I found this playlist interesting because some of the
questions that I had at the beginning of it were answered as it went
along. I’m not sure if it was organized
to work that way, but it did for me. By
the time I got to the end of Hopkinson’s “Learn to Shine Bright,” I was left
with a simple question: How? Hopkinson
encourages use to simply take care of ourselves, but I would argue that’s not
so simple. I found myself agreeing with
her arguments that we need to stop wishing our time away—something that I hear
lamented in other teacher forums of which I am a part—but I didn’t think her
solution was so easy. It felt like
another task. Another initiative, when
so many of us already have enough of those.
“Drowning in Empathy” started to answer my question of “how?” I really liked how Cunningham discussed
carving out ten minutes of time for ourselves.
That felt really doable. I’m not
sure that ten minutes can undo some of the compassion fatigue that we
experience, but I think it’s a doable start.
