Ta-ta from Tati (our last blog)

 Wow guys, what a whirlwind of a semester it's been and we’ve covered a lot!  

Here’s a quick recap: 

We started the semester strong by discussing ways art, community, and social justice work together. Building lessons using all three aspects can strengthen your student's work and connection to the larger community. We then developed our own arts-based service learning projects, diving into how we can form partnerships with community groups/organizations. We even got a chance to present these to a “super official PTO group” and everyone crushed it! 

Continuing on, we talked more about inclusivity within our lessons and how we can work to develop accessible art practices for all members of the community. Making sure your lessons are accessible to all students and having differentiation plans ready is key to successful engagement. Next, we dove into comics and graphic novels, highlighting their unique ability to connect students to their learning in new ways. We then took these comic skills and put them to practice, inviting students to partake in our RodCon extravaganza. We worked hard to create community partnerships, including lots of schools, the Cedar Bend Humane Shelter, CRUSH, and the RodCon team. Not only did we put together the coolest art show but participants at RodCon loved our participatory event and had so much fun learning more about how to care for their pets. 

In recent weeks, we’ve covered trauma-informed teaching and teacher resilience. Talking about all things self-care and teacher empowerment. As we finish up our last assignments, prepping for student teaching and our future careers as the more kickass art teachers, share a fun teaching meme (or two ◡̈) ….. 

These are the two I chose ◡̈

Hang in there for these last two weeks, you got it!  

Talking with Taylor

 This last week we read about Compassion Fatigue and Teacher Demoralization. Our first article “Dealing with Compassion Fatigue”, talked about Secondary Traumatic Stress. As teachers we will hear and see the effects of trauma on our students. It can be hard to deal with as teachers when having to hear about students' traumatic experiences. This article also explains that this is a reason why many teachers leave the profession because STS brings about burnout on our teachers.  

Our second article “The problem with stories about teacher “burnout "", explains the effects of demoralization on teachers. It argues that demoralization is what causes “burnout”. Although the author does not like the term “burnout” because it implies that the teachers do not have the passion behind teaching anymore. What is actually causing teachers to leave, is other factors that are making it difficult for teachers to teach their students effectively. Legislation, admin, and the systematic oppression of minorities and low socio-economic students is making it hard for teachers to teach. 

After reading these articles, which one do you think is causing teachers to leave the profession? Demoralization or compassion fatigue or other reasons? Do you have family members or know other teachers that you know that have considered leaving the profession or did leave?  What are these teachers doing to support themselves or what could have helped them to stay in the profession? 

I also would like you guys to think about this for yourselves. These problems that could potentially affect us so we must be aware and plan ways to support ourselves and others around us (both students and colleagues). What can we pull from Alex Shevrin Venet's podcasts on being proactive, asset-based, and equity-centered to fight demoralization? What strategies can we use from the podcasts, the preservice teacher burnout article, our class discussions and lists, and Fowler article on Compassion fatigue to help us plan and prepare for these challenges?

Here is a podcast for further support!