Get Ready, Get Set … UnWind! Taking Some Time for You

You did it! You made it through the end of the school year — which is an accomplishment each and every year, but never so more than this year, when your classroom was taken away from you. For most, you lost your class in a way you never had to navigate before, all within a matter hours. You had to acquiesce to seeing your students’ faces only via 2-D screens, teach through a disjointed system held together by the tenuous fiber optics of Zoom, learn a whole new set of pedagogical strategies for remote learning, and re-imagine your lessons to meet those tensions and obstacles of this changed course. And you did it all while digesting the idea of a whole wide pandemic and shouldering the fears and stressors that affected your personal, nevermind professional life.

Whew. 

As author Elizabeth Gilbert recently said, you can be proud that you survived today.

Even with daunting unknowns of what Fall and back-to-school season will look like, you do deserve to take a moment and celebrate. You should be so proud of yourself — like “little kid” proud. It’s important to celebrate your wins — no matter how big or how small. Celebrating releases endorphins into your body, making you feel fantastic, reinforcing your successes. Celebrations send a message to your mind that hard work pays off and that challenges are worth pursuing. Over time, such messages increase motivation and determination and create more success. 

Just as light begets light, success begets success. Celebrating one’s success puts you in the exact right headspace for achieving more of the same. Remember this as you continue on your path. 

And as an educator, you actually are well prepared for the challenges that lay ahead. Truly! You are a model of flexibility, responsiveness, creativity, and problem solving. This is a moment for teachers to shine and further highlight how you go “above and beyond” each minute that you are working with your students; it’s a 24/7 job, and although it is hard to turn off — this summer in particular — do take some time for YOU. 

So when you are done celebrating, do come back and check out our Summer Toolkit. We have created twelve weeks of content to help you unwind and rejuvenate to be in the best possible mindset for the coming Fall. Plus we have monthly sweepstakes and an exciting webinar (on July 29th) featuring an original curriculum for Laura Hillenbrand’s popular novel, Unbroken; a fitting and inspiring story of perseverance that you can bring back into your classroom. To begin with though, check out our daily calendar for July that showcases 31 Ways to Unwind. Do let us know how else we can support your social and emotional wellness too, and again … Congrats on concluding your 2019-2020 school year!