Investing in Yourself

By
Travis Chapman

In honor of Teacher Appreciation week, we want to say thank you to every one of our substitute staff, regardless of your positions.  We continually strive to help create a safe and supportive environment for each our students so they can continue their educational experience.  Every time you work an assignment, you help us toward that goal.  We cannot say thank you enough!  As we are currently navigating life in light of COVID-19, we want to encourage you to take care of and invest in your most precious resource, yourself.  There are a lot of ways that we can do this, like spending quality loved time with loved ones, participating in hobbies, and finding ways to grow and develop yourself.

As we are self-isolating, it can be easy to feel disconnected from family and friends.  Be purposeful in connecting with your loved ones.  It can be easy to send a text but find some time to have a face-to-face conversation.  With all the access to free video-conferencing apps, we can turn a simple phone call to a more personal interaction.  As we are unable to see each other in our daily lives, seeing a person’s face can make a big difference.  As we have seen in the news, and across social media, people are doing a lot of creative things to bridge the physical distance, like family calls, virtual happy-hours, and watch-parties.  Even simple interactions can make a huge difference.

In this time, maybe you are now full-time with your children and helping facilitate their online learning experience.  This can be very frustrating, with trying to accomplish all our own tasks, as well as trying to keep our children focused.  Or maybe you have roommates that you are now seeing 24/7.  With all this extended free time, and new lifestyles to adapt to, it’s important to find activities that refill your emotional energy.  Each person is different in what helps them relax and re-engage with the world around them, but this is a great time to process through and engage in new hobbies.  Check some things off your bucket list.  Read a book you have been meaning to pick up.  Take some time to learn a new language.  Try a new recipe.  Paint along with Bob Ross.  Maybe, you can incorporate those other people, whether your family or roommates, into these activities. 

Another way to practice some self-care is to invest in your own skills.  Take a course, read a book, listen to a podcast.  While we are not currently working, we can prepare for a return to the classroom.  John C. Maxwell says that “Change is inevitable.  Growth is optional.”  We need to choose to grow and hone our skills.  Some recommendations of places to start, Simon Sinek’s Ted Talk, “Start with Why”, John Maxwell’s book “No Limits”, and Dr. Carol Dwek’s book “Mindset”.  You can also take some training through our training partners.  As a TOC substitute, you have access to our strategically designed training paths.  You can find more on our page designed for our active substitutes.  You can follow the link at the bottom of this post to be direct to that page.

While our lives are temporarily disrupted, let’s take this time to not only take care of ourselves, but build some skills to continue investing in our students.  We again appreciate all that you do to help them continue to learn and grow.  If you have any questions, please let us know.

To access our page for active substitutes, click here.  The password is found in the master substitute handbook.