Just Us

“Where I come from, everyone knows the best way to bring folks together is to give them a common enemy.”—Oz, Wicked the musical   Public education is slowly becoming the common enemy and it is suffocating.  If this seems far fetched from your understanding and perspective, make time to share a space with your friends in education. How are they feeling right now?  Since social media allows us to feel like we can have a personal connection with someone, here is what I would share over a cup coffee if we could be face to face. As someone who has committed over 18 years serving children and families in my wonderful community in a public school, I can assure you. Public schools are not the enemy. Should everyone have the choice how they would like to educate their own children? Of course. That is something I believe with all my heart.  School choice is not the enemy of the public school. Those spreading false information and hate toward public schools are creating a...

(If I could be with you face to face,  I would grab you by the shoulders and speak these words.) Dearest Teacher............ You are sure great. The work you are doing is valuable and immeasurably good. When the questions came and the doubts were cast, You kept going.  With a mask or without a mask, You have showed up for your students. Online or in person, You were prepared and poured out excitement for learning  Whether you felt it or not. Years have passed. So many days, so many challenges. Criticism and encouragement, And you are exhausted. Covering more classes and dodging sickness. Encouraging words, I know  fall short. More self care or a hot bath, Is not the solution nor will sustain you to keep going. Even the "just do it for the kids" feels like a another pour From an empty cup. Do you wonder if your cup has a bottom Or are you drowning in the positivity you hear. You are sure great. Just words. But I'm going to keep speaking their truth-- You are sure grea...

With a tight grip on the bench, I watch The same bench I melted into this spring, Now warm beneath my sitting. It is time. Time to get back in. Forcing my feet to stand I am not without thanks. Exhaustion renewed by summer months spent Sidelined. Deep breaths and joy for the hope of a fresh start But belly breathing not sufficient to settle the nerves Nerves that make my walking back from the sideline More like marathon legs being told to follow one after another. I don't love this game. This tournament of sorts we've been playing for a few years now One game after another Ever changing opponents threatening a loss of some kind. Heartbreaking loss. Unfair calls and mid game rule change. Very few substitutions. But here we go. It's game time. Little faces are watching from the bleachers. Cheering on their favorites, The underdogs. Eyes peeled. Watching for role models of resilience, strength and character. Our cheerleaders, part of this team. Bless their little hearts. Compl...

There are so many thoughts I have as this school year comes to an end and I have been praying about the right words for all the feels, the frustrations, the relief, the continued anxiety, the pure exhaustion. So in honor of teacher appreciation week—here’s a short letter to all my fellow teachers that have persevered through an unprecedented time in education. ———————————— Dearest Teacher, Spray and wipe, wipe and spray. Stop for just a second. If I could be with you in person to say this, I would grab your worn hands and look you right in your tired eyes.  You have made it. You made it. There were days you were fully convinced you were not cut out for what would lie ahead in the 2020-2021 school year, but you actually made it. The school year is almost ready to tie up into a nice little bow and you will actually be able to say: It is finished.  If no one has told you lately—-I am SO freakin proud of YOU. Sincerely. You showed up each day whether in person, online, both or fli...

Social media the past several weeks has been absolutely exhausting.  Scrolling through facebook or the news, literally has made me want to chuck my phone across the room OR just sit and weep in total disbelief.  Why do I even get on it?  To be completely honest, I have felt nudged to delete in all together.  Honest.  However, at this time my sweet friend and I are leading a group of ladies in an online book study on prayer...which has been the opposite of my newsfeed.  PRAISE BE! Because of the wonderful accountability and encouragement I have found right now in this online group, I have remained connected. For now. And so I'm writing today, thinking maybe I will be brave enough to move this one from drafts to published.  This post is especially for my friends that believe in God and are seeking to follow Him, even if we often drag our feet or stray back and forth in zig-zag lines trying to.  But also for my friends that maybe don’t identify with ...

We are always waiting. Waiting for the next best thing. Waiting for the current circumstances to diminish for some much needed relief. Waiting for things to change so we can finally be "happy." Do you feel the wait? Do you sense the pause of our world right now, Waiting for something better, something we HOPE is coming? Do you feel it maybe a little extra this Christmas season? I do. The anticipation of HOPE building as wars rage around us. A silent enemy threatening the collapse of our healthcare systems A war of political opinions justifying and villainizing   The typing of a keyboard spewing hatred to strangers that disagree The war of wearing a cloth face covering or to not. A war of our words. But HOPE. It hints and glimpses a flicker in the lit candle as 2020 comes to a close, A light cutting into the darkness A pause, a mere breath in time  HOPE as a tiny light shines. And we wait and we wonder, Is this HOPE coming in the form of a needle and antibodies Or in a pol...

Everywhere we look there seems to be opinions and arguments dividing.  Friends that once met together over coffee now disagreeing on social media.  Distance.  Separation.  Not only the distance created by social distancing in efforts to minimize the spread of this terrible virus.  But friends and family creating distance between one another because of the strong stance they have taken on mask wearing, religion, politics, etc.  This side or that side.  You are wrong...I am right.  How can you possibly believe that?  All of this confusion, misinformation and division seems to be limiting our ability to really SEE each other and to show empathy.  We squint our eyes so that only our own perspective is in view.  We tune out another story or perspective if it doesn't fit into the lense we want to use to categorize our world right now. Empathy. The ability to understand and share the feelings of another. So can we possibly push back agains...

*******I am writing from my own personal perspective.  I do not claim to be representing all teachers during this time. We all have had different experiences navigating education during a global pandemic. Some are struggling through far worse and some have been impacted very little.  As always, I write for my own processing and with hope of being an encouragement to someone else to keep fighting the good fight.   Be honest with yourself and others. Teaching is a different kind of hard right now.  It's okay if you're not okay.********* I have had this experience lately that has really started to bother me.  I am usually out walking or at the store getting groceries and I run into someone I haven't seen much since school has started.  They see me and immediately ask, "How are you? How's school?"  Their care and concern is obvious, as is the sweet kindness they are showing, knowing full well school must be a little different right now.  Their questio...

Dear Kim Reynolds, First, I want to sincerely thank our superintendent and all our local board members as well.  We are blessed to have a group of caring, thoughtful people making these difficult decisions.  They have been on the receiving end of so much feedback, positive and negative in regards to our district's return to learn plan and are still working weekly on revisions to keep students and staff safe.  Under immense pressure and very little guidance from you governor, they are trying to take into account all opinions, perspectives, and local guidance from health officials to make the best decision possible.  I also want to thank the Return To Learn teams that have been working countless hours to design possible plans(in person and virtual) to use in our district as the Covid situation is very fluid at this time.   I am so very grateful for your commitment to designing plans that will keep my own family, my students, my colleagues and our communi...

*This post is NOT coming from a heart motivated by a political agenda or with any hidden motives.  I am writing with sincere concern for the health and safety of my own children, my students, my colleagues and myself. Yesterday, the governor of Iowa released the "Reopening Guidance for Schools" document as a resource for administrators to safely open school districts.  As many teachers and parents alike, I have been anticipating the release of such information in order to plan for what the fall may look like for my classroom and for my own children.  Knowing full well how quickly things can change between now and the first day of school, I was still interested to see what safety guidance would be given to schools during this strange back to school season we are about to begin. Here are a few of the highlights taken from the document released yesterday.  Please forgive me if I have left out specific details, but this is the general overview of the guidance given to Io...

Please just don't be silent. Say something. This message on repeat over and over again in my mind. But caution. Be ever so careful about the words you say. Words hold power. They can light a fire. Or put one out. I'm a white girl who is learning to shut up. Shutting up enough to listen to my brothers and sisters of color. Dear image bearers of the very same God I serve. They are clearly not okay. Years of pain and suffering has brought us here. Many now being filmed for the world to see, Adding salt on open wounds. But I'm living in safe space. What can I possibly add to the conversation I don't live in fear because of the color of my skin Or the shiny badge that I wear. I'm privileged that my son's motives will never be questioned just because of his color. But also I don't shoulder the burden of sending my husband out the door in uniform Praying he returns home to be a dad. Maybe I should just listen and not respond, Careful not to make an enemy. Lots of d...

Is there anyone else out there right now that kinda feels like you and your emotions have stepped onto a rollercoaster without a definite end in sight?   We started this ride together with the whole wide world as fellow passengers.  We began full of uncertainty and inexperience of what this ride might entail and where it would take us.  It's as if we started the first climb of the biggest hill of anticipation in March and now in May we are a little frazzled, disoriented and wondering what is to come after the current hill we are climbing.  Our emotions can take us on some wild rides like this and really threatened to suck the joy from our lives when we ride them up and down....up and down....up and down. Isaiah 41:13 For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you. This past week I feel like so much of social media has been adding to this up and down...up and down.  One day you read an article that ...

A name. Have you read of that woman Strong shoulders hunched over with the weight of the grief she carries. Her tears, long steady streams Reach the puddles at her dusty feet. She stands frozen outside the tomb. I wonder about her thoughts How did she spend those three days before standing in that holy place? Had her days turned into nights Only marked by the light and the darkness returning. Did she question, Did the fear tighten in her chest? Were her eyes swollen and tender for the billion tears she had cried. Yet she walked to the tomb that holy day One foot in front of the other And again, She wept. He was gone. Two angels in white ask, Why the tears woman? Who are you looking for? Not recognizing His voice at first She pleas to be told where He has gone "I will get him" she says "Tell me where" Mary. One name and it is hers. Spoken by the one she is looking for And she knows She is known. Desperately grasping, she tries to h...

It’s late Monday night. I’ve tossed and turned and cannot seem to slow the pace of my mind enough to drift off to sleep.   This is so not like me.  I’m usually in bed by 9:30 most nights, as soon as my head hits the pillow after a full day of teaching. So much of this life as a teacher is nothing like it was 3 weeks ago.  Wow...3 weeks, has it really been three weeks already?!! Crazy, it was really just three weeks ago that I lie awake, my chest tight with worry and guilt about how rushed the day seemed with my kindergarteners.  My last day with my students before our school shut their doors was sadly a scattered mess of paper packets and a mad rush to load bookmarks and logins to student chromebooks. I sent those little 5 and 6 year olds out the door with a weighted down backpack and more questions than answers, fighting back tears of my own. “When will we be back Mrs. Hutchings? Why are you sending these workbooks home today? We still have so many pages left to...

Dear elected state official, I am writing to you on Sunday morning March 15th in a quiet house with sleeping 8 year old twins and a husband quietly scrolling through the news to get the latest update on how COVID-19 is impacting Iowa.  Since the elders of our church have been so careful to cancel our regular service today, I have plenty of time to sit here and share my thoughts with you. I am a kindergarten teacher in the state of Iowa.  I work for a large, amazing school district who works diligently to ensure students are provided all the tools essential in their success as an individual.  Beginning last week, our superintendent has been communicating clearly about the possibility of this virus impacting how we do school in the days/weeks ahead.  Within two days, my wonderful kindergarten team of professionals have developed tools and creative ways to continue learning for all students should the need arise to close schools.  Our district is also brainst...