A Love Letter to New Teachers

Dear New Teacher,

Look at you! All fresh and excited and rested and just dying to make your classroom space Instagram-worthy and be the best teacher ev-errrrr! No doubt about it, your future students are lucky to have you.

And on behalf of the World Teacher Organization (not actually a thing), I’d like to extend my sincere thanks for choosing to join us.

Seriously. You are needed.

And not just because teachers have been leaving the profession in droves since the pandemic whittled them down to anxiety-riddled, extra-exhausted versions of who they used to be. Not just because of that.

You are needed because of what you bring.

Not experience. There’s plenty of that in our schools, despite the mass exodus of amazing educators.

What’s lacking is energy. Enthusiasm. Optimism. Hope.

You, Lovely New Teacher, bring all that. You bring a spark that has been snuffed out for many of us.

Teachers – those of us who have chosen to stay (or perhaps just have yet to figure out our exit strategy) – are tired. I’m talking about the kind of tired you feel in your bones. The kind of tired that makes it hard to stay focused on the reasons we became teachers in the first place.

I mean, we were tired before the pandemic hit. There is no end to the work – it only multiplies. Everywhere you look, there’s a lesson idea or a resource waiting to be crafted or created. Layer in the politics, the ever-decreasing classroom budgets, the ever-increasing special needs, the expectations of parents, the pressures of standardized testing, the frustrations of technology.

Like I said, it was exhausting before.

But it was also wonderful.

Because even though our time and focus were perpetually stretched and tested, we still had enough left over for the most important thing: the kids.

Then Covid swept around the world like a giant, germ-y tornado, wreaking havoc wherever it touched down. Which was everywhere.

Like a tall tree, the education system was whipped this way and that in the storm, bending dangerously close to snapping. Teachers held on for dear life.

The education system in North America has needed an overhaul for many, many years, but the rapid changes that Covid forced on the profession wasn’t the kind of re-boot we were all hoping for.

What precious time, energy, and focus teachers had for their students before the pandemic was quickly obliterated as we adjusted to the daily – sometimes hourly – changes in protocols that were thrown at us by politicians and system leads. Ensuring students’ safety and mental health became our primary job. Teaching, a very distant second.

But here we are now, seemingly in the wake of the tornado. It’s time to re-build our practice and re-connect with the reasons we became teachers in the first place.

Except: We’re. So. Tired.

It’s not just in schools – it’s everywhere you look. The burnout is real.

That’s why you’re so important, Lovely New Teacher.

Oh, I know – you’re tired in the aftermath of Covid, too. Undoubtedly, many aspects of your own life were affected.

But your spark still burns brightly. Covid didn’t get the chance to take that from you.

We need your spark. Your students. Your colleagues.

As you step into your new classroom and prepare to embark on the wonderful adventure that teaching really is, I want you to keep 2 things front and center in your mind:

1. Your more seasoned colleagues – those who taught before and through the storm – may still be recovering from the hardest two years of their teaching careers. They may be struggling to regain the energy and enthusiasm they once felt for the profession. Share yours with them. With reckless abandon. And show them grace. They’re probably not really as crusty and jaded as they come across.
2. Don’t let the heaviness of others dim your spark or pull your energy down. Rest assured, you will experience a level of tiredness and overwhelm in your first year of teaching that you can’t yet imagine. That’s normal – we’ve all been there and it does get better. But tiredness doesn’t equate pessimism. You can be tired and still be happy and hopeful. Find the teachers in your building who still radiate the positive vibes, despite teaching through the storm, and learn with and from them. Your excitement + their experience = really great things for your students.

And one other bonus piece of advice: Your classroom does not – I repeat, does not – need to look like this:

I created a resource that will hopefully help you manage the overwhelm you’re either already feeling about back-to-school time, or you’re about to feel. (Trust me, the overwhelm is-a-comin’.)

It’s free – since you’re probably already hemorrhaging money for classroom supplies that are no longer government-funded. Like notebooks and pencils. Click here to grab it. I hope it helps.

Good luck this year, Lovely New Teacher.

Thanks again for joining the rest of us nut-jobs in what I truly believe is the best job in the world.

Yours truly,

Kelly of The Association of Tired Elementary School Teachers (also not actually a thing)