I am a teacher. There. I said it. I have finally accepted the title along with all the other judgmental stereotypes about my salary that coincide with it. Furthermore, I have miraculously found a way to survive my first year teaching because I am currently more than halfway through my second.
:O
*Where’s my “I Survived My First Year Teaching” t-shirt?*.
Seriously.
-.-
I guess it really was too much to ask for because as a teacher, you learn to do many things for free. True story. [totally not trying to throw any hints…or am I?] . Being a teacher is not for the faint of heart. The teachers I work side by side with everyday are literally the most amazing people in the world. I have never encountered so many selfless individuals as where I am currently teaching.
These people dedicate their lives to changing lives, and for that they all have my utmost respect. Yeah, we may complain everyday about how we wish things were different; like a longer lunch, not having to be on duty, a never ending supply of paper in the copy machine, more time to plan, or for the STAAR test to completely eradicate itself off the face of the earth (#SorryNotSorry), but unfortunately…we love what we do.
It is a special kind of love.
It is this love that fuels our teacher cars in the morning to help us get out of bed when we feel like binge watching something on Netflix for a week, or when trying to decide whether to eat or grade because there is no in between. This love drives us to stay up at odd hours of the night when we are trying to come up with creative ways for our students to understand difficult concepts (and even the not so difficult concepts that for some reason can’t seem to stick in their heads). It is the little subtle hints from our students showing that we are making an impact in their lives that give us that last bit of energy to keep fighting the good fight. And even though they drive us near to mental breakdowns every now and then, we still love them.
If you are a teacher, just know that you are appreciated! Don’t be discouraged because you are not seeing immediate results. We are planting seeds, and seeds take time to grow. We have to remember that we can only do so much for them. It is up to the student to water and nurture these seeds that we have planted. They can either choose to to grow or stay with “ungrown” potential for the rest of their lives. Once the seed has been planted, we can only continuously encourage them to water it.
Toodles My Noodles!
QuiteSimplyJo
#TheTeacherStruggleIsReal
Quite Simply Jo 