Tuesday Tea Time with Claire

Be Resilient & Teach Resiliency

Why not be proud of who we are? Why not be proud to say we are teachers? Why not allow ourselves to take pride in our life’s work? We so easily forget that the occupation we all choose to stick with everyday is something to be proud of. All teachers know the hard part isn’t teaching our students endless academic skills. The hardest part of teaching is the emotional role we take on caring for our students. We know all too well, it is never an easy job. While we’re at it, let’s be honest and admit it is not always an easy lifestyle to choose either. 

We can’t even pretend not take our work home. The lives some of our students lead will haunt us for a lifetime. We can’t help but to go home after a long day and worry about our students. Did they make it home safely? Are they even safe at home? Will they show up tomorrow? Will they show up with more bruises? Will they show up with more emotional scaring? Will they disappear again for weeks at a time? Will there be more teen pregnancies this year? Will they go hungry? Will they somehow get their homework done while babysitting their five younger siblings?

It is beyond devastating to me how many students feel their teachers are more supportive than their own families. It never ceases to amaze me at how resilient my students can be. Every year on the first day of school, I introduce myself to my high school students who all have various so called “disabilities” (I will get on my soap box about that subject another day). I tell them my favorite word in the entire world is resiliency. My main goal every year is to keep myself resilient in hopes of being able to model to my students how to become resilient human beings. 

Some days it is nearly impossible to see the difference we are making in our students’ lives. There are so many uncontrollable hurdles placed in front of our students and ourselves every day. We must stay resilient. We must keep teaching. We must keep being proud of what we do and who we are. We must teach our students to be proud of who they are to help them survive and become resilient human beings. 

Cheers to taking the advice of the wise tea bag, “Be proud of who you are”. Cheers to being resilient. Cheers to teaching our students to be resilient. Take a few moments to relax and enjoy your tea. You deserve it.