Ready or Not: It's Back to School Time!
I'll let you in on a little secret: I'm excited to go back to school.
Now, I know what you're thinking. Surely this is a typo and she meant to say "terrified" or "depressed" or "frustrated."
And I'll tell you another secret: I am also all of those things.
But I am excited! Do I have a million questions? Yes, of course I do. Do I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat after having a work-related nightmare? Yes. Does it worry me that I don't actually know what this is going to look like?
Absolutely! But no one knows what this is going to look like. We can plan {and we're teachers, so we loooove planning}, we can strategize, we can educate ourselves, we can try to foresee the issues so we can be ready at the drop of a hat when something changes, as it absolutely will--more than once.
If you really think about it, we never really know what the school year is going to look like. Sure, we have a bit of a template that we tend to follow. We will do these art projects. The lessons will cover these standards. We will do these special activities/field trips. But every year something changes. The class we currently has needs more of an emphasis on things the previous class didn't. We have more or less snow days. State testing gets moved earlier or later. The stand-by field trip location closed down or doesn't have an open date. And we shift. We adjust. We improvise.
And I've had a bit of a radical revelation. Last night, I was taking a walk, as I have been doing most every evening. I was listening to some podcasts as I walked--again, nothing new. But the kind of interesting thing is that both podcasts--which are very different podcasts--spent just a couple of minutes talking about the same thing.
The first was Monica Genta's podcast, This Teacher Life. If you need a bit of a boost for the coming year, I highly recommend you listen to her newest episode, which dropped on Monday and is called How to Have the Best School Year of Your Life {Even if the Plan Keeps Changing and you are Super Stressed Out}. Yes, that is the full title of the episode. She spends the episode giving listeners four ways to have the best school year ever. The one that didn't really stand out to me right away has to do with growing as teachers. Monica said the quote, "If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you," which I love. I've had my students write journal entries about how that is relevant in their lives--always interesting to hear a 4th grader's perspective on anything. Monica points out that this school year is going to push us out of our comfort zones--and maybe that's a good thing. One of my greatest fears as an educator has been stagnation. I decided long ago that I am never going to pull the same lesson plans out year after year after year. Do I teach the same books? Yes, of course, especially given the curriculum I use. Do my lessons look similar? Some of them probably do, but I've adapted and tweaked things as I've gone through the years.
Before I go on too long of a tangent and miss my point, let me tell you about the second podcast. It's new, and it's called Life Styled. It is hosted by a lifestyle blogger and Youtuber named Erin Elizabeth. I came upon her Youtube channel through a long story, so I'll just skip ahead to my point. Her episode, which dropped on Tuesday, was about anxiety and stepping out of your comfort zone. Erin said a great quote, which I need to find in a cute graphic: A comfort zone is a great place, but nothing grows there.
Nothing grows there. Not in a comfort zone. Which means by pushing me out of my comfort zone as a teacher, this year is going to help me to grow. Maybe I develop more effective and efficient teaching strategies. Maybe I become a quasi-expert in some form of technology. Maybe I dig deeper into SEL and form super deep relationships with this class of kiddos.
And I'll be honest: being an introverted person, being pushed out of my comfort zone sounds terrifying.
And exhilarating!
We teachers have no idea what this school year is going to look like. Which means we get to make it look however we want {within some limitations, of course}! Things are going to change--and change often--and we can either panic and freak out, or we can roll with it and adapt as we go. We can do both, also. I'm probably going to do both in different measures as the year progresses.
I just have one final quick note, and this one is directed at parents. We teachers know that you are faced with a challenging decision. We know that you are going to make the best decision for your child--you know them better than we do. All we teachers are asking for is a little bit of grace. School is not going to look like it has in the past. You already know it doesn't look like it did when you were a child. Trust us to make the best educational decisions for your child that we possibly can. We really need to be in this together, and that cannot happen if you constantly lambaste your child's teacher or school on Facebook {or at the dinner table, or on the phone while your child is within earshot}. We all need to be a lot more understanding this year--teachers, parents, administrators, community members, government officials...all of us.
One last thing {for real this time}. I am still seeking sponsors for my students. A few years ago, I began asking for people to donate a few dollars to put a brand new book in the hands of each of my students every month. The Scholastic company usually has a $1-2 book each month, which I order for every child. They get nine new books, and you get to say that you put quality literature in the hands of these kiddos. I generally have between 55 and 60 students {I always ask for a couple extra sponsors to cover new students}, and right now, I am up to about 16 students sponsored for the year. If you would be interested in donating $10 to sponsor a child in my class, please contact me! You can DM me on Facebook or go straight to my Paypal account and make your donation. The kids get so excited when a new book comes!
I hope you have a great, challenging, growth-causing school year, whatever your role is! And if you have no connection with a school, maybe send up some prayers or some positive vibes for those of us about to start. We can definitely use them.
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