For all you teachers with issues…

Let’s just put it out there: I have issues.  While my friends and children are out enjoying the breezy Florida sunshine, I am  hunched over a laptop at my kitchen table building a blog. It’s not that I dislike the outdoors, I’ve just always had this words-obsessed computer geek side to me that makes me more inclined to stare at a screen than stretch out under the sun. It is this same side that continually nags my friends (all of whom have such interesting stories to tell, perhaps as a result of their actually stepping outside and living their lives) that they should start a blog.  (“No, really, you should. You have so much to share.  And it could help get your business off the ground. Seriously.  What’s wrong with you? Why can’t you listen to me? Geez.”)

So, yeah. Issues.

Then it hit me:  why not take my own nagging advice and start my own blog?  I have stuff to say.  And if there is one thing I have lots to say about (as all my friends who follow my anti-testing-and-book-banning rants on Facebook know) it is this: teaching.

The truth is, despite the fact that there are many things about my job that drive me completely bananas (the aforementioned out-of-control testing, ever-growing data and accommodation tracking, increasingly unreasonable parents, ridiculously restrictive laws that rob the classroom of intellectual curiosity), I actually love this job. In my almost 14 years doing this, I have experienced more passion, more satisfaction, more joy, and yes, more frustration and misery than in the almost 20+ years of marketing in my previous life. (Yes, I am that old.) Teaching is not a profession for the thin-skinned or faint of heart.  This is hard, grueling, dirty work sometimes.  And let’s face it: the financial benefits are non-existent (at least in my state). And yet I feel like I NEED to do this. Teaching is a calling for those who care about our children, care about our future, and want to change the world.  

Haters?

(So for all you haters out there, you  can just zip it.  You seriously have no clue.  Come talk to me after you’ve spent a day in front of 125 teenagers who expect you to be their mother, friend, therapist, cheerleader, chief problem-solver, administrative assistant, housekeeper, disciplinarian and headline entertainment.  But I digress.)

The fact is, each day I walk into my classroom, I give it my all.  Or at least try. Mostly. Though I admit there are those days I want to give up even before the first bell rings.  Sometimes it all works, many times not so much.  Along with my students, I am still learning.  But I am, if nothing else, committed to trying. Committed to those 100 plus young people who depend on me each day.  On great days, we together reach the highest of highs. Then other days, it is just pure, unadulterated hell.  But I wouldn’t have it any other way.  (Again, issues.)

So this is my blog.  Here, you can read about the trials and tribulations of a harried high school English teacher and her attempt to make her corner of the world a little bit of a better place. It is for all you teachers out there who know exactly what I am talking about.  Who, like me, have issues.  Because, after all is said and done, we must be crazy to love this job so much. For those teachers out there, here’s to you.