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This is what teaching is right now in the height of Omicron

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I have Covid along with a number of other teachers right now. 23 are out today from a 70 member staff. I’m a counselor. The nurse asked me to talk with a student who wasn’t feeling well but has had some somatic type complaints in the past. She was crying. She blew her nose in my classroom. I was masked and distanced. She showed up on the Covid positive list the next day. I start having symptoms 3 days later. I can’t say with complete certainty but pretty damn sure it could have been from her. Isolating and using my sick days though I really should have these days covered by the government as others did. I’m not sure what else to do with my life but I don’t really want to do this anymore.

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My husband’s school went into lockdown due to a credible bomb scare. They stayed locked down for two hours and then evacuated for the rest of the day. He texted me updates throughout as I continued to teach. It wasn’t until 3 days later that I registered I probably should have felt fear. How have we gotten to a place in education where your spouse in a lockdown because of a credible threat is not even a blip on your emotional radar?

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I had to retire last year.  I hated going to work.  I feared for my health.  I feared that I would say something wrong and get sued.  I LOVED teaching my subject soooo much but everything else gave me pain and fear.  

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I had to retire last year.  I hated going to work.  I feared for my health.  I feared that I would say something wrong and get sued.  I LOVED teaching my subject soooo much but everything else gave me pain and fear.  

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My pain is now gone. I work two part time jobs to help with the money loss. I miss my friends and the students but fear is gone and I pray for all of you daily. 🙏💜

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I often think that some of the reason we are struggling so much this school year is that we have seen what is on the other side. We have seen injustice in our own children's classes when trying to teach them and our own students simultaneously. But moreso, we know, even if only briefly for some, what a better work-life balance looks like. When COVID first shut down our buildings, I had a more flexible schedule. I could turn my own camera off for a moment of calm. I wasn't being rushed from one class to the next. I wasn't expected to enter 2 grades a week. I had planning time. Heck, I could grade WHILE students were engaged in independent learning or small group work in break outs. I turned off the camera and there I was, with my dog and family. Now, endless after school hours, piles of grading, no down time, no prep time (no subs), lunches taken by meetings or crying, mentally exhausted students and coworkers. There is now zero down time. Zero balance. 

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I often think that some of the reason we are struggling so much this school year is that we have seen what is on the other side. We have seen injustice in our own children's classes when trying to teach them and our own students simultaneously. But moreso, we know, even if only briefly for some, what a better work-life balance looks like. When COVID first shut down our buildings, I had a more flexible schedule. I could turn my own camera off for a moment of calm. I wasn't being rushed from one class to the next. I wasn't expected to enter 2 grades a week. I had planning time. Heck, I could grade WHILE students were engaged in independent learning or small group work in break outs. I turned off the camera and there I was, with my dog and family. Now, endless after school hours, piles of grading, no down time, no prep time (no subs), lunches taken by meetings or crying, mentally exhausted students and coworkers. There is now zero down time. Zero balance. 

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In just one day I got two “problem” students and it is difficult to understand why the white teachers cannot be trained on how to build relationships instead of just passing the buck. The fact that I can handle them does not mean I have to be the only one handling them.

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An administrator bit my head off in front of 25 of my peers for asking if we would be compensated for doing extra work. Admin then wondered why no one was asking additional questions.

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I keep hearing about books (and libraries and librarians) being challenged. I decided today, if that business comes to my district, I might just walk.

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I work in the district that is on the news every night because someone said something dumb. We're in the middle of a nationwide sh*tstorm and teachers just can't go a DAY without having something new to answer for. The latest: some idiot hired by the district went on TV and said it isn't our job to teach content...it's our job to INDOCTRINATE STUDENTS regardless of the opinions of their parents. Can you PLEASE just stop shooting us in the foot? These self-inflicted wounds just add to the burden we already carry because of your past missteps. It's exhausting.

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I was reassigned because of “what’s best for kids” and “numbers in elective classes.” But the truth is that my reassignment benefits TWO kids at an elementary building, and I had classes collapsed at MS/HS that had lots more students in them. All so a colleague can do “student intervention” with a single kid twice per day. The admin lied and moved me because I am closest to retirement and therefore less likely to quit, because they don’t give a flying fig about their staff’s health or wellbeing. You can miss me with the self-care crap. Just, stop it

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This week has been the longest of the 2021-2022 year. We were called “armchair Covid monitoring quarterbacks” by our admin who also called our staff divisive and belittled us in our weekly PD to start the school day Tuesday. Our amazing staff continues to leave-this time was our empathetic Secretary who literally left in the middle of the day b/c she’s doing 2 jobs at once & has finally had enough. One of my sweeties had a literal breakdown & her friends are so worried about him. And I was gaslit by my admin who called me toxic and unsupportive and not a team player b/c of a text I wrote explaining what seniors said in my class. This was a group text to colleagues. Now that space is unsafe for me to share honestly. If I make it thru the year it will only be b/c of my Twitter PLN and supportive family. The exhaustion and added stressors are daily. I am done.

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I feel like I am being asked to wear too many hats...and I am not properly trained for half of the hats I am being asked to wear. I was trained to make and implement lessons. I was kinda trained in restorative practices. I was never trained in trauma-informed practices or SEL. It is just assumed I can implement that support for students. I want to implement these supports well because students need them, but I don't know how to do it properly. I have been doing the best that I can and I want to read and take workshops and learn these practices better, but it is taking every part of me not to break down and quit right now. I feel like I am failing the students. They deserve so much more than I can give them right now.

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Grades closed Friday. Calendar says they must be in and ready to roll by Wednesday. Email comes Monday night saying they need to be in by Tuesday. My anxiety is through the roof right now. You cannot speed that timeline up without warning! I need to get these done but I'm frozen. I'm so tired.

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Caring for the collective good is harder when the collective doesn’t appear to care for its own good. 

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Caring for the collective good is harder when the collective doesn’t appear to care for its own good. 

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So how can I continue to?

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A district where my friends work is about to remove it's mask mandate. That county was one of the highest in the state for cases at one point. Wish them luck 🤞

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I’ve had enough. I resigned and nobody said goodbye. Nobody cared. They never found a replacement so my class was split amongst my other grade-level team. They resented me for quitting. They should be resentful of admin, of this failing system that we call public education. It needs to be reformed. Parents need to be involved. We need to be treated like human beings.

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The neverending carousel. Every 3 weeks we are hiring a new teacher, every time we need a sub another teacher/staff has to fill in. Every time a parent emails questioning curriculum sleep deprivation sets in. This year is every dystopian novel I was forced to read in high school because they said it wouldn't happen here. 

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The neverending carousel. Every 3 weeks we are hiring a new teacher, every time we need a sub another teacher/staff has to fill in. Every time a parent emails questioning curriculum sleep deprivation sets in. This year is every dystopian novel I was forced to read in high school because they said it wouldn't happen here. 

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I am an art teacher. I managed to get a part time job. I did my internship during the pandemic. I taught fuckinf hybrid for months. I feel like I am dying in the amount of tasks I need to do. I cannot imagine doing this for years. My days are 10 hrs+ long. This was my dream job but I feel like a run a marathon each day. Everyone says what I am feeling is normal but I find myself googling jobs with a teaching degree that aren't teaching.

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I am SICK of administration completely ignoring me all year, then choosing to interrupt my protected planning time to tell me that I’m failing my students and not doing what’s best for them…. just because I won’t do a weekly standardized test. You’re not in my room every day. You’re not working with my kids. You have no right to speak on my abilities when you haven’t observed me. Back off and let me do my job.

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I started saying no this year. No, I will not attend after hours meetings. No, I will not cover classes on my prep or breaks. No, I am not going to use scripted curriculum in my classroom. I’ve been surprised, it’s not my administration, it’s my colleagues who have been the least supportive in this setting of boundaries.

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Our list of un-covered teacher absences is long this week. Lots of "covered within" and classes split up into other classes.  I wish we could invite the superintendent and school board members in to cover.
I mentioned sub need to my significant other. He said he wouldn't sub if the pay was $300/day.(I think it's a third of that. )

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My school moves from mandatory masking to optional masking on Monday and I’m truly terrified. Masks felt like the last tiny barrier I had between myself and my students. I can’t risk bringing Covid home to my mother. I wish my Ss would be understanding and respectful of my fears, but I don’t even know how to be vulnerable enough to share them.

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We’re constantly told that admin is here for the kids first, but when we identify the students who need time most supports we have to jump through hoops to get them even a visit to the resource center. At this point I feel like the “we’re for the kids” line is just an excuse to not be “for” anyone, especially not the teachers

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I started to list specific grievances but it'd actually make this an unreasonably long post. Basically, in every area of public education right now I see complete inadequacy or bigotry from those in power (state officials, district admin, site admin) and/or zero consequences for staff noncompliance with actually useful mandates around safety and curriculum.

I'm really just disgusted with the public education system now. I've always seen areas of failure, but I used to hold out hope that things could be fixed, or at least improve. But right now, just across the board, public education is failing to address every single student's needs. What even is the point?