Cynthia Alicia Meza is a San Francisco Unified School District, Spanish Immersion Teacher of 19 years, a mother of four, troop leader of San Francisco Troop number one of the Radical Monarchs and Latin American Teachers Association Teacher of the Year in 2016. We asked her to reflect on episode three Wellness in the Time of School Chaos, a Round Table.
Cynthia Alicia Meza is a San Francisco Unified School District, Spanish Immersion Teacher of 19 years, a mother of four, troop leader of San Francisco Troop number one of the Radical Monarchs and Latin American Teachers Association Teacher of the Year in 2016. We asked her to reflect on episode three Wellness in the Time of School Chaos, a Round Table.
o there was the pre pandemic [:
After a long, very hard pandemic year in which I've seen so much suffering with our families, regardless of class, regardless of income, we have all collectively suffered through this pandemic. When the Texas shooting happened, it switched something inside me. For the first time I was questioning, how to move forward when harmful things happen in the community, when shootings happen in the community or nationwide.
children really just want to [:
When the Texas shooting happened. It hit really close to home. Not only because it sets at school, but in this particular case, the classroom that it happened to were fourth graders. The grade that I teach. One of the lead teacher in that classroom, like myself as a mother of four, her children are about the age of my children.
broken heart, I have my own [:
It was a moment that I had to take to just process all of this pain. And of course that's happening at the busiest time of the school year for teachers, right? You got promotion ceremonies, we're closing our classrooms. Some of our own children as a mother are graduating. So May is an incredibly busy month. It was hard to find the space and the time and our school. Everybody seems so overwhelmed. We didn't seem to create the proper space for this healing. And so it just spun me out into this deeper pain. Now that school is [00:04:00] over, I am grateful that I don't work over the summer and that I have the time to do all of my healing practices which includes danza, meditation, forest bathing. I take advantage of our green spaces and hike.
But to be truly honest, when I got invited for this commentary and I listened to the podcast it was such powerful medicine. I'm still processing all the different ways that, that this is just adding to my healing process. First of all, uh, as a veterana teacher, I'm often, um, I don't want to say neglected, but you know, people just assume you're okay. And so a lot of times you're left alone. And listening to the podcast, helped me receive medicine, and help affirm practices that I already have in place , and inspired me on how to take it further.
rcle. And when we first came [:
But, uh, my classroom is designed for classroom discussion. Our rug is in the middle, so we have our community circle in the middle, and children can use that workspace at any point. And then we have the outer circle where they sit, right. And it's really to promote eye contact. It's really to promote classroom discussion.
So hearing him talk about this is the way classrooms should be, was like, yes! I'm already doing this. And inspiration was, oh, I should have a parent meeting at the beginning of the school year where we focus on just connection. We're not focusing on the academics or what they're going to learn and like a pre back to school night, right?
arents. Like we are working, [:
Do the personal work. Take care of yourself. Be very clear on what your medicine bag is for yourself. And for each one of us, it's different for some people it's exercise or running, for some people it's prayer, others, yoga, others, meditation, others is hiking or being outdoors in nature. Others are those social gatherings.
otro yo. If that is really, [:
Cynthia: Then one was about teachers' circles. I've often thought about bringing copal and samador going into our school garden and inviting any teachers who want to come or paraprofessionals or any staff that [00:08:00] wants a little bit of that copal smoke or sage smoke and have an opportunity to just be grounded in our garden for the work that's to come or for the work that we are doing.
And when the shooting happened like that, that just kept ringing in my mind. Like this is something that naturally came out, but I didn't act on it. Listening to this podcast gave me the affirmation. I needed that I'm on the right path. And this is something that I actually need to do.
