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Teaching Through Grief: What Happens When Educators Need Help

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By Britt Jungck

I was not prepared for Pam.

Teachers work with dozens of colleagues a day, from grade-level partners to school counsellors to social workers to speech therapists. We sometimes drift in and out of each other’s lives so often that we take for granted what we contribute to each other’s days.

In 2020, I had recently moved and left a district where my co-teacher and I had the kind of relationship that allowed us to read each other’s minds without saying a word. I didn’t think I would experience that kind of synergy again, but then I met Pam.

Pam was from California and now worked as an instructional strategist in Iowa. An expert in special education, Pam was respected by everyone. She had a fierce loyalty to her students and would stop at virtually nothing to ensure their educational needs were met.

Within seconds of meeting, we clicked. She became someone I counted on each day, someone I could laugh with about the absurdity of working in public education during a pandemic, someone I could sit in silence with and enjoy a cup of coffee, and someone I could cry to on really terrible days. Pam made me a better teacher.

Then one day last February, I was waiting in line at a coffee shop drive-thru on a crisp Saturday morning, scrolling through my Facebook, when I saw an odd story with Pam’s face and the words, “Heaven Gained Another Angel.” In disbelief, I looked up the number for the person who made the post and called her, skipping the hello, and shouting, “What does your post mean?!”

University training prepares educators for a lot of scenarios on the job: writing lesson plans, filling out evaluations, completing standardized testing administration, etc. But what it doesn’t prepare future teachers for is the inevitable grief that comes with the job.

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Britt Jungck is a licensed Master Educator for the State of Iowa. She gets her joy out of inspiring students to read and find themselves in books. She has been working with K–12 students all over Iowa since 2003, and is currently earning her PhD in Education with an emphasis in Social and Cultural Studies & Public Policy from Iowa State University.

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Britt Jungck
Britt Jungck
Britt Jungck is a licensed Master Educator for the State of Iowa. She gets her joy out of inspiring students to read and find themselves in books. She has been working with K–12 students all over Iowa since 2003, and is currently earning her PhD in Education with an emphasis in Social and Cultural Studies & Public Policy from Iowa State University.

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