Most times I get so caught up and busy in preparing and teaching and such, that I forget to talk to other teachers about teaching things or things that happen during teaching. Last Friday I had the chance to chat for about 10 minutes with another teacher, and now I have to remind myself to do it more often.
The day before had been horrendous. A kid had MAJORLY back-talked me in class, and wasn't even sorry about it. I found out my calculus answer manual had been stolen earlier in the week. I had the audit hanging over my shoulders feeling guilty because I hadn't finished it yet. And finally, I needed to finish the National Board Certification application.
So here I was having a pity party in my head and not feeling very chipper. I started telling her about the one thing (poopy kid), and she related a similar incident with "entitled" girls in her last period. I mentioned the theft over the weekend, and she said her room was in disarray (drinks spilled and not cleaned up), too, from some unannounced use of our rooms. I started feeling better, so then I mentioned the other 2 things, and she was also struggling to finish the tasks.
Whew! It didn't make my grief go away, but it sure lessened it to hear sympathetic noises from someone else. I must share more often and maybe find I'm not alone in these minor and major annoyances of the school day.
Yeah, it's worth remembering. The great stories, they belong to individual teachers. But the daily, dreary grind? That's all of ours.
ReplyDeleteFor someone who is training to be a future teacher, this is a great comment to have. I am sure that the classroom and school can be a tough enviroment and that it is easy to put on the blinders to make it through the day.
ReplyDeleteIt may be a good piece of advice to those new teachers to never forget the one resource we always have...each other. Who better to turn to than someone who is working with the same children and issues that you are? We often are so quick to turn to information or research to find all of our answers when the answer could just be in the classroom next door.
Also its an interesting parallel between teachers and soliders. Soliders to are quick to turn to each other just for verficiation of thoughts. It's best we not keep them inside.
This is good information to know. I feel like when i start teaching I will be in similar positions. And it is good to know now that I should keep in mind talking with other teachers. Instead of keeping our troubles in our head we can probably learn from each other. So thank you now, and probably in the future when i do start to teach!
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