Education Reform

My first year of teaching was not pretty. I'd graduated from college excited to teach and full of the desire to help students learn. I was the first teacher at school in the morning and the last to leave that afternoon. But it wasn't long before my excitement started to fade. Teaching started becoming more and more of a chore. I started to dread coming in to school each day. I was stressed out at the end of each day and worried sick at the start of each week. I even started browsing the help wanted ads looking for a new job - and this was after paying for four years of university education so that I could teach!

What changed? What made me start to really hate teaching? It was simple... The students.

The students simply wouldn't listen to me. I'd spend all my evenings working on fancy lessons that I was certain would entertain and educate my students. Then, when I'd start the lesson, the students would be talking away as if I weren't even there. I'd find myself raising my voice, threatening students with more homework, even getting in shouting matches with them.

All because I wanted them to learn and grow into adults capable of getting good jobs and making and taking care of their future families. I'll never forget the moment I realized that something had to change. That either I had to change careers or learn how to manage my students. That was when I realized things had to change. That I had to somehow take my class back from my students and put myself in charge once again.

In so many words, I was the struggling teacher years ago. Looking back on my first year now, it really wasn’t that bad. I did know or realize that the expectations I had set for my students were too high at the time. Everything is a process and works in stages. The one thing I do wish I had my first year is a mentor teacher. A mentor teacher could have helped me with my lesson plans, helped me with classroom management, and or procedures.

Teaching is a career where no one does it the same way. You have to find your own processes that work and use them. I have quickly learned what works for one doesn’t work for all.