dsThis year has been a year full of “things are hard for everyone” but it’s been an especially hard time for teachers this year. This March makes one year since schools shut down and went totally remote and I just wanted to offer some encouragement in light of that.
I know that this year has been incredibly hard.
It’s been hard to find a balance between your work life and your home life when suddenly work can come home with you easier.
It’s been difficult to connect with your students when you’ve never met them in person.
It’s hard to know which students are confused and which ones are just not turning in work.
It’s been difficult when parents, other teachers and coworkers assume that because you don’t have students physically in the class this means that you have more time and can take on new things to do.
I know it’s been a hard time, because this year no matter how long you’ve been a teacher, you’re suddenly an overwhelmed first year teacher again.
In this year of hardship and a lot of new “firsts” it’s easy to feel tired and overworked. It’s easy to feel like no one sees the work you do and that no one cares about it. But the work teachers do is so important! If you’re like me, the reason you’re a teacher is because God put a special calling in your heart for the students you work with. To love them, to encourage them and most of all to be there for them! This year we’ve been able to be there for students in a way we never have before and we can continue doing it. When the rest of the world is responding with “Yeah well everyone is having a tough time right now, you’ll just have to adjust to the new normal,” teachers have been saying:
“Yes you can have more time,”
“How can I help you do better?”
“What do you need from me?”
“I know this is hard but you’ve got this!”
As teachers we have the unique opportunity to show our students what love and compassion looks like. Even if you aren’t able to share Christ in your classroom this is an amazing time to give our students a look at what Christ-like love is like. Because we have the ability to check in on our students in different ways, to give them grace when they haven’t done things like they should and to teach them about how we should love and treat other people.
This year has been so hard because everything we love about our job as a teacher has been taken out of our classrooms and out of our school buildings, while all those things we don’t love have been amplified. I know it can be hard to keep a positive attitude… I’ve struggled with motivation, positivity and feeling like I’m making a difference so many times. But my students have quietly reminded me of why I’m here and why I love what I do! When a student comes to school for some reason or another and makes the time to come visit and ask how you’re doing. When a student trusts you enough that when you ask “How are you?” they respond truthfully and give you the chance to talk to them about the things going on in their lives.
Recently, I had a student message me to ask permission for their work to be late and at first I was annoyed because it would mean more work for me but then he went on to explain that with the free time they’ve had he’s been able to participate in tennis tournaments and has gotten the opportunity to go to a championship match. When he sent me photos to show me what he’d been up to I felt so proud and excited for him.
These are the reasons we’re here. We are here to celebrate their tennis wins, to cheer them on when they write their journal about how they’re learning to skateboard and are doing their best, to encourage their creativity when they ask “Can I make a tik tok for my project?” We aren’t just here to teach them because that’s not all teachers are. We’re here to love them because no teacher would do this job if they didn’t love their students more than anything else on this Earth.
God has given us a unique heart and a unique opportunity that He wants us to use! He wants us to love our students the same way He loves us and to show them that. Even if we aren’t in a workplace that allows us to discuss it with them, our actions speak louder than our words. In 30 years when these kids are telling their kids about the pandemic, they’re going to remember those teachers who were patient, kind, loving, not rude or self seeking. The ones who didn’t become irritated with them and kept a record of all the things they did wrong. But they were happy and excited with their students in their successes and there to be a listening ear when they failed. I pray that as we continue on from here, no matter what school looks like for you, that we would remember who we are, what we are about and who we belong to. That that would be how we carried on through the rest of this weird time and that we were encouraged by God’s word and knowing that no matter what we were doing what God called us to do.
“Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7
“Consider it pure joy, whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.” James 1:2-3
– Heather Wrench, GEM Missionary