I keep thinking about this and I'm honestly so frustrated by these posts about how educators need to "stay positive" for their students because "projecting their fears/sadness/emotions will harm students."

A thread, apparently.

#onted https://twitter.com/rollforlearning/status/1291932597115854848

In my career, I have taught through the dissolution of a long term relationship, my mother's cancer diagnosis and treatment, two high risk pregnancies, family deaths, chronic health problems.

And I greet my students with a smile and try to be warm, welcoming, put together.

But some days, it's hard. Some days, your students ask you if you're okay because they can read your body language and can tell you're tired, you're worn out, you're distracted, you're sad. And that's okay. It's okay for them to see their educators as human beings with emotions.

Compared to most of my colleagues, that list of things I've taught through is tame. It's nothing. My colleagues have taught through the loss of their parents, spouses. Dissolution of marriages. Serious child illness. Serious concussions. Deaths of students. Their own cancer.

We go to school through grief, abuse, trauma, illness, fear, anger, anxiety, sadness, apathy. And by and large, you don't know. Your kids don't know. Because we're professionals, and we do everything we can to keep it out of the school. We put on brave faces and work.

This is HARD. In the coming weeks, we'll do it with this, too. We'll take a breath, walk into school, and go through the motions like we aren't scared.

But some days, we're going to struggle. Maybe our students will see some of our nerves that day.

And that's okay. Really.

In one week, my life looked like this:
Monday - mom diagnosed with cancer
Tuesday - found out I was surplus
Wednesday - found out I was pregnant
Thursday - dad in a car accident

How was I supposed to keep that out of the classroom?

None of this has even touched on how we maintain appearances through violence, trashed classrooms, evacuations, threats. We do that DAILY.

This isn't the first time something scary has happened to education workers that they've had to suppress while on the clock.

All that to say: every person who works in a school in any capacity is a superstar at acting like everything is A-OK and will do their very best not to let their emotions affect their work. Most of the time, we'll succeed. Promise.

Just remember that we are human.

#onted