The Extraordinary Educators Podcast
Best practices, tips, and stories to help you be extraordinary in your classroom and beyond, featuring Curriculum Associates' Manager, Voice of the Customer, Hayley Browning.
The Extraordinary Educators Podcast
Normalizing Feelings: Finding Your Best Self, Every Day with Shannon Allison
Feelings walk into class before backpacks do. We sit down with first grade teacher Shannon Allison to explore how simple, repeatable SEL moves turn big emotions into teachable moments and stronger learning. Instead of treating social emotional learning as an add-on, Shannon shows how to weave it into routines that students can use right away and that teachers can sustain on busy days.
Beyond what strategies Shannon incorporates into her classroom, she dives into the "why" behind them, helping students better understand their own emotions in the process. Along the way, we also unpack the teacher side of social-emotional learning -- embracing nonlinear careers, resisting social media comparisons, and learning to be proud of progress even when the path looks different from the dream. Shannon’s recognition as an Extraordinary Educator opened doors to a supportive community that celebrates specific, effective practice, not perfection, and that affirmation changed how she sees her work.
If you want practical strategies you can try tomorrow and a reminder that your journey still counts when it curves, this conversation delivers. We offer clear takeaways for classroom culture, student self-regulation, and teacher well-being, plus insights into how recognition and community fuel growth.
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Read the blog: CurriculumAssociates.com/blog
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Have feedback, questions, or want to be a guest? Email ExtraordinaryEducators@cainc.com to connect with us!
Curriculum Associates, an education technology company and the makers of iReady, presents the Extraordinary Educators Podcast. Join host Haley Browning to hear tips, best practices, and successes to improve your teaching and leadership and drive student growth and learning. We believe all educators are extraordinary, and we are here to support you.
SPEAKER_01:Hi everyone, and welcome to today's episode of the Extraordinary Educators Podcast. Today I am joined by the wonderful Shannon Allison, who is a first grade teacher from Connecticut. And today, Shannon joins us to talk all about social emotional learning and building community and just overall provides some incredible advice for teachers, whether they be new or veteran. So with that, we do dive into some wonderful topics regarding, again, social emotional learning. She provides some great strategies that maybe you want to take into your classrooms, even starting today. And she also wraps up with some great words about our curriculum associates extraordinary educator program. So with that, we hope you enjoyed today's episode with Shannon. Hi Shannon. Welcome to today's episode of the Extraordinary Educators Podcast. Hey, thanks for having me. We're so happy to have you. And Shannon, you wrote a wonderful blog that we'll make sure to link in the show notes all about some lessons you've learned in all of the world of teaching with building community, growth, the power of showing up. And I'm really excited to dive in today and take a little bit more from that blog and build on it in today's episode. So with that, I did just kind of want to start us off. You talk about the power of social emotional learning. And this, I feel like, is quite the buzzword in education. We hear social emotional learning, we hear SEL. In your own words, could you explain what social emotional learning involves, what it is, how you may see it in your classroom?
SPEAKER_02:Um, first, for in my classroom, I kind of consider social emotional learning not necessarily all always a lesson uh to teach. Uh, I feel like it's just making the students more aware of their feelings and how that can affect their day. So we do a lot of um talking about how they're feeling and how that relates to being their best self. We talk about how we want to be able to show up as our best selves because that makes us the best learner we can be. And it's normal to not always feel your best self. So we work on a lot of strategies to help us kind of take ourselves from feeling maybe not so great sometimes to working our way back to our best selves. I like to normalize feelings and let students know that it's okay to feel angry, to feel upset, to feel tired, um, that I feel those things too. And I let them know that even though I am feeling those things, I'm showing up and I let them know how I work through that. And sometimes your best self one day isn't going to be the same as your best self another day, and that's okay too. I emphasize always um just trying your best, whatever that might be for the day that you're having.
SPEAKER_01:Wow, that's really powerful. And it says a lot about you that you're willing to have that realness with your students and you're saying it like it is, you know, I've had a rough day. And Shannon, I know even before we we started recording this, we were like, oh, it's a Monday afternoon, we've had a long day. And it it is so important to really kind of humanize these connections with your students. And the fact that you're demonstrating this to them makes it more doable for them to do in their own day-to-day. So that's really, really powerful. Thank you for sharing, Shannon. Thanks. Um, you talked about, you said you work on some strategies to bring your students back to their best selves. I'm wondering if you could expand on that. What do your strategies look like? I know you wrote about a morning circle. Is there anything else that you use in your classroom?
SPEAKER_02:So um, we'll do different breathing exercises. Uh, we talk about um belly breathing and how there's a certain way to do that, and it kind of helps the nervous system kind of relax and calm. We talk a little bit about how that works with your body. Um, I try to let them know that so they kind of understand it. It's not just, you know, breathing that it's actually helping your body and there is a purpose for it. We also do different things, like if you're not getting along with another student, uh, there's a way to talk through it. Um, we have a really great teacher that teaches life skills, and she does something called the peace lily. So if they're having a problem, they can take the peace lily and go talk it out together. So it's uh it's a lot of um modeling too. We have to do a lot of modeling with that. So the um the breathing, the peace lily, and just kind of um the way I model explaining my feelings. So I might say, Oh, I'm feeling uh kind of tired right now, but I'm trying to work myself um to wake up and to get to kind of my calm feeling. And just different, there's so many things online, so many different tools, um, so many different brain breaks, um, different yoga that they can do. So it just just kind of making them aware of how they're feeling and then the strategies on how to, you know, as I was saying before, kind of work through that.
SPEAKER_01:That's all wonderful. Thank you so much, Shannon. And I feel like a lot of that is really doable tomorrow, you know, or even today, if you know, we have listeners that are listening to this on their their way to work. These are all things that they can start enacting with their students in a much more doable way than you know, some of the larger topics that we may have heard of with social emotional learning. It feels very digestible.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and just uh uh just searching online calming strategies for elementary students, you'll find so many different things. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Awesome, Shannon. Thank you so much for sharing that and those wonderful resources. And I I would like to dive in a little bit more into you talked about your path in teaching and how you kind of ended up where you are today, and it wasn't necessarily what you had in mind and how you were able to adjust and and get the most out of this experience. And I'm sure that there are listeners out there that can relate to this experience. I know when I was a teacher, I also could have related to this experience as well. I was reading this blog and was like, yes, it feels like Shannon's talking directly to me. And so with that, I'm curious, could you give some tips to perhaps some of these newer teachers or maybe somebody that's feeling more new as they're kind of traveling this path in the world of education?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, um, so what I found throughout my life, and not just with my job, but just a lot of things. Um I mean, as you, as you're growing up, you picture your life a certain way and how you want it to be. And since I was young, I did want to be a teacher. So I had been um imagining that for a long time as well. And you have a vision, and usually typically those visions are gonna be like your most perfect, most perfect like view or most perfect goal. And it doesn't always end up that way. And when I went through that, and when I didn't get the my dream job right away, and I had I was 30 and I was getting a job in a district that it was a really tough district, uh, I felt really down on myself and I was almost even embarrassed to share that I had gotten the job, something that I had worked so hard for, gotten my master's, went to school for how long, and I was embarrassed. And looking back now, um, I wish I had someone to tell me that I should have been proud and more proud of that. I I am now, I am proud of it now, um, of that accomplishment. And it doesn't matter if it matches your the dream you have in your head, because you're gonna get there eventually. It might not look exactly how you thought it would, but there was a reason that I had that job and that experience, and it's made me a better teacher today. Um, and I looking back, I would be upset not having that. So sometimes living in the moment, I would say, is you've got to kind of force yourself to do that a little bit. And um, of course, you want to plan for the future and set those goals, but don't focus so hard on it that you are not taking in the experience that you're presently having. Um, I try to do that more now. It teaching's hard, it's changed, it's different, but there's the days that I sit in my classroom like I remember when this was like something that I was wishing for and hoping for, and I finally have it. And of course, there are gonna be hard days, but I'm really lucky to be here. So I think just kind of focusing on that, thinking about your achievements, and you don't have to get to a certain goal by a certain date or a certain age. It's okay if you don't and like enjoy what you're doing as it's going. Don't just like, and I do this with the weekends too. Don't just live for the weekends, don't just live for that one goal, enjoy the ride as you're going, is what I would say. Even if you're not doing exactly what everybody else is doing. And now everybody has the online, um, they see the teachers online and how everything's perfect. And um it that's not true, it's not so don't compare yourself, use that as motivation to set goals, but it's okay if it's not happening in the same way as other people.
SPEAKER_01:Shannon, I cannot praise you enough for how real you keep it.
SPEAKER_02:I could be a bit of an overshare sometimes, but you know, it makes you look relatable. So it's all right. And you know what? That's great for a podcast.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:There you go.
SPEAKER_01:Um, yeah, but I I do want to say, Shannon, we are proud of you. I know you were recently recognized as an extraordinary educator. Um, and you wrote about it a little bit in your blog. And I I wanted to kind of touch on that a little bit, just again to celebrate you and to talk about the power of the extraordinary educator program. I'm wondering if you could touch on that a little bit to wrap us up.
SPEAKER_02:Well, first off, thank you. Um, it was actually something that was really hard for me to kind of acknowledge, and I I have some trouble um acknowledging and being proud of things. And I don't want to seem like I'm bragging, but I have to say the Extraordinary Educators program really helped with that a lot. And the way that you guys celebrate the teachers and really kind of give us a voice and really listen to us and let us know how much we're appreciated was really um really a great thing. And I'm still it, I was telling you, I still have a group chat with a bunch of people from extraordinary educators. Shout out to my iReady Blazers and Shoes group. Um, but it was it was really great to be around people that um are like-minded and really care about their students and improving and the program, just the recognition and it was just it really it was eye-opening and you should celebrate yourself. It kind of made me realize that I had people at school always telling me, but you know, you're around those people. But then having this um many people on a broader scale kind of saying the same thing, it was, I was like, all right, you know what, I am gonna celebrate myself and I am doing a great job. So I'm proud too, even though that's kind of hard to say, but I'm proud of myself too, and I appreciate you guys kind of helping with that, helping not just by listening to us as educators and making things better for us, but you're helping me with some social emotional learning of myself.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, Shannon, thank you. And thank you for all that you do and for all of the listeners out there. Thank you as well. I hope that you all are celebrating yourselves just the way Shannon is. And I know that it's really hard to do. And a lot of teachers out there, you know, don't necessarily think in that way. It's always students first, students first. And it is important to kind of take a step back and recognize you are doing so much, you are making such an impact. And it is important to celebrate yourself. Um, and so I'm glad that we were able to help support that celebration with you, Shannon. Um and with that, I do want to say for all of our listeners, if you're interested in the Extraordinary Educator program, conveniently enough, the applications are currently open. And we definitely will encourage you to apply. Um, I'll put it in the show notes. I'll put the link in the show notes for anybody that's interested. Um, but just wanted to throw in that casual plug. We would love to celebrate more educators.
SPEAKER_02:Everyone should definitely apply. I was terrified. I don't like to be on camera. Um, I don't like to travel on my own and I did it all. So that's another I'm really proud of. And I it was it was like a life-changing experience. It was really, really great. And um, we were joking that um you guys should hold for unions for past groups. So if that ever happens, I hear you. I hear your feedback. I'll bring you to the team.
unknown:Thanks.
SPEAKER_01:All right. Well, thank you so much for your time today, Shannon. Um, and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00:You too. I appreciate this opportunity. Get inspired by following us on social and please tag us in your posts on X at Curriculum Association and on Instagram at MyEReady. If you have feedback about the podcast, a topic of interest, or want to be a guest, email extraordinaryeducators at cainc.com. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and if you'd like to help more educators like you join the conversation, please leave us a review. Remember, be you, be true, be extraordinary. The Extraordinary Educators Podcast is produced by Curriculum Associates. Curriculum Associates believes that with the right support, all children can reach grade level. We provide evidence-based high-quality instructional materials and world-class implementation services to classrooms across the United States. Editing completed by Shane Lowe, social media by Attsidy Hannon, guestbooking and production by Haley Browning. This podcast is Copyrighted Materials and Intellectual Property of Curriculum Associates.