This post is dedicated to all the wonderful teachers out there who are counting down the days until the end of school...you guys are soo close!
First, I was one of those many young people who said I would never ever be a school teacher. I started college as a business major but quickly knew I was in the wrong place when I took a couple of accounting classes.
I taught high school for fourteen years in a wide variety of school settings. I started in a rural school in Louisiana teaching math and science (I was a social studies major), next went to an alternative art based curriculum school for at risk students, then spent the next 6 years teaching at a lower socioeconomic schools and finally ended my teaching career with my dream job teaching AP Macroeconomics at Stratford High School (higher socioeconomic school). It wasn’t wonderful because of the socioeconomic status, but the kids, colleagues, and leadership. LEADERSHIP is SO important!!!
The Good: I was
blessed to work with amazing teachers and kids.
I got to teach for 5 years next to my twin sister!!! Talk about a
wonderful gig. We would sometimes show
up in the same outfit (see above picture). Having summers
off (every teacher knows this is the best perk…you always see an end). You also get 10 days throughout the year and
numerous holidays. The schedule is perfect for having a family. Most people respect teachers and appreciate
the effort.
The Bad: Sometimes
you teach with other teachers who aren’t as ambitious as you, but get paid more
than you because they have been teaching longer. We all know these teachers. These are the last ones to arrive, first ones
to leave, and basically assign book work so they can surf the internet.
Sometimes teachers are good people, but just not good
teachers…boring…bland. There are way too
many stories in the news about teachers and inappropriate relationships…so sick
and sad. Teaching pay is like communism…you get paid based on years, not
effort. Christa and I once had a
department chair that sent out an end of year invite for lunch and told one of
the teachers to purposely leave us off the email. Why? I
have no idea. Apparently this was her
leadership style. I remember having one
planning period while everyone had two and she had three. She made me cover a class and then I found
out she spent the entire period on facebook.
Great leadership!!!!
Before I get to the Ugly (don’t want this post to be all
negative)….I was blessed with great coworkers!
Many of the schools we were like family.
We still get together and keep in touch.
I had parents send me the nicest emails and I reciprocated because I had
so many wonderful kids. My last year I
taught privileged kids who spent their summers working with special needs kids,
not because they were resume building, but because they enjoyed it. I worked
with so many good teachers who spent hours and hours trying to find good
lessons, trying to engage the kids. I
worked with some very wonderful administrators that got to know me and
appreciated hard work.
The good news about teaching is that lots of karma is
involved. If you have a wonderful, low
key, hard working person, chances are, they will be ok. If you have someone who doesn’t have the best
morals or motivation, it seems life catches up with themJ
Ok, finally to my Ugly (or funny) : These are the trench stories. My first year teaching I always had a water
bottle. Apparently one of the kids spit
a huge loogie in it and the others watched as I drank it. One kid got upset and reported it to the
principal…talk about gross. I taught an
older boy who would always pull out hid kids umbilical cord out of his wallet
because he was so proud to be a dad.
This same kid always had his hands in his pants and nobody wanted to
work in groups with him. I was stalked
by a student when I was single living in the Galleria area. I was cursed out by a mother with a “grill”
in front of a police officer and assistant principal. She was mad I wrote her son up for cursing me
out. I will never forget her telling the
police officer that she wanted me to go to jail. My response (in my head of course). Send me
to jail, I need a break from all of this craziness (this was before I had my
own kids). I envisioned being in a jail cell being able to sleep, relax and
maybe read a book. I saw so many girl
fights, way more than boy fights. I
actually helped break up a girl fight two days before my wedding.
All in all, teachers are wonderful. They are dedicated, hard working, and love
your kids. If you have a strong willed kid,
I recommend lots of nice treats. The
best thing you can do for an end of the year is have your child write a
personal note to the teacher (and of course they always like gift cards). Teacher appreciation week was late this year
so my kids are only doing nice notesJ I can honestly say the handwritten notes at the end of the year were the things I cherished the most, and those are free! If your child had a great teacher, let the principal know!!!!
Oh, also…teachers are so over the apples and don’t forget to
send extra nice words to the counselors, administrators, nurses, librarians,
and others behind the scenes who sometimes get overlookedJ
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