Keep on Keeping On

As a teacher, the last two years in the classroom have been the hardest of my career. Dealing with Covid and trying to maintain structure while educating middle schoolers was like herding kittens while juggling torches. You always lost one and somehow got burnt in the process. The world seemed foggy with the uncertainty of the pandemic and murky with the negativity of the politics. Nothing seemed to go very well. We were all holding our breath and waiting for the fog to lift…

Forest Service Road on the side of Mount St. Helens, July 2021

So after a rejuvenating summer, finally able to visit with friends and family, teachers were ready to go back to “normal.” Classrooms were happily decorated, desks were pushed back together into groups, and lessons were created to include collaboration and conversations. We were going to have a great year, a new chapter of normalcy!

Then the doors opened on the first day of school, and suddenly our usual classes of 20-ish kids moved higher and higher. Kids were coming out of the woodwork like ants on a hot summer day! Where to put them? We were scrambling to find desks to shove even closer together. As the overcrowded classrooms were evident of the lack of space, they were also evident of the lack of masks. Noses running and children coughing, and Covid numbers started rising again. This wasn’t planned for at all… The fog was lifting and what we thought was a smooth road to a victorious post-Covid school year now looks like this:

Looking up at Mount St. Helens from Loowit Trail on July 2021.

Miles of jagged granite boulders make up the smooth road to the Summit of Success!! They are painful to walk on, can teeter dangerously and make you fall, and there is no clear path to follow. But if you want to get to the other side of the mountain, there is no way to avoid them. I see the look in my fellow teachers’ eyes which I had in my own when trying to cross these boulders. I had looked forward to this trail for years and years, and I had worked out for months beforehand. My patience and hard work resulted in this?? I felt defeated after hopping precariously from boulder-to-boulder for about 10 feet. How could I continue this for miles? I didn’t sign up for this!!

Luckily I wasn’t alone, and I had a fellow hiking buddy who wasn’t fazed by the rocky crossing. He lead the way, paused to ensure I wasn’t swallowed by the earth, and made sure I was ready to continue when I rejoined him. I won’t lie- I whined, I groaned, I wasn’t the model hiker that day. But my friend listened and encouraged. As teachers we need to use his model for this hurdle of a year- just listen to each other, lift each other up, and encourage one another when it feels just too overwhelming. We might not be perfect teachers this year, and this year is looking like quite the rocky crossing. Create a small goal for yourself- nothing to do with student data- and celebrate when you’ve accomplished it!

My goal was to reach these trees to find a break from the boulders!

Remember as you endure the unique trials and tribulations of this year to stop and smell any flowers you encounter! Take time to celebrate the little victories. We might not fill the “learning gap” of the past 18 months, but just finding the little joys along the way will sustain us on this journey. I’ve found that the “smile and nod” method to the educational madness helps me sustain my sanity. I hear the expectations, I will give it my best, but if it doesn’t meet the needs of my students, I will use my professional judgement to resume the course of what works best.

This Seuss-like Bear grass is found in alpine regions, especially in the Pacific Northwest.

So even though our Smooth Road to Success has so many potholes that we need to pause and reassess, we teachers are in this journey together!! Focusing on the victories, making personal goals to achieve, and encouraging one another will help sustain us through this bumpy ride. We need to keep on keeping on.