Tidbits for Teachers

Pre-planning.  The time of year for meetings, trainings, and becoming completely overwhelmed.  Information overload + classroom preparation + urgent timeline = stress.  The very same stress you just spent the summer getting rid of begins again…and so the cycle goes.  As you are ticking off the to-do-list in your head and how much you still have to do before students arrive, take a moment.

Go into your classroom. Shut the door. Sit in the stillness and quiet.  Take a deep breath.  In. Out. Imagine.  Imagine if the walls could talk.  They would tell you stories of the teachers before you who inspired students. They would recount times when the whole class laughed, or when they wrestled with a new concept.  They would speak of teachers who took extra time, before school to feed a hungry student and after school to show a skill in yet another way…hoping that this will be the way that will finally get through.  There would be stories of students who had no one who cared for them until the teacher took an interest.  Tales of students who came in angry and left content…came in behind and left caught up…came in rejected and left accepted.

If the walls could talk, they would tell you “You are not here for a checklist.  You are not here to create the perfect lesson.  You are not here to be the best trained, the most qualified, or have the cutest classroom.  You are here to inspire.  You are here to impart wisdom as well as knowledge.  You are here to believe in your students until they can believe in themselves. You are here to impart the love of learning andto demonstrate what love looks like.  You are here because you are called to be here.  Remember that.”  Listen to the walls my friends…they speak the truth.