That I Should Have Never Forgotten
(Part 3)
I love to teach, but sometimes I hate my job.
When I am in teaching mode - when I am actually teaching - I am in a happy place. It doesn't really matter what I am teaching, I just genuinely love to teach. I love teaching math, computer applications, science, the Bible, - I love just teaching about life and what I have learned. I love engaging people in conversations that are thought provoking and challenging and I love learning from those kinds of conversations. In fact, I have found that the process of teaching often requires a fair amount of learning. And I love learning.
After four years of college I still hadn't graduated and thought I should decide what to do with my life so I could finish school and move on. I wasn't really in a hurry because, despite some horrific years at Washington State University, I had grown to love learning - I really didn't want school to end. As I was talking about life and my future and my desire to do something meaningful, to a friend who had become my mentor, he made an acute observation. He said, "You should be a teacher. The best teachers are people who love learning and are never done learning. I think that describes you." It would probably be arrogant to say that I am among the best teachers, but I believe my love for learning and my love for sharing what I have learned, has helped to make me a good teacher.
So it would seem I am in the perfect job. I teach for a living, right? Well, not exactly...
As the years have passed teaching has become less and less about teaching. More and more we are asked to be assessment coordinators and data analysts. We are strategists, consultants and form fillers. We check boxes, jump through hoops, rewrite standards, and meet together to talk about it all and celebrate all the check marks. The union asks us to be letter writers and lobbyists. Experts tell us all to be the same and the politicians tell us all our kids should be the same. Administrators tell us to set goals, but be sure they are the right goals, said in the right way, so we can show the world how great we are for meeting our goals. And all of this really isn't teaching.
I spend too much of my time on my job, checking off boxes, attending meetings, recording and analyzing numbers, administrating assessments, discussing school issues, and having release days to appease someone else's list of achievements. But when I am able to escape all that and apply what I have learned from 25 years of experience and just teach, I love it. I love actually teaching. I hate boxes and hoops and data and giving assessments, but I love to teach.
This last year I found myself, often, frustrated by my job, but late in the year I was on a roll with quadratic functions in my Algebra class. The kids were tracking with me, laughing at my poor attempts at humor (when 8th graders can laugh in the midst of quadratics, you know you are on a roll), moaning when things got hard (but then digging in anyway) and it hit me - this is the part of my job that keeps me going. This is when I have fun. This is what I am supposed to be doing.
If I could be a teacher who only had to worry about teaching, I would love my job! The rest of the job is not likely going to go away soon, though, so I will deal with it the best I can and simply understand that being a teacher is not just about teaching. And I will try to be careful to explain, that sometimes I hate my job, but I always love teaching!
After four years of college I still hadn't graduated and thought I should decide what to do with my life so I could finish school and move on. I wasn't really in a hurry because, despite some horrific years at Washington State University, I had grown to love learning - I really didn't want school to end. As I was talking about life and my future and my desire to do something meaningful, to a friend who had become my mentor, he made an acute observation. He said, "You should be a teacher. The best teachers are people who love learning and are never done learning. I think that describes you." It would probably be arrogant to say that I am among the best teachers, but I believe my love for learning and my love for sharing what I have learned, has helped to make me a good teacher.
So it would seem I am in the perfect job. I teach for a living, right? Well, not exactly...
As the years have passed teaching has become less and less about teaching. More and more we are asked to be assessment coordinators and data analysts. We are strategists, consultants and form fillers. We check boxes, jump through hoops, rewrite standards, and meet together to talk about it all and celebrate all the check marks. The union asks us to be letter writers and lobbyists. Experts tell us all to be the same and the politicians tell us all our kids should be the same. Administrators tell us to set goals, but be sure they are the right goals, said in the right way, so we can show the world how great we are for meeting our goals. And all of this really isn't teaching.
I spend too much of my time on my job, checking off boxes, attending meetings, recording and analyzing numbers, administrating assessments, discussing school issues, and having release days to appease someone else's list of achievements. But when I am able to escape all that and apply what I have learned from 25 years of experience and just teach, I love it. I love actually teaching. I hate boxes and hoops and data and giving assessments, but I love to teach.
This last year I found myself, often, frustrated by my job, but late in the year I was on a roll with quadratic functions in my Algebra class. The kids were tracking with me, laughing at my poor attempts at humor (when 8th graders can laugh in the midst of quadratics, you know you are on a roll), moaning when things got hard (but then digging in anyway) and it hit me - this is the part of my job that keeps me going. This is when I have fun. This is what I am supposed to be doing.
If I could be a teacher who only had to worry about teaching, I would love my job! The rest of the job is not likely going to go away soon, though, so I will deal with it the best I can and simply understand that being a teacher is not just about teaching. And I will try to be careful to explain, that sometimes I hate my job, but I always love teaching!
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