In between Obama victories, my school life has been increasingly challenging. Nothing specific, just a general dissatisfaction with being so far behind in everything. I thought break would do it - God knows I spent whole days of it grading - but it's not. Our holiday break was too short, midterms are steamrolling ahead too quickly, and I'm way too far behind in grading.
I think I'm basically a good teacher - I work my butt off, I create pretty cool lessons and well-rounded and comprehensive unit plans, I'm really into literature, I genuinely care about the kids, I can scaffold well, I can be tough when needed and step back a little when not. My classroom management skills have somehow gotten worse as my career has progressed (maybe the average class increase of 25 to 35?), but otherwise I think I'm pretty good. So why is my job so much harder than it was five years ago? Is this just a function of having 175 students? Will I ever really get caught up? Is this how all teachers live? Leave at dark, come home at dark, still mountains of work to grade and a brilliant lesson to plan?
Screw it, I'm going to the gym. That'll put me in a good mood, and give me energy for the sixty papers that I absolutely have to finish tonight. I promised, and based tomorrow's lesson on it.
Luckily, another Obama victory looms tomorrow, when my mood should chirp right up again.
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1 comment:
I completely understand. The job description you've written here, sums teaching up from the perspective of returning from break with 2.5 more quarters to go! I like how you've made a list of things you do well in the classroom instead of a to do list of what needs to be done. It sounds like you're an excellent teacher. Thank you.
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