The First Day of School is the Longest Week Ever

TeacherGoals.com shared this awesome meme on X this week, and it couldn't be more true...

I sincerely wanted to write a back to school blog post before school started this week, but that didn't happen. After a year of traveling across South Carolina, trying to locate all my classroom belongings, putting my room back together, attending professional development, writing syllabi for my three classes, planning lessons, making copies... you get the picture. When I left school at 6:30pm on Sunday evening after a week and half of preparation, the words just did not come. 

When I arrived at school Monday morning running on very little sleep (because how many of us really sleep the night before school starts?), Murphy's Law took over, so I was very thankful for the peaceful Sunday afternoon spent just the copy machine and myself. The power outage in our area Sunday night turned into an internet outage Monday morning. The construction in the auditorium set off the fire alarm second block. Despite the first day nerves and a little chaos, the first day came. Without bells, without internet, the first day came just the same. 

And in the midst of scheduling conflicts, curriculum changes, Safe Schools to complete, and new technologies to learn, these wonderful people made their way to J211! We made sure we reviewed rules and procedures, texts and works to be read, but we also made time for having fun and building relationships. 

Edutopia Instagram shared a quote last week by Dr. Justin Tarte, "As educators, the more we know about who we teach, the more effective we will be with what we teach. Taking time to get to know our students isn't fluff time, it's academic time." 

I believe this with my whole heart. 

How can my students care about what I'm going to teach them if they don't know I care about getting to know who they are?

How can they care about my rules and procedures if I'm not building a place where all voices are shared and valued?

So while the days are LONG at the beginning of the school year; in fact, there are still 56 hours left in this week according to the meme above (and in October and in March and at the end of the school year). And as I type this at 10:48 on a Wednesday night, I know this. I get to teach some amazing humans this year, and I bet you do too. I look at my students' first and second day smiles, I see them working together to do hard things, and they give me hope. These incredible humans are why we do this job, and while the work is hard, building relationships with them and helping them reach their potential is worth the work. 

One of my favorite educators, Dr. Rita Pierson, said in her TED Talk that she worked with a colleague one time who said, "They don't pay me to like the kids. They pay me to teach a lesson. The kids should learn it. I should teach it, they should learn it. Case closed." Her response to this colleague was, "You know kids don't learn from people they don't like..." 

And they don't. Ask the kids. But why isn't this something we pay more attention to as educators? Smith, Fisher, and Frey discuss the profound impact of teacher estimates on student achievement in their book, Removing Labels. But they also discuss the negative influence on learning students experience when they think, "The teacher doesn't like me."

How we view our students and how our students perceive we see them matters significantly, y'all. 

And while I have spent what felt like 63 hours at school already this week with 56 more to go, I keep working. The students in our classrooms deserve our best, every day. And if you think this week has been never ending and you aren't putting relationships first, this is just the beginning of a "long and arduous" year, one much like that experienced by Dr. Pierson's colleague.

So I encourage you to start your year with a relational foundation. Last month, my friend (and 2023 National Teacher of the Year), Rebecka Peterson shared that we shouldn't view building relationships as a strategy, and I agree. She says, "Maybe we build relationships-build connections and trust-because it brings out the best in us...because we love who we are when we're offering this connection. And given enough time, we hope this connection brings out the best in our students too."

My hope is that you build connections that bring out the best in your students and YOU this year. Here's to the best one yet!

Keep Giving and Growing!