Teach

I'll be the real one here.

Just teach them. The best gift you can give them is a set of solid skills.

Once you blur the lines, you start to lower your expectations b/c you "feel sorry for them."

Don't fall into that trap.

90% of my career has been spent at challenging schools.

Write each child a note expressing what makes them unique. Or do... I forget what it's called...but we each decorated a lunch brown bag with stuff about ourselves. Then we had to write on a slip of paper one nice thing about everyone in the class (with 3rd graders, you may want to check these before they get distributed), then put the slips of paper in each other's brown bags.

I run across mine every once in awhile, and 20+ years later, it still feel good to read.

Thank you for your service, OP! You're phenomenal!

Anonymous wrote:This made me tear up. School was a respite for me from home a lot of the time, and I had some teachers who just... loved me. I didn't have to tell them anything, they just knew and were a breath of fresh air from the drama and suffocating tension-filled environment at home. Thank you for caring. You never know how much just caring makes to a child sometimes.

oops, how much just caring *means to a child

This made me tear up. School was a respite for me from home a lot of the time, and I had some teachers who just... loved me. I didn't have to tell them anything, they just knew and were a breath of fresh air from the drama and suffocating tension-filled environment at home. Thank you for caring. You never know how much just caring makes to a child sometimes.

You sound like an awesome and caring teacher. I'm sure your classroom is a real respite from the struggles and 'real world' for some of your kids. Keep doing an awesome job in the classroom so that they are safe, loved, and happy when they come to school.
If you do that, you'll be doing more good than you probably can ever imagine.

Thanks so much for that wonderful idea, pp! I think I'll do "secret snowmen" with my third graders next week. They will love it!

I do small special low or no cost things for my MSers all the time. Even just "Secret Snowmen" with non-monetary exchanges can be fun. We did it one year with compliments, poetry, jokes, riddles, drawings, and other pen & paper "treats". The students loved getting their snowballs each day and trying to guess who the snowman was. It was a huge morale boost that awful winter of 2012. In the end, they learned a lot about each other's talents.

Focus on what you have done and can do. It sounds like a lot of kids may have confided in you because they need a sounding board and you may think you're not doing a lot but you really are just by being there. My mother in law is a teacher and she had that kind of relationship with her students and even now after many of them have grown up and had their own children they come to see her when they are in town. You are this kind of teacher and as the holidays approach you should know you are actually doing good.

Thank you. OP here. If I could take pain away from others, especially kids, I would do it in a heartbeat. I just know I can't and it feels very helpless.

Just be the best teacher you can be. Every family has its struggles, but being a good teacher recognizing each child's needs and supporting them is wonderful.

Lead your students and guide them by example, and then please take a vacation. You need some R&R so that you can come back to them refreshed in the New Year!

Teacher, just love them. Let them know the joy of the holiday season. Be kind and pleasant and find the good in them - that is the best thing you can do. You sound like a wonderful person.

I'm a teacher. I can't be specific or really share with my friends or colleagues as families have confided in me with a lot of struggles recently. I would never break anyone's trust, but I just have to say that my heart feels so heavy going in to this holiday season. I wish I knew what to do to help everyone that needs it. Many financial struggles, dying parents, grandparents, sad divorces, alcoholic parents with custody battles. I like to think I make a difference but some days I feel I'm up against so much. I'd like to do something so special for my class at this time of year, but I feel like I'm exhausted and out of ideas!!