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!