The Introduction

Every good teacher has a formal introduction on day one, right? Right? Can you answer this question? Come on, good teachers know the answer -

Stop here.

This is why I'm starting this blog. I'm still an amateur, a very skilled amateur anyway, but I feel like I'm not scared to learn anymore. Let me explain.

My first year of teaching, something you may hear a lot about depending on my mood, actually closed my eyes in a lot of ways. When I came home, I did everything in my power to avoid my job. It was that bad.

Now I'm in a different state. I'm going to stop here and I really want you to take in this next statement:

Teaching is NOT the way you think it is, and it is never the way it is shown.

Generally, teachers do not show the true side of teaching. Now, unfortunately, this blog may not be as interesting as reality TV, but then again, reality TV isn't reality anyway.

Teaching is real, and most of us, when we start, are humbled pretty quickly. Everything we ever thought about teaching was probably proven wrong within the first month of REAL teaching.

So, if you are one of those new teachers, or hey, maybe not so new, coming out of your hiding place, I'm here for you.

I understand you. No, I really do.

I know there are teachers who have great experiences early on, but in reality (there's that word again), most of do not. This blog is for everybody and anybody, but it is especially for the teachers out there who dreaded work this morning. It's for the teachers who almost cried during their prep hour, when they finally had a chance to breathe. It's for the teachers who always wanted to be teachers, until they became teachers.

I always wanted to be a teacher. I also always wanted to be a writer, and well, they say, write what you know.

One thing I know for sure, is mostly everything I was told about teaching was wrong - not because it was a lie or an untruth, but because teaching means different things to every person.

So, as the Common Core, standardized tests, observations, lesson plans, grading, and everything else weigh down on you, remember that your intuition still exists.

At the end of each blog, I want to tie in with a mini-lesson (ugh). So, here is mini-lesson number 1 for all of my lovely teachers out there:

1) Listen to your intuition, but I'm not saying this in any sort of corny way, but it probably is actually really corny.

I'm too sensitive to be a teacher, most of the time, but let me get back to the point.

When I first started teaching, my mentor teacher was considered a 'master' teacher, and well she was and is a wonderful teacher, but this isn't about her - we teachers (yes, that is correct subject pronoun...agreement) love talking about ourselves, don't we?

Well, I listened to all of her advice, and I did everything she told me to do - often times going against my intuition. Big mistake, kind of. I don't think mistake is allowed to be used in education. Let's call this a learning opportunity.

So, here I was, my second year of teaching, following the advice I received from her, every square inch of it. I was doing okay, but it just wasn't me.

One day she told me, "I knew you were ready to thrive when you told me that you were going to go with your intuition from this point on."

I absolutely did, and it is the best decision I ever made. In fact, I have yet to regret a time I went with my intuition. Don't worry, I'm sure it will happen, and then I'll have a future blog post discounting this one, and well, isn't that what is education is like? Oh, yes, I'll have a blog post about the ever-changing education, too. Actually, no, now that I think about it, I have regretted going with my intuition at times, but I've also regretted trying to be a teacher I'm not. There's a balance, which is something I'll focus on throughout this blog.

As I wrap up, I really am excited about this. I want to hear from teachers around the world. I want to hear all of your perspectives. And, hey, if I can help one, even one teacher, I will be happy. Just writing this blog is helping me and just knowing that somebody could possibly read this makes my inner dreamer (the one who wants to be a writer) sigh peacefully. At the end of the day, isn't that how we mostly feel about our students? Or is it that, too, some corny misinformation?

If you enjoyed this, I'd love you to subscribe and look at my next post entitled:

The Number One Secret to Teaching THEY Don't Want You to Know.

Yes, I capitalized almost every single word, and yes I was trying to be funny,  but I'm sure it wasn't.

Well, hang in there my dear teachers, and I look forward to the next post. I'm not grading those papers tonight though.

(PS:  You don't have to grade everything.)