“I don't think I've ever been frustrated by the academic piece. I almost see it as a challenge. (….) I don't typically work with Special Education because they've got a Special Ed teacher. I'm the in-between. This student isn't getting any extra services. There's no known disability (…) They just have gaps. They haven't been taught, or haven't connected or aren’t ready, or whatever. And so in that situation, I take it as a challenge. This kid can't read—Let's see what we can do.”
“It's fine for long stretches and then this one incident where I'm like, ‘What is wrong with humanity? Like—Where are we going?’ And I either will just totally distance myself from everything or really address it and be like, ‘No, I'm not backing down. This is the deal. Call the social worker, the parents. Here's what we're doing (…) We’ve got to do something.’”
“But I am lucky to have good people I work with to use as sounding boards for ideas (…) and at home, too.”
“I have a place to talk about those behaviors.”
“The 5th grade we have right now was in Kindergarten during Covid. I've talked to Kindergarten teachers who say, ‘Yeah, this group's got it better and that group missed some things. And so that's a reality. But as I’ve told some of the kids before, ‘I need you—You're going to be the leaders. You're going to be hiring my kids. You're going to be the bosses of my kids, the government leaders. And so we got no other option. We need you.’ I also think (…) they have strengths from going through Covid that maybe we can't identify in 3rd, 4th and 5th grade. I think they have some strengths that we'll see hopefully put on display in years to come.”