From One Exhausted Teacher to Another

 

Dear Fellow Teacher,

You’re exhausted.  Drowning in the never-ending to-do list. Planning lessons to reach every learner where they are academically and emotionally.

You look around your classroom and see a hot mess. The posters are starting to fall off the wall. The weight of little hands and bodies leaning against them is starting to take a toll. The book shelves that you spent two days organizing before school started, and countless times throughout the year, looks as if a tornado hit it.  The supplies are dangerously low. The students are starting to get on each other’s nerves and you’re hearing about every single minor offense. Your email dings with one more thing to do. And the exhaustion just keeps coming. Your patience left you a long time ago.

I’m right there with you, friend. Teacher burn-out is real. I’ve been finding myself complaining TOO MUCH about teaching.  Long hours. The pay. Not enough supplies. Out of pocket expenses.  I could go on and on.  The same complaints we all share, I’m sure.

Then I realized that I was focusing on all the negatives.  I’m causing myself to get a negative taste about teaching.  So, I wrote this post to remind myself why I keep going.  Why I keep teaching.  Why I keep doing what I do. Why I work an insane amount of hours a week. Why I want to spend my weeks with 21 7 and 8 year olds.

I hope this list helps you remember why you started, too.

1. Daily corny  funny jokes.
2. Hugs. I give my kids at least 2 hugs a day. Morning greeting and afternoon goodbye.  That’s at least 42 hugs I get a day.  Not including all the random hugs they want.
3. Daily doses of laughter and silliness.
4. Being able to witness the beginning of year students to the end of the year students.  They grow up before your eyes.
5. Watching a struggling reader or English learner go from not being able to read one word to reading an entire paragraph.
6. Subtraction with borrowing and the ah-ha moment the students make when they finally understand.
7. Hand-drawn pictures and love notes from students on my desk.
8. How much they light up when they enter the classroom each morning.
9. The funny stories they tell.
10. How much I love them.
11. The bond we share.  I know their favorite shows.  Their favorite video games.  Their favorite book.  The fears they have.  The struggles they endure.  And how they come to me to help them through the problems.
12. God placed each one in my care because He knows they need me and I need them.
13. I miss them and worry about them when they’re absent.
14. Watching them gain confidence with themselves. And overcoming a struggle.
15. Teaching them life lessons.  How to be a good friend.  How to be kind.  How to help others.
16. They show me grace on my bad days.
17. They forgive me when I make mistakes.
18. They let me sing out loud. They also let me break out in a dance. And although they groan, they secretly love it.
19. Their compliments are always the sweetest and honest.
20. They fulfill my purpose.
21. Seeing a student go from hating reading to loving reading.
22. My life would be boring without them.
23. How bittersweet the last day of school is.

Woah, that was much needed. Teaching is a hard job.  We’re expected to do more with the little we’re given.  But somehow we always manage to get it done. We do it because we love our kids.  Our kids need us.  We do it because we love teaching.

I’m going to start focusing on the positive aspects of teaching.  The list is certainly longer than the negatives and the outcome is greater.  Take some time for your self and release the stress.

I appreciate all my friends (teachers and non-teachers) who listen to me vent.  But next time, refer me back to this post.

Keep calm and teach on!  There’s only a few weeks left to have them in our daily lives. Enjoy them!

-Bethany