An Incredible Opportunity

Something as terrible as shooting children is not just terrible, it is really unfathomable.  I have asked myself the question over the last 2 days, why someone would do this, but I know that no matter what is said we will never fully know.  I think that is what makes this so difficult, is the fact that we will never really know why. So where do we go from here?

I am not parent, but I am a teacher in an elementary school. I do not know what it feels like to lose my own child as a parent, but I know what it would feel like to lose a student from my class, and it is devastating. I know that I can speak for myself and my fellow co-workers when I say, we work long hours, we talk to you after the bell rings at 3 p.m., we listen and answer e-mails and text before the bell rings at 7:15 a.m., we prepare lessons that engage the students, we come up with activities that not only help the students learn, but are fun because we like to have fun, we think about your students after school, before school, weekends, and holidays. We know that the students’ home lives are sometimes terrible situations, and that school is their safe haven. We know that their meals sometimes just come from school, we know that the students come with very little sleep some nights and without homework, but really we do know all of that because we CARE. We care about our students from morning to night and everywhere in between. We have an incredibly difficult job, but it isn’t a job for us. We know that when we come to school the students are looking to us for stability, love, and opportunity to learn, and a sense that someone cares about them. I can speak for myself and everyone that I work with when I say that we care, more than anyone knows, we care.

I have felt incredibly burdened over the last 2 days about the whole situation. I know that something like this could happen in my classroom, you just never know. I know that come Monday my students are going to have lots of questions, and may want to know things that I can’t answer, but deep down, they are just wanting to know that they are safe.

So,

To Parents: Do not worry about sending your kids to school on Monday. Your students are cared for just like you would take care of them. We love them dearly, and would sacrifice anything to make sure that they were and are taken care of. When you are not there, we take on your role, and we know that it is a very important role, and we would never take that lightly.

To Students: We promise to you that not only will we help you learn, but we will keep you safe. We always have and we always will, because we CARE and LOVE you. You are each special, special children and gifts from God. School is your safe haven and we will always do our best to make it that. We are excited for you to come to school so that we can help teach you incredible things about life.

To Everyone: It is my hope and prayer that through all of this you are able to see the incredible job that each of us teachers have everyday. We are not just people that come in and decide that we are going to teach a lesson about adding, we teach life lessons, we solve problems, we give children hugs that may not have had a hug for days, we give children food when there may not be any around, we give them laughter when their home life is anything but, we give smiles, we give hope- hope that you can be anything that you want to be and we will help make that happen… because we love and care about each of our students. It is our job that helps make these children become doctors, lawyers, teachers, accountants, firefighters, physical therapists, and so much more.

So today and tonight, say a prayer for your child’s teachers, and for any teachers that you know. We are all burdened by this, and know that we have a great opportunity come Monday to calm nerves, quiet fears, and teach and love on children in a way that they need. We have an incredible “job” that we go to Monday-Friday because we care and will sacrifice to the very end.Something as terrible as shooting children is not just terrible, it is really unfathomable.  I have asked myself the question over the last 2 days, why someone would do this, but I know that no matter what is said we will never fully know.  I think that is what makes this so difficult, is the fact that we will never really know why. So where do we go from here?

I am not parent, but I am a teacher in an elementary school. I do not know what it feels like to lose my own child as a parent, but I know what it would feel like to lose a student from my class, and it is devastating. I know that I can speak for myself and my fellow co-workers when I say, we work long hours, we talk to you after the bell rings at 3 p.m., we listen and answer e-mails and text before the bell rings at 7:15 a.m., we prepare lessons that engage the students, we come up with activities that not only help the students learn, but are fun because we like to have fun, we think about your students after school, before school, weekends, and holidays. We know that the students’ home lives are sometimes terrible situations, and that school is their safe haven. We know that their meals sometimes just come from school, we know that the students come with very little sleep some nights and without homework, but really we do know all of that because we CARE. We care about our students from morning to night and everywhere in between. We have an incredibly difficult job, but it isn’t a job for us. We know that when we come to school the students are looking to us for stability, love, and opportunity to learn, and a sense that someone cares about them. I can speak for myself and everyone that I work with when I say that we care, more than anyone knows, we care.

I have felt incredibly burdened over the last 2 days about the whole situation. I know that something like this could happen in my classroom, you just never know. I know that come Monday my students are going to have lots of questions, and may want to know things that I can’t answer, but deep down, they are just wanting to know that they are safe.

So,

To Parents: Do not worry about sending your kids to school on Monday. Your students are cared for just like you would take care of them. We love them dearly, and would sacrifice anything to make sure that they were and are taken care of. When you are not there, we take on your role, and we know that it is a very important role, and we would never take that lightly.

To Students: We promise to you that not only will we help you learn, but we will keep you safe. We always have and we always will, because we CARE and LOVE you. You are each special, special children and gifts from God. School is your safe haven and we will always do our best to make it that. We are excited for you to come to school so that we can help teach you incredible things about life.

To Everyone: It is my hope and prayer that through all of this you are able to see the incredible job that each of us teachers have everyday. We are not just people that come in and decide that we are going to teach a lesson about adding, we teach life lessons, we solve problems, we give children hugs that may not have had a hug for days, we give children food when there may not be any around, we give them laughter when their home life is anything but, we give smiles, we give hope- hope that you can be anything that you want to be and we will help make that happen… because we love and care about each of our students. It is our job that helps make these children become doctors, lawyers, teachers, accountants, firefighters, physical therapists, and so much more.

So today and tonight, say a prayer for your child’s teachers, and for any teachers that you know. We are all burdened by this, and know that we have a great opportunity come Monday to calm nerves, quiet fears, and teach and love on children in a way that they need. We have an incredible “job” that we go to Monday-Friday because we care and will sacrifice to the very end.