Dear @AdrianaLaGrange, @CMOH_Alberta and @YourAlberta,

I am teacher. When I tell people that, the first thing they usually ask me is "What do you teach?". I'd like to answer that for you today.

I teach CHILDREN. Young ones in my case. Yes, I follow the Alberta Program of Studies. Yes, I plan lessons around objectives laid out in that program and ensure my students meet the provincial standards for education in Alberta. But what I teach is CHILDREN.

It's a very personal thing, teaching. You see, the children I teach all come with a family, a history, fears, dreams, and passions. They are curious. They are excited. Sometimes they are rude, too. And that's OK. Because I teach CHILDREN who are learning how to be in this world.

Teaching is also personal because I am a person. I also come with a family, a history, fears, dreams, and passions. In teaching CHILDREN, those things are shared in a strangely intimate way. It really is like no other relationship I can describe to you.

So when you tell me to "lecture from the front of the room", I get a bit of knot in my stomach. That's actually not how it's done. Good teaching rarely happens from the front of the room.

Good teaching happens when I hold a child who is crying because their friend was mean or they miss their mom.

Teaching is what happens when I need to get really tough with someone because they are choosing behaviors that will get them excluded from social groups.

Teaching is what happens when I sit next to the child who just cannot focus unless I do so.

Teaching is what happens when I drink too much coffee and the children take advantage of the hyperactivity and get me sidetracked into looking at endangered animal books, or google maps, or reading them a story that goes with something I just said.

You see, teaching is a very personal thing. It doesn't happen in a lecture from the front of the room. It is an interaction between humans.

I am scared. I am scared that I will get sick. But I'm more scared that I can't be the teacher I need to be, and want to be because you have failed me.

Without PPE, I can't hold the crying child. Without PPE, I can't sit with the child who needs me. Without PPE, I can't get up close and share in whatever it is the children are excitedly trying to distract me with.

We are in the midst of a pandemic. I am well aware that some things will need to change. I will need to change how I use materials and how I seat the children. That will be a challenge, but I can do it.

The one thing I absolutely CANNOT do is change the nature of what I teach. I teach CHILDREN. I need you to take that seriously and provide me with what I will need to be safe and successful in doing that job well.