What it means to be a teacher:
It means never running out of things to think about as you lay awake in the hour or so before your alarm goes off.
It means always wondering how you can do better at everything without going insane.
It means frequently second guessing yourself, your abilities, training, and your career choices
It means going to bed late and waking up early.
It means devoting a large chunk of brain processing to thinking about your kids, because they ARE your kids, regardless of if you gave birth to them.
It means watching your class excited to discuss a book you read as a class.
It means listening to your students treat each other like family, both the good times and the bad.
It means helping them see the good in themselves, even when it's hard.
It means giving up evenings, weekends, and sometimes even some of your precious summer vacation to attend events, trainings, and conferences.
It means a lot of hard work, missed lunch breaks, and sometimes even a few tears.
It means setting aside your own needs and wants in order to spend a few dollars on the supplies your students need.
It means meeting the needs of the one while looking after the many.
It means hearing your name proclaimed from so many directions that you don't know where to look first.
It means doing mounds of paperwork while grading assignments, tracking data, lesson planning and laminating resources to make your lesson tomorrow fit more of your kiddos needs.
It means never running out of things to think about as you lay awake in the hour or so before your alarm goes off.
It means always wondering how you can do better at everything without going insane.
It means frequently second guessing yourself, your abilities, training, and your career choices
It means going to bed late and waking up early.
It means devoting a large chunk of brain processing to thinking about your kids, because they ARE your kids, regardless of if you gave birth to them.
It means watching your class excited to discuss a book you read as a class.
It means listening to your students treat each other like family, both the good times and the bad.
It means helping them see the good in themselves, even when it's hard.
It means giving up evenings, weekends, and sometimes even some of your precious summer vacation to attend events, trainings, and conferences.
It means a lot of hard work, missed lunch breaks, and sometimes even a few tears.
It means setting aside your own needs and wants in order to spend a few dollars on the supplies your students need.
It means meeting the needs of the one while looking after the many.
It means hearing your name proclaimed from so many directions that you don't know where to look first.
It means doing mounds of paperwork while grading assignments, tracking data, lesson planning and laminating resources to make your lesson tomorrow fit more of your kiddos needs.
It means seeing the future of the world in my classroom every day and wondering how I ended up so privileged as to have a hand in its formation.
What does your career mean?
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