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Teaching puts you in the spotlight, you have to be ON at all times, there is no let up. Kids expect/take from you, your peers do the same, administration puts pressure on you, and you never know when you will get a visit from someone "very important.
This is so true~as a former high school teacher it was like giving 5 or 6 sales pitches, persuasive speeches or news programs to an audience of often unresponsive, disengaged or apathetic listeners. This was each day x 5 days per week. Thankfully, I taught a hands on, student engaged subject, so there were few "lecture and learn teacher led" days in my teaching curriculum and classroom. I often thought of my colleagues who taught the same group of students all day long; if someone came in with a bad attitude, meltdown, outburst or if there had been an incident involving students you had to deal with it (or the tone it set) for the rest of the day, in the same bottled group of students. At least with high school you got a chance to "do over" something 45 or 50 minutes later.
Teaching was my calling, passion and I found it very rewarding. I worked hard to make it a good experience for the students; having equipment ready, supplies needed (yes, I had to shop on my own time), tasks broken down in the beginning until they learned how to get themselves organized and assume the responsibilities for ordering supplies, maintaining equipment and developing realistic timelines for their projects. The harder I worked at being a step ahead, the better the lesson and the end results at the end of the day, week or unit. Friday nights I was often exhausted and Sunday afternoon's were angst with preparedness for the following week. This was hard~there were few "happy hour" opportunities with my job, at times I felt isolated because of being closed up in the same room with a revolving door of different faces all day long.
I started teaching in the decades when they were underpaid for the expectations and responsibilities we carried, often having to work a 2nd job and summer job just to be able to afford the basics of rent, car insurance and food, while continuing to pay for graduate coursework to get permanent certification. When they enacted minimum salaries for teachers in NJ, I had to be brought up to that scale, with 5 years of experience I was still under the state minimum pay for starting teachers, and I had a Master's degree. This was hard; I couldn't afford the portion of the beach house, or the quick vacation to someplace warm on a long weekend or holiday. I was envious of those who could call out sick and had a secretary take their calls, of those who were putting money into 401K's that their employers were matching. Those that had company cars that they didn't have to pay for, could take a lunch hour away from their place of employment, and the concept of PTO time or comp. time was never in the field of education.
That being said, yes, teaching was hard; but it was my choice, I loved it, felt stimulated, challenged, was never bored, often surprised and amused, loved interacting and engaging with teenagers and know that I left a lasting impact on many of them.
Not always. A friend of mine from high school went on to get his MS in computer science. He works as a computer engineer designing and coding software for Boeing. But I think my cat has more creativity skills than him.
Sure, but what about the other way around? I mean, for someone to be creative, does that not require a certain level of intelligence?
It would be easier if the state and federal governments let you suspend and expel the problems that exist. But because half the job is classroom management, you have to deal with the degenerate students longer than you should have too and it can make the job harder than it should be.
The subject matters also. Kids generally hate being in math, science and history classes.
Its not the hardest job, but you can't show up and collect a check either.
It would be easier if the state and federal governments let you suspend and expel the problems that exist. But because half the job is classroom management, you have to deal with the degenerate students longer than you should have too and it can make the job harder than it should be.
The subject matters also. Kids generally hate being in math, science and history classes.
Its not the hardest job, but you can't show up and collect a check either.
I though that for a while, but not over my past ten years or so teaching. It has grown progressively more difficult.
Oh my goodness, this is SO TRUE!
I was working harder and spending A LOT more time on lesson preparation, evaluation, justification, individualized instruction and making adaptations for IEP's, monitoring student progress and behavior, answering emails, uploading data, tracking, developing authentic assessment, and other administrator assigned kumbaya programs, attending meetings and developing and working on my own PTD's or SLO's.
In my early years of teaching I managed to teach all day, prep for a the next day, go to the gym, finish paperwork at home in the evening and often head back to school to watch a sporting event, play or concert. Towards the end of my run, I was so consumed that I didn't have the time or the energy to go back in the evening. Subject matter was easy to convey, I had all the answers, it was the "other" work that became hard and time consuming. The students became customers over time....
I was working harder and spending A LOT more time on lesson preparation, evaluation, justification, individualized instruction and making adaptations for IEP's, monitoring student progress and behavior, answering emails, uploading data, tracking, developing authentic assessment, and other administrator assigned kumbaya programs, attending meetings and developing and working on my own PTD's or SLO's.
In my early years of teaching I managed to teach all day, prep for a the next day, go to the gym, finish paperwork at home in the evening and often head back to school to watch a sporting event, play or concert. Towards the end of my run, I was so consumed that I didn't have the time or the energy to go back in the evening. Subject matter was easy to convey, I had all the answers, it was the "other" work that became hard and time consuming. The students became customers over time....
My experience also. Both teachers and students are paying a high price for talking points of politicians, lining the pockets of testing companies, and justifying additional administration jobs.
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I was working harder and spending A LOT more time on lesson preparation, evaluation, justification, individualized instruction and making adaptations for IEP's, monitoring student progress and behavior, answering emails, uploading data, tracking, developing authentic assessment, and other administrator assigned kumbaya programs, attending meetings and developing and working on my own PTD's or SLO's.
In my early years of teaching I managed to teach all day, prep for a the next day, go to the gym, finish paperwork at home in the evening and often head back to school to watch a sporting event, play or concert. Towards the end of my run, I was so consumed that I didn't have the time or the energy to go back in the evening. Subject matter was easy to convey, I had all the answers, it was the "other" work that became hard and time consuming. The students became customers over time....
Pretty much sums it up. The one thing I might add to monitoring student behavior is trying to manage it. Behaviors have become worse. I have some students who are just blatantly disrespectful and defiant. I have days when an entire 2 hour and 40 minute block is a struggle through disruptions by one or two students. Those one or two make the morning almost impossible for me and the other 28 students.
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