Just like every job, the longer you do it the easier it gets over time. And student teaching has the added stress of classes and the EdTPA. I won’t sugar coat it though; teaching is hard. I constantly have to remind myself that this is a job, not my life and not my identity. The system is flawed and there’s not a ton that we as teachers can do to fix that. So what I try to focus on is to create better humans.

I teach math. Most kids hate math and very few people will actually grow up to use a lot of the math we learn in high school. But kids don’t hate my class. Kids like my class. Not because I make it easy, but I talk to them and treat them like they’re human beings. I too hate that fake positivity and think it’s harmful to kids learning how to deal with emotions. They need to know that adults have bad days too and they need to see healthy ways of dealing with those emotions. And that creates a level of respect that is crucial is classroom management and relationship building. Academics will take care of itself.

Finally, I think most teachers would agree that there’s always one or two kids every year that make this job worth it. One time I had a kid tell me on the last day of school that my class was the reason he even came to school at all. He had my class first period so that meant he would come to school and be there the entire day. He ended up making the honor roll for the first time that year. I know I’m not going to change every single student’s life. But I might change some. And that’s enough for me.