You don't even know!

You have no idea. Unless you are a teacher-you just don’t know. Since people attended school and learned from a teacher, they think that they know what teachers do. I’m here to tell you this: being a teacher is nothing like what you think it is.

There are a lot of great, rewarding, challenging paid jobs out there. I have respect for all jobs because that’s just what they are: jobs.  Somebody has to suck it up and go to work to that specific job every day. Some do jobs that they aren’t paid to do but still work their butt off every day.  I have an immense respect for my brother and sister. We have this understanding that we couldn’t do each other’s job.  My brother is a trooper in the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.  Personally, I don’t care about others enough to take a bullet for them or protect and serve them when they are asleep. Just being honest, but if you know me, you know compassion isn’t my strong suit.  Kyle isn’t just a guy with a gun and power; he is a hero.  He makes that teenager pour out the alcohol or dump out the tobacco. Not only that but then he escorts them home and makes them tell parents. He cares for people he doesn’t even know or won’t see again.  He puts his life in danger to chase after the guy on drugs.  He doesn’t just sit and write speeding tickets because he has better things to do with his time.  So honorable.  My sister is an ER Nurse at Southwest Integris Medical Center. She works in the busiest ER in OKC. Wow, right?!  Crazy! She does tell me lots of stories but I know there are things she doesn’t tell me because I can’t stomach them.  She is constantly busy for 12 hours straight-sometimes even longer. She doesn’t sit down, doesn’t get to eat sometimes, and doesn’t quit thinking. She holds sick babies, comforts families that have lost someone, and sees horrible things that may make her lose faith in humanity for a moment; however, she is exceptional at her job. She saves lives! She does all these things in a day’s work and still finds time to be a daughter, sister, friend, and a church member.  I truly admire her heroism as well.

While I love my brother and sister and know that all of our jobs are physically, emotionally, and spiritually exhausting, I have no greater respect than for that of a teacher. 

Just to give you an idea-here are some things about teachers you may not know or have considered:

When a teacher stands up in front of a class at 8 AM and begins to teach, students do not know what all has happened that morning preceding that moment.  She had to wake up on time, get herself ready, her kids ready, and get everyone to their designated place whether that is daycare, school, or the bus stop. Then she fights traffic (maybe gets coffee on a good day) and finds a parking place (which is not as easy as it sounds).  It doesn’t really matter what her morning was like, she has to hide the chaos and put on a show.  Students need her. They need her to inspire them, to motivate them, to teach them that specific subject, to teach the hidden curriculum, to notice them as people, to understand them, to give them a safe place and to love them.  I usually take a deep breath in the moment of silence every morning and silently pray “Jesus” because I don’t have to say words-He knows.

College doesn’t prepare you as a teacher for most aspects of your job. Since I was an English Education major, I took English classes and I took Education classes. In my English classes we read novels, wrote papers, discussed, analyzed, philosophized; in my Education classes we learned classroom management techniques, different theories of Education, different teaching approaches, laws, and child psychology.  However, there was never one correct answer.  No professor ever said, “this is how you teach a novel…this is how you motivate the unmotivated…this is how you hold back tears when you learned how a kid was locked in a closet most of his childhood…this is how you deal with stress…this is how you manage time to grade 150 essays in a week…”  I haven’t taught very long, but I have taught long enough to know that there is no college, no class, no professor that can truly prepare you for this profession.  Even while I am writing this I am overwhelmed by the thought of portraying parts of my job to you.  We do not just work from 8-3. We get here early, prepare for the day, talk all day, think all day, walk around all day, and are ruled by bells, schedules, emails, rules, state standards, EOI’s, assemblies, data, grade books, lesson plans, professional development….on and on and on.  Do not be mistaken: I am not complaining. I chose this job and knew I wanted to be a teacher since I was 6. I am just making you aware in case you didn’t know. In case you didn’t know, we stay late after school. We cry in bed at night sometimes. We Pinterest all through the summer, finding new ideas, games, and lessons to entertain students. We don’t get paid like we should. We don’t really “get summer’s off” because of boot camp, meetings, or changes in instruction because of the state standards. In case you didn’t know, students love us. They act like they don’t, but they are overjoyed when they see us at Walmart, McDonalds, or the movies.  They desire to follow us on twitter, to creep our Instagram, to look through our Facebook pictures because we are interesting to them (despite how the media portrays teachers). 

In case you didn’t know, I am a parent to 150 different kids every year.  I do not take my job lightly.  I have to enforce respect, hard work, determination, critical thinking, problem solving, courteousness, citizenship, and social mores every day.  In reference to my statement earlier about not taking a bullet for someone I don’t know: this is still true. However, I would not think twice about taking a bullet for any one of my students. It is my nature-the mama bear in me-to put them first. This is also something they don’t teach in college.

It baffles me that at every bell, every day, teachers across the school, the district, the state, and the country are all doing what I am doing. We are simply trying to change the world.  Teachers all have different reasons why they teach but deep down we all just want to change the world (and make sure our students use proper grammar while doing so)…

I know I have only nearly touched on a few things about teachers but I need to write sometimes to process and get it out there…Even though we need to be humble, some teacher needs to hear more positive in their life, to be encouraged, honored, loved, and recognized for what they choose to do everyday-not because they have to-but because they want to.

I work with an amazing group of teachers and administration at my school and I feel truly blessed to know that this is a calling-not for the weak-but for the bold, the brave, the authentic, the zealous, the heroic.