Let’s Be on Pause: A Thanksgiving Message from DSJR

For folks stateside, it's time — Thanksgiving break. Before it starts, let me take five or so minutes to try to make your break even better.

We're on pause

Several years ago, I wrote an article about being on pause.

Recently, I turned it into a video. It's less than three minutes.

Check it out.

A quick excerpt:

“You and I struggle sometimes, don't we, to be on pause from teaching? In fact, we've even got this pop idea amongst educators that ‘Great teachers can never turn it off. We can never turn it off because we're so heroic. We love the children so much. You can't stop loving a child, can you?' There's this idea, this almost machismo sense of ‘we never turn it off,' and I think that's kind of broken.”

The whole video is here.

Why it matters

Ya'll, I'm about toast with all the hard stories I've heard from colleagues near and far this school year. Teachers, principals, district office folks, coaches, parents — the pain is role agnostic. If ever there was a long weekend when we needed to channel our inner four year old and go on pause, this is the one. It's time.

A ton of us have gotten by in our adult lives by being pretty terrible at stopping, pretty bad at deciding, pretty amateur at taking a walk and getting some deep breaths in while work waits. This morning I pre-ordered a book called I Didn't Do the Thing Today; I respect the author — she's a designer in Australia — but I adore the title. You and I can't do all the things teachers are supposed to do. But what we can do, during our working hours, is our jobs. We can seek to provide a pleasant and productive education for the people in our classes.

And when it's break time, we can practice the skill of taking a break.

Of being on pause.

I say it because I feel a fondness for you — not for what you do, but just because you're you.

See ya next week.

Best,

DSJR

P.S. Another good one on the note of you being you: You're Somethin' Without that Suit.