A Philly principal to teachers: Please don’t quit | Opinion

I want to send a message to Philly’s teachers, specifically second-year teachers: Hang on. The last three weeks may have broken you, but I promise you: It will get better. Please don’t quit. This is not the way your second year of teaching is supposed to be.

As an experienced educator in Philadelphia, I’ve been thinking a lot about teachers who joined our profession two years ago. It makes me so sad that their recent experience in the classroom has been so grim. For today’s second-year teachers, their introduction to the classroom began virtually. Last year, for an entire year, their students may have been just small Zoom tiles with initials (or Bitmojis). Nobody was an expert at virtual learning — especially not principals and district leaders — so many teachers felt entirely on their own. That’s a rough way to start your career.

This school year seemed more promising as we all returned to in-person learning, but masking protocols, seating charts, and contact tracing overwhelmed even the most seasoned teachers. Add reorienting students to the classroom after 1.5 years of being at home, and it’s understandable if second-year teachers are wondering what they got themselves into.

Your second year of teaching is supposed to be the year you fall in love with it.

Like many teachers, I had a rough first year. I wish I could write an apology to every student I taught at Olney East High School in the 2007-08 school year. I didn’t know what I was doing. Even though I tried so hard every day, I hadn’t found my teaching voice yet. However, to this day, my second year of teaching was one of the best years of my life. I didn’t just find my teaching voice — I found my teaching heart. With my students, I started a school newspaper and founded a chapter of the National Honor Society. We invited guest speakers to our classroom, and went on field trips. The pizza shop owner on Duncannon Street started to recognize my voice over the telephone because I had so many pizza parties celebrating my students’ accomplishments.

This year, teachers can’t have pizza parties without the fear of causing a COVID-19 outbreak.

Pizza parties should never be stressful. Teachers shouldn’t have to write masking norms into their classroom policies. Educators shouldn’t have to drop everything to do contact tracing. Children shouldn’t have to decide between coming to school to keep their grades up and protecting their asthmatic siblings or ailing grandparents at home.

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My message to all the teachers out there struggling through yet another stretch of pandemic teaching: School is not normal right now. Even though this fall we saw a glimmer of hope when we all returned to full-time in-person schooling, the last three weeks — when many schools were forced back into virtual teaching — have caused collective trauma for educators and parents and students.

It’s all hard — harder than teaching should be. I understand why many teachers are considering throwing in the towel and becoming a part of the Great Resignation. But I am begging you: Please don’t quit.

I won’t pretend to have all the answers. I don’t know when or how this pandemic will end, but I do know that nothing lasts forever and that it’s going to get better. Someday soon all of us — first-, second-, third-, and even 10th-year teachers — are going to have that magical year that makes us fall in love with our profession again. Someday soon we’ll be able to again devote 100% of our attention to our students, rather than crisis management. Someday soon you will be able to sit after school with your students and laugh with them over pizza. Our collective second year of teaching is coming.

Please, teachers. Don’t give up yet.

Nimet Eren was an English teacher for eight years at Olney High School and is now in her fifth year as principal at Kensington Health Sciences Academy. She has her doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Pennsylvania.