The world is a mess right now! Where I work three teachers were told that they no longer had jobs. Isn't that awful? You're working one day and the next you're not. I feel so bad for them. To make up for the lost teaching positions other teachers had to be moved around. They had to give up their classrooms and the students that they had already bonded with to be moved to another grade level. They have to greet new students that had already bonded with another teacher and try their best to teach them a curriculum they aren't familiar with. They have to do this without the raises we were promised in our contracts but with all the pressures to make sure their new students perform well on standardized testing.
Somedays it's hard to remember why we became teachers in the first place. We are no longer shown the respect the teachers of our youth were shown. We must accomplish more than ever before and we must do this with less money, time and supplies than ever before.
Somedays it would be easy to quit. Easy to walk away. Who would miss us anyway? We only hear from parents when they aren't happy and when budget cuts need to be made it's the classroom teachers that feel the pain first.
The days that make quitting seem like a great idea are the days that we have to remind ourselves that we are where we are needed. We are making a difference. We do matter. These are the days that we have to be true to ourselves.
Here's a goodie for anyone that has ever wondered if they were doing the right thing...
