Episode 41 - Choosing Our Lens Each Day with Guest Tom Murray

Shownotes:

What lens did you choose today? In this heartfelt episode, Tom shares how we can be intentional about recognizing great things that are happening without minimizing the real challenges we have in our world around mental health and the real struggles people are facing. Tom encourages us and inspires us while also lovingly challenging us to show our care, show our concern, show our love, and be intentional about doing so.

Blog post mentioned in the show: EVERY DAY...SHE RAN TO YOU thomascmurray.com/blog/rantoyou

About Our Guest:

About Our Guest:

Tom serves as the Director of Innovation for Future Ready Schools®, a project of All4Ed, located in Washington, D.C. He has testified before the United States Congress and has worked alongside that body, the US Senate, the White House, the US Department of Education and state departments of education, corporations, and school districts throughout the country to implement student-centered learning while helping to lead Future Ready Schools® and Digital Learning Day. An ASCD best-selling author, Murray serves as a regular conference keynote, was named the "2018 National/Global EdTech Leader of the Year," by EdTech Digest, the "2017 Education Thought Leader of the Year," one of "20 to Watch" by NSBA in 2016, and the "Education Policy Person of the Year" by the Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2015. His best-selling book, Learning Transformed: 8 Keys to Designing Tomorrow’s Schools, Today, co-authored with Eric Sheninger and published by ASCD, was released in June 2017. His most recent book, Personal & Authentic: Designing Learning Experiences that Impact a Lifetime, was released in October of 2019.

Website: thomascmurray.com

Twitter: @thomascmurray Instagram: @thomascmurrayedu

About Lainie:

Lainie Rowell is an educator, international consultant, podcaster, and TEDx speaker. She is the lead author of Evolving Learner and a contributing author of Because of a Teacher. Her latest book, Evolving with Gratitude, was just released. An experienced teacher and district leader, her expertise includes learner-driven design, community building, online/blended learning, and professional learning. Learn more at linktr.ee/lainierowell.

Twitter - @LainieRowell 

Instagram - @LainieRowell

Evolving with Gratitude, the book, is now available! Purchase here! 

You can also get bulk orders for your staff (10 copies or more) at a discounted price! Just fill out the form linked below and someone will get back to you ASAP! bit.ly/ewgbulkdiscount

Transcript:

Lainie Rowell  

Welcome to the Evolving with Gratitude Podcast. I'm your host, Lainie Rowell and I'm thankful you're here. Let's talk about ways to bring gratitude into our learning communities to nurture relationships, improve well being, and activate learning.


Lainie Rowell  

Hello, friends, this is an exciting day. I have a longtime friend, Tom Murray. Hey, Tom, how are you today?


Tom Murray  

Lainie, it's good to see you. And I loved seeing you recently in your home state of California. So thanks for having me on.


Lainie Rowell  

Well, I'm very happy you're here. And I think I surprised you adequately... Our mutual friend, Jerry Almendarez invited me to the Future Ready event. And I just kind of showed up.


Tom Murray  

Well, there I was, I was standing on a table. And I hear like, "Hey, friend", and there you were. So yes, it's good to see you again.


Lainie Rowell  

Yes, I had it in my mind that I was going to try and be like, I'm from facilities. I need you to step down, sir. But I just I couldn't get into character in time. And I just wanted to give you a big hug. Anyway. So good. Glad to be here as well. And now can I ask you because I just, it would not be a podcast with the two of us if I didn't bring up when you landed in California and you got your rental car. Was there any events that happened?


Tom Murray  

Of course you have to. So Lainie wants to tell the story of me getting pulled over on my way to CUE the chaos of it. All right.


Lainie Rowell  

I wasn't gonna go there. Yeah, I mean, it was years ago, and...


Tom Murray  

There were no tickets involved. And we were good. Lainie had to do my introduction the next day, and she happens to share that with everybody that an almost criminal was about to present. 


Lainie Rowell  

Yeah, I mean, criminal seems strong. But you know, I got to meet your lovely wife, Tammy. And I think Did she reveal that or did you offer it up? I cannot remember. But it was a wonderful story to introduce you with.


Tom Murray  

I do not remember. Yeah. Thank you for that. 


Lainie Rowell  

All right, well, I'm going to do a quick intro of you, Tom, it will be as I say insufficient. And I would love for you to add to it, anything that you would like to. So Thomas C. Murray, as we call him, Tom Murray is the Director of Innovation for Future Ready. He is the author of Personal and Authentic and other books, feel free to talk about any and all. Keynote speaker, former school and district leader. I mean, the list is long, the resume is impressive. And, Tom, what would you like to add to that?


Tom Murray  

Well, first of all, thank you for that appreciate you having me on the podcast. And the other thing that I will say to that that is most important in my world is dad of two. So Father of 12, soon to be teenager, soon to be 13 year old girl in seventh grade, and father of a third grade boy who's nine completely different kids. But bring me the passion keep me grounded, and really are my why for this work. And so Paisley and Caden and I want to give them a shout out.


Lainie Rowell  

I love that. And one of the things that Tammy and I talked about when I first met her was that we're kind of leading these parallel lives as far as we have an oldest girl, youngest boy, they're almost exactly the same age apart. And if I haven't met your twi, but if the pictures on Facebook reveal anything, I feel like the personalities are also a match.


Tom Murray  

Absolutely very similar. Very, you see, if I just had one, I'd be like, Look how, look how perfect this child turned out. But then on the second one, I'm like, I need a help book because I have no idea what I'm doing for this child. But you know what, Lainie, it does from an education. And what's fascinating for me is, here's here's these two kids growing up, you know, seeing a grown up in the same household and completely different personalities, completely different learners, just completely different needs and individuals. One I'm like, Paisley, you've got a 19 out of 20. It's okay, like, take a breath, it's fine. The other one, I'm like, yes, there's a thing called fourth grade, and you'll have to go next year, right? Like totally different worlds. And if they're gonna be that different, even in my own household, how different when you put 25 kids from different household, different parenting structures, different backgrounds, different religions, different cultures, how different they're going to be in the classroom, and how do we ultimately respect that?


Lainie Rowell  

I appreciate that. It is from an asset based that we go, you know, like, this is what I see in this child. And this is what I see in this child. And again, I think that's somewhere where we can relate to each other just having kids who have very different gifts. My son is actually quite the charmer. He is not as compliance driven as my daughter is and I don't want to impose that on your kids. But I just remember being in like, Trader Joe's when I had my daughter and she's just like perfectly well behaved. She's like a toddler. And the woman at Trader Joe's says, you know, my husband and I thought we were really good parents. And then we had our second kid.


Tom Murray  

And we relate to that one totally agree.


Lainie Rowell  

And so I think it's it's obviously you're good parents, but it's that you have to kind of sometimes relearn how to parent just like you have to be individual you know, focus like you do so well personal and authentic with each person not trying to treat them all the same. Right?


Tom Murray  

Right. That's loving them for who they are not who you expected them to be.


Lainie Rowell  

Exactly, exactly. So, all right, my friend. Here comes the big first question. And you can take it any direction you want. But I would just love to hear and I know our listeners would love to hear what does gratitude mean to you? 


Tom Murray  

You know, when I think about gratitude, one of the things I say often is, I really believe we have to choose our lens each day, right? When we get up in the morning, if we want to see negativity in our world, we're going to see it all over the place, if that's what we expect to see, we're going to see it I mean, if we look hard, we're going to see it all over the place. Here's the flip side, we get up every morning, we want to see greatness in our world, we're gonna see it all over the place. If I look in the news, I see negativity. If I look online at the latest news story, it's negativity. But the flip side to all of that is how do I intentionally seek out the greatness as well. And so balancing it for me, I think about choosing my lens to recognize, even in the midst of chaos, even in the midst of struggles and difficult times as an individual, or maybe as an organization, whatever it might be, there's still so many things to be thankful for. And sometimes we forget to step back, we forget to pause. And when I say we, I mean me, sometimes I forget to pause to look around me, you know, I can get hyper fixated on some struggle or a reason something's gonna be a mess, or a reason something's chaos, all while sitting next to one of those babies that I was just talking about who I love and care about that far exceeds any of the worry that I had on the other side. And if I'm not careful, sometimes I'll miss those moments. And so I think it's being intentional about the moments to be grateful and thankful for those things that we do have, even in the midst of chaos of our world.


Lainie Rowell  

I think it's constant work. And I appreciate you saying it's that we're choosing this lens each day, I feel like this is an everyday thing where I have to go, like I'm rushing to do something and I'm like, Okay, stop. Yes, you got to do that. But right now, you could be here doing this, I'm such a taskmaster, like to check things off the list. And maybe you can relate to that. But it's like, I have to be present in this minute that I get with my littles or my husband or whoever.


Tom Murray  

Yeah, I think for me, it's about being intentional about it. And I really believe in the power of intentional gratitude. And there's times where I'm working with educators. And I will build things in to reflect and to pause, or to seek to write a note, sometimes I'll bring thank you cards, and I'll pass them all out, we're going to pause, you know, 10 minutes of our day, asking them to write a note for somebody on their team that they're really, really grateful for, and being specific for why so gratitude goes far beyond the superficial, or just scratching that surface. But going deeper and sharing why that is, why do you appreciate it? Because if we're not careful, we can walk by those moments so quickly, as opposed to pausing to show that appreciation, you know, and I think about how many times that can relate to my work world as well.


Lainie Rowell  

Yeah, well, let's keep going with that. Talk about your work world. As far as if you want to connect it to your book or books, I have to say plural, because you've written multiple books, where do you see this? You just gave a great example. What are some other ways that you're experiencing and expressing gratitude in kind of your day to day, it can be personal or professional.


Tom Murray  

So let me let me think about it from a work end and just working with working with principals working with district leaders. You know, one of the challenges I think we face is, we get so engrained, we're so deep in the weeds, they have so many fires, we're putting out there's so many things happening simultaneously. That I'll say again, what I said earlier, we can walk right by those moments that sometimes can matter most, right? Sometimes there's this rockstar teacher, and there she is teaching third grade, and she's so good. And I think about being a principal of this teacher and how many times I don't want to get in her way, and how many times that I pause to give her a truly authentic, you know, I really appreciate you and here's the reason I appreciate you, you are one of the most reliable people that I have ever met. Yesterday, by the way, when you did X, Y and Z... It I just want to tell you like I didn't get to find you yesterday. But I need to tell you how much that meant to our staff. And being in those moments. And by the way, showing gratitude doesn't cost anything. I mean, we can make it cost something and we can pay for something. But in those moments, it may be a moment that that person never forgets. And the challenge is, how many times do we walk right by those moments? And so when I think about it from a schooling end, I think about the principal that truly shows the staff, not just hey, Jeans Friday, I appreciate y'all deeper than that. And yeah, somebody likes jeans on Friday, it's a good thing. But deeper than that, showing those one on one conversations about why and about why because people then get motivated to do it. I believe there becomes this like cycle of gratitude or this chain of it right, people are much more in tune. And I think a school leaders showing gratitude is an opportunity to model what we want our teachers to ultimately do with students as well. And so we can't ask our teachers to build some of those relationships and trust and show gratitude ultimately to their students if we're not modeling the same thing. And so I think every day is truly an opportunity to be intentional with the gratitude that we show and to choose our lens to look around and say what are those things that I'm completely thankful for? I think thinking about the world of work as well. You know when COVID hit and the world stopped, right and everything happened the way that it did, we realized there were certain things that we took for granted that we couldn't get back in those moments. I remember talking to an assistant principal and she was she said, I would love to even go back and do discipline referrals every day for the rest of the year if I needed to, just so I could be face to face with students. But what that said to me was like, in those moments, we had not appreciated the opportunity to just be side by side with the kids that were caring about. And it took something like that for us to step back and recognize it. Or you think about the family end. How many times and working in this area with educators how many times when we talk about reflecting on just the journey we've been through in the last couple of years, how many times people talk about I appreciated time with my own children, I appreciated the opportunity to hit pause a little bit in life and found myself you know, taking a walk as a family at night. And we hadn't done that before, right? And so sometimes I think it takes something kind of crazy in our world that makes us pause, to adjust our lens a little bit. So that we can really be intentional about recognizing great things that are happening, I don't want that to demean the real challenges we have in our world around mental health, the real struggles people are facing. And so it's not one or the other. You know, as those things are happening, I think it's really, really important to show our care, show our concern, show our love and be intentional about doing so.


Lainie Rowell  

I appreciate your emphasis on the intentional and talking about specific and authentic, you said so many wonderful things. And as you were talking, it actually reminded me of when we had Tisha Richmond on the show earlier, she talked about how they had done like a gratitude circle. And when people went around and said things about her, it was stuff that she didn't know people appreciated her. So when you're talking about like, you know, we sometimes forget to do the pause and say the thing to the third grade teacher, it's like, you might say something to that third grade teacher, like you said, reliable, and maybe they didn't know that they were perceived that way. And that could be a real big win for that relationship, because that could really kind of build that rapport, that trust that just kind of just nurture that relationship, right?


Tom Murray  

Yeah, no, absolutely. And I think there's real practical ways that we can do it, you know, I'm not the biggest fan of doing it in large public spaces. Because I think some people are fine with it. Others may be really embarrassed, I think the most authentic comes, maybe it's that email, that's just a really well thought out email that was really cared for, but those intentional moments that are in person. And so going back to that word, intentional, I think we need to also try know that person enough that what will be most meaningful for them? And how can we then approach it? What's that look like?


Lainie Rowell  

I'm glad you mentioned that. That's one that honestly, I'll default towards public because I like public displays of appreciation. But I have to remember that some people are truly uncomfortable with that. And so I do try and think about what would this person like? And you know, you can always ask them. But you know, that's not to surprise them with something public, if you think they might not appreciate that. 


Tom Murray  

Right. 


Lainie Rowell  

As you're traveling around the country, what are some of the things that you have seen? And I didn't give you this question ahead of time, but what are some of the things that you have seen? And you can connect this to Personal and Authentic or to your work with Future Ready, but what are some of the things that you're seeing that you're grateful are happening in schools? Is that a fair question?


Tom Murray  

Yeah, that's a great question. And there's so many directions that I could go. So number one, I'm really grateful that the majority of districts on the whole have focused on SEL, the whole child. You know, recognizing that it's far more than math and reading and writing. And we need to focus on that. My fear that goes with that is that we revert right back to 2017/2018. When it was like data above anything else, data is important, but the child's more important, right? And so I'm really grateful for the refined focus on making sure and you know, when we go back to March 2020, and everything was... the sky was falling, and everything was shutting down, and all the fear and all the anxiety and everything was closing. Nobody was worried about like, Well, what about my spelling test next week? It was did my kids have food? Are they connected? What if I can't connect with them? Like we instantly realigned what was most important, right reprioritized it and so I think I'm really grateful for and not to say there weren't districts doing a great job with that prior to, but just truly recognizing it, because I really believe where we have this mental health pandemic happening right now. And that's not just for our students, for our staff and our educators there as well. And so I think that focus on that the acceptance around somebody struggling with their own mental health, somebody's the resources that have become available, but also trying to get past some of the notion, the stigma behind some of those pieces there as well. And so that's an area that I've seen districts do incredible work around, truly prioritizing it putting their money where their mouth is and recognizing that that is a need, it is just such core to the work and that at the end of the day, who cares what they know if they're not as a person able to thrive as an individual right and feeling included feeling part of that. So that's one area. Second thing I'm grateful for as political as it's become as a true focus on equity. And recognizing that access and opportunity for every child isn't something we can just talk about. It's something we have to actually show. You know, when you think about the pandemic, and our work, and future ready schools being an equity focused organization, when the pandemic hit, all of a sudden, it became like, Well, what happens when we can't connect and for us, we had created the we released the first ever state by state breakdown, showing the numbers of students that didn't have access. And of course, when the pandemic hits, and the government funded a lot of this, the FCC funded a lot of it, districts started to make sure kids could connect. Now granted, there are certainly some real rural areas, you could indicate hotspot its not going to do anything. But the focus on equity and recognizing what happens when we're asking kids to do something that they can't do, because everybody got on board after March of 2020, saying, Well, yeah, we can't do that. My question to have us reflect on is why didn't we care as much about that in February of 2020, because prior to the pandemic, about 70% of our teachers, ask kids to do something digital outside of school, and 16.9 million of them disproportionately are black and brown kids couldn't? Why weren't we asking the question then now, in retrospect, there were some places that did, and there were some places that were addressing and recognizing that need. But again, there became that pandemic saying, like, it hit us. And we had said, like, there's no other way. So that became front and center. So I'm grateful that equity became front and center for all, even though that it's become a political football in a lot of different areas. But I'm grateful because it's brought the conversation to the forefront. And it's helped recognize we can ask kids to do something, because if we process how many times prior to that did were students at a high school assigned something, went home did not have the access or opportunity to be able to do it didn't have the connectivity. The next day, maybe even being chastised in front of a group, what do you mean, when you hit the real world, you don't get the second opportunity. And then at a grade lowered, all because they didn't have the opportunity all because they couldn't do it. I've never met that teenager that wants to say, like, hey, we can't afford that at home. Right. And so I'm grateful that that conversation is front and center, because it needs to stay there going to the chair, the fear, my fear is that goes right back to again, 2016/17, where it's a, it's a nice to have, as opposed to if we're asking kids to do something, and they can't, that is a leadership and ethical issue. That's not a nice to have. And so that's another thing that I'm grateful for there as well. And third, I'm grateful for educators as a whole. And I don't want to be cliche on that. But when I reflect on the things that they did, during the pandemic, when they completely stepped up, when they did things that were back against the wall, and nowhere else to turn, and like you're gonna have to do that next week. And they found a way. You know, it's fascinating to me was watching early in the pandemic, you saw all these memes on social media about like families, standing ovation, the moment they see their teacher again, because all that stuff. And then, because of the politics of our world, you see the attacks, again, against educators and the nonsense that's out there. So again, I think it's brought front and center the appreciation for educators, at least, I mean, for me, I want to say I've always done that. But truly those people that get up and love other people's children so hard every day, lose sleep over other people's children, and give so much time and time again. That's something that I truly try to show gratitude with, with my own children's teachers, but also just those that I have the privilege of working with across the country.


Lainie Rowell  

I have so much to say. But before I forget, I want to say I think you have done a great job of showing love to all educators. And one of the most heartfelt blog posts, you probably know what I'm going to say is your blog post where you talk about my child running to the bus. What is the what is the exact title? I'll put it in the show notes. But I it's been years, but I still remember it so vividly.


Tom Murray  

Yeah, so it's a blog post. And I'll have to pull that the exact link of where I was reflecting at the end of the year I get emotional talking about it. Right? It was when my daughter was finishing up her kindergarten year, and essentially really thanking my teacher. And it was showing gratitude for here's what you didn't see. What you didn't see is every single day she ran to you and that may have been the title, right? Yep. And so every day the excitement because of the culture because of the classroom because of the love because of an my daughter wasn't perfect as a kindergartener, she's, she's come a long way since then. But every day she ran to them. And that's the kind of thing that teachers they don't see that they saw the kid walking through the hallway, maybe they see them run into them in the hallway. But it was just truly it to show an appreciation to show the impact that sometimes we lose sight, especially in those hard moments when we're so deep in the weeds that that teacher had had on my daughter. So this is really shout out to you kindergarten.


Lainie Rowell  

That's awesome. When you're talking about the pandemic and how it brought equity issues more to light, because we know that they existed before the pandemic, but we didn't necessarily hear them in all the spaces as much. And I think of this from every angle. I know you do, too. You mentioned food, devices, internet, like there's so many things. And I think one of the, I hesitate to use word silver lining because the pandemic was definitely traumatic and I don't want to downplay that. But it wasn't just the educators in the education world that started to see these problems. It was families. So I remember when we went into shutdown March of 2020. And I'll reference again, Jerry, our friend in Santa Ana, you know, they were very quick to say, we will get food to our students, we do not want them going hungry. And that was something that in my neighborhood, the families didn't think about that. It didn't occur to them that there would be kids who, because they don't go to school didn't get meals. And I think that that's just really, it's, you know, kind of the like, Okay, well, let's be grateful for what we have, but also just so grateful for all the educators, all the leaders, everyone who was doing so much to make sure that our kids were nurtured, because we do want to take care of the whole child, the whole teacher, and we can maybe use the umbrella term, the whole learner, because it's all of us, right. And so I really appreciate your 3 points about SEL, equity, and our educators.


Tom Murray  

Right. Now, the other piece that I'll add to that, if you think of who the true frontlines of the pandemic early on, for educators were, there'll be mad at me teachers that you were home. It was our custodians. It was our nurses. It was our food service. It was our bus drivers, right to your point of many of them were driving food around the communities at a time where people weren't going outside weren't supposed to leave certain areas, right? And so you think about who was truly the front lines of much of that, especially early on, it was those folks that are truly the backbone of our schools, our support staff, but often go unrecognized, right, often get people walk, right, principals sometimes might not even know their last name, if we're totally honest. And so I think that also brings out to me like the backbone of our buildings, being our support staff, our secretaries, and those folks that were really the frontlines of the pandemic and how we need to show gratitude to those folks, because how easy we can walk by them how easy we can just have the expectation. I joke all the time that you know, as a principal, if I was out over a district office for meetings in a given day, not sure anybody noticed if my secretary was out, I think all hell broke loose, like what's happening, right? Like she ran the place, right. And but how many times I could walk right by in the chaos and not necessarily show appreciation, right. But in those moments, making sure we're intentional about the pause and about not assuming that they know, but showing them that we know.


Lainie Rowell  

I think this is a great message, especially now as we're in 2023. I often share this Laura Kelly Funucci poem about when this is over. And it came out like the the first week of shutdown here in the in the US and talking about the things that we'll get back to like shaking a neighbor's hand, full show shelves at the grocery store. And it's like, now that we're in this different time and place, it's really easy to take those things for granted. And so I appreciate your message here. Because as we and it's still different in different places. But as we're in a very different place right now than we were in March of 2020. It's easy to start to take these things for granted again. 


Tom Murray  

Absolutely. 


Lainie Rowell  

All right, my friend, I know I gotta get you going because you have like a back to back situation today. So I'm going to just ask you, if you will do me a huge favor, you already give one shout out. But I'm notorious for allowing more now.


Tom Murray  

I'll pick up pick two of my best friends on that because I connect to them every single day. And that's Jimmy Casas and Joe Sanfelippo. And I'm grateful for them because they've been there for me personally and professionally in some of my best moments. And in some of my hardest moments. And personally the same thing. There are two people that check in on me all the time. They're two people that push my thinking they're two people that make me better, they challenge me, they help, they support. I hope to do the same for them. I hope they would say the same on that end. But sometimes we need those people that will make you laugh. Be also there when you're when you're struggling and pick you up when you're struggling in those moments, but also just make you better and truly care about your success who you are as an individual, your families and all those things and so I want to give my boys a shout and there's so many other...


Lainie Rowell  

I know, I know 


Tom Murray  

...that I could give you a shout out so I feel bad leaving other folks out you know Ken, Matt, Mark. 


Lainie Rowell  

No, no. I'm gonna be the bad guy so you don't feel like you didn't get to say... I know you have a ton a ton and, Ken, I heard your name and there's other. That's Ken Shelton. 


Tom Murray  

Yep. 


Lainie Rowell  

So so many people in your network and maybe I can even insert myself there into the ecosystem that we live in, where we get to be around these people who challenge us in the best possible ways, who support us, who really just inspire us on like an everyday basis. And so that's awesome. One of the things I appreciate with you and these friendships is that you you bring us into the inside jokes every once in a while on social media. And so there's nothing I love more than a than a Joe-Tom birthday tribute. And so if, if you're not on Twitter already, you should join just to see them roast each other. It's pretty amazing. 


Tom Murray  

I think we've been wishing each other the happiest 50th For the past eight years. And we look forward to those days actually coming. But you know, people, the work that we all do is incredibly stressful as educators, you need to laugh and you need to have those people that will keep you grounded and keep you humble, when things are good, but at the same time that will pick you up and make you laugh. And those those two guys are two of the ones for me for sure. So give em both a shout out. 


Lainie Rowell  

Absolutely. All right. So Tom, there's a million ways to connect with you. What is the best way? I will put all your stuff in the socials. And then I do want to give you a minute to talk about your books if you want, I feel like I've given you a couple openings. And you're just too humble.


Tom Murray  

You know me. For me, you know, it's I would be a really skinny salesman, but my bottom line is like, I'm not here to try and sell on my end. And like, I feel like hey, let your work speak for itself on mine for me. And if people want it, they'll go get it. I appreciate the shout Person and Authentic is part of my lived experiences that I think people can really relate to. My goal is to encourage and inspire but lovingly challenge. Help us bring back to kind of why we do what we do and what this work is all about. That whole child, SEL side, one of the things I talk about is the hidden stories within and recognizing the stories on people's hearts. And that can be good, it can be bad, that we don't see every day that sometimes we miss, right, that are a huge part of where their mindset is, where their heart is in a given day. And how do we get to know that with our students? How do we get to know that with our colleagues. And so thank you for the shout out- Personal and Authentic, I appreciate it. So I get to speak a lot about it in the country. Currently, right now give my own current teachers, for my kids teachers are in their little shout out they had opportunities, and also to amplify the voices of many people throughout that book, just with practical ways to do things. And so I appreciate the shout out with that said connect with me. Check out ThomasCMurray.com. And on the socials, on Twitter @ThomasCMurray, Instagram, @ThomasCMurrayedu and the same there for Facebook. And so I'd love to connect with folks.


Lainie Rowell  

He means it and I will put all the stuff in the show notes so people can connect with you, Tom, I super appreciate you. I'm not going to make this about me. But I will say that you have supported me in countless ways. And I am truly grateful for you and all you have done. I consider you a friend and I appreciate you.


Tom Murray  

I appreciate that. Thank you so much. Back at you as well. And for anybody listening, thank you so much for the opportunity to connect with you. Would love to connect with you online there as well. Thanks for the work you do each and every day.


Lainie Rowell  

Thank you, Tom. Thank you all for listening.


Lainie Rowell   

If you're grateful for this episode, please be sure to subscribe today. And if you're feeling really thankful, please go to Apple podcasts to submit a review so other educators know the value. One last thing. Please connect on social media using the hashtag #EvolvingWithGratitude to share your gratitude stories.