How many people actually stop and think about everything a teacher does, or tries to get done in a day? I would assume, not many.
There are days, few though, in which I have little more to do than teach the 120 plus students that I am charged with teaching. This in itself is a monumental task. I have 120 plus individuals, with independently thinking brains, independent experiences, ideals, morals, beliefs, and of course opinions. For each of these 120 individuals I have to be prepared to redirect them, individually assess them, individual instruct them, and be able to ascertain if they have had a bad day, a good day, a change in their behavior, the appearance, has there been any outside the classroom experience that will impact their classroom behavior or there responses to their peers. All of this while keeping anything I learn in private and never being straight forward in asking the student if their is an issue and never crossing the line to show an extreme personal interest so as to not appear to be unethical or immoral myself.
Have I mentioned the stress?
As if this isn't enough, there are those days in which actual teaching takes the minimal amount of time of the day and all of the other "stuff" takes up the majority of my time. There are days in which the emails from parents are waiting when I turn on my school computer. Emails requesting that their child be allowed to turn in an assignment late. Even though the student had been aware of the due date for the previous three months. Asking that their child not be held accountable for the assignment in the exact format that everyone else is and in the next breath asking me why it is taking so long to get the grades to them. I am not preparing their child for the real word if I am not allowed to hold them accountable to the requirements set out. I have due dates to meet, the students have due dates to meet, I am expected to be flexible for the students, but I am not given the same amount of flexibility because I am in the real world side of education. So again I ask, if I cannot hold the student accountable, how is it that I am preparing them for the real world?
Have I mentioned the stress?
Meetings, meetings, and more meeting. Paperwork, planning, grading, and time constraints. What do all of these have in common? The teacher. While we, in theory, have time to plan and grade, in practice that time is eaten up in meetings, emails, telephone calls, meetings, forced planning with others that doesn't truly translate into anything you will use in the classroom, meetings, and of course at some point in there you would really like to have time to spend with your own family and sleep.
Have I mentioned stress?
In the perfect world, a teacher gets to specialize, or become and expert in what they are teaching. In the nine years that I have been teaching I have now taught 10 subjects. I have just learned that I will be teaching another subject next year. So, this time next year, after 10 years of teaching I will be able to say I have taught 11 subjects. I am perpetually in a state of first year teacher mode. Does anyone understand the stress that comes with trying to know the subject before you begin teaching the subject, when you aren't teaching the subject for more than one year at a time? Or teaching more than one subject at the same time, in the same state of mind that you are trying to learn it before you teach it?
Have I mentioned stress?
I love teaching, I really do. TEACHING! I am paying for that by dealing with the paperwork, the meetings, the phones calls, the emails, the lack of sleep, the feeling of not fully knowing my subject, and the limited amount of time I seem to get to spend with my family.
Have I mentions the STRESS?
There are days, few though, in which I have little more to do than teach the 120 plus students that I am charged with teaching. This in itself is a monumental task. I have 120 plus individuals, with independently thinking brains, independent experiences, ideals, morals, beliefs, and of course opinions. For each of these 120 individuals I have to be prepared to redirect them, individually assess them, individual instruct them, and be able to ascertain if they have had a bad day, a good day, a change in their behavior, the appearance, has there been any outside the classroom experience that will impact their classroom behavior or there responses to their peers. All of this while keeping anything I learn in private and never being straight forward in asking the student if their is an issue and never crossing the line to show an extreme personal interest so as to not appear to be unethical or immoral myself.
Have I mentioned the stress?
As if this isn't enough, there are those days in which actual teaching takes the minimal amount of time of the day and all of the other "stuff" takes up the majority of my time. There are days in which the emails from parents are waiting when I turn on my school computer. Emails requesting that their child be allowed to turn in an assignment late. Even though the student had been aware of the due date for the previous three months. Asking that their child not be held accountable for the assignment in the exact format that everyone else is and in the next breath asking me why it is taking so long to get the grades to them. I am not preparing their child for the real word if I am not allowed to hold them accountable to the requirements set out. I have due dates to meet, the students have due dates to meet, I am expected to be flexible for the students, but I am not given the same amount of flexibility because I am in the real world side of education. So again I ask, if I cannot hold the student accountable, how is it that I am preparing them for the real world?
Have I mentioned the stress?
Meetings, meetings, and more meeting. Paperwork, planning, grading, and time constraints. What do all of these have in common? The teacher. While we, in theory, have time to plan and grade, in practice that time is eaten up in meetings, emails, telephone calls, meetings, forced planning with others that doesn't truly translate into anything you will use in the classroom, meetings, and of course at some point in there you would really like to have time to spend with your own family and sleep.
Have I mentioned stress?
In the perfect world, a teacher gets to specialize, or become and expert in what they are teaching. In the nine years that I have been teaching I have now taught 10 subjects. I have just learned that I will be teaching another subject next year. So, this time next year, after 10 years of teaching I will be able to say I have taught 11 subjects. I am perpetually in a state of first year teacher mode. Does anyone understand the stress that comes with trying to know the subject before you begin teaching the subject, when you aren't teaching the subject for more than one year at a time? Or teaching more than one subject at the same time, in the same state of mind that you are trying to learn it before you teach it?
Have I mentioned stress?
I love teaching, I really do. TEACHING! I am paying for that by dealing with the paperwork, the meetings, the phones calls, the emails, the lack of sleep, the feeling of not fully knowing my subject, and the limited amount of time I seem to get to spend with my family.
Have I mentions the STRESS?
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