Dear Teacher,
If you are like me, this school year has you drowning in the churning mix of expectations, programs, and voices telling you what you should be doing to best teach your students.
Not that these things are wrong. You are listening. You are trying. You are implementing all that you can.
But something inside of you feels lost.
You feel like a broken teacher.
I have gotten there this year, too. You are not alone.
However, something occurred to me when I was bemoaning the educational lot that I have been given this year. Maybe this “something” will help you the way that it helped me.
I am a good teacher!
I sometimes actually know what I am doing!
I have been to training after training. I have some natural abilities. I have the gift of experience on my side.
I can teach!
I am a teacher.
This thought was like the sun peeking up over the horizon of the morning of the darkest night. Hope was renewed inside of me. I felt like a new person…no. I felt like an old person. I felt like the person and teacher I used to be.
I realized that I know how to reach my students. I remembered that I know how to help them learn and become learners on their own. I have this. I can do this. I can teach!
It is not always perfect and I have a lot to learn, but I cannot discount what I can already do. I need to build on what I have, not tear down the house and try to rebuild.
I know what my students need, and if I don’t I know how to find out. Not only do I know the needs, I know how to meet them. I know how to get the process of learning to be a constant in my classroom.
I can do this!
The same goes for you, Teacher. No matter how beat-up by the extra “stuff” that you feel, you are a good teacher. You know your students. You have what it takes to get to them and get them to learn. Don’t forget this. Don’t lose this.
You still need to try to do what you are asked, keep learning, and keep listening, but you need to build on what you are already good at doing, too. You can’t fight the current of things, but you can swim with that current and get your students where they need to be.
You need to be the teacher that your students need you to be…and that teacher is you. You have what it takes. You’ve got this. Even on the hardest days.
Do not give up! I know that it is hard. But you are surrounded by others just like you. We feel the same things. We are great teachers. We know what to do. Let’s get out there and to it!
Let’s just keep swimming and do what is right. We will get our students where they need to be by being who we need to be.
Are you with me?
Good. Now let’s teach like we mean it today. Let’s be the teacher that we were and that we can be! Our students need us to!
You are so awesome! You really are a great teacher! You know what you need to do. Do it. You’ve got this. Don’t give up! Keep on teaching, Teacher!
Love, Teacher
Dear Teacher/Love Teacher 