Day 4: Teaching Is..A collection of moments, good and bad that make for an amazing Journey #Edblogaday

Day 4: For the beginning of Teacher Appreciation Week, I have a Teaching Is...poem for you (it's not all rainbows and puppies).


Teaching is...

That moment when you step
into a classroom as a pre-service teacher
questioning every choice they make as
you just observe.

That moment when you step into a classroom
& your cooperating teacher didn't have
any idea
that you were going to be there
& as a result spends the semester resenting you.

That moment when you are finally in your own
classroom
and are no longer a renter but an
OWNER.

That moment when only 3
parents
show up for parent-teacher
conferences (for both days).

That moment when you tell
those 3 parents how well their
child is doing in your class
& they cry because it's the first
time this has ever happened.

That moment when you lose a student
to violence...
to drugs...
to an asthma attack...

That moment when you are the only
constant and consistant
adult
in a child's life.

That moment when you cry at
Graduation, every year because
you know what it took for your
kids to get to that stage.

That moment when you realize
it's time to leave the school...
community...
you have called home.

That moment when you take
a job in a new school and discover
it's not the place or the people
it is the profession-and that's why
you stay.

That moment when students
LEAD
in every class you teach.
They become the teachers.

That moment when you have to
explain to other teachers
that it is not CCLS that are the
problem.

That moment when you begin
to really become the
teacher you were meant to be
by supporting the development
of other
teachers.

That moment when you find out
you have cancer
and your school community
becomes your
family.

That moment when you find
your voice
in a community that
was...IS right at your
fingertips.

That moment when a job
is also a profession
& a career
that you love.

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Teaching is complicated, challenging, emotional, invigorating, surprising, joyous, reflective.  It is one of the best roller coasters I have ever been on.  I wish I could say that I loved every moment of every year but there were years when I cried in my classroom with the door closed because it WAS that difficult.  I keep coming back.  I keep working in the concrete jungle because school is the place where I feel the most alive, do the best work and I am the most authentically ME. This job is not for everyone but even those who don't make it past that magic 3 year mark take something away, they are changed because Teaching Is... A JOURNEY.