Gasp! Huge sigh.
It’s already Winter Break. This school year is screaming by. Oh, you know what I mean. There are years in every teacher’s life that just seem to drag tediously by. This is not one of those years for me.
This year I’m having fun.
The kids are all geniuses, of course, and I never have any behavior problems, right?
No, sadly, this is the year that I probably have some of the most interesting behavioral issues to deal with. I also have a broad range of academic abilities and skillsets to deal with just like any other teacher in just about any other classroom.
No, the thing that is really great about this year is that I am out of the other grade level I was in and teaching older children. My students now understand their bodies well enough that they make it to the bathroom before things start flowing out of their orofices. Students this age can do things a little faster than younger students can. Like cleaning up, for example. It takes us less time to clean up, thus, we have more time for instruction. I enjoyed teaching the younger students. I mean, I did it for 8 years and thought I’d be there till I retired. Not so, and I’m glad for the change.
What I’m finding out, though, is that more than changing the grade level of the students, getting away from the toxic team dynamics at my old grade level was the healthiest move I made. Sometimes groups or teams can just be draining. They don’t mean to be. If you were to ask the other members if they were being negative or if they were complaining about every little thing, they would look at you like you were voluntarily applying for the state mental institution. They just don’t see how their behavior is damaging, toxic, draining, non-productive and energy sucking. Even though I tried to distance myself as much as I could emotionally, I still felt like the enthusiasm, life and motivation to really excel for my students were being sucked out of me daily. These are not bad people I’m talking about. These are not poor teachers either. They do their jobs very well and they do rise to the challenge of changing and adapting. The problem is they complain about it all every step of the way and they bring everyone around them down in the process.
I don’t have to deal with that ever any more. I’m far away from that, with people who might complain about something once, or make a little comment, but they leave it there and don’t revisit it. There is virtually no drama in my work existence now. Except…except when the new teacher they hired to take my place comes over and asks me, “Was it like this for you and how did you put up with it all those years?” I just smile and say, “It was like that for me and I just kept my mouth shut, went into my classroom and shut my door whenever possible.”
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