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Hey girl. So, one of your kiddos plagiarized their entire research essay. Does it suck? Yeah. Do you think they did it on purpose, as in, on purpose to trick you? No. I know you haven’t spent as much time teaching the kiddos to paraphrase, and that isn’t an easy skill to teach in this current set up. It’s fair to be disappointed, even a little angry at the kiddo.
And you’ve come to a big realization this week — that your sense of self worth has become tightly bound to your career. Not in the sense that your value is tied to the kids’ test scores and their successes and failures, but, if you could see yourself improve and grow and make an impact, then you were doing the right thing with your life. And being half a world away from your kiddos and your classroom has really made it difficult to see any growth or impact.
But you just got a great message from a friend and a colleague you trust. She wrote, “I decided to take this on as a challenge for me — how can I take these lessons I do face to face and adapt them as much as possible for the students. It is not always easy, and I do still feel like I am missing the mark, but it is helping me in keeping me trying to see how this format [online teaching] is helping me be a better teacher.”
Jos is right. And yeah, she is still having frustrations — we all are. She told you that it took her time to get to this place. Give yourself time to grow. Give yourself space to try and fail and try again.
This is one year in your (probably) long life. It is TOUGH. It’s okay to hurt and be frustrated and cry. Please, though, try to make this time MORE than that. BE KIND.
And you’ve come to a big realization this week — that your sense of self worth has become tightly bound to your career. Not in the sense that your value is tied to the kids’ test scores and their successes and failures, but, if you could see yourself improve and grow and make an impact, then you were doing the right thing with your life. And being half a world away from your kiddos and your classroom has really made it difficult to see any growth or impact.
But you just got a great message from a friend and a colleague you trust. She wrote, “I decided to take this on as a challenge for me — how can I take these lessons I do face to face and adapt them as much as possible for the students. It is not always easy, and I do still feel like I am missing the mark, but it is helping me in keeping me trying to see how this format [online teaching] is helping me be a better teacher.”
Jos is right. And yeah, she is still having frustrations — we all are. She told you that it took her time to get to this place. Give yourself time to grow. Give yourself space to try and fail and try again.
This is one year in your (probably) long life. It is TOUGH. It’s okay to hurt and be frustrated and cry. Please, though, try to make this time MORE than that. BE KIND.
