Dear Michelle

The following is a promised response to Michelle Galloway from a conversation we had Wednesday afternoon. I decided to make it public because I realized that so many more of us needed to hear it. 

Dear Michelle,

Thanks for such a great conversation this week and for continuously trying so hard to keep your kids engaged right now. I know it's not easy, but I promise you, you're doing great. Our conversation ended on the topic of "small wins" and the idea that you could focus on the people that you are helping instead of the ones that you are not. As promised, I looked back on what I had read on the topic from graduate school. It was a very boring version. Instead, I found a few great articles and this TED Talk video. You should watch it. (It's not like we don't have time!)

I strongly feel that we are moved to ideas and people that need us most. Some people call that fate and others call it divine intervention. No matter the source, I think we are in that moment for a reason. I'm so glad that while cutting off the lights on Wednesday, I stopped to talk to you about this. Just reading on the topic made me see the faces of so many of our teachers that are going through the same thing that you are experiencing. Any classroom evaluation with only 11 engaged students would be a disaster. For that reason, only having 11 students show up to a virtual classroom meeting seems like a huge disappointment. But it's not. It's a small win.

No doubt, every teacher, student, and parent is in uncharted waters right now. We are all frustrated with trying to maintain what we think we should be doing and we feel disappointed as we fail to meet that expectation. But this is different. Instead, we should be celebrating every student, every assignment completed, and every piece of makeup work turned in. Without our efforts, there are no students, no assignments, and no makeup work. And that's far worse.

A quote from that TED Talk stuck with me. "Success is strange, in that it cultivates more success." This week you were successful in engaging some students. That success will lead to greater success for you as you learn new ways to be a teacher and to them as they learn the power in the content and in their own desire to learn. These small wins will add up, and when you look back at your career in helping young people, you will be proud of what you have amassed.

While this response is directed at you, just know that it could have just as easily been entitled, Dear Ashley, Dear Kristin, Dear David, Dear Katie, Dear Jason or so many others on our staff. None of us is alone in this and none of us that continues to try something each day is failing. Focus on your small wins. So many others are counting on them.