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this is hard
The common 2020 phrase “We’ve got this” got old for me real fast. It didn’t bother me at first; but as the struggle increased and my goals shifted towards survival, I started to bristle each time I came across that phrase.
When we’re dealing with something hard, let’s name that. This is hard. This is SO hard. Learning to accept that we’re living and working under difficult circumstances is way more helpful than a flippant positive phrase, “We’ve got this!”
After we acknowledge the struggle, we can work on managing the day to day. We don’t have to “have this” in order to make it through this crazy time. We simply need to handle the present moment to the best of our ability. I think dealing with the ever changing reality helped me to truly start focusing on one day at a time. Completely re-doing plans on a minutes notice forces us not to look too far ahead anyway. Who wants to make plans that might get thrown out the window tomorrow? I’m a big fan of “tentative planning” this year. As in, I have an idea of where we’ll be next week but I’m not planning much further out.
One Day at a Time
When no one has the answers and everyone is figuring things out as they go, the best bet is to take things one day at a time. If that’s too much, break it down even further. Just make it through the morning, or your first class. If you’re struggling, please know I have been too. There are better days and days that seem hard for no reason at all. Just do your best and that’s all you can do.
Push Back
This brings me to my biggest takeaway from recent months. In our profession as educators, it seems we are always prepared and willing to “figure it out” and “make it work.”
Why must we accept this pressure time and time again? Requesting more resources or more time should not feel like we didn’t do our job or accomplish our goals. This year especially, we are asked to do too much. What if we pushed back a little and started working to balance our jobs with our lives? What would it feel like to do as much as you can in one day and then go home and start again the next day?
I know what you’re probably thinking. The job of a teacher is never done. There is no way to accomplish all the tasks on our list in 40 hours each week. BUT! I realized I cannot go on without at least attempting to find a better balance. I used to push myself to go above and beyond in everything. I take pride in my work and I want to do my best for my students. That said, a burnt out Señora isn’t what’s best for them.
Taking time and space for myself and my family makes me a better teacher. Slowing down makes me a better teacher. I know it’s always a work in progress–but I encourage you to find some way to slow down or find balance. It might not happen every day, but a start is a start! Easing up on yourself at least some of the time will help you make it through the other long days.
Finding balance is not an easy task for a teacher. The more we just say it’s important to have a good “work/life balance” or “practice self care,” the less impact they have.
The less we think about what it actually means to find balance in your life. It turns out, finding balance has been my saving grace this year. Finding balance as a teacher and a person might just help me continue on with teaching.
Reflecting on Balance
I have been reflecting on my relationship with the idea of balance. Comparing the first few years of my teaching career to the present day has been so interesting. Although I didn’t recognize it, I had very little balance in my life the first 5+ years of teaching. I loved my job and talked about it all the time; I just wasn’t thinking about the effect that had on my life.
I spent tons of time at work (after school and usually part of a weekend day) and work was always on my mind. Part of that extra time was simply because I was a new teacher and I was going through the process of learning so many new things.
However, I could have benefitted from implementing some boundaries and looking at the balance that was present (or not so present) in my life.
My Journey with Balance
My journey with balance improved a little bit here and there. Starting a family and having children meant I had to start finding ways to get work done more quickly. But it also meant I started bringing work home instead of finishing it before leaving school.
Progress is progress, though, and it felt good to switch from wearing the “teacher hat” to my “mama hat” everyday as I picked up my daughters from daycare.
Fast forward to our initial pandemic days and emergency virtual teaching threw away all the balance I had achieved over the years. All of a sudden I was trying to figure out how to teach online and provide feedback for 300+ students. Not. Enough. Hours. In. The. Day!
Forced to Find Balance
Ultimately, what we went through as teachers during the first years of the pandemic is what forced me to find a realistic balance in my life. When public perception of teachers went sour while the demands on our time and flexibility increased, it broke me. Almost every day it felt like I had nothing left to give.
Thankfully, I made it through and am solidly on the other side. Teachers have always operated under the premise of “we’ll figure it out” or “we’ll make it work.” At some point, this becomes impossible.
As I worked to rebuild and put myself back together, I found myself empowered to say “enough is enough” and “done is better than perfect.” No more working past contract hours (I don’t always meet this goal!), no more thinking about work all the time, no more feeling guilty for what didn’t get done today.
Is there another way?
I had no idea how freeing it could be to finally think about other things! Instead of thinking about what’s still left to do at work on the drive home, I started intentionally thinking about what I could do for myself that evening.
Was I excited to keep reading a particular book, did I want to get out for a walk or work on a knitting project? Thinking about and planning time for things I enjoy doing outside of work sure sounds like balance to me.
Life is less stressful now that I’ve found more balance. While my job is important to me, it doesn’t define who I am. Switching my focus from work to home has allowed those bad days to roll off my back. Students wouldn’t listen? Spent all day re-teaching behaviors? It simply doesn’t matter so much once I’m home and engaged with something else. Deciding to seek balance in my life has been so impactful.
So…how does one find balance in their life?
It definitely won’t magically appear. I have found that it has to be a choice I continually make for myself.
One place to start is accepting that you simply can’t do all the things.
Teachers are always coming up with creative and fun ideas but at some point there literally isn’t enough time to do it all. Additionally, teachers are kind and caring people. They generally want to help and say yes to the requests that are made of them. BUT, most often the time spent creating the new activity or attending another committee meeting is our own personal time.
When I started guarding my “yes-es” I realized that having unplanned time is so good for me! This unplanned time happens at school and at home. If I decide to not recreate the wheel or make a brand new review game, I might end up having time to plan ahead or finish grading something on Seesaw.
The same goes for at home. When I decided to step back from attending every PTO meeting, I gained an extra weeknight home with my family every month. It didn’t seem like such a huge commitment but those little things add up. And they can expand to additional responsibilities / projects.
I truly view the sense of balance in my life as an ongoing work in progress. My goal is to have balance more often than not. Some days I can leave work right away but other days I just can’t and that’s okay. Sometimes I find myself saying yes to a project I’m really excited about. (Scholastic Book Fair, anyone? I LOVE the book fair!) But, the important thing is understanding the time commitment and being prepared for a period of less balance.
One final thought about balance. We always talk about work/life balance…but what about balance at home? There’s nothing worse than working all day long only to get home and work all night long on household jobs. Finding a realistic balance between rest and household jobs is important as well.
Wherever you are in your relationship with balance, I encourage you to take some time to reflect. Make a list of things you enjoy doing, things that make you feel like your best self. If you haven’t done one of them in a long time, get to it!
Woah, start the countdown to the end of the school year! I love this time of year. You can actually feel the energy and excitement in the air as the weather gets warmer and the calendar moves closer to summer.
I find myself looking at my planner every year around this time–trying to make sure I can fit everything in and still have time for some fun end of year activities before we send the kids home for summer.
My Favorite End of Year Activities for Spanish Class
Reading Stories
It won’t come as a surprise that I love teaching with stories. Reading and talking about summer can be a fun way to capture student attention towards the end of the school year.
Kindergarten & 1st grade
I have several super simple stories that I choose from for kindergarten and first grade at the end of the school year. I have several in the Hay un Animal series that are a fun way to review basic vocabulary and structures they’ve learned throughout the school year.
2nd grade
My second graders love reading the story, El Verano de Llama. We read the story, act it out, connect the story to our own opinions, and match up photos with sentences. After all that hard work, I love to bring out a student favorite and do a Kahoot based on the story.
3rd grade
My third graders learn about Puerto Rico and I’m so hoping we have time to read the fabulous story, El Chivo en la Huerta, by Mundo de Pepita. This is such a fun story to read and act out. The story is more involved than others they’ve read and I love to see students rise to the challenge.
End of Year Review Games
Celebrating what students have learned throughout the school year can help end the year on a positive note. Review games with content they already know is such a great confidence booster at the end of the year. Plus it’s fun to see their faces light up as students find they easily know the answers.
I love to mix it up and have some lessons with technology and some without. My favorite techy review games are Kahoot, Blooket, and Baamboozle.
I don’t play it often and perhaps that’s why they love it, but a good old fashioned game of Bingo is my favorite non-tech review game. It never fails–the lesson following a Bingo lesson has students requesting to play it again. 😂
Walk to Read Activities
I find students to have extra squirrely energy as the year winds down. This always has me looking for ways to intentionally allow for them to move. Walk to Read or Write the Room activities are great for that!
Since I don’t have a classroom dedicated to Spanish, I tend to use Walk to Read more often. That way I can set it up in the grade level hallway and use it with each class I teach.
In my 1st and 2nd grade classes I’ve found great success keeping things simple using this activity that focuses on basic sentences with colors. First, I post the clues around the hallway for students to find. They aren’t really “hiding,” just taped on the walls with the goal of having to walk around to find them.
Students have to go out and find one clue at a time. After reading it, they come back to their desk and color the correct letter the correct color. Then they can head back out to the hall in search of another clue.
Printing the clues on colored paper helps them stand out a little better. *There’s nothing worse than making it too challenging at this level! (And when you have limited time for your lesson…)
You can create a Walk to Read Activity with whatever content that makes the most sense for your students. They could read sentences describing an animal or a shape and then come back to color it. They could read opinion sentences written by people at school and then record it. Once you start brainstorming, the possibilities are endless!
Go Outside and Play
Lastly, it’s so great to just take a day and let the kids play outside. I love to bring groups of students outside to draw with chalk. It’s a simple way to get outside while still incorporating our content. If we’re working on a story, I have them draw their favorite part of the story.
Planning fun lessons that you’ll enjoy teaching can definitely help you make the most of the last few weeks of school. ¡Suerte, profes!