Written by: Georgia O'Keefe, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
In a world inundated with societal expectations and external measures of achievement, it's important to reclaim our own narrative and figure out what success means to you.
If you’ve listened to Making the Grade Podcast, you may have noticed it has a focus on the flawed and often unrealistic metrics of success in the modern-day classroom. But, the conversions make it clear just how much the traditional definition of success is lacking for everyone in our current society. This podcast was created as a safe space for educators to share their stories of success in the classroom and beyond, and the result has been a beautiful community of connection, validation, empowerment, and inspiration. Keep reading to discover how 13 incredible Making the Grade guests are forging their own paths and redefining success on their own terms. 1. Amanda is a former early childhood teacher who took her talents overseas to work internationally where she worked with diverse students and refugees. She is also a graduate of the Education Policy Program at Harvard University. At the time of our recording, she was in school full-time after 9 years of classroom teaching. She said, “Success looks and feels like being able to reflect critically on all of the skills I gained in/from the classroom. I don't know yet what my future holds, and I want to keep working on things that have real effects for kids and families, but I know I can't do that in the classroom anymore. And importantly, it was knowing/learning/acknowledging that my time in the classroom had come to an end, and success needed to shift.”
2. Kristen is a former teacher turned interior designer. Though she is no longer teaching, she spends quite a bit of time with kids still - her two adorable sons! Part of her definition of success is her time with them. She says, “If we have time to play, be present and laugh, it feels like a great day.” She also references the great Lizzo: “Lizzo recently said that you can't ask a perfectionist not to seek perfection. They can't, I can't undo it. I can't let go of perfect. But you can ask them to reframe perfectly. And so that's been kind of my work in the last year of being like, okay, perfect doesn't have to mean you are the most productive, the most tired. The one who did the most the most. Now, it's about being present. It's about enjoying my children. It's about resting. And just enjoying really just enjoying my family and trying to be present. Calmer. So now [success] has nothing to do with work.”
3. Andrea is a current pre-k teacher in a bilingual classroom. She says she’s learned that it is okay to not always be correct. Teaching and learning involve making mistakes and being creative in the process. She recognizes how much her definition of success has changed since she first started in the classroom: “It is so different. I think success has changed so much for me.” Andrea says she used to be very focused on the “correct” way of doing things, and now she sees the importance of giving kids options and guiding them, but letting them be creative. 4. Meghan is a current first-grade teacher who shares a lot about her experiences teaching over the past ten years. She eloquently speaks to the way her definition of success has changed over the years: “When I first started, I needed my evaluators to say positive things constantly. I needed parents to tell me how happy their child was. I needed my colleagues to be like, Wow, she worked so hard. I feel like success to me was anyone noticing that I was putting the work in. Because sometimes I felt like, you know, when you're young, and you're just starting you want everyone to know how serious you're taking this. And so for me, that was the external validation was success. And still to this day, I admit there is something about, you know, an evaluator saying to you, Wow, your class did a good job, or that was a great lesson. I like how you made that. However, I now have decided that success to me is literally just one day at a time. I've completely had to transform the way that I think about teaching being a parent, and I have. If I get up and I go, and every child is smiling in my room at some point during the day, and then I come home and my son is smiling - that's, that's success to me.” 5. Li is a teacher transitioning out of the education world who has taught from the UK to Indiana. Li speaks to her definition of success saying: “I would say that success for me, number one was moving to a different country and learning a completely new education system. I had to change my teaching style so it could meet the needs of my students. And I was able to successfully do that. I would say success also means my community. I spearheaded a travel program at my school and I'm only the only middle school teacher here that's done that. I've done four international travel trips now. Wow. I've taken 150 students and families all over the world. I'm really proud of that.” 6. Locha is a former teacher and founder of 1st Class Educator, LLC. From the moment we connected with Locha, we could just feel her passion. After a decade in the classroom as an English Language Arts teacher, Locha realized that her goals for herself and how she wanted to impact the education world needed to shift. Locha says “Whatever it is that you are working on is gonna bloom in the right timing. So success to me is just sitting in the knowing that you are doing what needs to be done and just being okay with what it looks like right now because it's gonna continue to morph and form and evolve. So success is not 100%; everything is happening right here, right now. It's understanding that it’s a continual process. And as long as you’re dedicated to it, then you’re successful. Nobody can tell you anything otherwise – you are successful in your own right. No matter the degrees, the titles, the years, any of that. Like it's just, feel good about what you are doing and where you are at. If you know that you’re giving it a hundred percent, it's all good. That's success.
7. Mona is a former teacher and current math coach. She shares how her definition of success in a classroom setting has shifted from “I” to “we.” “Now I take a very different approach of like we're all in this together and we, you know, we are not successful as a class if one person leaves today without understanding. It’s our job to make sure everyone understands. It's our job to make sure everyone feels included and has fun and is happy at school. And so I think that another part of success is doing this in community and teaching kids very authentically how to collaborate and be in a community because we do that every day and it's not gonna end, right? They're gonna go to their job and be in another community” 8. Ethan is Making the Grade’s podcast launch manager & a fellow former teacher. He truly embodies the essence of a teacher - encouraging, knowledgeable, and always honing his skills. A self-described lifelong learner, Ethan has transitioned out of his role as a middle school teacher and now works in learning and development as well as podcast management. Ethan says: “Now that I have transitioned out of the classroom, success is being able to find and take advantage of opportunities to learn. As teachers, if we are not learning ourselves, then there is a problem. It should always be a goal to be a lifelong learner – even as cliche as that phrase has become. And so success now that I've left the classroom, how I make the grade, is still having that sense of wanting to learn, right? I never want to lose that thirst for learning or the thirst for knowledge. I always want to enjoy what I learn and to actually make use of the knowledge that I gain.” 9. Greg is an overseas teacher who has taught in 5 countries and counting. He says, “When my students smile and leave my class learning something. That is the level of my measurement bar. Are my kids doing two things? Number one, are they leaving the classroom with a smile? And in are they safe? Are they learning? And number two, are they learning something enough that they can explain it? Can they explain to mom and dad or to you, if you were to ask one of my students, you know, hey, what did you learn today? They're not always gonna have an answer, but they will have an answer for you if they think about it. And that's what I want. So I make the grade by kids wanting to come into my classroom instead of trying to run away and leaving with having learned something with that metacognition. 10. Matt is a former teacher and principal and current learning and development consultant. This conversation is candid and inspirational - It’s clear why Matt was an effective educator & principal. He shares how leaving the classroom allowed him the ability to care for himself. His definition of success is: “being the best me in my health, mental outlook and professional life. I also want to give back and help teachers who were in my previous position of feeling like there was no way to get out of a highly stressful job that was taking away from their quality of life.”
11. Amaris is an ESOL teacher turned early literacy coach. She describes how when she first started teaching success was about being the first to achieve something in education. But now her definition has shifted: “Now I feel like it's more about impact. Like I cannot do something if there is no impact on kids. And I think having kids really changed my perspective on that. Like, I can't be in the field of education and not impact kids.”
12. Christine says, “Success to me now means the ability to do the parts of education that I love the most (small group & 1:1 learning, visiting the classroom & supporting new teachers, & working with learners who need language support) with more flexibility in terms of how &how often I teach. My priority in this season of life is to be able to be as present as possible with my young children & husband and we have both found the ability to work smarter (it is sometimes harder but WORTH it!).”
13. Lastly, here’s what I (Georgia) have to say about success: As a former pre-k teacher and current multi-passionate entrepreneur, success to me means setting boundaries, following my gut, saying no to things to make room for more aligned experiences. Living life on my own schedule. Using my "teacher skills" to help others live better lives, from the comfort of anywhere. It means continually growing and evolving and learning. It means being happy, healthy, and surrounded by those I love.
Whether you’re an educator or not, there are patterns in these responses that cannot go unnoticed. A common thread in all of these incredible stories that ties together self-care, learning, and curiosity in the definition of success.
In a world obsessed with external validation and predefined metrics of achievement, it has become crucial to redefine success on our own terms. True fulfillment lies not in chasing society's expectations, but in aligning our goals and values with our personal aspirations.
By embracing authenticity and self-reflection, we gain the power to carve our unique paths and measure success based on our own happiness, growth, and contribution. Let’s each celebrate every milestone, big or small, that brings us closer to our individual visions of a fulfilling life. Let’s each unlock the immense joy and satisfaction that comes from living life on our own terms, and measuring success with our own rulers!
Georgia O'Keefe, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
I am a former educator who left the field to follow my intuition and my curiosities and start my own creative design business, and I am currently traveling the US full time in my home on wheels. I help teachers and small business owners make space for what lights them up in life, and feel empowered to share their journey through beautiful content and website stories.
