For as long as I can remember I have just known that I would one day become a teacher- following in my mother's footsteps. How often she told me "teaching is just in your blood...". Not to mention a majority of the women I looked to as mentors, Angie, Shannon, Traci and Ashlyn, to name a few, were teacher themselves. Then of course the teachers that impacted my life-- Mrs. Roberts (who happens to be one of my mother's best friends to this day) in 3rd grade, Mrs. McCombs in 7th and Mr. Parker in 8th and 9th grades- had a huge impact on my life as well.
Teaching is more than just my job- its my life! I am a teacher outside of my 5th grade classroom. I am a teacher to the children I babysit. I am a (fill-in) teacher to the precious children in my church's children ministry. I am also a teacher to those around me sometimes when I don't even know it. (Cocky or not) I take great pride and responsibility in my role as teacher for not everyone is called to be a teacher. I was just lucky enough to have it come naturally.
I have a lot invested in my teaching and in my students. I take great offense to smart remarks or uneducated comments from those outside the teaching world. In case you haven't noticed.... the classroom has changed a lot over the years, teaching is not what it used to be!
Perhaps the comment that irks me the most is "Must be nice to have Spring Break and a summer off." E
xcuse me, you work a 3 day week and are off 4 ALL year long! Trust me, I've earned my breaks!"You're lucky. You work easy hours and get off early."
Excuse me, have you seen the load of work brought home that is never paid for. If I didn't bring it home I'd stay at school all hours of the night or I'd never have anything done.
"Oh, my! How do you handle children like that." Kind of like the principle where you can dis your annoying sibling 24/7, but somebody else does it and they've crossed the line. I know that each of my students are uniquely different. Sometimes(ok most of the time) they drive me besirk and I want nothing more than to move them on- yet in my heart of hearts I truly do care about each and everyone of them and want nothing more than for them to suceed in and out of school.
"Teachers give too much homework." You just made a biased assumption! I don't give a lot of homework. If I do give homework it may be a small Math assignment or Spelling (that they have a week to complete)- instead of homework I give "contract work"- students get 4 assignments (one from each subject) that they have from Monday - Friday to complete. I use contract work as a "filler" for those students who always finish early they have no excuse to goof off- they constantly have something to work on. I always try to see both sides of the picture when it comes to giving homework. If only you outsiders felt the pressure of accountability testing! They only way to adequately cover and remediate is to have some homework!
