So the end of my work day has come and I am sitting here at my desk reflecting on the day. It was a pretty good one and despite what sounds like a crap job, it made me glad that I chose the profession that I did.
My IB Physics class did a wonderful job of distracting me from my intended lecture for the better part of 40 minutes. We got off on some strange topics and it wasn't until the last 20 minutes of class that I realized my mistake. They knew exactly what they were doing. I must be an ADD adult...
8th grade science went better as we went over the lab that they did last week on specific heat. I know that it sounds terribly dull and it probably was to some in the class. Oh well, tough shit. Deal with it. After I made some horrific drawings on the board (my drawings are pitiful even by science teacher standards), we had fun talking about how people run to the ocean to cool off their feet after walking on the hot sand. Hey, they'll remember it next time they go to the beach!
The mark of a truly demented and fun science teacher is how well I can stick in their head even when I am long gone from their everyday life. I still have students that tell me how they remember buoyancy from the odd version of the Archimedes story that I tell them.
And so my day went on. My classes came to an end, my day not yet complete. I had to help some students make up the aforementioned lab and watch the under 14 girls basketball team until practice started. I'm not their coach but I make sure that they stay out of trouble until she shows up from her job.
It was after these girls headed to practice that my room quieted down and I came to realize just how wonderful my job is and how young it makes me feel. I reflected on the day and appreciated what this profession has done for me over the last 7 years. I am not an old putz. I am aware of what is hip to kids and what is not. I can connect with the younger generation that seems to baffle their parents. I can bring a smile to just about any kid's face.
In the years past I have often thought that I would get out of teaching and make my way into the private sector one day. I always said, "I can't keep performing like I do in front of the kids" and "This job is too tiring to do for 30 years." While this may be true, I think I really do need to be honest with myself in the fact that I love my job and don't want to let it go anytime soon. For all the stupid things that kids do, I still want to be in the classroom. For all the infuriating moments that go on, I still don't want to trade them for a cubicle and a desk job. For all the times that I want to impale my head into a wall, I can't deny my love of the feeling that this profession gives me.
I am a teacher. It is my job to educate the youth of today with what it takes to be the citizens of tomorrow. Science and math are important but not everything. Teachers do a whole lot more than just teach curriculum. I am here to enrich their lives with knowledge, worldly knowledge; in return I am enriched as well. My kids fil me with laughter and sorrow, happiness and despair, optimism and sadness - my life would somehow not be complete without all of that.
So while my future is uncertain in this profession and in my life, I am content with it all to this point. While the pay may not be the best and conditions outright deplorable, this job gives that which many do not - the gift of youth for all those that want to soak it up. All ya gotta do is open your mind to those little buggers; they are amazing in so many ways.
Just never trust them alone in a science lab...
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I have a love-hate relationship with teaching.
After many years of grading piles papers on holidays and weekends and being asked to do all the extras (can you coach? direct a play? lead a field trip? serve on this committee? write curriculum in your free time for no pay? buy your own classroom art supplies? correct your essay final exam in less then 24 hours so report cards can be printed?) I threw in the towel a few years ago. I said to myself, "There's no WAY I want to do this the rest of my life." I even gave away some of my files, and threw boxes of files away. I was off to find another career.
Do you know what I would love to do the rest of my life, if the pay was enough to allow my to eventually buy my own home? Work in a bookstore. Yes, my true calling is selling books. First of all, I'm a bibliophile- I collect books, read them, cherish them, lend them out with strict instructions on their care and the importance of returning them. And I get all excited when I get to talk about a book that I've read with anyone who cares to listen. One day, I will write a post about my 6 month experience in working at a retail bookstore, and how at the end of the day, when I went home, my time was my own. The job was over.
Not like teaching, where when the weekend begins, your job has just begun. Lesson plans. Piles of papers to correct. Research on lesson topics. Chaperoning the dance, because parents are too busy.
But, after wandering across the U.S. in my little Honda and my tent and my sleeping bag, working at bookstores, and hanging out in intentional communities, I came back to the classroom. Call it an addition. I'll be here, I suspect, until I retire.
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