Okay, whatever do
you start with on a first blog. Okay…how about this…
Why do you
teach? Honestly…that’s a question I want you to answer right now in your own
mind. Why do you teach? Certainly it isn’t the money, (although the benefits
are fantastic). It probably isn’t the 60 to 80 hours you put in on a weekly
basis, (summers ARE compensation time, that’s the way to look at it) and my
hunch is that it isn’t the exposure to 8,319 different types of colds, flus,
germs and yuckies that does it for you. Lesson plans, weekend classroom
clean-ups, pages and pages of grading, administrative meetings, seminars and
training and leadership meetings that run way too long…seriously friend, why do
you teach? WHY do YOU teach?
I don’t mean
to start this writing on a downer. And maybe you DO enjoy those things, who’s
to say!? I suppose I’m convinced that there’s a weird sickness that exists in
all of us teachers, where we actually enjoy sitting and grading page after page,
writing little notes to a kid and a parent on a math paper who might (probably
won’t) not look at what you had to say in an attempt to change that student’s
life with a one-line inspirational ditty like “You can do better than this
Timmy, let me know if you need help!” or “I know you have it in you Erica, do
your best on every assignment. Come see me to fix this!” or “Blah blah
blee-blah-bloo-blah…”” Even the creation of lesson plans can be exciting,
knowing that this could be the one lesson where we go to sleep at night
convinced that we are the best teacher on planet Earth and no one else knows
how awesome you are except your kids. (Then, you find out ½ of them don’t
remember anything from yesterday and it’s back down to earth.).
Yeah, you know
what I’m talking about.
So then why
do you do it? Chances are you have some amazing cliché that you have in mind.
Changing kids’ lives, inspiring future generations to achieve higher levels of
success, motivating the youth to be engaged…or, maybe you just love kids.
Whatever your cause, whatever your reason for teaching, you must know this –
YOU ARE important, (speaking of cliché), but really, you ARE important, and you
have to know this. Because you do have 20 to 30 kiddos whose reality is that
you are their teacher for the next 9 months, and many of them will see you more
than their own family, which is why they’ll probably drop a “Mom” or “Dad” on
you at some point (and don’t be offended if you are a male teacher and they
call you “Mom” on accident, or if you feel like you’re 29 still and they call
you grandma…it happens!)
Whatever
reason you teach, whatever reason you are in this profession, we have all
experienced that calling to be a leader in kids’ lives. Role model is implicit,
there is no denying that role when you are a teacher.
So embracing
that role looks a lot different for a lot of people.
The role of
teacher could mean many things.
And what’s
one thing that, typically, most teachers want more than anything for their students?
To love
learning, to love school, to love being there.
And we have
an immense responsibility, dare I say obligation, to attempt to foster that
love. And when you get caught up in the all the aforementioned “downer” stuff,
it can be hard to show kids what you are attempting to show. They know. They
get it. They usually see right through a teacher who doesn’t want to be there,
or at the very least, they know the difference between a teacher who is full of
joy and a teacher who is just putting in their time.
Controversies
surround teaching. Locally and nationally, there’s always some debate or some thing going on that could make any sane
person look at the profession of teaching and say “That’s not for me.” But we
keep going, we deal with the politics that inevitably infiltrate our daily work
and we try to put our best foot forward, although, admittedly, that best foot
is not always the best step. And we have to do our best to leave all of that
stuff at the door in the morning, because, we have 20 to 30 kiddos who look up
to us, who need us, who crave our attention and who, again with the cliché,
know in their being that WE ARE IMPORTANT.
Every
generation thinks the current goings-on are the worst we’ve ever seen. So, I
suppose I’ll say it here – we face difficult situations every day, and the
stuff we deal with currently is perhaps some of the most difficult things we’ve
ever had to face – not only as a teacher in the teaching profession, but as a
society. The culture has changed, and kids are more a part of that change now
than ever thanks to social media and the outlet known as the world wide web.
Really, it probably isn’t even worth listing any ways to “combat” it or “overcome”
it or “fight” it or whatever it. It is what it is. So what do we do?
We unite. We’ve
got to put aside those controversies, those aggravations, those every-day annoyances
that find their way into our lives. Because the kids need us. They need us now
more than ever. They need you to be better than yesterday, and to be better
tomorrow. And that is where colleagues become more important than ever.
You know
that person that everyone says, “Wow, I want to be like them.”
Be "them".
Be that
person.
Be the
teacher who goes out of your way to check on your teammate. Be that teacher that
says hi to each grade level, to the support staff, to the kitchen staff, to the
janitors, to the parent volunteers and cross-walk guards. Be that person who everyone says "I want to be like them." Everyone likes that
person, and if we all attempted to be that person, think of how much happier
you could be (and maybe you are already super happy…but add some more happiness
to that and just imagine how awesome you would be...)
And be that
person to your kids. Don’t just be the teacher. Be “them”. The one kids look
back on and know you cared. Be the one that kids go home and are excited to
wake up in the morning to be in your class, to be near you, to be around you.
Be the person they can count on, that they can depend on, that they can look forward to seeing because they know you will be a listener, a mentor, a guider, a leader. Because YOU ARE important to them.
And let them
know THEY are important to you.
Happy
teaching this year friends. More soon.
Josh Lee
