Day 12: Close Up...of my mind
To all of those “teacher’s have it so easy” people out there…
Why Teaching is Hard
I love what I do. I love working with kids. I love that I
laugh every single day at work. I am
fortunate enough to be in a career that is challenging and fulfilling all at
the same time. I love that every day is
different and I love that it keeps me on my toes, but wow, what I wouldn’t give,
just every once in a while, to go to work, sit at my desk, and work
independently.
Before I began teaching I worked in government contracting
for a few years. Granted the days would
drag, but the job did have many perks.
Of course, the pay was significantly higher than a teacher’s salary and
there was definite room for growth. I could
go into the office around the same
time every day, listen to music, do my work at my desk, take my breaks when I
wanted, peruse Facebook in my down time, and then leave all remaining work
sitting on my desk until I got to it the next day. No stress. No worries. No working from home.
No observations. No constant knot in my stomach because of the never ending
to-do lists that get bigger and bigger with each passing day.
Let me back up a bit.
I always knew I wanted to teach.
It was one of those “from childhood” dreams of mine and I made it a
personal goal to make it happen. I
always looked up to my teachers and, really, wanted to teach so that I could be
an inspiration to future generations. I
had a true passion for teaching and learning, and most definitely did not get into the career
for the summers off.
When I went to grad school my professors told us that
NOTHING can prepare you for teaching other than actually doing it
yourself. Learning in the classroom is
the best and only way to truly figure out whether or not this career is for
you. We were warned that 50% of teachers
quit within the first five years, and we were warned again, when hired, that teachers
go through a roller coaster of emotions every year – starting off on a high
during September and October, plummeting to an all time low between November
and February, and then gradually coming out of the depths of hell by
March/April and leveling out at a “normal” level by May and June. They even showed us a chart. No joke. Teaching is hard, really, really hard.
With that being said, I would like to challenge anyone that
says that teaching is easy. People think
that because we have summers off and breaks throughout the year that the job itself
is cake. I guarantee that person that
goes into teaching for the summers off wont last more than a couple of
years. Those people that say “Those who
can’t – teach” have clearly never taught and should be shot in the foot. I have worked in retail, in restaurants, and
offices, and I can say without a doubt that teaching is the hardest job I have
ever had or will have in my life.
So for those of you who claim that teaching is so easy…here
are just a FEW reasons why I find it a bit more challenging than, let’s say,
your cushy office job:
Can’t be late – You hit traffic? You overslept? You
couldn’t find matching shoes? Oh well – you’re screwed. When you are a teacher you are one part to a
massive team that relies on you to get the job done.
You don’t have the option of coming in a little late or leaving early
because you have students waiting in your classroom starting the first thing in
the morning. Sure, you can call the
school last minute and they will scramble to get someone to cover for you, but
you not only hurt your students for not showing up you put other people in a
bind.
Leaving for an emergency puts more than just you in a
bind – Ditto above. If you ever need
to leave early you will need to find coverage for your classes. Everyone has their own jobs to do, and being
asked to cover someone’s class during your precious planning time is done,
albeit selflessly, pretty often – which just makes more work for the person
covering for you. Same deal goes for
phone calls or other personal matters.
You can’t leave your students unattended, so if you need to do anything
you have to try to find coverage.
Can’t pee when you need to pee – Students may use the restroom any time
during the day with a pass excusing them from class. Unfortunately, teachers do not have that
luxury because we cannot leave our students unattended. Do you know what it’s like to not be able to
pee when you need to pee? Let me
rephrase, do you know what it’s like to not be able to pee when you need to
pee when you’re PREGNANT? I’m surprised
I haven’t just dropped trou in the middle of my classes yet. I mean sometimes it hurts to even move I have
to go so bad, and I have to wait until I can bother someone to cover my class
or until the bell rings. We have 90
minute classes – that gets intense. Then
when the bell rings I have to fight my way down the hall past three hundred 14
year olds that walk so slow they are pretty much going backwards and they stop
at classrooms to talk to their friends causing major traffic jams, all the
while I’m racing to beat the 6 other teachers that have been dying to go to the
bathroom just as long as I have to the TWO faculty restrooms they have in the 8th
grade hall. I don’t believe I’ve ever
seen a class change where there hasn’t been
a line at the faculty bathroom.
Can’t eat when you need to eat – When you are a
teacher you can eat when the students eat – at the designated lunch hour for
your class. Sometimes that’s as early as
10AM or as late as 1:30PM. In the
teaching world there are no lunches out with friends, casually grabbing a
cocktail and relaxing for an hour before heading back to the office. Most of the time you have a 30 minute break,
in which 3 of those minutes are spent walking your students to the cafeteria, 5
minutes spent waiting on the microwave in the teachers’ lounge, 3 of them
warming your meal, and that leaves you
with about 19 minutes to scarf down your food and to get back to your room
before the students return. Super
relaxing.
Can’t have a moment to yourself – Alone time? What’s
that?
From the SECOND you walk into the school you will hear your
name called at least 10 times before you reach your classroom. Good morning, Mrs. Thomas! What was for homework, Mrs. Thomas? Mrs.
Thomas, is that paper due today? Good morning, Mrs. Thomas. Oh man, Mrs. Thomas
is going to be upset that I forgot my project at home! Hi, Mrs. Thomas! Mrs.
Thomas, what is the name of the book we are reading today? Mrs. Thomas, when
are our book summaries due? Mrs. Thomas, are we going to the library this week?
Good morning, Mrs. Thomas.
Ahh…I made it to my classroom. Let me unpack, unwind, and get everything
ready for the day. Whew. *Knock knock* someone opens the door – Good morning,
Mrs. Thomas! I wanted to bring by this
poem I wrote for you to look at. Mrs.
Thomas, will you look over this assignment to make sure everything is
grammatically correct? Good morning,
Mrs. Thomas - just wanted to remind you
that we have a meeting this afternoon.
How are you feeling today Mrs. Thomas? Did you get all your grading
done, Mrs. Thomas? What are we doing in
class today Mrs. Thomas?
*RIIIINNNNNG* - the bell sounds and 25 kids come piling into
my room. For the remainder of the day I
will be surrounded by students and colleagues in classes, lunch, meetings, and
after school activities. If you ever
just want to have a day where you can crawl into a corner and hide – you will
not find that in this profession.
And yes, this is every.single.day.
Constant meetings – Oh man. Constant meetings. I haven’t had a day where I haven’t had a
meeting since I began teaching. I meet
with my fellow English teachers. I meet with my interdisciplinary team. I meet
with students, with parents, with counselors, with deans, with admin, with my
department, with the faculty, with a new teacher that I mentor, I meet and meet
and meet and meet. Chances are when you
do have a second to breathe and regroup on your own, you probably have a
meeting to get to within the next 5-10 minutes.
So regroup as quickly as possible.
Constant grading – Teaching requires you to grade
every day. Not that you will have
quizzes, tests, and papers to grade every day, but you will have formative
assessments to stay on top of in every class you teach. A day to day assessment practice that allows
you to track student progress and, in return, tweak your teaching so that you
make sure you reach all students. Beyond
the daily assessments, teachers have the responsibility of objectively grading
each student’s assignment that will ultimately reflect their level of
mastery. As an English, teacher I also
have the super fun task of grading multiple papers per quarter. Do you know how fun it is to grade 120 3-page
papers? Really, think about it. You get to read 120 3-page papers written by
middle schoolers that didn’t follow any of your directions. Really, it’s a freaking blast. And it doesn’t
take long at all. Maybe 5-10 hours or
so. No big deal. It’s awesome.
Performing ALL day – I always tell Brian that I am
“ON” all day long. When you are a teacher you have to maintain a certain
persona – you are a teacher, therefore you need to be kind, respectful,
helpful, and available. Even on the
worst of days…one of those where you wake up pissed off for no apparent reason,
with a pounding headache, you have nothing to wear because you forgot to take
your pants out of the washing machine, you spill your breakfast all over the
floor, you trip over the shoes your husband left laying in the middle of the
living room, you have NOTHING to take for lunch, and you forgot to warm your
car up so you have to spend an additional 5 minutes scraping off the frost from
your windshield, just to get in and realize you need to get gas. On one of those days when you walk in the building
feeling like you want to RIP SOMEONES HEAD OFF, inevitably the first student
will say, “Mrs. Thomas did we have homework?”
You want to say “ARE YOU F*CKING SERIOUS!!?!? YES we had
homework! We ALWAYS have homework! Where have you BEEN for…oh I don’t know...THE
ENTIRE FLIPPING SCHOOL YEAR!? You should be kicked out of this school! You
should have detention EVERY DAY FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE! You should be more
responsible than this!”
But what you do say, with a smile, is, “Good morning
kiddo! Yes we did have homework last
night – remember the 15 minutes of writing you are assigned every night? I’m
sure you will have time in study hall to get it done before you get to class,
so no biggie :) Have a wonderful day! See you in 3rd block!”
Granted, you don’t have days like this all the time, but you
catch my drift. You have to be careful
with how you talk and react to everyone around you. You are in an impressionable career where
something you may say very well can stick with a student for the rest of their
lives. So slap a smile on your face no
matter how you feel, and get in there and spread the warmth.
Constant energy – Beyond all other day to day tasks,
don’t forget that you actually have to TEACH.
It is our job to deliver the critical knowledge our students will need
to possess in order to succeed in life. So yes, you have to get up and deliver
your lesson. You need to make it FUN.
You need to make it memorable. And you need to teach it in multiple ways so
that each child with a different learning style can grasp the concept at
hand. Then it’s time to practice – be
sure to circulate the room and help students as they are working. Answer
questions. Ask questions. Be up. Be active. Be visible. Then whatever remaining
energy you have left you need to use it to control 25 hormonal teenagers who
would rather be doing anything else
but writing an essay.
Always looking for change – I haven’t been teaching
very long, but when I was doing my student teaching my mentor told me something
that I have seen come true in the three years I’ve been doing this. She said to me, “They will try to reinvent
the wheel when it comes to education over and over and over again, but trust
me, it will always come back to the basics.” And boy is that true! Everyone is always looking for new ways to
spice up education, to make it fun and exciting, to make sure that each student
across the country is reached and not left behind. You just need to be flexible because if you
did it in your classroom this year, there is a good chance you will have to do
something different the next. It’s all
done in good faith that the students will benefit from our constant evolution,
but just know, that no two days are ever, ever the same.
Continuous learning – Teaching is a field that
requires continuous education. For
starters, you have to have a bachelor’s degree to teach, and then you have to
earn a certification to teach your subject area in your state. Most teachers go on to get their Master’s
degree – some before they begin teaching and others while they are working full
time in the school. In order to keep
your teaching license in Virginia, you are required to earn 180 hours of
professional development credit every five years. Professional development
credit is given in a variety of ways - from being published, taking a class,
attending a meeting, or going to workshops.
Furthermore, teachers are encouraged to attend conferences or take
classes in their subject areas to keep up with the most current pedagogy. Our lives literally revolve around education
– we are teachers, but also take pride in that we are learners first.
Self pressure & hurt feelings – It is your job to
make sure that every student succeeds, which means that it is your job to
personally ensure that 120 of your students do their work, get it in on time,
get it done right, pass the test, and master the material. You are bound to have a few students each
year (or more like 40 for me this year) that require extra work. It becomes a self battle having to keep up
with who is missing what and who needs this and who did that. Not only that, but when you have to stay on
top of certain students to get their work done, they often time become annoyed
and students, especially middle schoolers, can be mean. You put pressure on yourself to get the job
done right no matter what the cost. If
you aren’t intrinsically motivated there is no way this would be the right
profession for you.
Walk on egg shells – As I mentioned before, you have
to be watch everything you say and do when you are a teacher. What you say or the way you say
something can be misconstrued and could
lead to major problems. There are many
rules to follow when it comes to teaching, and as long as you walk the line you
should be ok. You have a certain
reputation to uphold, so take down those photos on Facebook of your bikini-clad,
margarita sipping, nightclub dancing vacation from last summer. You’re a teacher now – you only bake cupcakes
and crochet for the homeless.
If you can’t multitask you can’t teach – At any given
second throughout the day you will have a list of 20 things to do…at
least. It has become a part of my daily
routine to make “to-do” lists because to remember everything you need to get
done is almost impossible. You need to
be grading papers, while planning your lessons, while helping a student, while
preparing for a meeting, while your copies are running in the copy machine. There is not enough time in a day to do one
thing at a time.
Pressure to perform or take on more roles – Be a
leader! Take on more responsibility! Volunteer to be involved in committees!
Join the PTO! Sponsor a club! Take more classes! It is nice to hear
encouragement from administration that they want to see you take on more
leadership roles because they trust you and have faith that you are a good
leader. It’s nice to feel satisfied when you can list all the wonderful things
you contribute to your school outside of being a rock star teacher. But
sometimes when you feel like your drowning in your day to day responsibilities
and you are doing everything you can to keep your head above water, you just
want to hear that you are doing a good job. You are doing enough. And you are
appreciated for what you are able to do.
And if you ever feel like you are stressed to the max just try not to
think about the many observations you will have done this year. Nothing is more fun than teaching a lesson
while having your administrators sit in the back of the room taking notes on your
every move. Seriously – it makes your
stress level go way down. It’s like
Xanax for the school day.
Always planning and changing lesson – Oh yeah, did I forget to mention
that you have to plan lessons? And then change them pretty much every hour? You
get a wonderful curriculum guide that outlines the essential knowledge the
students should take away with them when they leave your room at the end of the
year. How you teach it is completely up
to you. Your lessons, practice, projects, quizzes, tests, activities, homework
and all other assignments are designed, altered and delivered by you. I am lucky enough to work on a team where we
can all share our creations, but some aren’t so fortunate. To create one full lesson or one full unit
takes A LOT of time. Then once you are
happy with your lesson, you deliver it only to have it fail. So you have to re-do it. And then it works for one class but not
another, so you have to redo it again.
Eventually you have one lesson that you can teach in 15 different ways
just so that all students get it. Constant planning = constant changing.
Feeling like you’re not a good teacher when you hear
others talk about how much they do for their kids or how much they read or how
many conferences they have gone to - Everyone else seems to LOVE to plan or
grade papers on the weekends. Some people make teaching their entire lives, and
that’s great for them, but definitely NOT for me. But I’m not going to lie, sometimes I feel
like a complete loser slacker of a teacher when people blow up their Facebook statuses
with things like “SO excited to try out this lesson I just spend the last 10
hours of my weekend planning. It’s going to be awesome!” because all I can
think is “Ewww, why would you A) plan on the weekend, and B) get excited about
giving a lesson?” Haha no – I get excited about lessons too, but definitely not
over the weekend. Just because other
people chose to make their jobs their lives doesn’t mean that I have to. But
that still doesn’t take away the fact that seeing other people’s over the top
dedication makes me feel like a bad teacher.
Being compared to other teachers – Why are we doing
this? Mrs. Johnson didn’t make us do this!
Mrs. Smith was nice. Mr. Bob was hilarious. Mrs. Brody was really fun. Mr. Christian was mean but a really good teacher. Being compared to other teachers is just part
of the job. Some of the students will
never mention another teacher’s name while others will not stop talking about
them. Some students will love you, some
will tolerate you, and some will hate you. That’s just the way it is. It can be offensive to hear the way they
compare you to other teachers, but I just have to remind myself that next year
I’m sure they will compare their new English teacher to ME – who they love – I
just know it :)
Low pay – Do I even need to elaborate? We are contracted only 7 hours a day but I
can’t say that I know many teachers (if any at all) that only work 7 hours. Teachers volunteer their own personal time to
stay after school with kids for extra study support or after school
activities. Teachers work FAR beyond
their contract time. We are paid the
same amount whether we work 40 hours a week or 80 plus an additional 15 on the
weekend. There are no bonuses or
elaborate gifts – we are paid in student and self satisfaction. Teachers work 13 months out of the year and
jam it into 10. That’s how awesome we are.
Whew. So there you have it.
In my world every day – those are some reasons why I think teaching is
hard. Of course not everyone has my same
experience, but I can probably say unfalteringly that every teacher out there
has gone through a few of the same emotions.
So YES – we get summers off because we NEED summers
off. For those two months I can be where
I need to be when I want to be there, I can eat and pee at my own leisure, I
can finally catch up on all the things I neglected during from August to June, and I can take a BREAK and rejuvenate my mind
for the next school year. Our vacations
aren’t just wanted, they are needed. Oh-SO-very-much!
I could make a list twice as long about why I love the job
and what it has done for the betterment of my life. I could talk about how wonderful and
satisfying it is. I could talk about my amazing colleagues and the life changing
knowledge I have gained. I could talk about many things, but I could never talk
about how easy it is. It is undeniably mentally, physically and emotionally
exhausting.
So next time you find yourself wishing you were a teacher only because
they have it so easy – shut it. You have
no idea.
