122. Letting Go of What’s Not in Your Control with Ryan Racine

Teachers are burned out and continue to leave the profession in droves. One of the biggest challenges is that there’s so much out of our control as educators that we struggle to cope. Even before COVID wreaked havoc on our world, there was little we could do to control what happened in our day-to-day lives.

What if we just let go of what we can’t control and instead focus on what is within our power? That’s the mindset behind this week’s podcast episode with Ryan Racine, author of The Stoic Teacher. 

Ryan and I talk about planning ahead for adversity, letting go of those frustrating moments, looking at situations from an outside perspective, and gifting our children with these tools that will serve them well throughout life.

We’ll never know a world where we can control everything. (And do we really want to?) It’s time we take a step back and live and teach from a different perspective.

Ryan Racine is a high school teacher and college instructor from Canada. He earned his master's of English language and literature from Brock University and has published in magazines such as Modern Stoicism, PACE, The Ekphrastic Review, and University Affairs. His book, The Stoic Teacher: Ancient Mind Hacks to Help Educators Foster Resiliency, Optimism, and Inne Calm, focuses on how Stoic philosophy can help teachers deal with day-to-day stresses, manage classroom behavior better, and strive to become better teachers! 

• [1:39] - What is Stoicism
• [4:06] - How he got involved in Stoicism
• [7:35] - Lessons teachers can learn from ancient mind hacks
• [10:15] - Premeditating for adversity
• [11:52] - Reframing adversity for yourself 
• [12:57] - Work through self-imposed obstacles
• [15:45] - Taking a view from above 
• [18:30] - How to apply these concepts with students
• [22:15] - Explicitly teach Stoicism vs. informal conversations
• [24:29] - The importance of modeling with kids
• [28:15] - Turbo Time
• [29:32] - What Ryan brings to teaching
• [30:10] - Fun fact about Stoics
• [32:38] - Ryan’s Magic Wand
• [34:23] - Maureen’s Takeaways

• The Stoic Teacher: Ancient Mind Hacks to Help Educators Foster Resiliency, Optimism, and Inner Calm by Ryan Racine
• Getting to Neutral
• Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey
• Zen and the Art of Dealing with Difficult People by Mark Westmoquette

• Troublesome Buddhas YouTube
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• Maureen’s TEDx: Changing My Mind to Change Our Schools

• The Education Evolution
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• EdActive Collective
• Maureen’s book: Creating Micro-Schools for Colorful Mismatched Kids

• Micro-school feature on Good Morning America
• The Micro-School Coalition
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• LEADPrep