Studies show that teachers make more minute to minute decisions than a surgeon does. Which is probably why you’re leaving work at the end of the day extremely tired and hopeless.
How many teachers actually leave work at the end of the day feeling at ease or ready for the next day? How many administrators at schools prioritize mental health days? How many push their teachers to take a sick day just to take a breather? As a fifth year teacher, it doesn’t get easier. We get into a routine and familiarize ourselves with lessons and state standards but it never gets easier.
To put it into perspective, my students have one task the first fifteen minutes of the morning. That task is to answer a journal prompt in their notebook. It seems simple, the students answer the question the teacher waits for them to finish. Maybe we can go around and say good morning to our students. Or ask them how their weekend was. Wrong. Here are the things that needed my attention during our fifteen minute morning work block.
- Student needed a pencil
- Student forgot notebook in locker
- Student had a bad morning so they were crying outside the classroom
- Student had a terrible weekend and came in frustrated and out of uniform
- Students talking and off task
- Student needs a bandaid
- Student needs to go to the bathroom
I have one body. Times like this I wish I had more than two arms and one body so I can physically do more than one thing at a time. This isn’t to complain about being a teacher. It’s to also realize our system of education is deteriorating and not effective. When you shove 31 students into a classroom, the level of education is not individualized. As teachers and educators we’re getting through the day and barely that.
