I mentioned on Faceworld today that I had something to say about this meme.
I should probably mention that I am handling my stress levels adequately and I'm fine. I've learned over the last two decades how to say "NO" and how to only volunteer for things if I feel I can handle them. I am merely sharing the thinking this meme--coupled with knowing how overwhelmed a lot of teachers are feeling right now--generated in my brain this morning.
A lot of my teacher pals have mentioned feeling completely overwhelmed. While I don't claim to know EXACTLY why this is, I have some pretty shrewd guesses. In my district we are currently implementing new curriculum, learning new testing software, tackling equity and inclusion issues, submitting weekly lesson plans (full disclosure--I hate doing these and think they are silly and a bit demeaning), learning other new software, having to remember to zoom when we have kids who are in quarantine, educator effectiveness, tracking kids down for testing in EL if they didn't test last year, and those are just the things I know are happening at the HS! I'm guessing there are a zillion other things going on at the elementary and middle levels. My first thought on this is that even though we are back in person--which is what everyone wanted--there are a lot of extra stressors that go along with that happening.
In my opinion, one of the most annoying (I'm not sure I'd say it was stressful) things is having to tell kids 812 times a day to put their masks up. My classroom students will comply and then I have to remind them later. Then they comply. All in all: not a huge deal. They are trying. Masks slip. I make a joke and we keep working on it. Kids in the halls are a completely different matter. I'm estimating more than 10 and less than 20 kids have told me to fuck off since school started simply because I asked them to put their masks up. This seems like an overly dramatic response--even from a teen. I wonder what they hear about masking at home? Now, I suppose I could follow them and write them up or something but, honestly, I have my own students to teach and that feels like a waste of time. This is just one of the "new and extra" things that many teachers are navigating right now. It's not that this is, in and of itself, that horrible. It is more that the masks issue is "one more thing" to stay on top of.
Another thing that might be stressing my comrades out is this hue and cry to "get kids caught up!" and "mitigate learning loss!" from people who are metaphorically clutching their pearls. Said persons often (I'm looking at you politicos) have zero experience teaching. Some of these persons are also so far removed from the classroom that they have no idea what teaching actually looks like in 2021. Do folks really think that a student who did not attend school for a year--who "ghosted" all their teachers--who turned in nothing--will catch up on a year's worth of learning while simultaneously learning new things this year? The student(s) who did those things--for whatever reason--are often not fully engaged while they are in person either. This is not a "learning" problem. This is an engagement, equity, and school culture problem. I wish folks would work on that first.
Speaking of working on things first: In my humble opinion, the year after primarily virtual instruction should not be filled with 47 new things to learn and try. The absence from school buildings during the 20-21 school year really should have provided us (all of education but, most importantly, decision makers) with the space to rethink what we are doing in schools. It could have been a prime opportunity to undo/disrupt systems of inequity and oppression but I'm not seeing a lot of that happening anywhere. Instead, we seem to be charging head-long into the SSDD patterns of the past. Those schools and districts that ARE trying to do the work (I like to think my school is doing this), are often overwhelmed by all the other new things happening so we cannot always address the most important changes that need to happen first. I don't know if that's stress inducing or just maddening. Maybe it's both. Friends: we need to work on providing equitable, inclusive schools before anything else. Before new curricula, before new grading programs, before new software suites, and--really--before anything. While I acknowledge that systems such as grading practices and inclusive curriculum materials are part of that, I think schools are biting off more than they can chew right now.
To counterbalance the imbalance of tasks that many teacher types are feeling right now, folks sometimes think they should remind teachers to, "practice self care." Ummm. . . . when there's so much going on and practically every facet of education is understaffed right now (The pandemic caused a huge number of retirements/resignations), saying something so trite and, truly, devoid of any real substance is silly--largely because there is very little time to do so. Most of us have families to care for and other obligations in addition to our work as educators. Now I'm not saying that every person who utters this phrase is being willfully callus, I do think it hits wrong right now especially considering that many teachers put others first as a function of their personalities.
Here's my thinking on this whole thing: If you are in a leadership position, please consider this. When a teacher vocalizes that they are stressed and overwhelmed, instead of talking about self-care, taking time, finding balance, and all that other business. . . . . find a way to take something off their plates. We all know that some things are non-negotiables but we also all know there's a lot of "busy work" created for teachers that they really don't need to deal with in order to be excellent at their jobs.
