08/10/2020
HURTING... 😔
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I appreciate this post by which hits hard what I’ve been personally struggling with the last week.
I’ve had to limit my social media use and have completely turned off the news (for a variety of reasons) because I can’t sit with the constant bombardment of the words “lazy”, “selfish”, “needy”, and many others floating around regarding teachers.
I can’t keep hearing the phrases of “pay cuts because they aren’t doing anything”, “why should they be making demands when they’re just sitting at home”, and “we’re doing all the work, not them”.
Teachers are doing so much more than sitting at home. I, personally, have spent my “summer” sitting on a planning team to make a plan so that distance learning works to the best ability it can for our families (meetings 2-3x a week for 2-4 hours each time). I’m making slides for Back to School Night, formulating lessons and assignment boards, writing parent help pages for IT support, figuring out room configurations, working and reworking class lists, establishing schedules that aren’t overwhelming, and so much more. Even for the parent who feels like they are doing the teaching, who provided you with everything that needed to be taught (the curriculum, the topics, the due dates, the assignment pages, the materials...)?
I honestly can’t even say what I’m asking for. I can’t ask for respect for my profession because I’m not sure our country can do that. I just know that the way I’m feeling is not what my profession is about.
