It was a good three months into the school year, November 2022. Two months earlier, I had seen the school buses driving their routes with rowdy kids at the windows. When walking the dogs I could hear the laughter on the school playground down the street. It had been almost a year since I’d left teaching, surely enough time to be over it. Over the angst, over the grief of my ending career, over the…
There are damaging, long-term effects of school shootings on the adults our children will become. As I sat there, trying to keep any sign of fear at bay, I found myself eyeing the room, moving through different scenarios in my mind to figure out the best way to move my body so as to shield the kids from the bullets we waited for. As soon as we heard the loud, Bang! several of my 4th…
There are not enough hours in the day to complete all of the mandated extraneous tasks put upon us in addition to actually teaching the children! Mental Health and Elementary School Teachers “It’s easier to just be a team player”. That was the moment. That was when I decided I had to get out. That I could no longer be part of this, “team” of a district, of a national system that was failing our…
Quitting your teaching job? If you’ve dedicated your entire career to it, it can be one of the hardest things you do. I was in my 13th year in Denver Public Schools, teaching 4th graders. It wasn’t even the end of September when the anxiety took over, completely. August was particularly hot that year and being on the second floor of a non-air-conditioned building was gruesome. We kept a thermometer on the classroom wall. I…
