I remember sitting in my classroom around 5:00 pm for what felt like the millionth day in a row having just finished prepping and grading for class the next day, and I decided to quit teaching.
This led to a job search and job offers outside of education. It was heartbreaking. I didn’t want to leave teaching. I didn’t want to leave my students. But I just didn’t know if I could do it any longer because of how all-consuming teaching can be. I realized, teaching students is what I loved, but I was spending my time doing a lot of things that had nothing to do with the “teaching” part of being a teacher.
After examining what I really wanted to do, I decided to keep teaching because I knew the impact a good teacher can have on the life of a child. However, I needed to change some things if I was going to be happier and not so exhausted all the time.
I took back control of my workday and less than 1 year later, I found myself at 3:00 pm with everything planned for months ahead and everything graded waiting for contract time to end, so I could go home to my family.
We have the heavy burden of teaching the skills that enable all other learning (reading and writing), critical thinking, and communication.
We also have little to no curriculum that is relevant to the students sitting in front of us every day.
And we have an immense amount of grading that takes thought and feedback for students to see success.