I see you, I hear you, I'm praying for you

 

To say things are challenging is an understatement.

Maybe you're going through a debilitating health challenge, and you're whispering between the tears, "please God, help me."

Maybe you're going through a financial difficulty, you're drowning in bills, life is too expensive, and you need to buy a new stove with money that doesn't exist.

Perhaps you're managing your finances and health by the thinnest of hairs, but your job is toxic and draining, and you don't have options right now.

There's a family situation that feels impossible right now.  Sleepless nights, endless fights, responsibility for a sick loved one, children who need extra support and guidance.

You go on social media to distract and forget yourself, and yet, you feel worse because either people are living their best lives or there's someone who is dealing with a more horrible situation than you. Guilt and jealousy compound your situation.

Let's not even touch national and world events: apocalyptic wars, natural disasters, pain, suffering, and injustice.

At the end of each day, you ask yourself, "how did I get through today?" 

At night, you force yourself to pray.  Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me, a sinner.

You try to find something to be grateful for.

You ask God to lighten your load, to grant you the strength to endure, to enlighten your darkness.

And then you wait.  You hope.  You want your suffering to have meaning.

I see you.  I hear you.  I'm praying that merciful Lord envelops you in His love.

Please DM me @workshopclassroom if you would like me to pray for you.

Laying the foundation from the start

Laying a strong foundation for your classroom culture, whether you're a homeroom teacher, a specialist, or an interventionist, is a significant task.  No matter how long you've been teaching, you definitely map out those first few weeks of school to cover your expectations, procedures, and the ethos.  All your read alouds, morning meetings, and activities revolve around building this important foundation so that the school year can run more smoothly.

1. Simple guidelines with specific acceptable behaviors

For my students in grades 3-5, I begin with the foundational classroom culture statement: I want everyone to grow and succeed.  Which means we need to agree on certain expectations so that all learners have the opportunity to reach their goals.  This leads to the presentation of 4 simple guidelines: 

• Be respectful to the teachers, your classmates, and the school.
• Be responsible for your learning and your decisions.
• Use kind and polite words and actions.
• Make safe choices.

Not the Summer Slide, but Summer of Growth

Ah, summer time.  Most teachers feel like this:

But many families may have mixed feelings about the long summer days.

They're grateful for the break from school, but they may have some wonderings:  what do the kids do with so much unstructured time?  Will my child maintain what he learned over the past school year or will he regress?