A Letter For Teachers
Dear Teacher,
Take a really long, deep breath. Put aside that long “to do” list and rest a moment. Sometimes it’s important to stop and remember that we are still teaching in a pandemic. As if we could ever forget.
Thankfully, I didn’t know heading into this mess in March 2020 that pandemics lasted this long. If I did, I would have left a long time ago, and I imagine that is true for some of you. But here we are.
I am a first-grade teacher. Luckily, those little faces who greet me in the classroom each morning make the struggle worth it. This is their one turn at being 6. I will do my best to make this year a happy one for them, masks and all. They don’t know any different. They have never had a “normal” school year. So we carry on as if this is normal, even though for most of them, I have never seen their smile.
Yesterday, one of my students wrote a story about how joyful she was to get her covid shot. “I jumped up and down because I love my covid shot. I got it at school. When it happened, I wasn’t crying. My dad was so proud! Why did nobody cry?” she wrote. She was remembering the night our school gymnasium turned into a vaccination center, with children and parents waiting in long lines to get shots in their arms. Children screaming, parents becoming impatient. Not all of them were as excited as my student. Some were scared. This is our reality now.
Classrooms are little microcosms of society. You have children from different backgrounds, home lives, values, and identities in one small room. Masks, no masks, vaccines, no vaccines, in-person school, remote- have all joined the already too long list of controversial topics teachers have to gently negotiate and maneuver their way through while still trying to teach kids how to add and subtract.
Not to mention the disruptions that happen every time a positive COVID test shows up in your room. Testing, contact tracing, quarantining, sending work home, identifying close contacts- again and again, and again.
And I won’t even go into the email that arrived late one night alerting me to a Tik Tok challenge involving shooting up a school. I can’t go there. It’s been nine years since a gunman took down another first-grade class and the mere mention of it makes my insides crumble.
Sometimes- actually, a lot of the time-it just feels like too much.
For my own survival, I am constantly coming up with ways to take one. more. step. Tips to help me move through the exhaustion, the worry, the disillusionment, and lack of support. Tips to help me keep the classroom a happy place for the little people who show up every day looking for some normalcy amid a chaotic world.
As the holiday break finally rolls in, maybe it’s time to let it go for a while. Instead, take time to reflect on ways to make the days ahead more manageable. Especially the days when you think you might not be able to make it through this “when-will-it-ever-end” pandemic.
Tips to remind us we are in survival mode and just doing the best we can in very challenging times.
Tips to help us keep going.
To honor the colleagues who have chosen, out of necessity, to walk away.
To try and make it bearable for those of us left behind.
To know, deep down, the work we do is too important to give up on.
Pandemic Teaching Survival Tips
Take care of yourself. Even if it means skipping the staff potluck or leaving a set of papers ungraded, find ways to make your mental, emotional, and physical health a priority so you can show up and be strong for your students. Sometimes that means leaving things undone. Sometimes that means saying no to unrealistic demands put on you by your administration. Sometimes that means walking away and saying I have done enough for today, remembering you are not obligated to work outside of your contractual hours unless you choose to.
Focus on creating a calm environment for your students (and yourself). Bringing in soft lighting to make the classroom feel more inviting and putting on soft music as kids arrive in the morning sends the message that this is a calm place where we can be together. Having clear expectations, firm boundaries, and a welcoming tone lets kids know you are there to care for them, and they can count on you. On most days, we begin our day with a morning meeting where I ask the kids, “How are you feeling?” We get all kinds of responses. “I’m overwhelmed.” “I’m tired.” “I’m excited to be here.” “I’m feeling all mixed up inside.” Just naming these feelings and holding them in our circle helps us move into the day together as a community.
Have consistent routines. More than ever, kids need consistent routines they can count on to help them feel safe and know what to expect at school. Slowing down and allowing these routines to shape your classroom day builds your students’ trust, comfort, and confidence. Routines help your classroom function more calmly. They also allow you to have fewer decisions to make and fewer activities to explain during the day. As you live into these routines with your class, your expectations become clear, and children can more easily settle into their important work.
Find mutual understanding with colleagues. These are stressful days, and none of us are most likely doing our best work right now. That can lead to tense situations at work. Remembering to acknowledge the good things that are still happening in your school community and honoring the superpowers of your colleagues helps you focus on the positive. Being gentle with yourself (and others), assuming best intentions, and having patience is essential in working through challenging days together.
Follow the joy. What do your students love doing the most? What brings the most joy into the classroom? My students are now busy writing books about themselves and their families to bring home as a gift for the holidays. They love coming together to share their work. During sharing time, the room is calm, and the laughter is loud as they read their stories to each other. Engaging in real, meaningful work helps kids focus and love school. Do more of that. Focus on doing the activities that bring out happy, engaged children. Maria Montessori always said, “One test of the correctness of educational procedure is the happiness of the child.” Do more of the things that make your students happy right now. We all need more of that.
Let some things go. The way we need to teach is constantly changing and being challenged as we adjust to the needs of our students in a pandemic. Bend with those changes and realize there is no perfect teacher or perfect program right now. We are all works in progress, doing the best we can. Slow down your teaching. Do less. The long list of state standards can wait. Focus on the most important ones. Work in small groups with your students as much as possible to best meet them where they are in their learning. This will help you provide the rigorous academic support and challenge they need.
Be in charge of your own professional development. For years I waited for my district to give me the training I needed to grow professionally. It never arrived. I finally reached out and started building my own teaching community online through social media and other well-trusted sites like Edutopia. Many teachers are going through the same things you are, and online courses are available to help teachers learn how to manage these challenging classroom days. You can find experienced people to learn from and share your story with in many online communities, such as Truth For Teachers. Reach out and connect with other teachers- in your school or online- to help you find your way.
Be a courageous teacher. Speak up. There are so many unfair things being put upon teachers these days. Do not be afraid to have an opinion and say something even if no one else agrees with you. Organize with other teachers at your school to advocate for the change you want to see happen. And remember, the door is always open. You do not need to sign a contract to work for a district that does not support you or meet your needs as a professional. More than ever, teachers are seeing other alternatives exist out there if teaching is no longer working for them.
Let’s all remember, nothing about pandemic teaching is normal, nor has education ever looked this way before. We will have to recreate something better moving forward for our schools.
But for right now, we are still on the front lines teaching and caring for children in a way none of us ever expected nor were trained to do. We are all trying our best to live through a shared trauma that no one fully understands the ramifications of, including the children we care for.
So, put your feet up and relax this holiday break. Open up your favorite bottle and toast to the important work you do each day, even if it doesn’t always feel that way. Even if you are feeling depleted emotionally and physically.
Don’t look at that “to-do list” for a while. Instead, let’s take a collective long, deep breath and hope for a happier, healthier 2022 for us all. We’ll get through this together.
Signed,
Another Tired Teacher
