KATHLEEN NEAGLE SOKOLOWSKI
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Courage Doesn't Always Roar:
​The Quest to Be Better Each Day 

#SOL20 Hamster on a wheel No MOre

6/30/2020

6 Comments

 
Now that the 2019-2020 school year is officially done (as in, "stick a fork in me"), it's time to start reflecting. And here's the thing: Before we left the classroom in March, before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, we really weren't okay. 

I'll explain.

I've been a teacher since 2001. Aside from the one year I took for maternity leave  when I had my son(and the 4 months maternity I took for my daughter), I have been IN IT. I've taught 6th grade, special education, kindergarten and third grade. I deeply care about teaching and growing in my professional skills. I value education and work hard. And....I was utterly drowning. 

26 students. Every subject. Differentiating instruction and small groups to plan. One prep a day that could be eaten by a teacher arriving late to pick up her students, a phone call to return, a grade level meeting, a broken photocopy machine (more often than not). Lunch was often wolfed down in the first 10-15 minutes, then back to trying to get the afternoon planned. Bus duty, meetings, tutoring. Then having to dash out of work to get home to take my children to soccer, or acting class, or religion. Homework for them, dinner for everyone, showers, bedtime. Exhaustion. What time was there to look at one of the 26 students' work? What time was there to reflect on the day's teaching to make more thoughtful choices for the next day? 


There was none. It was go, go, go and do the best you can. And don't complain that you don't have time to get the work done because, hey- summers off, right? You get to leave at 3:15 each day.  The one time I told an administrator I was getting up in the middle of the night to do work, it was kind of like "Yeah- I am up early too." 

We are expecting our teachers to be able to thoughtfully and skillfully teach reading, writing, math, science, social studies, technology skills, and character education. We are expecting them to build relationships and deeply know 26 or more students at a time. We are expecting them to to plan and teach multiple small groups a day. We are expecting them to do this with very little planning time. 

I know every job has its challenges, but the thing about teaching is the time I am at work I am with children or doing other professional duties almost the entire time. The planning it takes to be prepared for my teaching day is all done on my own time. The grading, the reflecting- it is all done after hours. This was hard when I was a single teacher in my 20's but the truth is it is impossible as a mom to two children in my 40's. I simply don't have the hours to give unless I stop sleeping. 

Can we talk about this? Can we talk about the impossible expectations put on teachers? Can we talk about why so many have left the profession to become life coaches who want to help teachers deal with burnout? While we are envisioning a new and better system of education, can we consider that we are expecting the impossible from our teachers and their mental/emotional health is suffering?  Every teacher I know (who is tenured and allowed to admit it) has sacrificed physical health, emotional health, family time and more trying to keep up with ever-changing, yet always impossible expectations. 

Can we get our teachers off the hamster wheel? 
6 Comments
Terje
6/30/2020 01:00:22 pm

People who don't teach see only the surface of teaching - it seems easy and seems to have long holidays. They have no clue about the true amount of the work nor about the stress. I hope that you will have a restful summer to recharge and in the fall there will be a change for better.

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TIm Gels link
6/30/2020 03:34:01 pm

Your slice reminded me of a time here in Alabama where a state legislator tried to introduce a bill to *reduce* teacher pay. His reasoning: Teaching is a calling, and high pay attracts teachers who aren’t in the field for the right reasons.

The hamster wheel is crazy. You’re right: We weren’t okay. Hopefully, a silver lining of the last few months might be that we see not everything that was “normal” is worth going back to. We’ll see.

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Marina Rodriguez link
6/30/2020 05:27:57 pm

That is what truth sounds like! Wow. I've been teaching long enough to see health sacrificed. Systems need not to shift, they need to change completely or go away. It is a rough challenge, but hopefully these uncertain times cause the needed change.

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Nicolette link
6/30/2020 05:53:49 pm

This is a topic to talk about. Teaching is a challenging job if it is to be done well. We need to have real discussions about those challenges if we are to ever expect change. This piece is powerful and true.

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Elisabeth Ellington link
7/1/2020 04:52:13 am

Yes! And this pace isn't good for students either. The constant rush and cram doesn't reflect sustainable learning and doesn't reflect our values. So many things we need to rethink about school!

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Chris link
7/1/2020 02:04:56 pm

Yes, yes, resoundingly yes! This is the very reason that half of my to-read pile for professional learning is all about teacher self-care. I am especially worried about this coming year, because if any of our teaching remains virtual, that seemed to be the hardest to maintain time boundaries, especially knowing that a lot of our students could only do their work in the evenings, when parents were available to assist.
Something definitely has to give. Maybe rethinking the curriculum is a start--trying to cram twenty years' worth of learning into thirteen is a recipe for disaster (credit to Kelly Gallagher's "Readicide" for that tidbit).

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