Give yourself permission…

This week we’re taking a much needed family getaway. In that vein, I thought I’d leave you just a little invitation…to give yourself permission to _________________ (you can fill in the blank!).

It’s possible that I wrote this for myself, more than I did anyone else. It’s also possible that I need to learn this just as much as anyone. I hope that if it fits, you will give yourself a little permission when/if you need it most…

Give yourself permission….

Give yourself permission to just focus on relationships this school year.

Learn who your students are in a way that you always try but some things get in the way.

Give yourself permission to REALLY put academics on the back burner, for at least the beginning.

Give yourself permission to not cover it all.

Give yourself permission to start out slowly.

We’re all going to be a little rusty.

A little scared.

A little new at this whole thing.

Give yourself permission to take time to breathe.

You don’t have to be perfect.  Really.

You don’t have to accept imperfection in others, but expect perfection from yourself.

Give yourself permission to not get it all done.

Give yourself permission to make mistakes.

We have to be each other’s cheering squads.

We have to have each other’s backs.

It often feels like a cold and callous world

But remember…

Everyone is scared of something. 

For some it’s going to school.

For some it’s staying home.

Some are scared of having nothing.

Others are fearful of losing it all.

And guess what?

You have to juggle and terse out everyone’s fear to get to the root of it all.

And I know you don’t have time for this.

But the truth is if you can find time, you will create time….

So give yourself permission.

Yes, give yourself permission to have a human experience.

To be a human-BEING not always a human-DOING.

Be the teacher that your classroom needs right now.

They don’t need a superhero.

They need someone giving them space (preferably 6 feet apart if you’re in a real classroom)

To try to have a human experience in this intense, unprecedented time.

No one can fault us when we do our best with what we have.

So you have permission to scrap a lesson.

Or create a new one.

Do whatever you need to do with those students in front of you.

They may not know it

But they need permission from you to just be a little one for awhile (even if they think they’re one of the big ones).

This time with you could be their time out or time in.

So give yourself the permission you need to do the job you can do with the time and energy you have.

And give yourself permission to do it your way this year.

Everyone will thank you for that.

Hopefully in time this permission will be granted.

I don’t know that this is actually poetry, but it’s something that looks a little like poetry. 

In any event, if you’d like to move from philosophy to practice, join us for a live workshop on a framework to create a little bit of this CALM Classroom that I am describing above.

We help give each other permission to build those relationships but have practical ways to do that AND we help each other do that together!

All the information can be found HERE.