Literacy Builders

For the Love of Learning

Kim Yaris

B is for Bean Bag Chairs: Thoughts about Setting Up the Classroom While Covid Still Looms

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No time to read? Listen instead!

For most teachers, there is a point in summer vacation when we begin to vacillate between wanting to hold on to what is left of our carefree summer days and wanting to get ready for the return of our students. If you are not at this point, stop reading right now. Come back when you are heavily leaning toward thinking about the beginning of the school year and are ready to think about space–specifically, how you will organize the environment where you will read and write and think and dream and problem-solve with your students.

At the beginning of last year, Covid restrictions controlled how I organized the desks in my classroom. For three-quarters of the year, students were required to sit in rows. Yes, this totally offended every fiber of my teaching soul but in addition to that, it created a more practical problem. Rows took up nearly all of the square footage in the room. There was literally no space for design and the result: a sterile work environment. Yuck!

This year, I am determined to do better. I’ve started playing around with different ideas for reorganizing my space and last week, I even sketched out what I was imagining. Today, I went back and looked at what I had envisioned and had an astonishing realization. My new design wasn’t that much different from my old one. Eek.

In the beginning of his book Bliss Brain, Dawson Church tells the story of narrowly escaping the California wildfires and having to rebuild after his home was completely destroyed. He writes, “After a big loss like a fire, we humans naturally crave certainty and stability” and talks about tendencies to “re-create a new life identical to your old life.”

Hmmm. Take a second here and think about this. How much do you find yourself wanting a life identical to the one you had pre-March 2020? I’d very confidently say that I am glad for so many of the changes precipitated by Covid; yet, my classroom sketch seems to indicate otherwise.

As the new school year approaches, we all may find ourselves feeling a bit of Covid PTSD, especially when it comes to organizing our classroom spaces. How close should students be sitting? If we bring in beanbag chairs and stuffed animals, do we need to disinfect after each use?

Ahhhh! The answers to these questions still feel a bit nebulous with Covid looming large which makes me nervous and probably explains why my new design looks startlingly similar to my old one. But, I am determined to do better so I cannot allow my Covid related design questions to be the only ones I ask.

So, in addition to asking those questions, I am also asking these:

  • How can I organize my space to accommodate the different activities I imagine my students doing this year? Where will students sit for whole-group instruction? For partner and small group work? For independent work?
  • What touches will make students feel more comfortable reading and writing and thinking and dreaming and problem-solving?
  • How can I maximize wall space so that it acts as a place to archive and celebrate students’ work and learning?

It goes without saying that I don’t yet have all the answers to these questions but I am thinking about them. As soon as I’ve set up my classroom, I will share pictures but in the meantime, help me make sure I’ve cast a wide enough net. If you’re asking other questions to guide the set-up of your classroom, please share them in the comments!

Thoughts about setting up a classroom during COVID.

A is for Anxiety: Thoughts About Having a Less Stressful School Year

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Here, more than halfway through my summer vacation, I find myself scrolling through some of the tabs I have left open on my computer. I pause at one titled, “Ideas for Next Year.” I glance at what I have jotted–entries that read like ten-second sound bites–and remember dreaming about what I could do with these ideas when I “had more time.” I pause and wonder. Is this that moment?

As I think about this question, I feel my heartbeat quicken and notice a slight tightness in my chest. My first instinct is to say, “Don’t worry, it’s nothing serious,” but I pause because perhaps it is more serious than I realize. These “symptoms” are the same ones that steal half of every Sunday throughout the school year and now, they are threatening to commandeer what is left of my summer vacation.

These “symptoms” have a clinical name, of course. You probably know it–it is called anxiety. And anxiety is insidious–in addition to stealing our peace and joy when we have time off, it can leave us feeling overwhelmed, fatigued, and sometimes, physically ill. The bad news is that anxiety literally wears away our well-being. But, there is also good news: We don’t have to let it.

As the first post of the 2021-22 school year, I am sharing with you my commitment to reclaiming my life from anxiety. It is my hope that if you are one of the many who suffer alongside me, you will join me in this commitment. Just imagine schools where we weren’t all in the death grip of stress! Perhaps we’d skip down the halls, laugh more, judge less, and take more time to enjoy the beauty that is teaching and learning. Can you imagine this? This thought makes me giddy with excitement!

So…let’s just do this! Below is a list of some of the strategies I use to help bring myself back to center. I know there are tons of others and it is my hope that if you’ve tried other things that work well for you, you will share. Reducing anxiety is an important commitment and I know that if we band together to help each other, we can make the 21-22 school year the Year of Joy!

An Incomplete List of Strategies that Reduce Anxiety

Have To vs Get To
We all have a voice in our heads that narrates our lives. The one in mine is always listing the things that I “have to” do which can have a paralyzing effect on me. When this happens, I soften things by listing what I “get to” do. It’s funny how such a subtle shift in language can change how we feel about what needs to get done!

Third Person Self Talk
While on the subject of inner narrative, it is important to note that when we narrate our fears and anxieties using the “I” pronoun, we tend to be harsher than if we were, say, talking to our friend about the very same issues. For example, when back-to-school night is approaching, we might hear ourselves thinking things like, “I just know I’m going to choke the moment I open my mouth. I am so bad at public speaking!” This train of thought perpetuates anxiety by leading us deeper into the rabbit hole of fear: “I’m going to blow it. I just know I’m going to blow it!”

The good news for us is that we can distance ourselves from these fears by simply shifting our narrative from the first to the third person. Watch what happens when I change the language of this example: “Kim thinks that she is going to choke the moment she opens her mouth to talk. She thinks she’s bad at public speaking.” When I do this, I can hear the calming voice of my kindest friends. What would they say next?: “Don’t worry, Kim. You’ll do great.”

Breathe
Most of the people I know and talk to have a memory of being so scared as a child that they held their breath, convinced that if they dared exhale–even a little bit–whatever monster they were hiding from would see them and they’d be doomed for all eternity. Fast forward to adulthood and it seems that my monsters are still chasing me because I catch myself holding my breath–All. The. Time. My grown-up monster, of course, is whatever fear happens to be at the root of my anxiety. Lucky for me–and you–the antidote to holding our breath is letting it out. One of my favorite breathing techniques works like this: Inhale to a count of four, hold it for a count of seven, and slowly exhale to a count of eight. For me, this has an amazing calming effect, not to mention gives me the oxygen I need to think straight!

Notice and Name
Another strategy that I like to use right when I notice I am feeling anxious works like this: Sit or stand still and survey the area around you. As you look around, notice and name five things that you can see. Then, notice and name four things that you can touch. Next, notice and name three things that you can hear and two things you can smell. Bring it home by noticing and naming one thing that you can taste.

Doing this is very centering and helps us in our moments of overwhelm to know we are okay. I have found that this strategy not only works wonders for me, but can be great when we are working with students who may be feeling the wide range of emotions that come along with being a kid navigating things from playground disputes to bad grades.

Tapping
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)–also known as “tapping”–can be very calming and centering when anxiety runs high. This simple process begins by tapping on the side of the hand and saying (or thinking) a statement along the lines of “Even though I feel like I am going to choke the moment I get up to speak at back-to-school night, I love and accept myself.” Then, using your index and middle fingers, you continue by tapping on the following series of points on the body: between the eyes, on the temple, beneath the eye, beneath the nose, under the lips, beneath the collar bone, on the bra line beneath the arm, and finally, on the crown of the head. All the while, you are speaking your fears out loud which can serve as a release that allows space for more positive thoughts and emotions to flow into our consciousness. (If this interests you, I recommend www.thetappingsolution.com as a good source of information.)

I admit to feeling very skeptical when I started this. I felt weird when I did it and doubted how this could be helpful but as someone who stuck with it, I can attest that no other strategy that I do quiets my mind as effectively as this one!

As I mentioned, I know that this is a woefully incomplete list of strategies for reducing anxiety. However, I’m fearful that thinking too much about how to combat anxiety might create more anxiety of its own. (Wink, wink!) Please do share the things you do to minimize your stress and I promise that I will check back with you periodically to let you know how my efforts to claim 21-22 as The Year of Joy are going!

(As a side note, if joy and happiness interests you as much as it interests me, check out my friend Lisa’s Joy School. She teaches stuff like this and much, much more!)

A Joyful Close to an Unprecedented Year

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As I talk with colleagues at my school and educator friends around the country, I have noticed many of us are carrying around feelings and stories prompted by the overwhelming responsibility of teaching in the era of Covid. We all want to do more than limp across the finish line of the school year, yet the weight of our beliefs about this year are slowing us down.

This made me wonder what we can do to free ourselves of at least some–if not all–of this heaviness. I spoke with Lisa McCourt, bestselling author and Joy Trainer, who offers us important insights about what we can do to let go of some of our limiting beliefs.

Joy School with Lisa McCourt

Kim: This year, which has been a mix of online, hybrid, and in-person teaching, I’ve heard some of my teacher friends say things like, “I feel like such a failure,” and “I just don’t think I’m cut out for teaching anymore.” What do you think is beneath these sentiments? Why are they saying things like this?

Lisa: Teachers—bless their souls—want to be the absolute best they can be for their students. I mean, we all want to be good at our jobs, but my experience of teachers is that they deeply recognize how especially imperative it is for them to be at the top of their game, never letting up in patience, compassion, creativity, improvisation, and resilience—day after day, no matter what unprecedented obstacles are thrown at them. Sigh. It’s exhausting just thinking about it.

That said, feeling like a failure wasn’t the exclusive purview of teachers this past year. Employment challenges, financial stress, and fears for the health of ourselves and our loved ones brought a great many of us from all walks of life to this point of feeling like failures.

Beneath this failure feeling, we’re all just experiencing the sting of our vulnerably uprooted (albeit unwarranted) shame. Our egos have been tarnished. Most of us get a hefty degree of our self-esteem from our perception of how well we’re doing at life, and when some new, unwieldy factor thrusts us into a long phase of feeling less effective, less successful, less in control, less safe, less prepared, less competent, less financially secure, or any other “less” feeling, it creates an uncomfortable tension in us.

Part of my job this past year has been to point out the many ways that all this seeming chaos can be retooled for opportunity. When the status quo crumbles around us, it always provides an opening for building something new out of the wreckage. Even before the bizarre challenges of this past pandemic year, you may have been settling for a day-to-day existence that was below what you deserved. You may not have been stopping to consider your level of joy and what you might be able to do to raise it. It may never have occurred to you whether repetitive thought patterns could be limiting you unnecessarily, consistently diminishing your capacity for joy and the highest expression of your true self.

And now, after being sucker-punched in the emotional gut by seemingly endless and insurmountable challenges, maybe you are a bit more inclined to look into these things. The gift of contrast is that it provides an opportunity to identify what we truly want. And right about now, we’re all pretty clear that we want some peace, clarity, and, yes—joy—back in our lives. I’m seeing lots of evidence that our collective experience of contrast has poised many of us for claiming joy well beyond our pre-pandemic setpoints.

Kim: How do you think a regular diet of sentiments like “I am a failure” impacts educators?

Lisa: Failure is a story we tell ourselves, and the more often we tell any story, the more solid it feels to us. The truth is that in every moment of every day, we have the opportunity to look at our careers (and any other aspect of our lives) through a lens of failure or through a lens of wild success.

There are always going to be teachers who seem to be knocking it out of the park in comparison to you, and if you’re honest, you know that there are always going to be teachers who lack your skills, talents and influence in the classroom. Where you place yourself on that spectrum is entirely your choice (though it may not feel that way) and the truth is that the more you tell yourself you’re a failure the more you’ll attract and create evidence to shore up that belief. That’s just how energy works. We think it goes like: “I see evidence that I’m a failure, so I believe it.” When, in reality, the reverse equation is far more accurate: “I believe I’m a failure, so I’m creating evidence in my life to shore up that belief.”

This goes on below the level of our conscious awareness, of course. We create the circumstances of our lives through our behaviors and actions. Our behaviors and actions are born of our thoughts. And the vast majority of our thoughts stem from unconscious beliefs we hold about ourselves and our place in the world. The unique challenges of pandemic times have nudged those unconscious beliefs up to the surface for many of us. Fortunately, that’s exactly where we need them to be so that we can work with them. Yay, Covid!

If you want a crystal-clear report card showing you how well you’re doing at honoring your precious self with all your perfectly human imperfections and living in alignment with your soul’s wisdom, all you need to do is look around at the results you’ve been creating and how much joy you’re experiencing. Improving the report card means focusing on bringing up the grade on your “inside” belief system, then allowing that improvement to create new evidence on the outside.

Kim: What could my teaching colleagues and I do to shift these beliefs?

Lisa: I’m so glad you asked it that way because shifting your beliefs absolutely is the one and only answer, and it’s completely doable with some tools and practice. You can get started with just a basic understanding around energy and quantum physics. Put as simply as possible, the attention you give to anything affects that thing.

Like everything in your life, your thoughts and beliefs are made of energy. That means you have the power to expand or reduce the presence of anything you experience by taking charge of the energy you feed it. (That includes the perception that you’re a failure.)

You can think of your focused attention as the water you sprinkle on everything that exists in the garden of your life. The more you water it, the more it proliferates, and that goes for the things you want as well as the things you don’t. Maybe you’ve heard this concept before, and maybe you even accept it intellectually. But for most of us, making it the solid, unwavering paradigm through which we live our lives takes more than an intellectual understanding. Making that leap generally requires some study and commitment to a deliberate, consistent practice.

If you’re seeing yourself as a failure, it’s a leap well worth your time and effort. To take the first tiny step, practice becoming an observer of your thoughts, particularly the thoughts you have about yourself. Observing your thoughts allows you to detach a bit from their energy. Ask yourself: “Is this thought I’m having about myself true in any objective sense? Is it possible that the opposite of this thought is also equally true? If I were a lawyer in a courtroom presenting evidence for the opposite of this thought, what could I come up with?” Make a list of evidence you could present to argue the case that you’re not a failure. It might feel silly, but it’s an easy, basic tool for turning your attention in the right direction. Focusing on evidence that you’re a success opens the energetic valve for more successful circumstances to unfold.

Kim: What advice do you have for those who feel stressed and tired from managing online and hybrid models of teaching for over a year?

Lisa: Whatever you’re chasing—whether that’s being a superstar teacher, some situation you believe will give you some other kind of joy, or any other goal that you’ve put out there in front of you—the key is to stop chasing it. As long as you’re seeking it “out there,” it will remain its same distance from you. The solution is to change what’s inside you, so that you become the magnet that gently, effortlessly pulls your desired circumstances to you. That’s what working with your personal energy is all about.

To stay with this example of you teachers feeling like failures, my advice would be: Darlings, it’s time for you to get serious about your self-love. You are the shining, glowing gems of this thing. (Well, you guys and the healthcare workers.) Everyone knows it but you. Everyone in the world with a halfway healthy sense of compassion has been pulling for you, appreciating you, and wanting to buy you a pony. If ever there were a valid time to give yourself a break, it’s now.

You’ve been through a tremendous upset to your systems and routines. You’re weathering a wicked, unprecedented, unexpected storm. You never signed up for that. So, show your sweet self some long-overdue affection. You don’t have to be all the things to all the people. You don’t have to “get it right,” whatever that’s come to mean to you.

Be brave enough to say no when you’re overextended. Be brave enough to rest. If there are people who don’t understand, be brave enough to let them have their unrealistic expectations of you as you lovingly dismiss them.

You may have temporarily lost your spark, but it’s still a glowing ember waiting for you to fan it back to life with a steady course of well-deserved self-honoring. Say yes to things that bring you joy and no to things that don’t. Watch yourself become more and more a match to your own precious soul.

Maybe it’s true that you’re not the teacher you used to be. But maybe this whole ordeal is making you a deeper, wiser, far more evolved, and expanded one. Ordeals can do that for us when we let them.

An Important Note from Kim

If Lisa’s words resonate with you, I want to let you know that you can soak them up regularly by joining one of her Joy School Circles. These amazing, weekly, virtual meetings are filled with wisdom, insights, strategies for positive living, and warm, fuzzy feelings. I have been participating since October and am not exaggerating when I say they have changed my life!

What’s Working? Prediction Pyramids!

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No time to read? Listen instead!

Hey Everybody!

As many of you know, I went back to the classroom this year. While that journey, in and of itself, is blog-worthy, it is not what is on my mind today. Today, the thing that I am thinking about is this pattern that we humans sometimes get stuck in–when something bad happens, we just continue to think about that bad thing. So, for example, if we have a bad lesson or a bad observation or a parent gets cranky with us, we kind of begin to perseverate on that. Maybe you don’t do this–and if that’s the case, I envy you–but I know I do this and so, I’m thinking about what to do about it.

There is a personal growth principle that says, “Where your focus goes, your energy flows.” So, if we were to take the example of perseverating on the bad things that happen in our professional lives and apply this principle, it means that our energy is flowing toward our less than desirable lessons, events, and interactions. And by giving energy to these things, we inadvertently create more of these things! Ahhhhh! I don’t know about you, but I definitely do not want more bad lessons, events, and interactions. I want good ones! And I’m betting you do, too. So, how do we make that happen?

Answer: We focus on the good stuff!

So, here’s my question for you. What have you done lately that worked really well?

For me, it was this thing I called “Prediction Pyramids.”

I’ve been reading The Egypt Game with my sixth graders. In case you’re not familiar with the story, it’s about a sixth-grade girl who moves in with her grandma because her mom is off trying to be a movie star. She’s not super happy to be there and is displaying all sorts of attention-getting behaviors until she meets her neighbor who shares her interest in Ancient Egypt. Together, they invent “The Egypt Game,” which they play in an abandoned field near their apartment complex. All is going great until one day, they are frantically summoned home early. Something has happened.

When we got to this part in the story, my students, very naturally, were dying to know what was going on. But, before proceeding onward, I had them check-in with their turn-and-talk partner to brainstorm possibilities. Next, they considered which of their predictions were most likely and wrote it on a sentence strip.

Once each pair had something to contribute, we cleared the desks out the middle of the classroom and laid each of the predictions out on the floor. Then, I challenged the students to organize their predictions by putting the one that was most likely to happen on top and the one that was least likely on the bottom.

Students were jazzed about this task. They quickly rejected some predictions altogether and debated the merits of those that were left. Without me even asking them to, students grabbed their books off their desks and started flipping through pages to find evidence to support their thinking. There was jumping up and down and “Ooh, ooh, oohs,” and “Ohhhhhhhsss!” All the while, I just stepped back and said pretty much nothing.

When all was said and done, they were begging to read more because they just had to know–why were the kids in the story called home early?

So, that’s my story of what’s working to increase motivation and purpose for reading. Now it’s my turn to ask: What’s working for you?

Teaching in the Era of COVID–Navigating the Minefield of Emotions

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A few weeks back, I shared with you my news that after 20 years of working in other people’s classrooms, I decided to scale back my consulting work and return to my own classroom. August 13th was my first day back and I am deeply humbled by the number of you who have written, called, and texted asking how my first few days have gone. From the bottom of my heart, thank you, friends.

If I were to sum up the beginning of the year in a word, it’d be this: overwhelming.

I can honestly say that I had forgotten many of the details required to get a school year off the ground. One of the most challenging details? Learning my students’ names! Remembering the first and last names of 80 students is hard, but add to that my students are all wearing masks which, for me, makes the task infinitely harder!

Getting to know my students has been my priority, but as I toggle between the students sitting before me and those attending virtually via Google Meet, I struggle to figure out how to do this well. In addition to this strange back and forth, students are required to sit in rows facing the same direction which feels wrong and limiting, especially when the heart of my teaching is about growing student thinking through a sea of talk. Depending on the moment, these circumstances are confusing, challenging, frustrating, and at times, downright disheartening. As I drove to work on the first Friday of the first full week of school, my eyes welled with tears. It felt like no amount of effort would be enough to mount the challenges before me.

So, I began that day with a heavy heart but beneath my mask, my eighth graders couldn’t see my despair. I took attendance and began the lesson that I had planned and as I faced the class I realized that one of the students that I had marked absent was sitting directly in front of me. I laughed out loud and told the students how I had received an email from this girl’s mom saying that she wouldn’t be in some of her classes and because I had received that note, I just assumed it would be mine. This led to an impromptu conversation about confirmation bias which happens to be the theme of our upcoming literature study. As students talked, I coached them to “say more” and “add on” to their classmates’ ideas. Their conversation was inspired and insightful. As I listened to them talk, again, I got a little teary but in this moment, instead of despair, I felt hope. I felt love. I felt the energy and excitement of learning.

As your school year begins, you, too, may find yourself on a similar roller coaster of emotions and if you do, I want to say to you this: be kind to yourself. What you’re doing is hard. Hard things take time to figure out. Trust that you are doing better than you think you are and consider accepting that there may be only one way to experience this year: moment by moment.

Best wishes to you all! If your school year has begun, I’m curious to know how it’s been going so please, stop by the comments and share!

Be Kind to Yourself - Teaching in the Era of COVID--Navigating the Minefield of Emotions

From To-Do to To-Done: How to Manage the Tasks On Your List

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From To-Do to To-Done: How to Manage the Tasks On Your List

No time to read? Listen instead!

Do you have a to-do list that you’re working from today? If not, for the purpose of this blog, you may want to make one. Once you’ve got your list in front of you, continue reading.

When you look at your list, how does it make you feel? If you find that your list helps you to prioritize the things vying for your attention which in turn makes you feel calm and confident, stop reading this blog and proceed with your day! Ultimately, that’s the purpose of a to-do list!

I, however, find that to-do lists can sometimes have the exact opposite effect. When I make the list and look it over, I find myself suddenly caught in the web of all that I “have to” do.

  • I have to write a welcome back letter to my new students!
  • I have to run out to Target to buy stationery so that I can hand write those letters!
  • I have to draft a syllabus for each of the two different sections of English that I am teaching this year!
  • I have to pick the books that I want to read aloud on the first day of school!
    I have to figure out how to use Google classroom!

If looking at your list finds you, too, caught in the same web of “have to,” the first thing I want you to do is stop…and breathe.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Do this for as many times as you need. Remember: nothing at all gets done when we are absolutely paralyzed by everything we “have to” do.

The next thing I want you to do is revise the title of your list. It is no longer your “To Do” list but rather, your “Get To Do” list.

Now, pick something from your list and insert it into the following sentence stem:
I get to (insert item from your list).
Example: I get to draft a welcome back to school letter.

As a point of comparison, insert that same item into this sentence stem:
I have to (insert the item from your list).
Example: I have to draft a welcome back to school letter.

Do you feel the difference? The words “have to” make me feel tense. The words “get to” make me feel playful, excited, and might I say, even a bit giddy. The energy of “get to” is light whereas the energy of “have to” heavy. Shifting our language can have a profound effect on how we feel about what needs doing.

Now, let’s talk about how to prioritize what’s on your list. If you knew the me that was me a year ago, I’d tell you to look at the list and circle the thing that feels most pressing and start there. Truth be told, I still sometimes do this. But more times than not, I don’t find it to be the best approach. What I often find is better is to begin by looking at the list and asking, “What here am I most excited about?” When I give my attention to the thing that I am most excited about, it gives me energy. With more energy, I build my capacity for productivity.

Another strategy that can work well when you are prioritizing the tasks that need doing is looking at the list and asking which will take the least amount of time to complete. If everything on your list feels big and overwhelming, then be intentional about peppering your list with tasks that you know will be quick. For example, I added “Throw away markers that no longer work” and “Put books underneath desk back on bookshelf” to my list because I knew that it would take little to no time to do these things. I fit these little tasks between more taxing tasks which gives my brain the break it needs AND allows me to cross something off my list which I LOVE doing. Watching the tasks on my list disappear makes me feel accomplished and the more I do, the more I want to do!

As you think about your “Get To Do” list, the last piece of advice that I would offer is to be sure to add what I like to call a “non-task” task to your list. A “non-task” task is something that takes zero effort and can serve to center you if you become overwhelmed. For example, sometimes I add a bullet point with the words, “ “Be happy” or “Look around you and notice something you are grateful for.” Not only are these things quick and easy to do, they are important reminders of the real reason our lists exist in the first place– to experience this great journey of living. In the end, is there really anything greater than this that we “get” to do?

Good luck with making your way through the things you need to do to begin the school year and if you have other hacks that help you, please share!

Overcoming Overwhelm

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Overcoming Overwhelm

No time to read? Listen instead!

If you’re an educator, getting ready for the beginning of the school year is on your mind. With so much up in the air due to Coronavirus, this year’s opening is complicated by contingency plans. Will we greet our students in-person or will our opening salvos be conducted via Zoom?

As of this moment, my school is planning a brick and mortar opening on August 11 which means that readying the physical space where students will gather to think and learn is foremost on my mind.

When I began to think about how to tackle this challenge, my first instinct was…to take a nap. Seriously. I haven’t set up my own classroom in twenty-one years and I couldn’t even fathom where to begin.

But, I resisted my urge to go to bed and instead, decided to start with books. First, I raided my sons’ bookshelves for their old middle school favorites. I found the Percy Jackson series, all seven of the Harry Potter books, The Hunger Games, Divergent, Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

A very nice beginning, I thought to myself.

Then, I went to my garage and began to open the bins I had stored there. I cracked open the spines of brand new books that publishers have sent over the years. I got lost reading the blurbs on the backs. I felt inspired. Mentally, I began to organize my collection. I imagined bins labeled Environment, Civil Rights, World War II, Graphic Novels, Classics.

Though I didn’t count how many books I culled from different corners of my home, there were roughly 500 books in my foyer waiting to find a space in the library of my new classroom.

Great, I thought. Next stop–the classroom. In my head, moving the books from my foyer to the classroom and putting them on shelves felt like a manageable task.

So, the next day, I loaded up my car and headed to my school. When I arrived, I cheerfully opened up the door and saw…books. Lots and lots and lots of books. Now, normally, a sight such as this would make me positively giddy but upon seeing the no less than ten boxes of books that had been delivered to my room, I felt that tight, tense, choked up feeling in the back of my throat…and again, the sudden urge for a nap. What felt manageable prior to my arrival, now felt…absolutely paralyzing.

As is often the case with teaching–and life–the tasks demanding our attention have a way of adding up to feel insurmountable. When this happens, like me, you might feel your flight instinct kick in. While it can be helpful to take that nap from time to time when you feel overwhelmed, avoiding the things on our to do list for too long can amplify our stress and anxiety. In those moments of overwhelm when we have to face what stands before us, I find the following three steps to be helpful:

  1. Stop. Recognize how you’re feeling. If you feel the urge to judge yourself for feeling this, resist that urge. Whatever you’re feeling, it’s okay! You’re human. Humans feel stuff. 
  2. Take a deep breath. Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth. Do this again. Do this again and again and again until you feel refocused on the moment in front of you.
  3. Decide what you can do in this moment. If you’re overwhelmed by the new curriculum resource you’re expected to use, read the first page of the teacher manual. If you are trying to plan the lesson you’re going to do for your observation, sit at the computer, and type the objective. Don’t think about being done. Just think about one thing that you can do right here, right now.  

In my moment of overwhelm, the one thing that I could do after I had breathed my way through my anxiety, was open a box. And that’s what I did. Then, I took out one book. Then another. And slowly but surely, I made my way through all of the books in that one box. I didn’t finish going through all the books in all of the boxes, but I did finish sorting those books in that box. And that gave me a sense of accomplishment and the courage to continue.

Overwhelm comes from trying to process the enormity of the big picture. In these moments, we cannot see the pathway to the end we seek. However, completing one small task or taking one small action can illuminate the path forward. And you will get there. And so will I. Book by book by book.