A Wedding and Some Free Advice
We went to a wedding yesterday. It was two friends I used to teach with. They met at the school where we worked and found love in a hopeless place.
My wife and I don’t go to many weddings anymore. There was a long period where we went to four or five weddings every year. That gradually tapered off and faded into the current era of second weddings and bar mitzvas.
This was that rare first wedding of two good friends. Nothin’ better than that. Unless, of course, it doesn’t work out. Then it can be really terrible and awkward for everybody. But these two love each other and, maybe just as important, they really like each other as well. It’s a good thing to see.
There were about 20 former and current teachers there who we had worked with. It was great to see people and find out what they were doing. I was reminded again that there are great places to teach. A lot of my former colleagues are really happy with the schools they’ve moved to. I’m bummed I never found a school like that.
All and all I think I’m glad to be out, but I know that teaching doesn’t have to be the way it was in the poo-hole school where we all taught. I think I could have been happy teaching for a long time in the right place. As it turns out I lasted for six years and, though I liked many things about teaching, I really can’t say I liked the whole package when it was assembled.
To you out there reading who still want to give teaching a chance, get off yer asses and go find a better school. If you like the kids part and if you would enjoy planning curriculum, methods and classroom management with a reasonable amount of academic and professional freedom, there might be a school out there that’s better for you. I just talked to 12 people who found this out for themselves.
Don’t wait for where you are to get better because it probably won’t. Don’t be passive. Find a school where you want to teach and start making a plan to be there. Or make a plan to do something else. If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re in your 20s or 3os. You’ve got time, but don’t waste it. Take a pay cut or move to another city. Do what you have to do. Find something you like; or fail, find something else that sucks, get back up off yer ass and try again. Now is the time for boldness and informed risk-taking.
Don’t waste your time, don’t be passive and don’t get stuck.
So anyway, the wedding was great. A lovely service, good food, good friends, open bar, music and dancing. A good time was had by all, I assume. It was a little hard to tell with the bride’s family. Most of the family had immigrated as adults from China or maybe flown in for the occasion. They seemed somewhat puzzled by our wedding traditions of disco music and crowd participation games.
They all sat at the edge of the dance floor, bags clutched in laps and coats on, staring expressionless as we pretended to be John Travolta and popped balloons with a partner without using our hands. They betrayed no emotion as we got a little bit softer now, or even when we got a little bit louder. But I knew exactly what they were thinking.
You dummies are finished. It’s amazing it’s taken this long. Go ahead. Just keep running into each other doing the Electric Slide. We’ll take care of the global economy.
To the Bride and Groom, thank you for including us in your day. We had a great time and love you both.
Mr. Teachbad
Don’t forget to check out the Strictly Home-Use Teacher Store for many fine Teachbad products. They make great wedding gifts!
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I’d love to know where these people teach. Between my wife and I we taught in 6 different schools in 4 districts and they all totally sucked. I wasted 7 years and my wife 10 years of hers. I agree, be proactive and perhaps try another city/district. But how many schools out there are good ones? What is the chance that there are enough good spots in good schools for all these teachers? I think we have a better chance at hitting the lottery. I still say stack the odds in your favor and get the hell out and do it when you are young.
Hey, kinda nice to read this.
Not gonna lie, kinda depressing to read about so many who justifiably relish leaving the profession I really do love. Of course, I am well aware that for the most part I am in a decent position in that I have accrued 20+ years of seniority in a district that has changed district initiatives and admin than I’ve changed hair color. While that is maddening on a continuity level, they’re all gone and I’m still here, so for the most part I’ve been able enjoy the reputation of a good teacher DESPITE all the nonsense.
I’ve also earned the reputation of someone who fights all the nonsense.
But admittedly, I have been able to survive and, in fact, thrive by closing the door and just teaching. And learning. If you are able to close the door and shut out all the BS, teaching high school senior English rocks.
There. Now I’VE come out of the closet. Sorry fellow TB posters. I really love teaching. And I enjoy combatting all that attempts to homogenize it. Which is what brought me to this site to begin with.
Keep doing that.
I taught for 8 years and loved the teaching part. I miss it very much. I love kids (high schoolers as well as 4th graders) and the creativity that teaching brought. But those last couple of years I simply couldn’t handle the disrespect…and not from the kids. I never had any problem with them. It was the disrespect I received from administration and society that got to me. To always be second guessed and denigrated…Ugh…
I’m out of the profession now and will never return to public schools. If they would have just let me do my job I’d still be there (and I was nominated as Teacher of the Year by my peers three times in 8 years. I was damn good at teaching and my passion showed!). Unfortunately, even after being at three districts the unspoken message was always that the “higher ups” always thought they knew better.
Teaching made me feel like a race horse excited to run the race, yet administration, laws, testing, paperwork, etc. never let me out of the gate. Yet that never stopped them from whacking me in the ass with the whip and screaming, “Hurry, hurry, hurry…”
Hurry, hurry, hurry to get more and more meaningless paperwork done.
Sad, so sad. I loved it so much.
You are fortunate. I couldn’t “close my door and just teach” because supervisors, VPs, and principals were always walking in on all of us with some new agenda. Furthermore, any teacher in my district who got the reputation for being “someone who fights all the nonsense” quickly learned the myriad ways the admins could fight you back…schedule changes that required every class you taught to be on a different floor or even changing you to a different grade or school (read: the “tough” school), springing an observation on you five minutes before the end of class the DAY BEFORE CHRISTMAS VACATION and slamming you with a negative review because your students were not sufficiently “engaged” THEN threatening to withhold your increment based on this obvious set up…the fun never ends in some places.
I hate to say it, but I agree with the ex teachers glad they got out. I actually thought I loved teaching…until I got a new job, in a totally different profession, and quit teaching. Now I realize how hard the job really was and how scant the rewards on a daily basis, and I hope I never have to go back. The kids? Loved them. The teaching part? Enjoyed it, though I don’t actually miss it. But every other little thing about the job? It all sucked. The B.S., dealing with administration that knows nothing, district full of B.S., calling parents who didn’t care that Johnny had been skipping my class since October, etc. grading papers, faculty meetings, being called Assn idiot by politicians and the media. All for crappy pay and no career path. They can take that job and shove it!
Jennie- I am with you on that! I thought I loved teaching, but hated the administrative end, until I got out. Now I realize that I was unhappy all the way around.
Jennie,
Great comment. The schools will not get better until we fund them and cut military and other excessive funding in other areas. And let’s face it, many of the students are NOT fun or nice to work with and most of the parents are totally useless. Aside from the admin and the issues I just stated, teaching was a blast. Happy Thanksgiving!
You know what I still don’t get. I absolutely love this job. Yet, I absolutely hate this job. How the hell is this possible to feel this way ? Leaving would be devastating. It’s like a sick addiction. And I’m good at it!!
Teaching: It’s Crack for Intelligent People
How the hell can you (we) feel this way? Because human beings are irrational, complex and mostly dysfunctional creatures. We are walking contradictions, who will go to almost any length for an endorphin high.
Ain’t life grand?
“Crack for intelligent people”. I love it! It sums teaching up so very perfectly. One more day till Thanksgiving break, damn it.
Odi et amo. Quare id faciam, fortasse requiris?
Nescio, sed sentio fieri et excrucior.
-Catullus
(I hate and I love. Why do I do it, perhaps you ask? I don’t know, but I feel it happening and I am tormented.)
I’ve been teaching at the same school for 14 years. It did get better and worse and better! Administration matters a lot. There is also something to be said for being an old war horse…people are more careful about messing with you!
“There is also something to be said for being an old war horse”–Amen to that! Lots of people are upset about our new administration. But yesterday, the new assistant principal conducted my post-observation conference…and he kept asking me if he was doing it right! I didn’t have the heart to tell him that it’s been 20 years since I paid attention to anything that was said in one of those conferences.
Every school has bullshit and cluster fuckery afoot, but of different types and to different degrees. I think the trick to finding a good school is to consider carefully what sort of bulshit you can tolerate and what sort is absolutely intolerable. I have been fairly lucky.
Well, I quit last month. Been hard financially to start, as I knew it would, but I am MUCH happier. As everyone posted above, all the other BS was just too much.
Well, here is another reminder below that teaching sucks. It’s another email from the Union Head Honcho in New York City relaying the news that teachers will more or less get screwed by having to make up those Hurricane days…as if those 3 or 4 days will make any difference what so ever. What a JOKE:
Dear colleagues,
Among the many consequences of Hurricane Sandy, we lost a week of instruction when children stayed home from school. The state requires a minimum number of instructional days, and this school year, we were close to that minimum given how the holidays fell. So in light of this unprecedented natural disaster, there was no choice but to make up that time.
Schools across New York State are facing the same dilemma. Eleven school districts on Long Island have already agreed to make up the time by taking away all or part of the February break and/or the spring break.
The UFT’s position in our negotiations with the city Department of Education and state Education Department over how to make up the lost time has been that we needed to approach it in a way that was the least disruptive for UFT members while staying in compliance with state law and giving our students the instructional time they require.
Many of you have asked why the state doesn’t issue a waiver. In order to qualify for a waiver, we would have to use up all of our existing vacation days in this year’s school calendar.
In the end, we negotiated the addition of three days to the school calendar. Classes will be in the session the last three days of the February midwinter break — Wednesday, Feb. 20 through Friday, Feb. 22. In addition, the June 4 clerical half day will become a full day of class instruction.
We realize that a number of you have already bought airline tickets or cruises for the midwinter break and risk losing a lot of money if you canceled those trips now. At our insistence, the DOE agreed to allow any UFT member who has purchased a vacation before Nov. 19 to go on the purchased vacation and instead deduct those days from his or her CAR bank. If they have no days in their leave bank, they can either borrow days or take the days as days without pay. These absences won’t be used against those members in any disciplinary hearing or in their end-of-year rating.
Non-school-based UFT members, such as teachers assigned, were required to report between Monday Oct. 29 and Thursday, Nov. 1. If those members made it to work on any of those days, they will not have to make up those days that they reported.
Many of you have done so much for your schools and the hard-hit communities since this storm struck. It’s not easy, but we have to make up these days. It is required under the law.
Sincerely,
Michael Mulgrew
And a shameless plug for the PGT mug. We are in the midst of “Charlotte Danielson” evaluations (I like her quote that administrators should not stick so closely to rubrics…) and our little gang of PGTs is born.
I was worried that they would think i was putting them down, given the current hair-trigger tension caused by administrators who have less tact than I do (I did not think this was possible, but there you go). Heck no, we teachers are all happy to be PGT. We don’t want to work that hard, only to be not “highly effective” because one kid was having a bad day at evaluation time.
I note that the UK has a brand of tea called PG Tips. Must get some.
I have to say that I am loving teaching this year, since they put me in classes with no designated curriculum, I went over to project-based learning, and the kids keep their failing grades until they do the work. Since I started openly saying what was going on, at Board meetings, and I started recording every conversation with my smartpen (great $50 investment), administrators are much better behaved.
Took me years to get the big picture of this JOB. First off, it is a J O B. I might have viewed it as a save-the world-mission, but I was a little off in my perceptions. The bosses either like you or they don’t! Yes, there are many things teachers must learn over the years to improve their craft, but the most basic lesson is to make yourself comfortable in your own room!
I think the most important moment of clarity was my realization that the teachers (administration) and kids are not on the same page.
Just because we decide to talk AT them with some new teaching method does not mean that they will conspire with us to make us look good.
They are people too. This is a simple fact that teachers are asked to forget as we write lesson plans for hours and then force our “show” on our audience even as we realize it sucks as we’re dong it.. Sometimes, it just does. When we get so caught up in worrying about what “it looks like” as opposed to dealing with our classes like normal people, we become insane teachers. Usually, this condition passes as we realize that being insane isn’t the solution.
Every day, I know I could lose my J O B over some unexpected nonsense and I simply work one day at a time these days.
Relax and have a great holiday!.
Making a change and saving your life is good idea even if you are not in your 20′s and 30′s. Maybe if you are in your 50′s it’s an even better idea. After 17 years teaching at the same school in a small Florida town, I’d fnally had enough. I couldnt do it anymore. Mr. Teachbad’s comments about is school were my school too. I knew I had less good years ahead of me than behind so leaving was even MORE compelling for me. Health insurance is good but its no reason to spend what time you have left at a demoralizing job, woking for people who have no respect for you and pretending to do what every teacher knows is impossible. The endless faculty meetings “brainstorming” strategies for bridging the acheivment gap. The PLC’s that everyone knew were a joke. I thought, maybe if I get out, I wont need my health insurance as much as I did when I was having my spirit broken. Please dont let your tenure or crappy health insurance benefits keep you doing someting that is killing you and robbing you of your self-respect. Like many of you I secretly felt I couldnt replace the income (40K a year!) and those wonderful benefits. I have come to the conclusion that this is exactly what they want you to believe. For the sake of my sanity I took a leap of faith, more like a leap of self-preservation.
To make a long story short, I now work for myself as a contract virtual trainer. I use software that enables learners to meet me in a virtual classroom. Men and women from across North America, many of them former teachers, meet me in my classroom to learn a new job that they can do from home. I had a former collegue tell me that work from home jobs were scams!! Imagine that coming from a teacher working in Florida!! I dont have insurance and I dont have any guarantee of a job when my current class ends on 12/28 but I have worked every day since I left teaching in November 2010 and I have my self respect. I work hard but I love doing something that really helps people and I can look myself in the mirror as I make the 12 step commute to my home office.
Please dont let them sell you a bill of goods. Even you 50+ year old teachers have skills you can market but you will never know if you buy into the myth that you cant do anyting else! I only wish I hadnt waited until I was 57 to escape the madness that will killing my soul.
Thanks Mr. Teachbad. You were instrumental in my decision to quit. Teaching in the public school system is damn good job to shove up a stupid Principal’s ass no matter how old you are.
One more thing……
I just purchased 2 more of the “Teaching Kinda Sucks” mugs. The mugs are actually very good quality and they make great gifts to teacher friends and family members. I also like that its a way to support Mr. Teachbad.
Buy a mug or two. When Teachbad becomes rich, you can maybe get him to lend you money!
Tom– can we have the link to your site? It sounds awesome!
There are some really great kids where I teach. However, for every great one, there is a bad one. I judge some of my success by keeping track of how many times I’m told to “fuck off” in a week. I sometimes feel the administration wants us to “roll over” and take the abuse. Don’t rock the boat, don’tcha know. I won’t do it. A school that has a mission statement that includes BS about every child a success is NOT doing the best for every student. If you’re a B/C student, come to school & take care of business, you fall through the cracks. No kudos for being extraordinary, no negative reinforcement w/ programs trying to “reach you.” Wrong, so wrong.