This was a slightly longer video than I usually take the time to watch, but it resonated with me as a parent. Lately, I see and hear all kinds of insults and pessimistic ideas about our younger generation (Gen Z). To be blunt, it really aggravates me. It never sits well with me when I hear those things, but I also understand most people do not get to see the incredible imaginative motivations that will change this world for the better because their careers do not allow them to get to know a multitude of people under the age of 25. The words often describing youth are: impatient, distracted, entitled, and apathetic (Turner). However, it is important to take into consideration the following quotes from this video that I've included below. The ideas in parenthesis are my own thoughts. "This generation is impatient because they are the digital generation. They have spent their ENTIRE lives using the phones, tablets, computers, and televisions WE have given them. Producing dopamine, this causes them to be addicts of instant gratification." "This generation is distracted because we've left them with a planet that's a mess, and they are left to have to solve everything from global warming, homelessness, and inequalities just to name a few." *(This small list doesn't include the financial issues they are going to be forced to figure out if we wish to remain a powerful nation)*. "This generation is entitled. Yes, entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as we all are. Unfortunately, how we've left the planet, it's unlikely they will ever really experience this." (Note the Pledge of Allegiance, "...liberty and justice for all." Does anyone really believe we are currently abiding by this commitment that I say every day on the announcements? If so, I will ask you how you currently feel about religions, sexuality, race, and gender that are different from your own. Do you wish them the same liberties as yourself? Do you view their fight for equality as entitlement? Reality check, they don't want more rights as you..just the same ones as you.) "This generation is apathetic. Of course they are...given the decisions that we make as parents and the political choices we make along with the government officials we elect to represent our children (DeVos...for one. How do we expect them to be anything else when we've numbed their brains with our views of what is politically right and wrong, numbed their brains with processed foods, and numbed their brains with the idea that their opinions aren't valid because they don't have the aged wisdom as people older than them)." Lastly, this, ""You are not who you believe you are, you are not who you think others believe you are, you are exactly who your children consider you to be." I end in asking you to seek understanding. This is the generation that will be taking care of us. Treat them accordingly, lift them up, encourage them, discipline them, demand them to work hard and problem solve. They will rise to the occasion when we are willing to present them with it. Do not stick a tablet in front of a toddler when they are acting like a toddler. Instead, help them work through their frustrations through empathy and patient guidance. Do not count out someone's ideas because they are 16 or 20, but listen. They have more wisdom than we think. **I didn't write this because I want to cause any conflict, but new ways of thinking help us grow. Therefore, read and ponder.**
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This marks my third pregnancy as a teacher. Two of these pregnancies were at my current place of employment: Fennimore Community Schools.
Before I get started, I'd like to note just how meaningful it is that our district has the word "community" right in our name. For, we are the definition of community and hold all of the positive connotations associated with the word. My second pregnancy was cut short as I miscarried at 19 weeks last December. I was just shy of halfway. This would prove to be the toughest hardship in my life to date. My husband and I struggled with, "Why?" We struggled together and persevered through the holiday season. They say it takes a village to raise a child. After that experience, my family came to an understanding of what that really means. The need to feel understood, to be held, to be loved was ever present as I tried to navigate through this trialing time. With that said, those basic needs removed me from my adult mindset and I felt like a child who couldn't feel her self-worth, I really lost all understanding of it, and yearned for safety and love. *Note Maslow's hierarchy of needs* This is when the "village" got to work. To them, it was clear what I needed. I was a child in need of raising, maybe not in the literal sense, but spiritually indeed. Without hesitation, bouquets of flowers began arriving at our door five at a time, text messages flooded our phones from concerned Fennimore citizens and neighbors, food was brought to our doorstep in hopes to bring comfort, and prayers were heard all around. Our small town, does this for everyone continuously, without hesitation, without request. This is a special place. Shortly after this, our town got to work on extravagant fundraisers for our beloved citizens affected by cancer. This was then followed by an outcry of our whole town coming together to help our students and families as they navigated the struggle of losing Aydin, only a junior, unexpectedly. I've decided in the mind of our community, we are all children. This is beautiful. We all find ourselves in times where we need to feel belonging again before we can flourish and continue on; we all face trials. This community excels at filling those needs and nurturing each other's souls. I am so thankful that life has brought me to this tiny town nestled in the hills. Thank you, Fennimore. I read a Facebook post a few weeks ago. It was one of those that I read reluctantly because there was nothing interesting to read in the news, and I had just finished the book Tears Of A Tiger by Sharon Draper and was then wasting my time on social media while contemplating what book I would finish next out of the LARGE pile I have on my night stand.
It ended up being a life changer for me. I shared it with most of my classes because I hoped they could take something from it as well. I care so deeply about the well-being of my students and I hoped the following ideas would stick with them throughout the remainder of their lives. It was a story about a woman who ran into another person. Literally, body-to-body collision. This incident caused her to spill her hot coffee all over herself. You know, the coffee she had to have every morning for sheer survival? For everyone's survival? She was dependent on that cup of joe. She cursed. She was mad. She yelled. She stormed off. She had nothing to drink. It ruined her entire day. Here's where the analogy begins. When you feel the negative impacts this unpredictable life throws your way, what spills out of your cup? In her circumstance, it was hot coffee, and, worse, it was anger and blame. What about when life throws you big time, life-altering, negative impacts? What spills out of your "cup"? The one that should always be half full, the one that should maybe just always be full? Seriously, though, we are a lot like this woman. We walk around everywhere holding a cup. Our cup is vulnerable to be hit with the impact of life at any moment. When it does, what spills out of us? It depends on what we fill it with. It's not enough to have a full cup. It needs to contain the elements that keep you going, keeps you grateful. This story made me think about what I am "filling my cup with" during my days. It made me think about my recent circumstances that were entirely unexpected, incredibly sad, and made me question life as I knew it. How did I react, rather, what spilled out of my cup? At first, pure anger. However, fairly quickly, I began dripping with a new appreciation for life. If nothing is a guarantee then everything I already have is a blessing. Gratitude is everything. Optimism needs to be where you place your stubbornness. Mundane tasks became bonus rounds because I was alive and able to do them. I realized that I have spent my life filling my cup with optimism, appreciation, gratitude, and self-worth. Therefore, when life decided to knock my cup out of my hands without any plan to pick it back up, what spewed out was a series situations I no longer took for granted. If I had spent my life carrying around hatred, selfishness, negativity, and feeling like the world owes me something simply because I exist, I would have spilled that all right back out and created a mess in my life, left it somewhere, quite possibly in the hands and hearts of those I wanted to blame, and walked away empty handed. I also realized that keeping my cup full with these things meant I had enough to share with my students. In hopes they will continue to fill their own cups and pour some into another soul someday. I ask again: What do you fill your cup with? What will flood out from you when you're down and out? Towards the end of each semester, I tell students to reflect on what they've learned. What will you take with you? What profound realizations stuck with you after relating to a character or seeing another point of view? They are also expected to retain everything they've learned from September to December and show it off on a semester final. So, I decided I should reflect too.
Initially when I think about reflecting I think about little notes I've left on different lessons for things I'd like to change for the following year. I worry about particular students who I fear will not retain the skills we worked so hard to hone. I smile in thought about students who had moments where the lesson or standard finally clicked and they moved into proficiency. One thing I've never done, until now, is reflect on myself. Truly. Not my teaching, not my lessons, not my tests. Me. Who was I the last four months? Was I the teacher I was motivated to be in August? Did I come to school tired? And, did I show it? As humans we are always changing and always growing. Teachers are no exceptions. Self-reflection is so important to the human experience because we cannot grow into someone better if we do not understand where we are. My self-reflection on the last four months of teaching goes like this: I built. I learned. I became a better version of me. I built positive relationships with so many students and it created a space within my classroom in which I enjoyed being every day. I spent more time establishing those relationships than I ever have before, and it has made an astounding difference. I am so thankful for each of my students and their unique intelligence they all bring. I learned a lot about the power of repetition. I decided that students need more than one opportunity to show what they have learned. That realization has changed my teaching. It's changed me. It has reminded me that failing isn't a failure; not trying again after, however, is. I believe the day I talked to my sophomores about this was a powerful day. I hope to encourage my students over and over that failure is natural, but the perseverance to work hard for the next time is something that takes grit. Grit is something you cultivate from trying again and again and again. Grit is doing whatever it takes to get better. Lastly, I became a better version of me. I have my students to thank for that. I saw the way they took advantage of the second chances on essays that I gave them. I witnessed them challenge each other, work together, and take charge of their own learning. Sometimes all three at once. That makes a teacher think. I began to take a look at my life. Was I doing those things? Not always. At home, were we challenging each other in healthy ways? Using teamwork and still remaining as individuals? I started appreciating the moments at home when my husband and I worked fluidly together during mundane work day mornings. We helped each other and we questioned each other when we weren't. We always said I love you, and it created a positive atmosphere. So when I walked out the back door and headed down the street to work, I was able to focus on the day ahead and not a mess I'd left behind. I hope my students feel that way when they leave my room. I hope they feel ready to take on the world's challenges, and not be concerned about the work they just left in the turn-in basket. Even if they think they failed. I hope that if they feel that they failed, they never feel that they are failures. It wouldn't be right for a teacher to not include her students when self-reflecting. I am at peace even as the stress of the end of the semester is only a quick twenty days away. I have the best students. I have the best job. I will continue to build, learn, and become better. A day to remember those who served so that I am able to teach and my students are able to learn. Today I am reflecting on what it means to have the freedoms to do all of the things I love because others gave up absolutely everything to fight for us all to do just that. It makes me want to be better. It makes me want to be successful. It forces me to see the reality in which I live in. We spend so much time criticizing our communities, our peers, and ourselves. We think we deserve more of something or better of everything. We tend to forget that for all the bad we see and hear, there is so much to be thankful for. We have our freedom. When considering someone came home from some foreign place full of nightmares and injuries so that I have a right to criticize is mind-altering. They left home so that our homes are left untarnished by the gloom of war.
Today I am humbled and thankful. |
TeacherI will occasionally post a blog entry on various topics about life to let my students know I'm human. |