“One has only to look at the gaps between professional education, professional responsibilities, and the policies that direct learning, teaching, and working to recognize that we have important work to do in clarifying not only the role of teachers in school mental health but also in including teachers on the front end and inviting their voices to be heard.”
(Weston, 2018, p. 116)

       This sheds light on an important topic that we’ve touched based on in class: What is the teacher’s role? Well, it’s definitely not just one. This made me think and agree that we must not only clarify our roles and responsibilities as teachers but also make known our concerns, opinions, doubts, and ideas. For example, some of us are taking the course “Ss with Disabilities” and we discussed how IEP accommodations are being made by a psychologist. The school psych observes and tests a student, but usually doesn’t consult the main teacher, and doesn’t discuss with the main teacher what is feasible or what can realistically be done in the classroom to support that student. This is concerning because most of the IEP accommodations are for the main teacher to implement in their classroom, but again, they’re being recommended without conferencing the teacher. This leads up to the challenge that we face as teachers, which is, balancing the demand to meet all student’s needs. I say challenge because of the gap that exists and the article explains it perfectly, teachers care about their student’s well-being, we want to support all students, but sometimes, as we mentioned in class, we don’t feel that we’re trained enough or at all nor capable to meet the requirements of all the roles ‘assigned’ to us. Therefore, it’s been important and valuable to learn throughout this course the resources that are available to us as teachers when it comes to providing any and all support to our students.