Sure, teaching can be hard and tiring but there is nothing else in this world that I would rather do with my life. The best part of my day is seeing kids smile, hearing there laughter and wrapping my arms around them in a big bear hug. As the world is in crisis and school is cancelled for the foreseeable future, this is what I miss the most.
I miss those big hugs, those moments where they see you walking down the hallway and they wrap there little arms around you and you wrap your arms around them. Those moments are precious and I can't wait to get them back. I loved to greet a kid and hear them say, "I haven't hugged you yet today." and then they would embrace me with a gigantic bear hug. As I would hug them I could feel all the tension drain from my body and there's. One thing I can learn from this experience is to never take another hug for granted.
The children's smiles and laughter never failed to brighten my day. I could walk into the school being in the foulest mood and the minute I see the the kids smiling, laughing and joking I would immediately be transported into a better, brighter mood. It is almost as if kids have a beacon embedded into them, where they can sense an adult's negative energy and then instinctively know how to brighten their day.
Before this crisis hit, every time I received a hand drawn picture or a piece of colouring, I would smile politely but then turn my back, roll my eyes and proceed to throw that piece of 'art' in the trash. It is crazy... but now I miss getting those treasures. In the future will I keep those drawings? Hard to say, but I believe I will be a lot more grateful and honour the effort that they put into them a lot more.
Kids...This online teaching thing, this isolated, social distancing thing- it is hard. It is a terrible experience. Human contact and socialization is essential to positive mental well-being. I need it and I can only assume that kids need it too. As an adult, I sit here going stir crazy and thinking about all the kids in my school, wondering how they are doing and wondering if they are just as stir crazy? Do they miss us teachers as much as we miss them?
The hardest part is that this happened so fast and we never got to say good-bye. It is so different than leaving for summer break or Christmas vacation. For those, you know they are coming, you get closure, you get to say good-bye and know when you will see those little faces again. This...this we didn't know it was going to happen. They just didn't show up the next day. It's almost like mourning them.
I hope this doesn't last too long. All every teacher wants is for life to get back to normal and to see those bright, shining faces walk through the door again. All we all want is to hear the laughter, see the smiles and feel the big, warm hugs again.
To all the children- we miss you so much!
From, your teachers.
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