Teach Them How to Fly and They Will Soar

We've all been there at some point or another... miss a day of school and then come the sub plans. Ugh. If you think like me, you'd much rather suffer through a day of not feeling good than to take off work to avoid having to come up with something to leave for a substitute.

As many of you know, my family is going through a trying time right now. I missed three days of work in the past week, a Monday being one of those (worst day ever to miss). On top of worrying about what was going on in my life, the teacher in me can't possibly not worry about what is going on with my kids at school when I am not there. Are they learning anything without me there? How will I ever prepare them for the unit tests that are coming up? What if I didn't leave enough work? And then it dawned on me "my kids are the ones who are supposed to be in charge of their learning, so of course they are learning without me!" I felt silly for even questioning them! I have high expectations for my kids, as I know all teachers do, so why would I think something so negative?

I realized that I have done a good job this first nine weeks of school preparing my students and modeling for them how to be in charge of their own learning. Oh how they impress me! Every day when I walk into my room I wait for the next thing that one of my students will do or say to make me stop and think "Wow, they are really growing!" That's our job as teachers, to create students who are in charge of their learning and who crave knowledge and aren't afraid of hard work.

I know it is really easy to get bogged down this time of year and start to think negative thoughts. All teachers go through this at some point or another during the year. However, when I came back to work on Tuesday and heard my kids yelling "Mrs. Blann's back!" in their high pitched little second grade voices, I couldn't help but smile and be proud of the relationships that I have built this year. After all, we all know that a solid relationship is a foundation for knowledge!

So I guess my point in saying all of this is, there are good days and bad days in the life of a teacher. There are days you will miss. There are days you won't want to get out of bed. Relationships and learning trump all of those feelings. We are all in this job for the kids (hopefully). It's about them and their futures! So next time we feel bogged down, or stressed out, or dread having to make sub plans...let's stop, take a breath (as Mrs. Speicher would say) and think about why we are all here. Our kids are smart. We have already prepared them, and we are continuing to prepare them. They will make us proud if we trust in them and their abilities to learn!

Whitney