This year is a bust..teaching style

This is my third year teaching and to say that it has been different is an understatement. The first nine weeks of this semester was one for the books. With sicknesses, weather, and now the quarantine, I didn’t realize what little time I had with my students this semester. But with that little time, what an impact they have made on me.

This year as a whole has been trying. As a new mom, trying to juggle it all along with graduate school, has been nothing short of challenging. I lost sight of what it meant to love my students. I was just going into the classroom to get the job done and not really focusing on the lives that I was seeing every day. It wasn’t until an incident happened with my students that my eyes were finally opened.

After that day, I saw the students as a child in my class with backgrounds, feelings, and most of all as themselves. I have students with heartbreak, broken homes, raising their siblings, sleeping on the floor so that their smaller siblings can get a good night’s sleep in a bed. I have students with medical problems and mental problems.

So what?

We as educators have to see the student as a child in our class. Look at them like they are your own. See what is inside of them and what is making them tick. Are they hurting? What can I do to help them? This is a burden that I carry with me every day. I would cry over a student while putting my own sweet girl down to bed. We have taken their battles home with us. During this time remember your educators. Remember that they still care for your kids. Remember that they are still there.

I pray that next year will be different. I pray for normalcy in our days. Take this time to love your families and take care of yourself.

Tomorrow will come and we will get to see those smiling faces again. Until then, I wish for a better school year for everyone involved.