30 seconds at a time

This is my 14th year in education, and I can say, without a doubt, that it has been the hardest start to a school year I have ever had. The struggle that I am watching our teachers face day in and day out keeps me up at night. The intensity of challenging behavior that is impacting our classrooms is greater than I have ever seen it before. Teachers are overwhelmed, overloaded, exhausted, and defeated. Principals are frantically trying to support their staff, running from fire to fire each day, offering what little they can give, advocating for resources that aren’t available, and saying silent prayers in their heads that no additional staff in their building choose to quit, all while questioning how they can be effective leaders and survive this crisis themselves.

From the outside looking in, my heart bleeds. It bleeds for the general education teachers who are trying their best to pour into a class of 20+ students with a wide variety of needs, while still trying to teach the standards they’ve been tasked to teach. It bleeds for the special education teachers with overflowing caseloads and 4 unfilled para positions. It bleeds for the para-educators who are paid pennies, but still show up every day, amidst the chaos, to do what they can to support some of our most challenging learners. It bleeds for the principals who want so badly to support their staff and create a positive climate for learning but can hardly keep their own heads above water. It bleeds for the consultants, facilitators, coordinators, and coaches who go in to support buildings and see the reality but have no additional resources to give or a magic wand to make things better. It bleeds for the superintendents who are stuck between a rock and a hard spot – trying to ensure a free and appropriate education for all students and a positive working experience for staff, while working with reduced budgets, massive staffing shortages, exhausting politics, and the impossible challenge of making everyone happy. It bleeds for the state of education.

In a world where people are fleeing the profession en masse, I keep asking myself what we can do. How we can survive. How we can make progress. And many days, I don’t have the answer. But the one thing that keeps coming back to me is something Thomas Murray said at our summer conference two years ago. He used the phrase "30 seconds at a time." And while he was really talking about how to change a culture, not how to survive a school year, that phrase remains in the back of my head.

30 seconds at a time…..breathe in, breathe out.....I CAN focus on things 30 seconds at a time. 30 seconds at a time is not overwhelming. 30 seconds at a time is doable. So, on the really hard days, when I feel beyond defeated, I remind myself to just focus on the day 30 seconds at a time.

If I can be intentional with my time, my words, and my actions 30 seconds at a time, I can still make a positive impact in what feels like an impossible battle. #30SecondsAtATime #KeepFightingTheFight