TEACHING IS A CALLING, NOT A JOB

"Your job is easy,  you get Summers off?"


I don't know about you but the one thing that frustrates me as an educator is when people say,"your job is easy,  you get Summers off."  I beg to differ.

Have you ever driven by a school after hours or during the Summer? Teachers are always on the job.  We are constantly, planning, preparing and doing professional development to get better at being better at the job in which we have been assigned.

Teaching is the second hardest thing I have done, besides parenthood.  I work sometimes until 5 or 6 at the school house and still bring things home.    I am constantly,  reading material to prepare for lessons, checking papers, and analyzing data.  

I remember one day when my ten year old ask me,  "Do you ever stop working on school stuff?"  The answer was no.  However, at that moment I put away all of my work and my daughter and I played board games, watched movies and talked.  I had to remember that balance I talked about in a previous blog.


As teachers,  we often neglect our own families to take care of our students. So goes the balance I spoke of in my last blog.  So until you have walked a mile in my shoes,  don't tell me teaching is just a job. Trust me you couldn't do what I do.  Then we have the outsiders who are making decisions for the school system. They have no idea what is truly needed or going on in our schools. Yet, they seem to have a quick fix or a program they think we should try. All kids don't learn the same. I wish that all these policy makers or non educators would spend a month, no a week in the classroom then tell me my job is easy.

In my 17 years of teach I have anywhere from 16 to 28 students.  Within that number is a varying degree of levels, and learning styles.  As a teacher, we have to know our students, know the curriculum and know the data.  You are constantly studying and learning. Hence the term teachers live by:  "Modify and adjust."   I had to come up with creative ways to do my lesson plans.  As the years go by I got better at planning.  I started using colors, different tags, and multiple books such as the one below. I started this year.  However, with me, nothing is constant.  I am quick to grab a journal of any sort and plan. My point is that planning and organization is important to be effective and efficient when your working with multiple levels of students.

Teachers are always modifying and adjusting.  As a teacher, it is possible to have students who perform from first grade to sixth grade in one class.  So I have to plan accordingly.  I have to differentiate my curriculum, my teaching style, and the resources and materials that I use. So that is why I blog about the necessity of using small groups to teach and move students academically.


I am constantly doing book studies, going to professional development, and collaborating with other teachers to ensure that I am meeting the needs of all my students.  Using my weekends, holidays and Summers to prepare has become a norm.   


I have the daunting task of educating children.  It is an exhausting and stressful job. Think about it.  You have to prepare minds to be able to read, write, and problem solve in order to be able to be a productive members of society. 

Every time I think about this, my heart skips a beat.  I stand in front of a group of students with different personalities within one class that often clash with one another and sometimes with you the teacher, expected to have them performing at grade level by the end of the year.  Easy you say, It is not so easy when you are teaching multiple grade levels within one grade.  I often pull materials from levels below and above me to make sure that I meet the needs of every students.   

As a teacher, you have to know your material in order to be able to stand in front of a group of kids and instruct them on how to use said material on task and transfer to everyday life.  The thought of this never occurred to me until I got to the three year itch.  I was ready to call it quits.  It was  another teacher, my mentor teacher that told me, "college is the pedagogy, you have to use what you learn and create the learning environment you want to take place in your class." So, I learned how to manage my class, assess my students, set goals, make observations, modify and adjust my teaching to meet the needs of every students through professional development, staying after hours, going to seminars and conference, because college didn't prepare me for the reality of being in the classroom. 


There is more to teaching than anyone not in the field will ever know or understand.  It is daunting to know that I am responsible to educating the future doctors, lawyers, teachers, mechanics, etc.  I have to be constantly learning myself, so to say I get summers off and have a cushy 7 to 4 job is an insult.  I do more than teach.  I prepare the next leaders, the mover and shakers of our society. Think about it, some teacher gave you the tools to be able to do the job your are doing now, at the sacrifice of their own families on most days.

Don't get me wrong,  this is the best job ever, but the hardest.   So when people belittle what I do it is insulting and unfair. Therefore,  when I look at what is happening with Education in the government now.  I get sick to my stomach.  What will happen to our kids who can't pick schools because they are not wealthy, or to educators who could lose jobs because of the so call changes that policy makers are trying to implement because they think they know what is best?   How about you come spend a month,  no a week in my class and tell me again what is and isn't needed for myself or other educators to do their jobs.

As I stated above, college didn't prepare me for the realities of the job.  I had to start studying and reading on my own.  I had to invest in conferences,and  professional development during the Summer months that  people think we have off.  I also  don't think people realize that a lot of teachers have other jobs just to make ends meet.  So teaching is not about the money,  it's about the reward of being able to help build productive citizens, who can read, write, and problem solve to be able to be your banker, your accountant, your doctor, your lawyer, your government official.  I learned more from being in the classroom then I learned  preparing for certification as a teacher.  They provided the Pedagogy, not the application.

Through book studies, conferences, seminars, and collaboration  I learned to study data in order to know my students strengths and weakness, to study the curriculum to align my instruction to meet the needs of my students strengths and weaknesses, to modify and adjust because teaching is not cut and dry.  Some things you can do whole class, but most things need to be done using small groups because in order to move students you have to meet them where they are and no classroom has kids on the same level or that possess the same learning style.  

I say all this to say, " Teaching is a calling not a job."  So don't tell me  you can do my job, because if you could you would .

I teach because I love kids, I love to see the light bulb come on when they finally understand things, I love to expose them to things they ordinarily wouldn't have the opportunity to see or do.  I teach because I have been called to teach not because I will get rich teaching.

What is your Superhero calling?