When I first started teaching 32 years ago, I had the best group of professionals around me as guides and mentors. 🏆The best- I’m telling you! I was fortunate. I ended my classroom career with incredible people surrounding me as well. 🥇I have beautiful memories filled with experiences that I cherish.😍
Even though my teaching career was more than I hoped it would be when I attended those education classes at 🐯Mizzou, there are some things that I won’t miss:
⛈Very few bathroom breaks
⛈Disrespectful, argumentative behaviors
⛈Kids who judge and belittle classmates
⛈Growing apathy for learning
⛈Kids who figure out how many questions they must answer to get a D- and consider that good enough
⛈Intruder drills- if you’ve never done one with kids, you can’t understand
⛈Fighting the technology battle with students who hide Airpods behind their hair and phones in hoodies or books
⛈Using my own money to purchase supplies- only to have kids think it’s hilarious to snap pencils in half or rip covers off of books
⛈People who think they know what should happen in schools- this goes for curriculum AND safety. Sorry- you can’t know anything if you haven’t walked the walk. You just can’t. Step aside, please.
⛈Heartbreaking stories of hunger and abuse that I couldn’t fix
Yes- there were some crummy parts to my job, like any other career. 😌There are many more that I will miss. 🥰
☀️Being the cheerleader for kids who don’t have anyone else
☀️Co-workers who care for each other
☀️Kids who get excited about school
☀️Middle school humor
☀️Hallway chats with kids and co-workers
☀️Watching my students grow and change
☀️Notes left on my desk
☀️Breakthrough moments in learning
☀️Kids who help one another
☀️Students who say they missed me over the weekends
☀️Art designed especially for my Gallery Wall
☀️Knowing that I made a difference
I have a 🎁box filled with mementos from my students that I collected over the years. I couldn’t keep everything, but I saved a lot. This box is filled mostly with 📝letters. I often pulled out those letters to read on the difficult days. The words of my students were the very thing I needed to keep going.😊 They are why I walked through that classroom 🚪door every day. And they were worth it.💖
sharing the stairs 