This is the time of year I struggle more than any other. Spring in Texas is just hard. The weather is wonky. It’s testing season. My teachers are exhausted. My students are spring fever-ing. Spring break is past, and there’s much to do before we can call it summer.
I can’t fix all the things.
I can buy more chocolate, but I can’t add hours to the day. I can bring in food, but I can’t take away testing stress. I can give you a break from a particular friend, but I can’t guarantee excellent behavior. I can smile and give high fives, but at this point that may actually be more annoying than helpful. Recognizing that everyone is tired is hard for me to handle. I am thankful we have a 4 day weekend coming up because I just want my people to be able to take a break. To refresh and renew. To pause and to reflect. Their commitment level is so intense, I recognize how exhausting that is…and I can’t take that away. But it’s in my very nature to WANT to!
What I can do is be supportive, be visible in my support. Keep buying that chocolate. Keep voicing my appreciation and encouraging them to finish. I can show kindness…if that’s in the form of a pizza or a protein cookie, I can (and should!) know my people well enough to be able to offer it up. I can be by their side, in the trenches, in whatever that looks like for them. The call to support and mentor my teachers is always important, but even more so when they are tired. I can maintain the calm, lessening the noise from outside that impacts their crucial final weeks. Provide opportunities to vent or to cry or to pause…and make sure they know that it is OK. It’s OK for passionate, committed people to be tired. That doesn’t make you any less awesome. It makes you human. It makes you an educator in the spring.
I would love to hear what you do, in particularly, for individual teachers, to support your team/campus this time of year!
CheerleadN,
Amber
Play together
Jeans passes help!????
Well said my friend! ????
You are on the right track with the food idea. Teachers love donuts, lunch, chocolate, etc. Also, cut down/eliminate those meetings. Take the time requirements of your teachers down to the bare minimum and just let them teach..
I completely agree. We are meeting with each other enough already. Please don’t require another meeting.
This past weekend, I hand wrote a personal note to each staff member, placed a silicone bracelet with a motivational saying on top of it and placed it in their boxes along with 7 dozen homemade chocolate chip cookies in the lounge. I wrote a jingle telling them they had jeans all week and the chocolate chip cookies and gift in their box and texted it out Sunday evening.
Jeans passes and food don’t do it for me. I appreciate it when principals try to take some of the weight off of teachers. Cover one of the teacher’s duties, like recess. Read a book to a class and let the teacher make copies. Let me put on an educational movie so I can benchmark my kids without being constantly interrupted. Get teacher observations completed sooner rather than later so teachers don’t have to cope with that additional stress in May.