I’m doing my best…or am I?

I’m doing the best I can or so I think…until that email or phone call makes me think I’m not. Initially I panic…Oh God! What else should I do? Could I offer more zoom time? Provide more work or support? And then I take a deep breath and realize, no, I’m doing the absolute best I can.

No one planned on a “pandemic”. No one could legislate that in a space of a week we would move from in person teaching to remotely reaching out to our students and their families. No one planned for our three-week social distancing break to turn into, sorry we won’t see you until September, maybe!.

And yet it has happened, and it has raised many concerns, along with many questions including, am I doing all I can? Social media has been deluged with articles and posts, both positive and negative, but for me it seems that we are overly focused on the positives. Which to me is not a true reality and this is what I know.

Teachers hate the fact that they’re not in the same room as their students, but we “too” are struggling. We worry when our kids don’t check in on zoom, we are sad that we are not sharing physical space with them or our colleagues. We are DOING the best we can. For some of us, we are slapping on a happy face for our zoom lessons, because we don’t want to appear anxious. However, we have our own worries, for family members who are sick or stranded elsewhere or who have lost their jobs. We are managing our own kids, our own anxieties, or our own doubts. We are battling the balance of connecting with students, answering family concerns, criticisms or censure, providing work or following the demands of the job. “You’re not doing enough. Please provide more work. Why do you keep reaching out, it’s stressing us out? You’re not doing enough, so figure it out.” As a teacher we are juggling the demands.

And then keeping it in perspective…

Parents are struggling, working from home or away from home, trying to supervise multiple children, multiple classroom expectations. They are overwhelmed. They don’t know how to get their kids to engage in work or disengage from the screen. They don’t understand the course content, they need to hold work meetings and are hoping that their child is doing math. They have to leave home to shop, to go to the office. They’re worried about older parents, meeting their rent, keeping their job. Their partner is an essential employee who can’t come home. They wish the social distancing would end.

For some, it is the perfect time to slow down, to reconnect, simplify. It can be a time where children learn responsibility, life skills or how to self navigate. However, it is also a time where children are going hungry because their breakfast and lunch come from school. Their parents are working extra hours, so they are responsible for their siblings. It is a time where their safe haven, their escape from abuse or neglect is no longer available. It is a period where adults can spend quality time with family, but for others they can no longer escape the abuse or they are on the front lines, fighting COVID. It is an era that illustrates the good, the bad, and the ugly.

During this “pandemic” what it all boils down to, is that there will be good experiences and bad.  Let’s not gloss over the bad, but rather recognize it while embracing the good. At the end of the day let’s all acknowledge that in these unchartered waters…We are all doing the absolute best that we can.