keep moving teacher – Dear Teacher/Love Teacher

Dear Teacher,

If you are like a lot of other teachers that I have talked to this week, you may have just had a pretty rough week. It was pretty mediocre for me, but I have had a bad week or two recently, as well.

Fridays of bad weeks can be good and bad. They are great because the week is over. They really stink because you have to take stock of the week and figure out what went wrong.

If the week was bad enough, we probably lost our cool and did some things that we aren’t quite proud of…poor reactions, poor choices, etc… Fridays like that are even worse. We have to deal with the week and deal with ourselves. Never, ever, ever fun.

So, for those that had a long week, let’s have a theme song post. Click play and then read on.

Teacher, your job is hard.

You have so much to deal with every day.

It seems like the days that go bad, go bad in almost every way possible.

One bad day can lead into another…and another…and before you know it, you have had a bad week.

Bad weeks happen. They happen to the best and worst of us. They bring out the worst in us…but don’t forget, they also bring out the best of us.

“What do you mean, teacher-who-obviously-did-not-have-a-bad-week?”

I know that you don’t want to think about it today, at the end of your awful week, but bad days and weeks teach us more than the good ones.

We learn what doesn’t work.
We learn what some of our “triggers” are.
We learn what we need to avoid.
We learn that the students may nor have learned as we thought they did.

Not only that, weeks after bad weeks always seem to help us get stronger as a teacher. We dig in, we find a way to keep moving and keep going, and we find ways to try to avoid weeks like we just had.

We learn new strategies because we had to work so hard just to get through the week.
We learn that we had resources that we did not know that we had.
We learn that we are stronger than we thought we were.
We learn that we have students that cared about our bad weeks (when they come and say that they are glad the next week is going better for us).
We learn that we have colleagues that actually do care about us (even if it is just one or two).
We learn that we love teaching as much as we thought we did, even though we hated it the week before (the bad week).

There is a silver lining, Teacher. Even if you don’t see it now, it is there.

It is okay to bemoan your bad week. It is human. Hate this week. Wish it never happened. Lick your wounds and do what you need to do, just don’t stay there.

Find the strength. Find a way. Move on. Use this week to become the awesome teacher that you are and can be.

Bad weeks suck, but we need them. You can get through this.

And never forget…you are not there for you. You are at your school and in your classroom for your students.

They matter most.

They are your motivation to get through this.

You can do it.

You are awesome! I know this week was bad, but you can and will keep moving. Even in this horrible week, you made a difference…even if you don’t know it now. Keep going. Never give up. Keep on teaching, Teacher!

Love, Teacher

Dear Teacher,

If we were to chose an anthem for the life of a teacher, I think this song should at least be on the ballot. It definitely sums up how I feel right now. We have so much to do. We hit so many roadblocks, but still we keep moving.

Click play and then read on.

You are tired…so am I.

You have too much to do…so do I.

You are behind on grading…so am I.

You have assignments/tests to put together and paper work to finish…so do I.

You are a teacher and you have teacher things to do (like them or not) and so do I.

We can’t possibly get them all done, can we?

On top of all of this, there are countless classroom conundrums, people and personality problem, and irritating individual issues that we have to work through day after day after day (after day).

We have those students that like to get under our skin…and they like to stay there.

We have coworkers who can make our work more difficult.

We have family and family things that are also apart of our lives (we have lives outside of school?).

We are overwhelmed.

We are over-worked.

We are over it.

What do we do?

We move along.

Yep. We move along.

A part of teaching, one of the biggest parts in my opinion, is the art of moving along. We find a way to keep our head down and plow on through the difficult times and situations of teacherhood. We focus. We prioritize. We move along.

How do you move along when you don’t feel like you can?

I am not sure how you move along, but I do know that somehow you have to find a way. I know for me it is just picking what I know is vital, what I know I can control, what I know I can take care of and then letting the rest go, do the minimum, or get help. I find a way to get through it.

Don’t give in to the “I can’t do this” part of you. You CAN do this. You CAN survive. You CAN move along.

Move along, like I know you CAN.

Even when your hope is gone, move along.

All you’ve got to keep is strong…move along.

Move along, like I know you do.

I do not know what you are going through, Teacher, but you CAN make it through it. You CAN keep going. You CAN move along. So move along.

Keep your focus on your students. Remember why you are here. Remember that it is about changing your students’ lives and futures. It is about them learning and learning to learn on their own. It is all about them. When you focus on the goal of your students and their needs, you CAN move along.

Move along.

I know you CAN.

You are awesome. You do move along. You get through the tough times. Keep moving. Keep going. Keep teaching, Teacher. You are amazing!

Love, Teacher