Creating the Space for Teacher Self-Care

Dear fellow teachers in the trenches….

Is that salutation a little hyperbolic?  Perhaps on most weeks, but this week it definitely felt like we were preparing for the unknown, maybe not a battle per se, but similar.  Especially a battle for our time and space for our own teacher self-care.

So in that spirit, I wanted to share something that I have been pondering, and want to offer it to you if you are still looking for or could always use some more support…

On Friday, I walked into my office at home after a long week of really struggling with school and looked at where I hang all of my quotes and wisdoms and reminders and one caught my eye immediately,

“The problem I want to solve is to help teachers build resilience during these unknown times by creating the space for teachers to do this work.”  

After reading that, I reflected on if that is what I’m actually doing in my work with teachers or students.

When I first envisioned Teaching Well, I envisioned a symbolic “well” where teachers could go to just check in, be, share, laugh, cry, sit in silence, whatever they need.  It would be a refuge, a filling station.  

If you want to know how Teaching Well may be different than other wellness programs, check out the updated About page for some specifics of what influence this work.

Now that this community is starting to grow, I want to bring that vision into a more clear view.

So here’s the vision. 

Ask yourself…Do you want to share this space with fellow teachers?

It will be a community of practice where teachers meet to hold space together. 

All that means is that you have to show up and be present and honest. 

It means you don’t have to prepare anything.  You don’t have to present anything.  You don’t have to be anything but who you are and how you’re feeling that day.

This will not be a monthly book club or themed workshop or skill building activity. 

A basic framework would guide our time together that would remain consistent and routine, but it’s not going to guarantee to solve all your problems, teach you the latest tech tool, guarantee engagement, solve your grading problems, or teach you how to organize your desk, classroom or your lesson plans.  

Those things may happen, but what I will say is that you will be a part of a caring, community of practicing teachers who are supporting each other through the most collectively difficult year in recent memory.  

What this also will not be is a completely mired in the problem, bitch fest that leaves us all feeling worse than when we arrived.

It will be a space of honest and open sharing and support.  Advice is discouraged. Compassion is necessary.

Look I woke up this morning after a day of tears both expressed and repressed, this is what came to me to share and create. 

What I was guided to do is to get back to basics with Teaching Well: offering my time and energy to put something on the calendar.  Show up and hold this space for other teachers who need that too.

So I’m sharing it.  

I can only create that space if it’s something that people are interested in occupying.

If this sounds like something you might be remotely interested in, please let me know {HERE}. 

====>>>> ADD YOUR NAME TO THE LIST HERE <<<<======

You won’t be obligated to anything, I just have limited time and resources and want to focus on the things that matter to all of you. 

If you think there are more people who may be interested, but they don’t get the newsletter, let me know that too. Or forward this to them and ask them to email me or put their name on the interested form.

I am grateful to have a work community that gives me that space. 

Let’s just show up for one another and create the space that we need so that we can do the work that we need to do that no one else quite understands right now.

If you’re willing and able, I would love to co-create that with you!

====>>>> ADD YOUR NAME TO THE LIST HERE <<<<======