5 Comments

  1. ebowlin1

    Amanda, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your paper. You are right when you say that we need to help teachers and parents work through stress and trauma to help our children and students. Many times we forget about our teachers and their emotions and concentrate fully on the child. We are no use to our students if we do not handle our stressors in meaningful ways. And we don’t always have the answers to the situation we are experiencing at the moment. “Being real and raw” is a vulnerable but a much-needed way to model the skills and behaviors our students need to help them deal with their stressors. I especially liked your “Where do we go from here?”. It isn’t easy to see what our kids and families are going to be like this upcoming school year. You, as your school leader, have already identified that the first goal is to communicate and support the emotional well being of the adults, the teachers, and parents. You are doing a fantastic job!

  2. rmayhan

    Very good paper Amanda. I agree that we have to be mindful of the stress that teachers have to go through during difficult times such as the recent pandemic in going form classroom to online teaching. Many of our teachers were stressed because of the unknown of how to approach the teaching, especially for the little on online. How do we take care of not just our students but our teachers, families too? Its an entire community effort. The teachers look to admin for support, the students look to teachers for support, and it can all get so nebulous. However, reaching out to families, having coming home rituals, sending notes to teachers that we are all in this together is how we get through these times of uncertainty. Social emotional health is so important because, if you acknowledge it as a need, only positiveness can come from it. Good luck this school year and remember to have your coming home rituals.

  3. jcruz28

    Hi Amanda, I loved this topic and reading through your paper. The children have been taking a toll of emotions and I can only imagine the ones with special needs. On the other hand, teachers need the support just as much as the students do and you nailed it in your paper. In your presentation you mentioned, “how can teachers give the students what they need when we don’t have” and it’s so true. If we have no water in our cup, how can we continue to pour in others, it just doesn’t work. That’s why the begging of the year is so important, to build that trust as you mentioned. If that trust wasn’t built, I think the students would be taking things even harder because they wouldn’t have their teachers support as they need. You’re doing great, Amanda!!

  4. gmobley

    Hello Amanda,

    I want to start off by saying that this was a great and easy paper to read. I think we can all relate to the topic above, but more so, I can see that you are most definitely in a stressful position during this time. Sometimes the “boss” must put on a mask for how they really feel at times, especially in a pandemic like this. You are doing a great job so far though, and the kids will definitely need your positive energy for the start of the new school year. Yes, this is a tough time, but the kids and the teachers are going to make it out on the other side even better by next year!

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