January 2021
During our transition into distance learning, I learned about the importance of both students and teachers to maintain their physical and mental well-being. When we go through college to get our degrees and when we are in the act of teaching, it is often forgotten that our health, both mental and physical, impact our daily lives. I was always focused on getting the job done. In college, I would pull many all-nighters to study for exams. When I first started teaching, I would constantly be bringing home work to do overnight or over the weekend. Especially as teachers, I think that we feel it is our responsibility to do this to ensure the success of our students. But, this was not balanced for me. I remember being completely drained by the end of my first semester.
Now that we have been teaching online for almost a year now, I am always thinking about the amount of stress that I have as an adult and think that our students must be feeling it ten times worse. I now realize (more than I did when we were teaching in-person), the importance of providing the opportunity for our students to develop a healthy physical and mental well-being. Yes, teaching my content is important, but there are ways to do it where the students won’t feel so overwhelmed. As a teacher who is only teaching one subject, it is easy to forget how I felt taking six different classes and having homework and projects for all of those classes.
Aladdin Roque-Dangaran
Vice-President
(serving as interim President as Carol takes a short respite)