Monday rave: why I love being a teacher
- I like that it's never, ever boring - and as someone who gets bored easily - that's a real bonus. It's never the same from one day to another. Or from one year to another.
- I like the energy, creativity, ideas, and humour of the colleagues I work with.
- I like the energy, creativity, ideas and humour that I get from the students in my classroom.
- I like that I get to (justifiably) spend money on books and movies.
- I like it when a student or a group takes an idea and runs with it. I'm a big fan of veering off at tangents.
- I love it when kids are racing each other to get in the door so that they can be the first to see what the "Word of the Day" is - and I really love it when so many of those words turn up in their writing.
- I love sitting on the stage at Prizegiving - with a number of tissues at the ready - and seeing the fine young people who are finishing their secondary school career.
- I love that I get paid to be passionate about books and poems and song lyrics and films and words.
- It's fantastic when a student gets so involved in something that they are really angry or upset - like when Othello is sooo blind to Iago's evil, or when Piggy dies....
- I like that I sometimes enter my classroom in the morning feeling grumpy for some reason - I'm tired, or it's raining, or some political skirmish has broken out in the staffroom - and realise 20 minutes later that I'm feeling great!
- I love it when a student points out something that I hadn't thought of.
- I love those Christmas cards which tell you how much they have come to love English.
- and I especially love being a teacher when it's the first day of the summer holidays!
Very well put! All those things that you love make you I'm sure one of the best teachers ever! When you are a teacher doing what you love it shows in every child you teach! Isn't it amazing how children can be so wise, and the amount of energy and enthusiasm they have can just brighten your day! Thanks Alexia for sharing such a heartfelt expressive tribute to being a teacher! I enjoyed it so much!
ReplyDeleteYour #1 is #1 on my list too - it never gets boring. I'm guaranteed to get frustrated and upset at least once a day, but I'm also guaranteed on fall-on-the-floor-laughing incident every day too.
ReplyDeleteGreat list!
Loved that.
ReplyDeleteWhat a perfect post for me right now. I am going to retire in May after 20 years of teaching. The "kids" I teach are older (graduate school), but it really doesn't matter. I could relate to everything you said. Although I'm ready to move on now, this job has fed my spirit as well as my intellect and pocketbook. How many hundreds of times have I said over the years, "I can't believe someone is paying me to have this much fun!" So thank you so much for articulating all the reasons I have been so happy in this job.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, love some of your methods you mentioned, like word of the day. You are obviously a master teacher. Your students are so lucky.