Month: October 2016

Dear Teacher,

I know you are afraid.  You are uncertain.  You are anxious.  Today is Halloween.  It is also Monday.  It is the perfect storm.

Your students will be hyped up today.  Excited.  Antsy.  Rambunctious.  A bit ridiculous, too.

You have to teach.  You have to classroom manage.  You have to survive.

And that is just today!

Tomorrow they will be tired…but they will also be wired.  They will be hopped up on candy.  They will have no interest.

And the rest of the week will be full of ups and downs in the Halloween aftermath.

And you are dreading it.  Seriously, legitimately dreading it.  And you can’t think of a reason to honestly use a sick day.

Teacher, you will make it.  You were made for this.  You love a challenge and a problem to solve, and now you have a big one.

Stay calm.  You know ways to grab and keep their attention.  You know how to organize chaos.  You know how to teach through adversity.  This is your time to shine.

Don’t bemoan the cards in your hand this week.  Play them wisely.  You can win this hand!  You are a teacher, dang it!  You were born for this!

You’ve got this, Teacher!  You really do.  And you can enjoy this week!  Just don’t fight against it.  Work with it.  You can do it!

Use this week to get to know and show your care for your students.  You are an awesome teacher!  You can and will thrive this week!  Teach on, Teacher, teach on!  You rock!

Love, Teacher

Dear Teacher,

It piles up.  All of the stuff to do comes at us constantly.  It is a never-ending struggle.  One thing after another happens or needs to happen.

Planning.  Meetings.  Behavior issues.  Professional development.  Parent conferences.  Grading.  Documentation.  Field trips.  Differentiation.  Data collection.  Data analysis.  Portfolios.  On and on the list can grow.

Our time is precious and it gets eaten away from us!  All we want to do is teach, connect with students, and make a difference…yet we are drowning in an ocean of stuff.

We are overwhelmed.  We are frustrated.  We are exhausted.  And sometimes we just want to give up and be buried under the waves.

You’ve been there.  I’ve been there.  We have probably all been there this week (or are there right now).

I’m here to remind you about something…you will make it through!  You will survive.  You have before and will again.  You will make it.  You will be okay.

It is hard, but we need to try to find a way to keep going.  We need to muddle through the things that get in the way of making a difference with our students so that we can actually do the things that make a difference for our students.  It is an unfortunate reality of the education world we live in…but we can do it!

Just keep swimming.  Just keep going.  You will get to warmer, less rough waters and remember why you jumped in the teaching ocean in the first place.

 

One thing that might help during this rough patch is to carve out sometime to do something fun with your students…even if it is only for five minutes.  Sometimes fun is it’s own standard.  It is an unspoken standard that is more important that other standards sometimes for both you and your students…and it can be the best kind of classroom management.

It is okay to play for a minute…it is okay to be silly.  Don’t forget the business at hand…but give yourself and your students just a moment of less than serious.   It is good for your students.  It is good for you.  It helps you get back on track and remember the destination to which you are swimming.

You are overwhelmed.  It is okay.

You are drowning in the “stuff” of teaching.  You will get through.

You have a purpose…and sometimes moments of fun and silliness can help you fulfill it (and help you survive the stuck under the ocean feeling).

You will survive.  You will thrive.  You’ve got this!

You are awesome.  Never forget that I believe in you!  It will get better.  Just keep swimming.  Just keep going.  Just keep teaching, Teacher!  You rock!

Love, Teacher

Dear Teacher,

Today was tough.
You are going to make it.
You lost your cool.
You are going to make it.
You are doubting yourself.
You are going to make it.
You have too much to do.
You are going to make it.
You have had enough.
You are going to make it.
Tomorrow is a new day
And you are going to make it.

You’ve got this.  Keep going.  Keep on teaching.  You ARE making a difference.  You rock, Teacher!

Love, Teacher

 

Dear Teacher,

I don’t think I need to remind you, but you do not have a typical career, typical life, or typical day-to-day.  You do more.  More than seems humanly possible, really.  How?

I think we all wonder that some days, don’t we?

I mean, we plan.  We grade.  We manage classrooms.  We call parents.  We professionally develop and we professionally learn in a community while we do it.  We differentiate.  We include.  We learn about days.  We find out what caused changes in behavior.  We enrich.  We monitor.  We adjust.  We troubleshoot tech problems.  We connect.  We enable growth.  We mind mindsets.  We inspire.  We encourage.  We teach.  We instruct.  We tutor.  We work with small groups.  We do extra past the curricular needs.  We school students after the school day.  We even sometimes, occasionally get to use the bathroom.

And that is just a partial list.  I forgot about laminating.,,copying.,,researching…blogging…newslettering…PSTAing…websiting…eating lunch from time to time…and on…and on…and on.

Seriously, how do we so much in a day?  And that is just the “school stuff.”  Don’t get me started on life and how to leave that at home once we start that “school stuff.”

Teacher, you and I are superheros!  After writing all of that, I think the image is wrong…we do more in a day that others do in a month!

But that is not my point.

I wanted to remind you about how not normal your life is…but how you overcome so much…especially on Mondays…and make a difference week-in and week-out.  It is truly amazing!  It really is.

So, when you start this week out (or any day that you might be reading this), remember that when you are overcoming and moving past obstacles and challenges you face, you are making a difference in the lives and futures of so many.  It is hard, but you do it every day, and it is completely spectacular.  You are living for something bigger than yourself…and everything you go through do that is worth it!  Seriously.

Thank you for you perseverance and tremendously hard work!  You are an inspiration to me and all the others you come into contact with.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you!

You are awesome!  You rock!  Keep on teaching, Teacher!

Love, Teacher

 

 

Dear Teacher,

You work hard all week…REALLY HARD…and you did great work this week…don’t forget to take some time for yourself this weekend! You need to and deserve it!  You are awesome!  You rock!  Keep on teaching, Teacher!

Love, Teacher

 

Dear Teacher,

Every day will not be a good day as a teacher…but every does have good things that happen. Great teachers learn to dwell on the good things (while not forgetting to learn from the not-so-good things). So, what went well today? Where was the awesome? Which of your students had an “aha” moment? Think about those things as you reflect. Never forget to remember the awesome! Speaking of awesome, that is what you are! You rock!

Love, Teacher

Dear Teacher,

As you can tell, this has been a busy school year for me so far.  It have been having trouble finding time to write to you.  Well, part of it is time.  The other part is mind space.  Because I have been working on some teaching projects and some stuff here at home, I haven’t had a lot of creative, mental space to come up with ideas of things to write here.

And this is where you can help.

I need to know how your school year is going.  What is going well?  What is not going well?  What kind of encouragement and inspiration would you like to see here?  Also, look at some of my older posts and let me know what kind of posts you like the most here.  Quick encouragement?  Longer inspirational?  Creative picture notes?  Theme song posts?  Something else?  Please give me some feedback on this in the comments here or email me.  THANKS!

I am also considering bringing in some co-bloggers.  Do you have a blog?  Have you been thinking about blogging?  Would you like to guest post here at some point?  Right now I am just looking for some guest-bloggers, but there is the possibility of a regular day here at Dear Teacher/Love Teacher…maybe.  I really want this blog to be helpful to teachers…to do that, I think I need some help.  If you are interested, email me and we can talk more about the kind of posts I am looking for.  Thanks!

Last but not least, I teased some FREE and CHEAP stuff in the title (and in the picture).  As you have either read about here or have seen in the sidebar, there is a Dear Teacher/Love Teacher Teachers Pay Teachers Store.  There are mostly resources there to promote growth-mindset and positivity in your classroom (and a really cool math board game that I worked on for most of the summer called MAD MAD MATH MONEY).  I have decided to break the norms there on TpT and make the resources as cheap as I possibly can.  Few of the products are now free and the rest are $3 or less.  The only reason I am charging at all is because of the time spent making the resources and money put in (software costs, mostly).  Would you please check out the store and share about it?  Thanks!  You rock!

Thank you for using this site and all of the feedback you have given me via the comments or social media!

I close with a reminder of how awesome you are.  You really are an amazing teacher.  I know some days are rougher than others, but don’t lose sight of the fact that you are making a difference.  You rock!  Keep on teaching, Teacher!

Love, Teacher

PS…Please share this post!  Thanks.  I would really love to get feedback from teachers all over.

Dear Teacher,

You are amazing and you are saving the future one student and one class at a time!  You spend the day igniting imaginations and putting out fires.  You inspire.  You lead.  You teach.  You are truly a superhero!  And you rock!  Keep on teaching, Teacher!

Love, Teacher