By Dana Bockman, Facilitator of Instruction and Assessment This past Friday, Mr. Lane shared data from two student focus groups on racial inequities and barriers within our school system. We listened to the first-hand experiences of Iowa students. We were "called to action", to reflect, to learn, and have conversations with colleagues. This is a starting point in our journey of growing, understanding, and evolving as humans and educators. In case you missed the April 23 webinar and focus group feedback, you can access them here: On this day, we also acknowledged that this will be ongoing work and it will take time. We will not have all the answers tomorrow, nor know all we need to know anytime soon. Rather, we commit to active listening, to deepening our understanding, and recognizing the inequities and barriers to learning that exist for our students. We commit to putting into action those things that will remove the barriers and provide a more equitable educational experience for every one of our students. It is important to acknowledge that although the April 23rd presentation focused on racial inequities and barriers to learning, race is only one area of educational equity in which we must increase understanding and work to remove barriers to learning. Let's continue to reflect and keep the conversation going by reading Equity in Education: What it Is and Why it Matters. Take some time to self-reflect on these two questions:
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By Liz Fox, DHS English Teacher & Collaborative Teacher I know April is a stressful month for teachers, but this feels different. I’ve caught myself wondering if something’s wrong with me–have I really lost my love of teaching? Then Shannon Horton shared with me a podcast that helped me make sense of how I’ve been feeling. The transcript starts in this way: “The light at the end of the COVID tunnel is tenuously appearing — yet many of us feel as exhausted as at any time in the past year. Memory problems; short fuses; fractured productivity; sudden drops into despair. We’re at once excited and unnerved by the prospect of life opening up again. Clinical psychologist Christine Runyan explains the physiological effects of a year of pandemic and social isolation — what’s happened at the level of stress response and nervous system, the literal mind-body connection. And she offers simple strategies to regain our fullest capacities for the world ahead.” Reading that intro alone validated my concerns, and learning about ways to feel more like my normal self was comforting. Runyan explains that threat is always detected at the level of our nervous system. It keeps us safe and alive, and it’s really sensitive. When it detects threats, it helps prepare the body for fight vs flight. When the threat subsides, the parasympathetic nervous system helps to calm us down. Here we are - a year later - and the threat never went away. Add to that the many stressors that come with teaching during a pandemic–our energy levels have been depleted due to many circumstances. The state of apathy and numbing is our body protecting us, a natural variation of our system. Instead of asking, “What’s wrong with me?” - it’s healthy to understand this is a normal consequence of the situation we are in. Here are some suggestions Runyan shared to help feel better: Be curious - be compassionate: especially to yourself. 1. Name it; it will leverage your thinking brain. It will help quiet your nervous system. 2. Take a breath, especially a long exhale. 3. Scents help bring about pleasantness as does music. Both send messages of comfort and safety. 4. Work with your body - intentionally send a message of safety to the nervous system. Something as simple as putting our feet flat on the floor and pressing the balls of the feet to the floor. 5. Make contact with yourself: put your hand on your heart. Our superpower is our self awareness: stepping out of autopilot and pause. Runyan quotes Viktor E. Frankl: She closes by sharing that compassion and gratitude helps us to push away the natural response of looking for what’s wrong.
Listening to this podcast allowed me to navigate these sensations of overwhelming depletion of energy and feelings of doubt and inadequacy. It’s allowed me to stay open to the ways that teaching brings me joy, and that came as a huge relief. I hope this information helps others in similar ways. There is light at the end of the tunnel: we can do this! (For those days when my energy is still at a low, I found helpful this article listing five strategies for salvaging an unproductive day.) |
AuthorsDCSD Teachers, Instructional Coaches, Learner Advocate, and Collaborative Teachers Archives
April 2024
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