Back to School

I’d like to start with why I left teaching.  It had nothing to do with the kids. Not one.  They are the reason I loved what I did every single day.  I had some incredible coworkers that have become family and friends.  I was blessed with the most supportive classroom parents who went above and beyond for not just myself, but our grade level, building and district.  For most of my career, I had incredible administrators and school board members who helped to shape the teacher that I was and supported us so passionately.  With that being said, I reached a point where I felt so stifled in my career.

At some point you summit the mountain.  My peak was continuing my education until I not only earned my Master’s Degree, but also 60 additional credits.  I earned recognition for high quality teaching and rapport building.  Despite the accomplishments, I was bored and felt that I had plateaued.  Nothing was challenging me to grow and learn.  I was doing the same thing every year.  I wanted to be challenged and learn new skills and grow in my career.  I found that by using the plethora of skills a teacher has there are MANY careers we can do outside of education.  Although I miss the students in my classroom and the ones I coached on the court, I found a job that challenges me to learn new vocabulary, skills, procedures, etc. but also allows me to still teach and educate.  Yes, I could have tried teaching another grade or moving to a different school, or making the move to administration, but I also recognized that the burning issues were not unique to just my district. These are issues (unqualified school board members, book bans, white washing history, eliminating SEL, micromanaging, bringing christianity into public schools, eliminating LGBTQ rights and acceptance, etc.) that are running rampant all over our country and for me, these are deal breakers.

The place where I lived and worked felt like it was heading in a trajectory that greatly disagreed with my moral compass.  Watching our school board become tarnished with agendas that no longer served the greater good, but rather a minority extremist view, was a no for me.  Watching more and more confederate flags pop up in the community, was a no for me.  Having leaders who didn’t have the backbone to stand up to bullying and hateful community members at the expense of students, was a no for me.  Having incredibly insecure, manipulative, ignorant and self-serving leaders was a big no for me.  Moving away from the area and choosing a different career path was what was best for me, and my mental and physical health.

There are two disclaimers I want to start with before even diving into this topic. The first is that everything I am speaking on are my own thoughts, experiences, and opinions and I recognize that not all teachers have these same lived experiences in this profession. The second is that although I have spent 15 years in this profession, the last two years I have moved on to another career path and realize that the teaching world changes rapidly and that some of these statements could be outdated and/or no longer relevant.

It’s the end of August, which means teachers, school staff, administrators and students are back in school.  I wanted to take time to spread appreciation and understanding of teachers.  Teaching is the absolute best profession.  I will die on this hill.  What other profession allows you to make direct impacts on the lives of students and help to steer them towards success, every single day?  Being able to see immediate results, as well as results that come from long term work, love, effort and time put into each kid gives a sense of worth and gratification for the job.   This is an incredibly rewarding profession.  It’s also an incredibly tough position.  It can take a toll on both physical and mental health.  The demands and expectations of teachers are nothing short of impossible, yet I haven’t met one teacher that doesn’t give their all to meet and exceed those expectations.  If we take away outside factors like administrators, school board members, and parents; this profession is tough.  Add in all of those outside factors and they can make or break a teaching career.

Administrators.  Out of my 15 years as an educator, I was lucky that 11 of those years were under the leadership of administrators that loved their teachers, fought for them, supported them and protected them.  What’s that saying? “You don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone.”  That’s the fucking truth.  The years where the teachers I worked with were the happiest and most effective, were the years we had incredible leaders.  They fought battles for us that we had no idea about and refused to let the shit roll down the proverbial hill so that we could be our best selves and do our jobs to our full potential each and every day.  They would help us grade benchmark assessments.  They would substitute in our classrooms.  They would handle bullshit parent complaints that they knew were bullshit without needing to pull teachers in for full blown “investigations.”  Simply put, they had our backs and we trusted them and they trusted us.  They treated us as professionals and didn’t need to control or micromanage.  They refused to let upper administration put targets on teacher’s backs and actually helped and supported teachers to grow and be better.  These administrators became our mentors, friends and family.  There was no “us vs. them” stigma.  They made this extremely trying and tiring profession fun.  They treated teachers like human beings who had their own lives and hardships.  They respected teachers as the expert in their own classroom and deferred to them in decision making.  

Sadly, administrators retire lol!  Being left with administrators who are terrible decision makers, micromanagers, insecure, manipulative, and completely out of touch with what it’s like in the classroom was the lowest point of not just my career, but many teachers’ careers and continues to be that way.  To paint a very brief picture… having an administrator dress in black face in front of faculty fucking sucked.  Having an administrator who, in their first week of being in our building, was found to have a sign in their office that said, “Survival of the Fittest: I don’t adapt to my environment. My environment adapts to me” really doesn’t break the “us vs. them” stigma nor create a safe and welcoming place for teachers.  I have never met a more insecure and manipulative human than that administrator. I’m sure this will be screenshot and sent to them and I just know they are breaking out in hives on their neck while reading this.

I’ve never watched the mental and physical health of SO many of my friends and colleagues decline faster than in those two years.  I’m talking about teachers needing heart, stress, and antidepressant medications.  Teachers taking medical leaves.  Teachers were taking more and more time off.  Teachers were getting into the building exactly at the start of our contracted hours and leaving exactly at the end of our contracted hours.  Teachers chose to resign and retire earlier than they had planned.  Teachers who for 10 to 20 years were being deemed proficient or higher by building administrators and district level administrators were all of a sudden being put on improvement plans.  Shitty administration has a great effect on teachers.  The stories my former colleagues and I could tell would SHOCK you and bring light to what many teachers are experiencing.  Whenever retention of staff is an issue, the first place you look is leadership.  Teachers don’t deserve that treatment.  They are already dealing with one of the toughest jobs and need nothing but support and respect from their leaders.

It should be a requirement of administration that they rotate in classrooms and take on full responsibilities of teachers.  I’m talking about lesson planning, grading, differentiating lessons and adhering to all accommodations and modifications while tracking the effectiveness of those accommodations.  They should do the extra bus, lunch, and recess duties that teachers do. They should contact parents, attend all meetings AND be evaluated on the teaching scale by teachers. I think this would help improve quality of administration, as well as the support and respect for teachers.

It’s always the people who aren’t in the know about teaching and what it truly consists of to say things like, “Your job is easy. You just get to hang out with kids all day.”  Think of having 30+ people call your name all day; every single day.  Talk about over stimulation.  Think of all the hats a teacher potentially wears and multiple hats at the same time because they are incredible multitaskers.  Each student needs something different from their teacher, but they all may need it at the same time.  Teachers wear the following hats:  nurse, guidance counselor, special education teacher, interventionist, social worker, parent, custodian, giver of basic needs like food and clothing to students, mentor to not only students but other teachers, committee members and facilitators, curriculum and assessment writers, behavior specialists, coaches, referees, detectives, peace negotiators… what have I missed? I can guarantee a teacher is reading this right now and not only agreeing, but also adding to my list.

If you ever want to immediately piss me off, say any variation of this to me: “Teachers have it so easy and have nothing to complain about because they have all major holidays and summers off.  They are paid for doing nothing over the summer.”  LOL FIRST OF ALL… have you ever heard the phrase ‘teacher tired’ because if you knew it, you’d rethink that ignorant statement.  Teachers are physically tired.  They’re on their feet all day, especially the younger grade level teachers.  Have I ever mentioned that Kindergarten teachers are Earth’s angels? Because BLESS them!  Teacher tired is also the emotional toll that it takes.  Working with kids and teens means working with their traumas, anxieties, sadness, and anger.  Teachers help them to work through their emotions and hold space for them.  Teachers check any and all personal struggles at the door because there is only room for their students’ struggles.  Teachers put their students first in every scenario.  Teachers have to deescalate violence, manage volatility and resolve conflict.  Teachers do any combination of the above listed items DAILY all while keeping their own cool and calmness.  Now, add on the other daily duties of the job like instruction, planning, grading, assessing, calling and emailing parents, responding to administration and colleagues, completing committee duties, etc.  Teacher tired feels like burnout.  Where there is nothing left of yourself to give.  Teachers are literally CRAWLING to the finish line leading up to any break, holiday or summer.  Imagine being dehydrated in the middle of the Sahara, crawling through the hot sand towards the coolest of pools that would not only quench your thirst, but cool you down immediately.  That’s what being teacher tired is like.  I would challenge any person who has criticized the education world to step into a school and volunteer with teachers.  Have a first hand look at what they do all day, every day.  Gain some insight and empathy.  They need the breaks and “summer off” to recharge.

I need more people to understand that teachers are only paid for the 180-190ish days they teach.  They choose to get paid less during the school year and stretch their paychecks out over the summer months.  They most certainly are not being paid for “doing nothing” in the summer.  Telling teachers they have June, July and August off is just ignorance.  Myself and most of the teachers I know teach or have inservice into June and begin setting up their classrooms the first couple weeks in August.  Teachers have required professional developments over the summer months, as well.  Teachers are tutoring over summer, taking Masters or Doctorate level classes, and working their side hustle jobs because guess what? Teachers get paid shit.  

Depending on what state you live in, teacher salaries are atrocious.  I’m thankful that I had a teachers union that fought like hell to give us a respectable salary, but I recognize that is not the case for the majority of the profession.  This is something I hear being discussed more and more on a national level and will fight for and vote for this cause.  If your profession has an “Appreciation Day” (I’m looking at my nurse friends here, too) you are underpaid and undervalued.  If you’re calling teachers heroes all while expecting them to dim their own flame to light the flame of others, then you know they are underpaid and undervalued.  

Teachers aren’t society’s martyrs, yet they treat them as such.  Teachers are quite literally expected to sacrifice their life for their students.  To leave their own children, family and friends without them, to save their students.  I can tell you this much…teachers certainly are not paid for that kind of job risk.  Teachers are expected to be held to standards SO high, that the actual leaders in our country are not held to.  I have seen more and more teachers on social media fight back against this mindset to demand to be treated like humans with personal lives.  Teachers are allowed to drink y’all.  They are over 21 and not doing anything illegal.  P.S. teachers have THE most fun and know how to fucking party.  They are allowed to express their own religious, political, and personal beliefs outside of the classroom without fear of consequence.  Teachers are allowed to fucking cuss when they are outside of their professional environment.  Stop putting teachers on these pedestals that no other profession is put on.

To all of my teacher friends and colleagues past, present and future:  you are in the best profession.  What you do day in and day out is so incredibly important.  I won’t call you a hero, because that title carries an expectation with it that should never be expected of teachers and is certainly not a part of the job description.  You are awe-inspiring, motivating, hard working, caring, empathetic, brilliant, comedic (you have to be if you work with the youths lol), educated, good humans.  You will be remembered for how you made your kids feel, how you accepted them, made them feel safe and loved and how you treated them, more than being remembered for your test scores.  Make sure you know that you are more than just a cog in the machine.  You are irreplaceable.  Put yourself and your loved ones first by setting boundaries around work and home, don’t respond to emails outside of the classroom, say no to extra duties and take those sick/mental health/personal days!  The more you show up for yourself and take care of yourself, the better teacher you will be for your students.  Ask for support when you need it, eat lunch alone instead of in a toxic faculty room OR eat lunch with your colleagues so you can have fun and laugh… whatever will help you recharge for that brief 20-30 minute break.  Know that your feelings, emotions and responses are normal and valid.  And if the school isn’t a good fit, leave and find a better fit because no one wants to work for a poisonous walnut tree when you are a gotdamn beautiful magnolia (IYKYK).

Have a healthy, fun, inspiring, and meaningful new school year!

For now, rant over.

♡KT