Hello Tomorrow

Tomorrow we head back to school. The break has been pretty relaxing. I did less work than I should have, I watched a lot of movies and listened to some awesome podcasts. I should have read more but reading slumps happen and I have a lot of books waiting for me when I am ready. I use to beat myself up about not working very hard on down time. But I am getting better with the concept of GRACE. I am not as hard on myself as I was even two years ago when I thought I needed to spend every minute outside of school...doing school.

I think about this idea of grace when it comes to our students. This week kids are going to be either excited to come back or like many adults mourning the loss of their holiday. Behaviours are going to be on the rise and our ability to handle them with grace will be at a low because we have not had to practice that particular brand of patience for a couple weeks.

Beyond that I think we need to remember that not all of our students had a fabulous break. I think about the kids who have parents that can't take the time off or can't afford to do the fun things, get the great gifts that others are so excited to tell everyone about.

In the past I made the absent minded mistake of giving kids time to share how their break was. I never considered that this would be problematic. I thought I was just being the KIND teacher who was giving his students some free time to share and celebrate their fun break. Now instead of kindness I consider empathy.

Tomorrow is a great reset. It is any day not just after a two week break. We are too hard on ourselves and too hard on our kids some times so tomorrow I practice Grace and Empathy. Both will require a little work and patience. I challenge everyone to do the same.

I love the return to school. I also have high anxiety over it. It is ok for teachers to not be excited give yourselves some Grace as well :)