collaborating with other teachers. That’s honestly one of the things I miss most about teaching. So, starting a podcast could be a way for me to help teachers on a much larger scale. That was my hope. That was my goal.

So, I went home, I bought a podcasting course, and six weeks later, to the day, I posted my first three episodes of Elementary Math Chat.

Those early days were exciting. But man, they were a struggle. I struggled to find my podcast voice. It’s very different than a teacher voice. 

In fact, I have a little secret to tell you. I have recently gone back and rerecorded some of my early episodes. So, if you listened in the beginning, and you were like, man, that girl needs to slow down! I hear you, and I’m happy to say that I have since slowed down a little bit, and hopefully they’re much more enjoyable to listen to this time around. 🙂

All right, on a more serious note, I want to take the time to thank each and every one of you for listening, whether it’s been from the beginning, or maybe you have just joined me over the last few episodes. 

My hope is that this podcast was able to give you all of the things that I needed when I was in the classroom. I hope you felt supported. I hope you felt inspired. I hope you felt excited when you learned a new idea to try in your classroom?

But most importantly, I hope you felt appreciated.

So, will there be a Season Two of Elementary Math Chat? I am going to leave the door open because you never know. I do have quite a few topics that I wasn’t able to cover. 

But it won’t be anytime in the near future. I’ve had to put a lot of other projects aside that I’m really excited to start working on. Nothing ready to share just yet. But I promise, if you’re on my email list, you will be the first ones to know. So, if you are not on that list and you would like to join, I will have that link in the show notes for you.

I also want to thank my incredible husband, Michael. He has been so patient with me and has had to put up with me talking about podcasting pretty much 24/7 this past year. 

He’s the one who helped me decide on the name Elementary Math Chat, by the way, and he wanted so badly to record the music for my intro and outro since he writes music and also plays the guitar, but we ran out of time. You know what though, it’s the thought that counts.

So, thank you, Michael, for being my biggest supporter, for letting me bounce all of my ideas off of you, and for encouraging me when I needed it the most. This has not been an easy journey. But I am wrapping up this season feeling proud, a little bit sad that it’s over, but extremely excited for my next adventure.

Alright, well, it is time to wrap up our Season One finale with our final Teaching Tip of the Week.

Today’s tip is one that you can use on your final teacher workday. So, the one where your class has left for the summer, and you are doing everything you can to finish that end-of-the-year checklist. But you always feel like you’re forgetting something. 

I think when there’s so much to do, either at the beginning of the year or the end of the year, you always feel like you’re missing something.

So, my advice to you is to take your end-of-the-year checklist, it’s either probably in your lesson plans or on your computer somewhere, but take that end-of-the-year checklist and write it on your whiteboard. This is going to help you in a few different ways.

Number one, you’ll be able to see it at any point in your room, and you can easily know what’s next on your list. You don’t have to keep going back and forth to your desk or to your computer. It’ll help you move through this list a little bit quicker.

And number two, if your teammates do this, it’s a great way to help each other make sure that you have everything on your list. I mean, you’re probably going in and out of each other’s rooms anyway. So, if you all have them on your board, it’s just a great way to double-check that you have everything and give you that sense of security that you’re not missing anything.

Or maybe you see something that your teammates had on their board that you never really considered. You just might get a new idea for something to do to help you at the end of the year.

Now, when you’re finished, go ahead and take a picture of this to-do list and put it in your lesson plans, and that way next year you’ll know exactly what you did on that final day.

All right. Well, that’s going to take us to the end of this episode. Thank you so much again for supporting this podcast all year. I hope to connect with you in the future, and more importantly, I hope you enjoy a very well-deserved summer break.