Dear Master Teacher,
Last year I wrote a letter to my colleagues. It was written on the eve of the first day back after the pandemic. I found it a few days ago and realized maybe in writing a letter to my colleagues 11 months ago, I was starting the Dear Teacher blog and didn't even know it. For anyone who missed the letter the first time it is listed below. I'm amazed by how much of it is still true.
---------------- Some of you may remember many years ago when Mr. Lay ordered a subscription to Master Teacher. Each Monday, we received a different pamphlet in our teacher mailboxes with various tips for improving pedagogical techniques: classroom management, reading across the curriculum, etc. I don’t even know if the Master Teacher subscription still exits, but if it does, I am guessing it’s going to take more than a pamphlet to explain how to transition to digital learning with only two days’ notice. But here we are, as lost as the kid in the back, with a 56 average, who has now missed two weeks of school.
On the surface, this distance learning execution is likely to be an epic fail, as our students might say. At the very least, I am hoping and praying some good things might come out of the madness, but it will only happen if we are bold and brave enough to look for the good even in the bad. If I could give a speech in a group of more than ten of my colleagues this is what I would want to say.
I hope: 1) Maybe from this immersion experience, we can discover a new empathy for students who feel this kind of panic (sometimes through no fault of their own) on a daily basis. 2) I can be part of the solution and not the problem, even when there are more questions than answers. 3) I can inspire the people around me (even if it is only through digital means) to pick up the pieces of the debris and teach like our hair is on fire- even if it has nothing to do with our individual content. 4) I can remember tomorrow is never a guarantee and when I tell a group I will get them candy for having good attendance to remember to get the candy and give it out on the day as promised, instead of waiting until after spring break. How could I have ever guessed that would be an item on Monday's to-do list that would never get checked off? 5) Above all, I hope and pray my colleagues and students stay safe, observe the rules of the land, and come out on the other side of this happy and whole.
I am so proud to work with a faculty teeming with Master Teachers. In closing, I want you to know I am praying for you tomorrow as you enter your classrooms for the first time since that terrifying Friday the 13th. I know it will not be easy for you as you try to pick up the pieces. I have no idea where you stand in your spiritual walk, but I can tell you this much, there is a Master Teacher greater than each of us, and he has been doing this distance learning for over 2,000 years. In fact, he kind of invented it. To my knowledge none of us have ever seen him, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t still here and teaching us each day. He has given us his text, his voice, and he communicates with us daily. There are so many models being implemented across so many school districts right now. Our heads are truly spinning. I will most definitely try to implement (to the best of my ability) anything asked of me, but at the end of the day, the Master Teacher’s model seems to be the best model I have seen to date. I hope you will follow it as well. -----------------
What a wild ride it has been this year. Our heads are still spinning, but I am still so proud of every teacher who has been, and continues each day, to be bold and brave enough to look for the good, even on the toughest days.
If this year has taught us anything, it's that none of us is promised tomorrow. May this be a charge to make every day count and remember the candy.
After all, how could any of us have known how much would change in an instant?
-CDB