CHALK TALK: Things you can’t plan for

There are so many amazing things that happen in schools across the district on a daily basis, and I planned to write an article featuring some of these. My heart and head, however, are weighted down thinking about the families, neighbors, friends, firefighters, other responders, and school staff members who have suffered such an incredible loss from the Butte fire that took the lives of five school-aged children. This is not a topic that most teacher education programs prepare a teacher for. We cheerily walk into school anticipating a great day, and are faced with an emergency staff meeting. Although the district provides counselors to help students and staff through the grieving process, we know that grieving doesn’t stop when the counselors walk out the door. The teacher is left with the empty chair or desk, left trying to make sense of something that doesn’t, left looking at the student’s personal belongings and graded papers with personal comments or words of encouragement… but no student to receive them.

In our role as classroom teachers, we develop personal relationships with all of our students, and they become much more to us than just children we teach. We carry them home in our hearts in the evenings and on weekends. When we travel, shop, take walks, or go through the motions of the day, little things come up that remind us of individuals, and we can’t wait to share these things with them. A comment is made that reminds us of a child, and our mind pulls forth that student and conjures up past images, experiences, or conversations involving them.

After working in the teaching profession for almost 30 years, I have had the unfortunate experience of attending quite a few funerals or services involving past students, their parents, or other teaching colleagues. Each one was a gift that was taken far too soon, and we grieve the lost potential of someone who could never carry out their dreams. They did leave their marks, however, and their memories will last forever.

To the families, neighbors, friends, firefighters, and other responders, and to our colleagues from Butte and Palmer Junior Middle School, the rest of the district is thinking of you and holding you in our thoughts. And as we head closer to October, the month of Fire Safety, let us make our fire safety lesson plans with a renewed sense of urgency.

— Diana Sloan-Basner is an elementary teacher at Birchtree Charter School.