Extend Grace
“Every child deserves a fresh start as often as possible. An invitation to try again with no assumptions attached. We should extend this as often as we desire it ourselves.” ~ Christina Meline
January is a long month in the teaching world. In my opinion, it’s the longest month of the school year! The holiday excitement is over, in many places the weather is uncomfortable, and the students are starting to act like siblings. The school year is taking its emotional toll. You may feel your patience wearing thin and the exhaustion setting in. “I’m out of fresh starts,” you may find yourself feeling.
These past weeks and months have taken a physical toll as well. January is also the time of year when illness is spreading like wildfire in the school building. You are now caring for your students in so many more ways. And if you get sick, you may not be afforded the opportunity of time to rest and recover. Preparing for a sub might take too much time and energy, and there may not be one available anyway. So you go to school and do your best to make it another day. “Fresh start? I’m too tired to try again, for myself or for my students,” you may be thinking.
Teacher, if you are in this space today - emotionally and physically drained - you are not alone. If you are carrying more than your muscles can lift, I feel the stretching and the bruising with you. I don’t know how to fix all the things that have led to this point, but what I do know is you can control some of the weight on your shoulders. You don’t have to carry the “brick” from yesterday - the tense conversation with a colleague, the violent outburst from a student, the interaction with your family member that you wish you could go back and change. Those things are real and heavy and stick with you. But they are also releasable with practice. You are human. Your students are human. You all deserve to begin the day with a fresh start. Yes, the conversations, outbursts, and interactions may happen again, but they may not as well. I invite you to start this day with no assumptions attached. Just take the next step and, in the process, extend grace.
