It’s half way through 2020 and I have just gotten back from celebrating drinks with my faculty to celebrate the end of the term. We are finally on the mid-year break in a college which houses nearly 2,000 in Sydney, Australia.
In the last 4 months, I have acquired so many new skills that I thought I would never be able to learn. You see, I am a teacher. I am one of those people who proudly stepped up and did my bit.
I would like to use this post to explain why teachers are amazing human beings. Today I look back with pride on the last term and a half.
We have worked non-stop for the last 4 months juggling online remote learning and face to face teaching. Like many, I felt anxious. I have an elderly parent and I didn’t, and still do not, want to get Covid19.
I watched in awe as my colleagues often put their own families second to step up and do what was needed.
We learned to teach online, surviving implementing 3 different platforms. We then juggled doing part remote teaching and part face-to-face. Parent/Teacher nights were held remotely online. Meetings were spent looking at faces on a screen.
But as I felt the stress of my own fears gurgle away, I watched the faces of my students on the first day back at the College. They were so happy to see me, and I them.
You see in all of this, we have missed our students. We joined the profession to bounce off them in the classrooms, to work to inspire and educate. My community bolstered me, the parents supported me and often sent emails and messages that helped me put one foot in front of the other.
Yet sometimes the media continued to slam teachers; some saying we need a pay cut because we were not on campus. Others making nasty comments that were hurtful and unnecessary.
Today in my last class, one of my students mistakenly called me “Mum.” I just smiled. He then said: “I know this was hard for you this term. My family and I watched as the staff worked so hard to put us first. Mostly when I came back, I knew that you would look after me just like my Mum does. Thank you for all you have done.”
I don’t do it for the gratitude. I do it in the hope that I inspire good humans, ones who will make a difference in the world and bring to it justice and kindness.
So please, if you know a teacher, send them a note, an email, give them a pat on the back. They are often the unsung heroes.
Namaste. I hope all of you are safe in these crazy times.
