Teaching. The ups and the downs.

Life of a Teacher:

Now ask yourself this…do you think we have it easy? I mean we get summers off, we are contracted to only stay until the bell rings, we get paid holidays… sounds amazing right?

NO….. but not for the reason you think!

I love my job. I really do. If you asked me as a freshman in college if I ever thought I would be where I am today teaching I would have said HELL NO! That’s the funny thing about life though. It throws you fast balls, curve balls, and change-ups. I’m going into my third year teaching now. They say most teachers quit after their third year of teaching because it’s not what you thought it would be. Well, they are exactly right about that… It’s not what you think it will be.  

The first year I got into teaching because it was a way for me to be able to coach high school kids. It was a great opportunity to be around the thing I loved, sports. Now that I am going into my second year full time teaching with no coaching duties, I have come to appreciate and love the classroom more than anything.

Am I the best teacher in the world? NO! Am I striving to be? YES! Will I ever be? WHO KNOWS! I make mistakes, I forget to do things, I look back and wish I had done lessons differently, but in the end I know I am what some of these kids at this age need: A ROLE MODEL.

This brings me to my break down today. I am OCD, a perfectionist, and I love for things to go according to the plan; however, if you teach you know that is never going to happen. We had a faculty meeting today that made my world collide. I want to do everything I can to be a good teacher, but there are so many variables (science vocabulary word I taught today) that make it hard. I would love to come to school and just teach and not have to worry about everything the state has mandated us to do or all the negative people around me. The news is dripping with all of these stories about how we are short teachers and why we can’t keep teachers around. I will tell you why… YOU (THE STATE) DEMANDS ALL THIS EXTRA CRAP that is not necessary. These standardized tests are my biggest concern. My job depends on how these kids do on the test. I do everything in my power to get them the information they need, but if we expect these kids to base a years’ worth of work on one test then we are all LUDICROUS! Instead, let’s get them the information they need to learn and be successful and teach them to be the young adults our generation needs.

I drove home today and I couldn't complete one thought in my head of what I needed to do this week for school, or for my lesson plans, or any of my housework, or my upcoming evaluations. It was all running together. I have always been a person who doesn’t do things half-ass. I like the satisfaction of doing something and doing it well. So you can imagine all these car lanes in my head merging into one crashing car after car.

So as I write this blog to vent and probably make no sense to anyone, all I can do is strive to be the best teacher and role model some of these kids can have. I break down a lot of nights because I worry that I am not giving these kids enough when I feel like I can’t give anymore. I just want to be the teacher that everyone seems to think I am. I do my best to always connect with the kids especially those who need that some ONE!

When I wake up in the morning and get to school an hour early to make sure I am prepared for the day, (which never works our cause all of those damn variables) I tell myself to make it a great day and even better than the one before.

In the end, it’s all worth it. Three weeks into school this is what a kid brought me today (see picture below) because he knows how much I love it and told me “Thank you for being my favorite teacher”. THIS NEEDS TO BE A DAILY REMINDER… to any one and everyone, even if you’re not a teacher, you are making a difference (whether bad or good) in someone’s life so with all the negativity around us… SPIN IT POSITIVELY!

Never trust an atom...they make up everything!

182 Day Journey

Tomorrow marks the start of a new journey for many, myself included. The middle school where I work at has a 7^th grade incoming student orientation. We like to bring the 7^th graders in a day early to get their bearings about them. They go through their classes where they are introduced to the new and exciting things that MIDDLE SCHOOL has to offer. It’s like a day of mini school. We do this to in order to prepare them somewhat before they are fed to the wolves on Monday (our hearts are in the right spot). The 8^th graders, that were once your sweet innocent 7^th graders, become a whole different cocky animal. With their hungry eyes, they are ready to eat the new kids alive! Let us all take a moment and pray for these poor 7^th graders because we knew how awful, awkward, and downright uncomfortable it was in middle school.

Now I say it marks a new journey for myself because this year I will be getting back to my roots, science. Last year I taught CTE (career and technical education or ‘home-ec’ basically) ha… I was fortunate enough to bestow upon those young impressionable minds the amazing world of childcare, culinary arts, and sewing/textiles. For those of you who know me just laughed a little in their head because they know: A) I have no childcare experience. B) Ramen Noodle doesn’t count as being able to cook. C) I didn’t even know sewing machines still existed. If you’re wondering how I survived I will tell you. I learned more from the kids than they did me. Did I have fun with them though? YES! I saw all 400 (okay maybe not that many but pretty close) 7^th graders last year. Some of them which stole my heart!

I love science and all the facts, theories, and unknowns it has to offer. I can’t wait to teach it this year. I will be teaching 3 sections of C & A science along with my other classes. It’s a class for kids who want to reach beyond what they know and become self-directed learners. I’m excited, anxious, nervous, and a whole other ball of emotions I can't describe. As a teacher you worry that you’re going to fail or that they won’t learn anything from you, but if I learned anything from last year, if you show them that you really care about them… they will do anything for you. I don’t think I could ever leave 7^th grade because they are immature, awkward, adolescents who are looking to find their “thing” and that is my favorite thing about them. Besides, if I'm being honest, I just described myself in a nutshell!

I will be involving myself in several things this year as well. Without being able to coach up here, I have found I do have extra time. I’ve decided it’s time to really delve in and be a part of something awesome (more to come on those adventures later).

 I’m writing this post basically to send a shout-out to all my fellow Americans out there or teachers who are about to start their journey this year. Hope you all have a fantastic, exhilarating, low stressed (year right..) year. I'm so excited to see what crazy stories this year will have to offer, but I first must say how much I will miss my sweet baby Lukers. He will not know what to do with himself sitting in the house all day. He was spoiled with his 2-a-days and long mountain hikes. 

I will leave you with this thought. “I make terrible science puns….but only periodically”.

Giving me "the look" ***PLAY WITH ME

If you're not first...you're last!

Today’s topic: Participation

Yes, this topic has been in the news for several days now. I refrained from saying anything on social media about this, but it makes me laugh. James Harrison, Pittsburg Steeler’s linebacker, recently returned his sons’ trophies because they were “participation trophies”. While I think the amount of national news this is receiving is somewhat ridiculous, I do however agree with Mr. Harrison. It’s hard for me to think about what we are doing to our kids these days by giving them the run of the mill trophy for showing up. I know I probably received some participation ribbons or something along those lines when I was younger, but now that I am older it makes me cringe at the fact. I believe that giving kids these participation “medals” in sports gives them a false sense of security. This in my opinion is the quickest way for parents to fall into the delusion that there child is the best and should never be ‘on the bench’.

I come from a long line of athletes and pretty much all my best friends are or at one time participated in higher level sports. I know they would all agree with me when I say you HAVE to earn what you get. If I relied heavily on participation awards when growing up I know for a fact I wouldn’t have been a part of a State Championship team or an Elite 8 team in college.

A couple of women are going to make history soon by being the first females to graduate from the Army Ranger course. The current class started in April with 381 men and 19 women. They are among the elite and most mentally tough people in our nation. I assume the males and females who couldn’t finish this course didn’t get a “participation medal” for trying.

Until my job security is based on the fact that I showed up and participated in teaching versus how my students are actually progressing will I be okay with this.

**Steps off soapbox now.

And God said, LET there be a blog...

Let me explain...

Before I begin, I would like to take this opportunity to explain my reason for starting a blog. First, there are a lot of things I would like to post on Facebook, but refrain from for fear of getting ostracized for my opinions: therefore, if you are reading this blog it's because you truly want to creep on me and love my thoughts (it's okay if you do... no one has to know that you look at this). Second, I realized I have become THAT person who not only posts too many pictures of her dog but talks about her dog too much as well. This will give me the outlet I need to post things about Luke without feeling like the crazy dog lady. Don't get me wrong though... this won't solve the problem I have of posting too many pictures of him on Facebook, but it may reduce the eye rolling of some when they realize that there are less pictures of a beagle rolling through their news feed. Third, I feel I have become one with nature up here. With there being so many opportunities to connect with here in Salt Lake City, I have become today's generation of Pocahontas. I find myself occasionally on the mountain talking to Grandmother Willow. She told me this whole "blog" thing would be a good idea (if you have't seen Pocahontas please disregard the last message for you will not understand). Lastly, the older I get the wiser I become (insert your own laugh right here). I have a lot of random thoughts running through my mind lately which brings me to the finale. I MUST SHARE and reflect with the vast world of social media...well actually the two or three people I know will read this blog: Lauren Gillaspie, Dixie Jacobs, and Elizabeth Unruh <------ she's the best creeper.