Don’t Quit?

I am back to teaching in the university PTC program. After just over a year off I am once again guiding and encouraging baby teacher as they are about to begin their careers. They are such a great group to teach: excited, optimistic, apprehensive, inspired and encouraging. If you are a veteran teacher and you haven’t recently spent time with a newbie teacher, I strongly recommend it. They are hungry for all of your sage wisdom and advice. If the fire has gone out a little, then it will quickly reignite when you remember what originally brought you to teaching.

Unfortunately, it is reported that 40-50% of these teacher candidates will quit in their first five years. One of the students asked me the other night how to avoid quitting. While I can’t answer for everyone, I can share what has kept me going for the past 20 some years. I’m sure that there are more reasons to stay in the teaching profession, and other coping mechanisms that work for other teachers, but here are a few that work for me.

Consider your students. Somebody has to teach these kids, why not you? More than ever our young people need role models who want to be good examples of how to live successful lives. True, they may not act like it, but that is due largely to the culture we live in, and not the students themselves. Everybody wants to learn, even if they don’t behave that way. Trust that your efforts are worthwhile and that you are changing lives in positive ways. The proof may not be there at first, but it will emerge over time. Trust me.

Consider your self. Sleep, eat, exercise, work, relax, and repeat. Balance is so important to classroom success. The first year is always difficult. If you are staying a day ahead of your students, that is enough. But the more you prep, the more you plan, the more proactive and the less reactive you are in your approach to the classroom and your students, the better. Don’t be afraid to look for help wherever you can find it. Some veteran teachers will assume that the new teacher is prepared for the classroom and may not volunteer to help, so ask them. And spend time daily in reflection; learn from your success as well as your missteps.

Consider your source. A recent article claims that religious people are less anxious. You don’t necessarily need to believe that you have been called to teach; but it doesn’t hurt to believe that there is purpose to what you do in your classroom. Leaning on a higher power will make you feel more powerful, and that will make you more effective, and hopefully, less stressed out.

Gathering the courage to step into the classroom and face your students day after day, year after year, is a challenge that should be met with a positive attitude, daily. Know that you are making the world a better place.

  

Diminishing Returns?

Maybe it’s just that time of year. The sprint from the first day of school in August to the weeklong break at Thanksgiving in November is brutal. Add to that the five weeks I spent teaching summer school, then subtract the short 21 days off in between, and I am simply exhausted. Yea, I know, that’s way more time off than most other professionals get. But teaching isn’t most other professions; and the mental, emotional, and physical toll it takes on educators is best met with a balance of rest and relaxation. A break that right now I desperately need.

It is clear to me that after 20 years in the classroom, I have definitely found my niche. I have a dream assignment at an established and prestigious campus proud of its 800+ API. It’s hard for me to imagine doing anything else; but that time may have come. I started writing here, way back when, in an attempt to convince myself to stay in the teaching profession. It worked. Last year I was nominated for Teacher of the Year in my school district. Things are working very well, and I feel satisfied in my efforts, but not their returns.

It’s mostly my own fault. I have a large family, by choice. My wife works part time at home for a non-profit so that she can be a stay-at-home-mom and homeschool one of our daughters. We live in Southern California, also by choice, and up until now have figured out a way to make our lives work within our budget, happily making personal sacrifices for the benefit of our family. But it seems that is no longer enough. We are now so strapped financially that we may have to seriously consider leaving the state, or my leaving the classroom setting.

Previously, I supplemented our income working as an adjunct instructor for a local university. Unfortunately, it’s now been a year since my last assignment there. A change in policy means less work for the “working practitioners,” and more for the full-time professors. Instead, and at the challenge of good friend, I spent the year writing two film scripts. You can check out the loglines here: http://screenwriterbibo.blogspot.com. I am a good enough writer to recognize that my fiction, much like my reflection, is good enough to read, but not necessarily good enough to sell. So I am sprucing up my CV.

It’s recommendation letter writing season. The kids write me a very complimentary letter requesting that I write them a letter of recommendation for their portfolios and college applications. I always oblige them. Their request letters are packed full of very nice comments about their time in my classroom. Good for them. Call it my Walter White moment, but between the rising cost of health insurance, the pay-cut California teachers just received from Governor Brown’s raising of the minimum wage, or just my feeling completely empty, there’s got to be something more that I can do for my family and myself.