Monclova Primary
Weekly Bulletin
Events for Week of May 28 - June 3
Monday, May 28
NO SCHOOL - MEMORIAL DAY
Tuesday, May 29
LPDC Meeting - 4:00 pm
Wednesday, May 30
Grades due by 8:00 am
4th Grade Bridging Ceremony - 10:00 am - 11:00 am
Thursday, May 31
LAST DAY FOR STUDENTS
MAPS Last Day Blast - 9:00 - 11:00 am
Send home IEP progress reports and RIMP progress reports
Staff Year End Party - 4:30
Friday, June 1
TEACHER WORK DAY
Retirement Program - 8:00 am - mandatory for anyone scheduled to work this day - per Dr. Fritz
Announcements
Thank you:
Staff for donating to the YMCA scholarship fund.
Staff that assisted or stopped by Scoops for Schools, the turn out by staff and Monclova families was outstanding!
Jill for your efforts in pulling off Monclova's Got Talent Show! Your work to do what's best for kids is greatly appreciated!
Reminders:
The link to sign up for the CREATE! conference is now available. I highly recommend attending this conference. It's free to AW employees and is hosted at the AW high school. There are many great presentations available and worth your time. You will definitely walk away with some new ideas to implement immediately. Lisa Ernsthausen shared an email with all of you this week with other technology PD opportunities.
Don't forget to turn in your extra 3 hours of parent conferences log!
Last Day Blast and LAST DAY FOR STUDENTS! - May 31
Teacher Workday and Mandatory retirement program - June 1
Words of Wisdom and Action..............................
Each year I have challenged you to focus on relationships. Without relationships, teaching and learning can not occur. All of you have had failures, frustrations, celebrations and successes this year. If you are feeling emotions when dealing with your students and their learning, you have built a relationship. I know you have students that you worry about as we say good bye next week, and that is only normal and just shows how much you care for your students. I have included an article that touches on these end of the year emotions that only educators can understand!
The Emotional Toll of the Last Day
May 25, 2017 Beth MaloneyEducation, Elementary, Life in the Classroom, Social Issues
Yesterday was the last day of school. There was a pizza party, yearbook signing, and lots of adorably dramatic pre-teen tears mingling with shouts of joy. In theory, I should have woken up today with a feeling of freedom and joy at the thought of the summer ahead. But I didn’t. My heart is heavy.
Here’s what people who aren’t teachers don’t understand…your students don’t stop being your students when the bell rings on that last bittersweet day of the school year. You cannot spend more than 1,000 hours with people that you’re trying to understand, to reach, to teach, without caring a lot about them. That’s the emotional toll of teaching, especially at the end of the year when we say our goodbyes. I’m going to worry about some of my students being hungry without school breakfast and lunch over the summer. I’ll wonder if they’re selecting good-fit books (or any books at all). I’ll worry if one will continue to struggle with homelessness, quite a few with anxiety and depression and if others will be taken out of the foster care system and returned to their families.
The emotional toll of teaching is very real. A good teacher knows that learning occurs only when a relationship is built between the student and teacher. In order to teach well, teachers have to draw students’ attention, they have to motivate each individual student, and they have to ensure orderly classroom management with increasingly large class sizes. We have to practice large amounts of patience while inspiring achievement and help students knock down barriers to their success. These require that teachers show certain emotions while suppressing others. Studies have shown that the emotional toll on teachers leads to emotional exhaustion and burnout. It is also a crucial area to study as we begin to understand the many factors that cause our teacher retention crisis.
I’ve been a parent, friend, counselor, cook, social worker, cheerleader, and even nurse to my 65 students this year. With changing family and societal dynamics, being all things for students is increasingly important while becoming increasingly challenging. I’ve cried with them over dead hamsters and separating parents, sang songs and danced with them, and cheered for them at band concerts and talent shows. I’ve let them into my life, and I’ve been included in theirs.
It may be hard for someone outside the profession to understand, but there is no such thing as goodbye between a teacher and a student. Teachers never leave work at home and never leave students out of their minds or hearts.
Some of this year’s students will come back for a hug and a visit every day until they go to high school. Some will come back for yearly visits and send occasional emails. Some will vanish. But I’ll never forget any of them.
Parker Palmer, in his inspirational book The Courage to Teach, explains it best, “Small wonder, then, that teaching tugs at the heart, opens the heart, even breaks the heart – and the more one loves teaching, the more heartbreaking it can be. The courage to teach is the courage to keep one’s heart open in those very moments when the heart is asked to hold more than it is able” (1998, pp.11).
Don’t get me wrong – I am in desperate need of a break from the emotional toll, not to mention the physical and cognitive demands of our job. But my heart aches as I wonder about this kid and that one, and wish that they all return for hugs and high-fives after the break. Until then, I’ll be thinking of them.