To teachers: teaching in a pandemic

Before even doing or saying anything yet- stop right here and give yourself a round of applause. Whether you’re in school training (on zoom or in person) or you’ve already started school, or its the night before the first day- this post is for you.

I want you to know YOU’VE GOT THIS. I know it doesn’t seem like it at this very second, but Y O U ‘ V E got this. I can say without any hesitation, 2020 has been the biggest curveball than what I imagined 15 years ago- this is nothing like the flying cars & robots I envisioned (weird I know) but I certainly didn’t picture us wearing surgical face masks to do literally ANYTHING and EVERYTHING- but thank goodness there are cute ones though!!

Needless to say this such an unprecedented time any of us have ever lived through SO give yourself grace. This is not easy.

Right as we’re about to enter into our career path we’ve studied for through the last several years of our life- we have to jump through all these metaphorical hoops. Whether you’re a teacher, a doctor, a lawyer or literally any other profession, you know these ‘hoops’ I’m talking about. Maybe its a hoop the size of an elephants butt that you can easily just step right on through, or maybe its a hoop as small as an eye of a needle. And these hoops or challenges are in place for a reason (although it may not seem that way) whether it be, nationwide testing, licensures, or job experience. Schools, hospitals, courtrooms, etc don’t want any Joe Shmoe as their new hire. So I understand the importance of these metaphorical hoops. But as a teacher, one hoop none of us ever imagined that we would be altering our entire curriculum to be accessible over the computer. We certainly didn’t imagine we’d be teaching kindergarteners how to hold a pencil over zoom. None of us imagined we’d have to worry about how we’d get our classrooms to be socially distanced and safe for in person instruction, and certainly none of us EVER imagined we’d be in a global pandemic- but yet, here we are.

AS teachers, we teach to educate our youth. We teach because we love it, we teach because we want to be able to make a change in our world. AND we need to remember that as we enter into this school year. Whether we’re in person, telling a sweet little kindergartener that we love their mask, or we’re remote and interacting in a way that is so different and challenging, we do it because, we love these kids and we LOVE teaching.

There is this video online that challenges teachers to tell individual students that they are important, special and the reason they come to work everyday. The video is a real tear jerker! So, as you’re feeling all of those feelings of either, excitement, frustration, disappointment or truly happy- I challenge you to think about that student you’ve had in the past that was you’re reason of coming to work everyday. Think of all those kiddos you’ve loved like your own in the past. Think of all these scared kiddos that are packing their backpacks or organizing a desk space in their house right now, think of all those kids that you will grow to love SO much, think about a future kid that will be the reason you log on everyday, or walk through those doors with a smile so big you can see it in your eyes (ya know because of your mask). Think of why you got into teaching in the first place.

You’ve all had challenges in your teaching career that you’ve had to overcome, and I’m 99% sure they seemed daunting and overwhelming, and at the time you probably didn’t think you could overcome it- but look where you are today. Another challenge is staring you right in the face. WE can do this, and we will- because WE ARE TEACHERS.