It's Where I Am with Zandra Polard

Unknown Speaker 0:00
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Zandra Polard 0:50
Good morning Las Vegas. It's Zondra Pull hard. It's where I am. Thank you for tuning into the show today. I have a lovely, lovely co host. Her name is Jenny Nunn. She is an educator of 24 years. And we're going to be talking about growth versus fixed mindset. Related to the holidays. Yes, holiday season. Yeah. Happy

Unknown Speaker 1:18
holiday. Happy

Zandra Polard 1:19
holidays, everybody. We just finished Thanksgiving. Food was great. Now it's time to get ready for Christmas, Hanukkah Kwanzaa. And then the New Year.

Unknown Speaker 1:32
Yay. I love this time of year. Yes. Thank

Zandra Polard 1:35
you so much for coming on to the show.

Unknown Speaker 1:37
Thank you for asking me. Absolutely. Well,

Zandra Polard 1:40
you know, I had to have you on because of your experience in education. Very important that you are educating our youth. Thank you. Yes. So tell us about your journey and becoming a teacher. Why, Lord, why did you choose to educate the you?

Unknown Speaker 2:05
There are some times I asked myself, well, I always wanted to be a teacher when I was 10 years old. I think I figured that out, okay. And I started off going to school to be an artist to work in interior design. And I did complete my degree at the University of Houston in fine arts. And I worked in Houston as an interior architect for about five years. And then I realized, you know what, this is really not where my heart is. I enjoyed that job a lot. But I wanted to get back to my original dream. And so I went back to get my master's degree. I attended my mother's alma mater, which is kind of cool. And she had gone to Hood College, in Frederick, Maryland, okay. And to college in the hood, she went in the hood, way back in the day, and then I came back and came along, which is so cool, because I didn't, I didn't know much about the school I had never visited and then when I visited, I wanted to go there. So then I just went on my journey, and I thought I wanted to work with little littles. And then I found my way to the fifth graders. And they're just the right amount of cute and sassy and smart and independent and fun, and I really enjoy every single day with them. They are just a joy to Me,

Zandra Polard 3:24
will shout out to miss nons fifth grade class.

Unknown Speaker 3:27
I love those little they're so cute. Well, you know, I

Zandra Polard 3:31
find it interesting that you are in school for interior design, because part of teaching before they experience. Yes. Before the children even enter the classroom. Yes, ma'am. We see the artwork in the hallways, yeah, yeah. And then we set the mood or you set the mood. That's right, teachers set the mood by decorating their classroom. That's

Unknown Speaker 3:57
right, because you want that to be an inviting, you know, wonderful place, because they spend a lot of time in that room with you throughout the year. We have them for 10 months, and you know, several hours a day up to five hours or six hours a day. And so you want it to be inviting and a happy place for them. And I enjoy setting up my room. So I'm able to use that artistic side, and then also use the educator side. And so I feel like I'm able to do both of those, you know, skills that I have and enjoy that part of my personality as well. So, yeah, it's fun. Well, that's wonderful.

Zandra Polard 4:36
So we are talking about growth versus fixed mindset. Yeah. Okay. So let's jump into it now.

Unknown Speaker 4:44
Let's get it.

Zandra Polard 4:47
Yes, let's get it so. So, a fixed mindset is when someone is innately able to do something, right. Well,

Unknown Speaker 4:59
it It's just that they think it's just where I am right now. It's not really, that I'm going to move forward, I just am right here. And

Zandra Polard 5:07
then they're, oh, I'm sorry to cut you off. But I was thinking of the study, and I don't remember the name of the study, sorry. But it's it was a video that showed from when I was in psychology many, many years ago, there was a video of children. And it was about fixed versus growth mindset. And the children who had the fixed mindset, they always wanted to be praised. Oh, they had to hear you're so smart all the time, right? And stood up with the growth mindset, you are praising the effort.

Unknown Speaker 5:47
I love that, yeah. That that's the root of it right there, that we don't want to stop. You don't want to fix, you know, in the near there, and you've arrived, and you're done. Especially when you're a little person, you want to keep moving, you want to keep growing and getting better and improving. And I think we do that as adults. But we can get stuck to of course, but we certainly don't want little people to get stuck and think, Okay, I'm done. You know, especially if you're only in third or fourth grade, you're you're not done. Right. You know, and so we want to make sure that they see a reason to keep going. And so that's where they need to think, What can I do to grow to improve, improve, make myself better? And I think as adults, those comments that we make can put them they can stop them in their tracks. Absolutely. Or keep them moving, you know? So you say, Yeah, you did that. Now, what are you going to do next? And we want to keep them thinking about what is next. Right?

Zandra Polard 6:51
And that's an education that's in sports that's in everything. And when we think about the holidays as adults, yes. How can we utilize that growth mindset in terms of the holidays.

Unknown Speaker 7:05
So I was thinking about this while I drove down to San Diego to visit my family for Thanksgiving. So I had some time in the car to just, you know, think about whatever. And fortunately, the traffic wasn't too bad. So I was thinking about the holidays, you know, there's a lot of traffic on the road, and I'm thinking, you know, this could be a really miserable trip, I'm going to be unhappy when I arrive. And then I thought, You know what, no, I can just enjoy my time in the car, put on a good podcast, put on, put on your podcast, put on some music, you know, make a phone call, talk to my sister for an hour, whatever, you know, because I have a lot of time to kill. And it just got me thinking about how this time of year can be really stressful for people. And so I started thinking about how I needed to give myself that boost, have a growth mindset instead of thinking. I'm just fixed. I'm sitting here in the car and it's miserable, and I'm unhappy and whatever. So what do you think of that? I think it's important.

Zandra Polard 8:12
Well, I do it. But this brings up another question for me listening to you. How did you grow up in the holidays? Did you celebrate? Yeah, holidays. Okay, so like, I did not celebrate Christmas. Okay. Christmas is coming up. So like every once in a while. Maybe we add a Christmas, right? If we got the free tree the day before? Right? You know, there weren't any gifts. Maybe you got a check. Yeah, you know. But I had family members who absolutely celebrated Christmas and it was so fun to be at their house. Yes. During the holidays, and you saw the gifts and it was like, Oh, wow, you got gifts. No, right. But my parents, well, my mom's side. They didn't grow up celebrating Christmas. So it was just kind of passed on that tradition of not celebrating holiday. Christmas, in particular. But when I became a mother, I decided we're celebrating every single holiday. Even St. Patrick's tonight is all of them. I'm making corned beef and cabbage and all that. Green, I'm making green jello. So I developed, you know, my own little culture, culture of celebrating Christmas with my loved ones.

Unknown Speaker 9:38
So there's that growth mindset, because you didn't stay fixed in not that it was bad how you grew up or whatever, but it was different. And you decided to as an adult change. And sometimes as adults, we just really don't want to change which can be difficult, but that's so cool that you created your own culture. For your family or building traditions for your little ones, and well, my

Zandra Polard 10:05
big ones now, but Well, I know. But yeah, but you know what? I have not done.

Unknown Speaker 10:09
What's that?

Zandra Polard 10:10
I said, every year, we're going to do Kwanzaa. But you haven't done it. I haven't done it yet. No. Well, for the past few years, what I do is I say, about, I think it's a binary gun or something like that. I have to look it up. But, you know, I'll text and call family members and say that, okay, and then for each day, I will give the different principle and the meaning. Okay, well, that's so I'm like, on my way, dark. Yeah, I'm on my way. Um,

Unknown Speaker 10:43
yeah, for sure. And then are you going to do something different this year? Have you thought of it add on?

Zandra Polard 10:49
Okay, so I think because we're not used to doing it. Okay. Because we, they barely got Christmas. So, you know, we'll slowly incorporate it. Right? Yeah. But for you, you celebrated Christmas all the time, right?

Unknown Speaker 11:02
So I haven't changed my particular I don't have children. I just have my school children.

Zandra Polard 11:09
Okay, that's really, you don't have to take them home with you.

Unknown Speaker 11:14
I don't know how moms do that, how they work all day at school, and then go home. And they're good mom, too. Yeah, that's kind of a side conversation. But you know, I'm, I'm happy with with whatever happens for my holidays, I'm not going to, you know, insist that it's one way or another, because to me, the most important thing is just being with my family. So we could sit in an empty room. And you know, just have hamburgers, it wouldn't matter. But then there are members of my family who really, really cherished that traditional, you know, we want to be the same way sort of the same meal. And that's fine, because that makes them happy. And so if if I were to try to change that for them, I don't think it would really be fair to insist that it be something that I want. But if there were something that I wanted to insist on, then I would Yeah, it's kind of

Zandra Polard 12:18
so do you think that maybe you'll give a suggestion for this year? Or maybe the next that you'd like to incorporate into your traditional Christmas? Oh,

Unknown Speaker 12:26
that's a good question. I'll have to think about that one, because maybe I should start like being a little assertive, and thinking of how we could grow and change. Because my parents are nice, you know, lovely age of 80 plus, and so there may not be a lot of Christmases left with them, and what's going to happen when they're not there. Because for right now things are centered around the whole family being together. But if the whole family isn't there, things might need to change a little bit. So it's just something to think about.

Zandra Polard 12:59
You know, that's really interesting, because you brought that up earlier. What about loved ones who may not be with you for the next year? You know, the time is coming? Right? Right? You're going to have to implement some change.

Unknown Speaker 13:13
Yeah. So if Grandma says, This is what I want this year, and this is and she's sort of insistent, or whoever that person is, I think we kind of need to think about that. Like, well, maybe we should just let her do what she wants to do. Because she might not have as many holidays left to celebrate as the rest of us do. I don't know what do you think about that? Well, you

Zandra Polard 13:34
know, it just makes me think back and I can't help it. That when our family would get together because we still all came together. Right for Chris okay. I had an odd who brought some couscous. She brought the goose she brought the couscous and we you know, we're eating traditional our traditional Christmas dinner, and she brings some couscous and everyone like, was off, right? And we never forgot it. But many of us eat couscous. Now. You know,

Unknown Speaker 14:08
what is so funny is that I have a my sister in law, who's a lovely woman, she is vegetarian. And so the traditional turkey dinner was not appealing to her. And so my mom being the very thoughtful, generous person that she is purchased some Indian food, you know, like curries and stuff that would be enjoyable for my sister in law. And so we had the two things side by side. And what's really funny is that most of the Indian food was gone because everyone enjoyed having that alternative meal. Okay, but did the family dynamic change was the No it was still just a wonderful time to be together doesn't matter what's on the on the plate? Not really, right. It's you can Pizza, and you'd still enjoy being with your family if you don't see them

Zandra Polard 15:05
all the time. And to me, that's what it's about it is yeah. And sometimes

Unknown Speaker 15:08
we get so lost in the decorations and the shopping and this, this and that. And really, that's all that matters. Well, what

Zandra Polard 15:18
do you think about the stress of the holidays? Right? Okay, check this out. Before what what? It was like we were celebrating. They had all the Halloween. No Mike stuff out, like,

Unknown Speaker 15:33
like in July. It's

Zandra Polard 15:35
something crazy like that. It's crazy. Yeah. And then they push, you know, right after that, then they're pushing Thanksgiving. And then the before Thanksgiving even happened here came Christmas. Yes. You know, yeah, I know, one of the department stores. I like to visit they already had their trees out

Unknown Speaker 15:52
already. But yeah, like Halloween, pretty much

Zandra Polard 15:56
the day. I mean, it was like the beginning of November, right. And the Christmas trees are out. So it's like, that's a lot of stress and pressure. Yeah, you know, for some families, and a lot of people will feel like they have to, you know, give that or keep that going. I

Unknown Speaker 16:10
agree. And why? I guess the question is, why are you doing that? You know, for me, the the why is my family? And then and I'm not trying to impress somebody by decorating my house. Or, and people granted don't come to my house. But you know, I know that a lot of people who do host of meal, they want their house to be perfect. And we all know we're not. We are not perfect, and cannot be perfect. Yeah. So that's a lot of pressure to put on ourselves. Well, what do you

Zandra Polard 16:44
think about those who? Like where I'm from? They have Christmas tree Lake? Oh, yeah. Now to Deena California, and a lot of the houses around there. They like there's this pressure to have those lights up? You know, because people are coming from all over to

Unknown Speaker 17:02
Oh, yeah. Do you think people buy their house there just to be on Christmas tree lane? I'm sure some people probably don't know why. But they do. Yeah. And then they, they really want to show their skill and, you know, creativity and how many lights they have, or just the fact that they can do it, that they can Yeah, and all the cars that are going to come by and whatever, I think those are fun, I would never do that myself. I'm afraid of it. And

Zandra Polard 17:30
when I. So there is like still a lot of stress and anxiety around the holidays. And then we have to think of those who do not have loved ones. Right. So they're still giving our time and service to others in our community. That's right, we have to think of our veterans to think of our homeless. And so I encourage you to take the time to see how you can volunteer and participate in helping someone else.

Unknown Speaker 18:01
That's so great. Yeah. And, you know, I was thinking too, about the people who have to work on Christmas, like health care workers or service people, even people who work in a restaurant, you know, who are giving up their family time. So tip them well, or, you know, give them an extra smile, tell them thank you. It's something that we all need to do to support each other in our community. It's really give a little kindness. So easy, just smile, you know, or compliment is it's easy to do. And, you know, I think something else I thought of is that we never know what someone else is going through. And so someone might seem that they're in a foul mood or Christmas is really hard for them. We don't know what what's in their luggage. Exactly. And talking to them. You know, kindly and being patient or just

Zandra Polard 18:56
having grace and don't say nothing. I'm gonna say nothing. Right. You know, just let it go. Let it ride. Let it roll off your back. Yeah. And keep it moving.

Unknown Speaker 19:06
Yeah, don't let it impact you. Just keep smiling and being happy and joyful. And

Zandra Polard 19:13
and if not just be quiet and keep going. Oh, God is

Unknown Speaker 19:17
also good. Just don't say anything.

Zandra Polard 19:24
So we're talking about fixed versus mind growth. Right?

Unknown Speaker 19:28
Is that right? Growth Mindset.

Zandra Polard 19:30
mindset. I keep saying it backwards. With me, y'all.

Unknown Speaker 19:33
Yet. You're still growing.

Zandra Polard 19:35
I'm still growing. But I want to let you know if you missed any portion of this podcast or broadcast. You can always find me. Okay, I'm on all major podcast platforms. That will be Apple, Spotify, Google and Amazon. Also, my YouTube channel. It's where I am.com You can click on there and get to those YouTube channels and check out some The previous shows, I've been on air for nearly four years now.

Unknown Speaker 20:04
That's so amazing. Oh, you're so cool,

Zandra Polard 20:08
man. It's been a while and I am enjoying it. And I'm loving it. And I appreciate all of the support that I've had out there over the years. All of the emails, the comments on YouTube, all of you guys don't comment on YouTube now. And that's fine. But I'm telling you, it's very helpful when I get the feedback. So please, leave comment.

Unknown Speaker 20:31
That is a really good growth mindset. Yeah, because you're asking to improve. You want to know how to improve. See, Congratulation. Thank you. You're so good.

Zandra Polard 20:48
Hey, so before I let you go, please tell us your social media handles are any other information you'd like to share with our listeners? Girl? I

Unknown Speaker 20:57
don't do social media. I'm a teacher. I can't have social media out there. I'm sorry. I'm so used to. No, that's totally fine. Yes.

Zandra Polard 21:05
I'm so used to asking that question. Know that forgive me. Yeah. Do not contact Do not contact

Unknown Speaker 21:10
Miss Janeen Okay,

Zandra Polard 21:12
that would be a no no. So well, you know where to find me. I've given all my information but to give you more. I am here every Saturday at 7:30am It's where I am is a support of mental health and wellness. And before I let you go, I'm gonna play you a little tune. I'm gonna play it's gotta be by Deseret.

Unknown Speaker 22:01
Listen as your day unfolds, challenge word, the future. Try and keep your head up to the sky. Nervous they may cause you tears. Go ahead, release your fears. Stand up and make countin Don't be shamed to cry you gotta be one wiser you're gonna be hard you're gonna be tough. You gotta be strong. You gotta be gotta be I gotta say it again we'll save the day. Aaron watch your mother said in the books your father trying to solve the puzzles in your sweet time some may have more cash than others day good different beautiful

Unknown Speaker 23:08
you're gonna have a tough you're gonna be strong you're gonna come back I gotta say it again I was saying today no questions may

Unknown Speaker 23:34
span against

Unknown Speaker 23:48
some as you unfolds, challenge my future, trying to keep your head up to the sky. Nervous demons cause you to release your fears

Unknown Speaker 24:10
and you're gonna have a bone you're gonna be high. You're gonna be strong again

Unknown Speaker 24:35
you're gonna be hard. You gotta be tough. You gotta be strong. You gotta stay together on the same day got to

Unknown Speaker 24:59
say

Transcribed by https://otter.ai