Blog Post

In today’s blog post, we’ll be talking about the return to school, starting the year, and all the elements that go into it!

What’s Going on in Schools Right Now as They’re Starting the Year?

The start of the academic year is one of the best times of the year. Currently, there’s a large amount of optimism about, and a lot of hope everywhere, it’s an exciting time. After all, this is the year that everything can be different.

This will be the case for so many different people, for the staff members, the kids, the school leadership. It’s always an exciting time in the school year cycle.

One of the most noticeable things about the start of the year is how intensely busy everyone is.

They’re busy when it comes to helping their staff complete school year preparation, which is the preparation that will be used for the entire academic year.

In such a short period, they manage to get so much accomplished. The amount of work that they put in before the school opens up to the kids is amazing.

The Difficulties of Teaching Today

These days, there are many challenges that principals, teachers, office staff, support staff, and assistant principals face.

Specifically, teachers face them most. But what makes teaching so difficult these days? Here’s the situation. The pay and the prestige of education work have declined.

However, on the other hand, the responsibilities, duties, difficulties, and tasks have all increased. This increase has been exponential.

Teachers are expected to do things that, in the past, they would have never been expected to do. For example, taking kids home or buying meals for them.

Facing the Energy Vampire

Teachers are filling many roles these days. They’re filling the roles of school social worker, school counselor, parent, transporting, and feeding. Additional things teachers now have to do include dealing with people getting in the way of actually getting your job done.

Energy vampires can come in many shapes and sizes. Sometimes, it might be a kid....Sometimes it might even be a group of children....Most times, it’s not the kids at all doing this, but, in fact, teachers’ teammates and fellow staff members. Negative energy takes over and has an effect.

Energy vampires make everyone's work so much harder. When left unchecked, energy vampires have the power to suck the life and fun right out of school. 

This is why teachers must support one another. It’s not enough to simply be there for the kids. They also have to work to bring each other up.

Teachers should do things that promote happiness, add value, and serve to make other people better. By doing this, teachers will be able to fight against the “energy vampires.”

Facing Burnout

It’s also important to not be too busy, to do things for oneself in a self-care type of way. 

Otherwise, it’s too easy for teachers to reach burnout. Teachers have to be able to teach for an entire year. If they burn out too quickly, they’ll be spent by October, November, or December.

Spring Break will come too late and teachers won’t have the energy they need to properly teach.

The Importance of Dreaming

Teachers should also dream. Surprisingly, daydreaming is considered a negative thing when it’s quite important. By daydreaming, and doing this together, teachers can envision what they might want the school to look like. It can be powerful to create the mental model of their ideal school.

Additionally, teachers should envision what the experience of this school would be like for their students.

Of course, many schools are doing well already. But how can they do better?

Finally, teachers should allow themselves to dream for themselves. They should think about it this way: If they aren’t living their dream, they might be happy for a while helping other people with their dreams.

But, eventually, teachers need to allow themselves to try to reach their dream. Because they’ll feel happier and more fulfilled if they’re living it.

Once teachers have figured out what their dream looks like for the school, their students, and themselves, they’ll be able to figure out what their ideal situation looks like as compared to their current one.

Then they’ll see a gap, a distance. But it’s important to own it. Because then you can work toward getting to where you want to by bridging that gap. Knowing what this big picture idea is important to get toward it.

Without striving for this model, you can end up accepting whatever situation you’re in as “good enough.”

The Power of Hope

In many places, “good enough” isn't going to help teachers serve the students as much as possible. It’s important to take a look at how things are working in specific areas. In certain areas, things can be quite challenging.

Sometimes, the situations students face are enough to bring tears to one’s eyes. So how can teachers feel like they're able to be educators in such environments?

What teachers have to do is hope. Hope is an audacious thing, just like former US President Barack Obama implied in his book: The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream.

Why is it audacious? Often, hope goes completely against what is present in reality. In areas where reality can be quite harsh, such as in urban parts of Michigan, it can be challenging to find hope sometimes.

Regardless of the circumstances, it’s important to hold onto hope. Hope is necessary for continuing with the game.

How Teachers Can Use Hope

This is why teachers have to keep hope in their hearts. Whatever situation they find themselves in, they must have faith that things can continue to get better. This hope works hand in hand with the dream teachers created for their ideal learning environment.

It’s necessary to hope even when there’s no discernible reason for doing so. When things around teachers seem hopeless, they have to hope.

When staff does this, the kids will do the same, as they’re taking their cue from them.

Whatever level of leadership they have, when leaders keep hoping and can help the kids do the same, then they’ll have everything. This is because when one has hope, they have everything.

More on Hope and Dreaming

Everything that happens, happens at least twice within life. Here’s what we mean when we say that. Everything a person does or says, generally, the conception of it occurs first in the mind, in the form of a thought. After that, it’s created in behavior.

So, it works like this. A person thinks about something. Then they wrestle with it. Then they get the courage they need to take action, to do it.

The conception occurs in thought, while birth occurs in behavior. And this is where dreaming is so important.

Kids with significant learning gaps, kids from poverty, kids who have many impediments in their way when it comes to their future success, need adults who are caring, dedicated, and passionate around them.

These are adults who must dream for them.

The Luxury of Dreaming

Something that parents often do is dream about their children’s future. Not only figuratively, but literally. When thinking of their children subconsciously and hoping to give them their best lives, they’ll have actual dreams about their children’s future.

By doing this, they’re already placing their children in a successful position.

This is a luxury that some parents have and that some don’t. Parents who have jobs that make it possible for them to be there for their children, making the money they need, and not being exhausted regularly, they can have that luxury.

After work, they can be there for their children, and they can literally and figuratively dream for their children.

In many schools in the urban Michigan area, however, parents of the children who attend those schools don’t have that luxury.

Many of these parents are constantly working jobs that have terrible hours and low pay. Some parents will be working two or even three part-time jobs. When they return home from their jobs, they’re exhausted. They’re bone-weary.

However much they want to engage with their children and dream, it will be difficult for them because of how exhausted they’ll be.

It Happens Everywhere

This can even happen with parents who make a lot of money. If they have a job that takes up a lot of their time and attention, then it’s difficult for them to be present for their children, too. So these issues can occur on any socio-economic level.

Basically, every child is at risk. And this is why it’s so important for teachers to dream for their children when they can.

Especially with “energy vampires” being everywhere, teachers have the responsibility to really be there for the kids in their schools. They can provide hope and dreams for their kids, putting them in a successful position.

There’s a lot of power when one is an educator, and by using the strategies outlined in this article, teachers can inspire their kids, filling them with hope and leading them toward their dreams.

If you do this in 2021, it will be your best year yet in terms of education.

We Can Help With Starting the Year

Now that you know about what’s going on with schools now that they’re starting the year and how you can start your year most effectively, you might need more information. Maybe you want to learn more about school management organization or education management companies.

We can help. At CS Partners, we’re experts when it comes to educational management and charter school services, including school administration, Human Resources, Budget and Accounting, Compliance, Curriculum, and Special Education.

To learn more about how our education operations company can help you, contact us now!