Today is another anonymous Substitute Teacher. This teacher has been teaching for a long time, as well, so I think think the words are worth listening to! Experience and time are great teachers, especially for teachers! This is a short, but powerful little message that is good for every day of the week…though, I think it is great on a Friday! Please read and take heart, and then have an awesome weekend, Teacher!
Dear Teacher,
I love to collect quotations. They help to motivate and inspire me. I like to share them with my students too, in the hope that my students will also be motivated and inspired by them. Here’s one I like. I find it especially comforting after a rough spot in my teaching.
Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow.” — Mary Ann Radmacher
It’s important to remember that teaching is more like a marathon than a sprint. We’re in this for the long haul. It’s what our students need from us –someone who will keep coming back, day after day, trying again and again until we find the strategies that work with each new class or student, wearing down those students who may try to test us, and modeling for our students that it’s important to be committed to things that are important (as they are!).
You are awesome, Teacher! Thank you for all the great things you are doing!
When I asked people to volunteer to be Substitute Teachers while I am “off the grid,” I had a lot of great responses! I am so grateful and honored by that! Teachers were more than willing to pay forward the encouragement and hope that they have received from people and from this blog. However, something interesting came from the request to for people to share, and it was a response to something that I have done with this blog that I did not think people noticed or cared about, but they did and do (you might, too).
I have made strides to try to keep this as anonymous as possible. Why? I want the message here to be separated from it being just a person trying to encourage other people. I want it to be about teachers encouraging teachers. We are in this together, and it is not about a person or personality. This is one of the reasons I am using Substitute Teachers instead of just setting up a bunch of my own posts to go up while I am away. This is teachers encouraging each other. Teachers looking out and caring for their own!
I say all of this because some of the Substitutes have requested to stay anonymous, like me. Their reasons are the same as mine. I appreciate that, so I am honoring the request. I will only share what I think is important about each…and today’s Sub has one thing I would like you to know about her. She has been teaching for 26 years! I am honored to have such a veteran post here! We can learn so much from those teachers who have been doing this for a long time! I love learning from people who have been doing this for a long time. Read this morning and learn with me. 🙂
“The great thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving.”
This quote reminded me of some experiences I’ve had in teaching. Often at the end of the year I can be discouraged or disappointed by all of the things that didn’t go as well as I’d have liked, or all the ways that I wasn’t as great a teacher as I’d have liked to have been for my students. We teachers want so much to do awesome things for all of our students, but that task can sometimes be impossible to fully achieve.
Then I remind myself that no one is perfect, and that the important thing is wanting to be awesome and being committed to always getting better, becoming a stronger and more effective teacher. After my first, most difficult year as a teacher, I promised myself that I would always work to get better each year, and that as long as I kept that commitment, I would just have to be accept the fact that I hadn’t been the perfect teacher. As Holmes reminds us, it’s the direction we’re moving that is most important.
One of the best things about teaching is that every year there is a fresh start and a new chance to be even better and more awesome for a new group of students. Summer is a great time for thinking about ways to hone our skills. What great ideas would you like to put in place with your next group of students?
You are awesome, Teacher. You are committed to improving your professional practice, and that’s awesome! High five!
(c)DearTeacherLT…You may use if you link back to this blog.
Dear Teacher,
When I was a kid, I loved the idea of amusement parks and carnivals. There was something so exciting and a bit surreal about them. The colors, the sounds, the smells…it was like another world. They made me feel alive, and the energy a trip to one brought would last for a long time…until normal life pushed the memories away and everything was back to the same-old, same-old.
What is amazing is that even now, as an adult, even just seeing an amusement park or carnival brings back some of that same exhilaration. Not exactly the same energy as experiencing it as a child or actually being there, but the memories come rushing back and there is a little surge of that excitement that wells up. I know that someone could probably explain the brain processes that cause this, but I prefer to just enjoy the rush of memories! It makes me feel like a kid again, especially if it is with one of my kids.
I am, and a lot of you are, in the throws of finishing up the school year or have just finished. We are tired, beat-up, over-whelmed, stressed, sad, and focused on getting everything done. This is draining. Though we love our students, we get lost in the details and sometimes are just looking at the light at the end of the tunnel and forgetting the reason we are doing this in the first place.
Okay, well I don’t know if you feel that way, but yesterday was like that for me. The thrill and joy of teaching the students this year was replaced by the stress of the monotony of crossing every “t” and dotting every “i” at the end of the year. I was worn out by evening and pre-stressing over the details of the next day. When I woke up this morning, I realized I was missing something…my students.
I was forgetting that they are why I am looking for “t’s” and “i’s” to cross and dot! They are facing the end of the school year. They are excited. They are sad. They are nervous. They are ecstatic. They are a ball of emotions and they need their teacher there to understand and go through these emotions with them! I need to remember them. They are my reason for teaching. I need to find a way to push through the stress and be the teacher they need me to be.
Like seeing, hearing, or smelling carnival colors, sounds, and smells take me back to that excitement, I need to find reminders of the thrills of teaching my students this year. I need to look at them and see the awesomeness that they are and tell them. I need to talk, laugh, and cry with them. I have only a couple of days left. I need to enjoy this time with them, even through the stress!
Are you in the same place with this? Did you just experience this? How are you do you deal with the closing of the year but still trying to focus on your students? Please share, for the good of the group! 🙂
Teacher, I know you make the right choices. You put your students first. You push through the monotony and find a way to love on your kids and let them know you care. You are awesome! Keep teaching, Teacher!
Love, Teacher
PS…I will be taking a two week sabbatical from the blog. If you would be interesting in guest-posting (for my blogging friends) or just writing a message to pass on encouragement and hope while I am out, please let me know your interest and/or pitch me your idea via email: dearteacher@outlook.com. Thanks! I could use the help and teachers need your encouragement!
To quote one of my new personal heroes, Kid President, “I think we all need a pep talk.”
I was thinking about what to write this morning, I realized how tired I was and not ready for the day. I need a pep talk. And if I need one, you probably need one. So, I will pep talk myself and you at the same time.
Because I do not know where you are or what you may be going through and need right now, I am going give a bunch of pep mini-talks. Figure out which one you need, and run with it. It is choose-your-own-pep-talk-adventure day. 🙂
Bad Week at School (there are three main possible bad kind of weeks…pick the pep talk you need):
Teacher, you know it does get better. Another day is always around the corner. Things will pick up. You will pick things up. You are good like that. Why not pick things up today. Be the change your week needs. Control the things you can control, be awesome at them, and let everything else go. Bad weeks are not forever. Turn this week around and look for the good. You can do it. You know you can. You are awesome, so make the rest of the week awesome. Be the awesome.
Teacher, your students love you. You know that they do. It may not seem like it after the week you have had, but they do love you. Be patient. Be understanding. Be awesome to them. They will awesome you back. I promise. Pick a couple that need extra patience and care…give them that patience and care, and they may turn and influence the rest of your students! It gets better. It will get better. Just wait for the better and do not give up.
Teacher, administration is just doing their job. Even if things seem over the top, just do what you do best. Focus on your kids. Let every choice you make be traced back to what is best for your students. Things will usually pan out in your favor if you do. You are great at your job. You are awesome! Do not stress out. Do not let the pressure make you think less of yourself. Keep on being the best teacher you can be. Take the criticism and let it make you better. If it is undeserved, then find a way to move past it. I know you can. You are awesome. Remember, whatever it is, it will soon pass…or at least pass eventually! Keep teaching, Teacher. Keep pressing on!
Issues Outside of School (pick the one you need):
Teacher, you have a job to do. I know it is hard, but find a way to leave what is heavy on your mind and heart at the doorway of your classroom. Love your kids. Turn your stress and pressure into a motivation to show your students how much you care. Slow down at school. Enjoy what you love doing: teaching. You are a teacher because you love it. Love what you do and let that help you relieve some of that outside stress. You can leave all of that until the afternoon. You are awesome. You are a professional. Push through that personal pain and be the awesome teacher that you are! Let your students love you through whatever it is.
Teacher, you are not on your own. You are surrounded by teachers that understand. Talk to someone you trust. Let them help you carry your burden. If you need some time to yourself today, find someone to help you work that out. Your fellow teachers understand. We have all had those times. Do not carry this alone if you do not have to. When life gets to be too much, you can not let that affect your relationship with your students. Find someone to help. Help is out there and ready. You are not alone!
Summer Time Teacher (I can’t address everything, but hopefully you can find something to apply):
Teacher, you are on a break, but you are still a teacher. Relax, but do not get lazy. Get something ready for next year. Work on something today. Find something cool you can do in the coming year. Read a book or search for one to start. Don’t forget who you are on the inside…a teacher. Research, talk to other teachers, brainstorm…do something! You are awesome and I know you will think about teaching in some way…and that is one of those reasons you are a great teacher!
Teacher, STOP working. Take a break. Next year will get here soon enough. Spend time with your friends and family. Play with your kids, if you have them. Spend time with your significant other, if you have one. See some friends. Do something that is not school related. As a matter of fact, do not think about school at all. You are an awesome teacher, but take a break! You do not have to be Teacher of the Year over the summer. Relax and recharge for next year. Your students need you to!
Okay, I know I have not addressed everything. I hope I wrote something that helps you! You are awesome, Teacher! You are believed in! You are cared for! Go out and do something awesome today!
Dear Teacher/Love Teacher 