Over the past year, I have found myself asking the same question in my head, over and over. "What is going on here?". And I don't mean the obvious- the Global Pandemic and collective trauma. What I am questioning is why does it seem like many decisions, actions, directives- are ignoring the reality we are in? Nobody is ok. Nobody. We can NOT ignore this. Students are not ok. Teachers are not ok. Families are not ok. Administrators are not ok. Let's begin by that acknowledgment. It is at least a start. I have witnessed a lot of "business as usual" and "just move through this" and I just don't get it. With something this earth shaking, we can not just bury it and walk over it because it will explode. What this crisis has done is it has shined a light on a lot of things. Because of this, I have seen many try to shift focus on well being, which is a positive step. BUT has SEL now become a buzzword that I am not sure we all have a handle on? Student and teacher social emotional well being should always have been a focus in education, but now it has moved to the forefront because of the glaring need for it. But how is it addressed? How can teachers and students focus on this important aspect when they feel this pressure of "not being left behind" academically? I still question, who is behind who? The reality is, everyone is going to come out behind because we are in a CRISIS. So if everyone is behind, no one is behind. Do we need assessments to give us this data? Do the assessment results surprise us? Students are struggling. Guess what? They are struggling with way more than academics. Have we assessed what is actually going on in students' hearts and minds? Here is another question. Has anyone assessed the teachers? And what I mean by that, is, has anyone done a thorough check in on how they are doing? How they are dealing? How they are handling? How they are struggling and how they are suffering? Because if we ignore the reality, we can't support changing it. A guardian angel for educators has been Shea Wesley Martin (@sheathescholar). If you are not familiar, Shea has created a Padlet entitled "An Anonymous Teacher Speaks" and it needs to be seen, read and digested: This is a space where educators have been able to freely and anonymously share their realities since 10/2020. And as an admin, this is all the data I need. I make it a point to read posts on a weekly basis and my heart just aches and breaks to hear the pain of these educators. So many are broken, beaten down, exhausted, feeling like failures and just plain frustrated. These are the caretakers of our kids. How can we ask them to do all of the impossible things they are being asked to do, when they, themselves need to be taken care of? But they do, because education is a heart job. But just because we know that they will risk their mental and physical health, put their students above their own selves - doesn't mean they should. What role do we play in this and what role can we play in changing this?
We can not continue to have meetings and make decisions in which we don't even mention the trauma, the crisis, the reality of our teachers and students. We can not continue to make plans without this biggest consideration at the forefront. We can not continue to place our time and energy into things that take us away from supporting what is right in front of us. How can we plan forward if we ignore the present? I don't think we can, because when we look back, all we will see is brokenness, disconnect, mistrust, fatigue, frustration, sadness and anger. Those are not the building blocks on which to build our students' futures. I don't know the answer. I don't have the power. All I know is that we have to start with acknowledgement. My call to action is this: Read through the posts in "An Anonymous Teacher Speaks". For those of you that are in the trenches, you will see that you are not alone. For those of us that support those in the trenches, we will find empathy and understanding. Reflect on where your role fits in and how you can help to make a shift. Here is one wondering- has anything like this been created to capture student voices? They are our ultimate "end users", we need to hear from them.
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Mother, Teacher, Administrator, Presenter, GCE Level 1 & 2, Encourager of others.
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February 2023
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