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- You've been invited on a talk show to explain your job to the hosts. What would you say you do on a daily basis? See all answers
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- March 16, 2009 by dedalus
- Let me tell you what I do
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For the first three years, my job entailed a 40 hour commitment per week at my job site, plus an additional 20 per week of at home preparation. Each day I would wake up around 5 am, be at work from 6:30 until 3:00 in the afternoon, then grade or lesson planning for a couple hours per evening and over weekends.
I am a high school English teacher. My first year was chaotic and exciting. I was doing, at times, 70 hours per week to keep up with all the responsibilites. My second year was much, much smoother. There is a steep learning curve in teaching, and by the second half of my second year, I can say that I was already a very good teacher, albeit with much to learn. During part of my second and all of my third year, I was earning my Masters degree in Education. My third year continued this learning trend, even though my personal life was starting to suffer.
I took a break for a year from teaching in order to attempt to get my personal life in order. After this year, I picked up at a new school. With my emotional life now a complete wreck, however, I was unable to maintain the time commitment needed. I wanted to throw myself into my work; I've heard of people doing that. Often these are successful people, and if I could translate my pain into a stronger work ethic, then I thought I could deal with it. But I could not. My mind couldn't focus on work the way I had trained it to do. Truth be told, it took a lot of training. My discipline and concentration began to fall back to their high school levels. At the end of the day, I stopped taking all work home with me. By February (last month), I had mentally given up on the job. The only thing that kept me going was a concern and responsibility for my students. I knew I wasn't giving them the best, but I was at least trying to give them what I had left.
So now: what I do on a daily basis.
Wake up at 5:45 and get to work between 6:30 and 6:45. I have planning first period, so I eat breakfast and occasionally, as today, jump on plinky at some point between 7 and 7:45. For fifteen minutes I figure out what to do with my students for the day. Not to teach them, mind you, but to survive the day. I eat lunch at 12:35, during which I plan for my final period (a different class). Final period comes, drains the last reserves of my energy, and I go home having finished nothing productive.
When the year is out, I will be leaving this job, needless to say. I need some time for soul searching, as a friend calls it. I think I'd like to teach again. I took a lot of joy from teaching. I just can't seem to do it now.
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dedalus
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Sound good?
My mom's happy to be back in the classroom, but her years in administration were not easy ones. My father, on the other hand, comes home each day only more worn out and exhausted than the day before. I think the saddest thing is how much paperwork teachers are required to do these days. My father especially. He has so much to do, and that he has to do personally, that his students spend about 80% of their time with his aide. It's also frustrating that the kids simply do not get it. However many times and in however many ways it is taught/explained/shown to them, it simply does not process. And the repetitiveness of his job becomes awfully tiring.
Point is, I believe my father used to find great joy in teaching, but I'm afraid this no longer holds true. It's terribly depressing, as there are fewer and fewer teachers of even decent quality, but it's absolutely devastating when those that are left no longer want to be there.
Anyway, I do hope you find that joy again, though it may not necessarily be in teaching.
Also, if you do return to teaching, please don't sleep with any of the students. I went through six years of terrible English teachers before I finally got one that might have actually taught me something. Then he had to go and get arrested for statutory rape (I'm completely against that phrase, by the way). Left us with the worst sub in the history of public education. Definitely not cool.