What You Will Find on This Site
Honesty: I want total transparency here. Teaching is a difficult job with many positive and negative aspects. Not everyone is made for teaching, and that is perfectly fine. Life is too short for you to tell yourself that “you’ll be happier when….” If you feel that you should get out of teaching, then you probably should. That being said, I will be honest about both the positives and the negatives of teaching as I have experienced them over my twenty-four years of teaching.
Suggestions: I will do my best to offer suggestions if I’m talking about the negatives of teaching. You can choose to give them a try or you can choose to ignore them. However, if you’re a one-and-done person, you’re probably not going to get much out of trying. Kids need consistency, and trying something one time then giving up doesn’t solve any problems or issues.
Truth: You may feel that teaching is a part of your identity, but it is not who you are. I once saw a TikTok of a former teacher comparing teaching to a cult, and I can absolutely see it. It is ingrained in us to feel that teaching is who we are, but that fact is that teaching is what we do. If you struggle to separate your identity from teaching, it’s hard to be honest with yourself if things start to go south. It’s always just a job. Yes, you can absolutely love your job and every aspect of it, but I’m about to throw another fact at you that may be a little hard to swallow. When you leave your teaching job someday, the world of education will go on without you. I don’t say this to sound insensitive; I say this to put things into perspective. You are more than your job. You are more important than your job. When you put your health and wellness first, you will find that you can do amazing things at your job. And at the end of the day… it’s just a job.
Ideas: I will share some cool ideas that I have tried in my classroom and share ideas that other teachers have given to me. Sharing ideas is the best!
Experience: I have twenty-four years of classroom teaching experience, and I am still in the classroom as of this moment. I have taught in Nebraska (currently here), Iowa, and Washington.
Transparency: I question every day whether or not I should get out of teaching. The truth is that I love teaching, but there are aspects of it that affect my health and wellness. I’m still learning that teaching is what I do, not who I am, so I struggle to separate myself from aspects of it that are unhealthy. My goal is not to the hide the truth and make teaching sound like it’s all sunshine and roses. My goal is to create transparent conversation that will allow all teachers to make the best of their situations and the best decisions for themselves inside and outside of the classroom while I work on doing this myself.
What You Won’t Find on This Site
Complaining: Yep. There are definitely bad aspects about teaching, just as there are bad aspects of every job on the planet. This is not a platform for complaining. This is a platform of education, especially for those of you who are new-ish and you’re wondering what you’ve gotten yourself into and how to move forward.
