It Was All Worth It...Encouragement for Teachers

As I sit here looking through Pinterest at quotes for teachers, I see the funny ones and laugh, but I also see the serious ones--the ones that cause tears to well up in your eyes as you read them. Think back to those students who really took a piece of your heart with them when they graduated out of your classroom. 

After 25 years in the classroom I am reminded of several students who fit that description. Some of them have come back to see me when they got to high school, college, get married, or even have kids. Those are the moments a teacher lives for, the moments that make all the frustration, anger, and exhaustion worth it.

The piles of ungraded papers, last minute lesson planning, intricate seating charts, overbearing parents--all those things will fade away into distant memories the moment that a former student walks back into your classroom. The best is working at a school long enough to have some of your students come back and be your colleagues. That is an amazing feeling. 

When you feel ready to give up and let the bureaucrats win, remember that to many of your students you were--and maybe still are--their hero. 

Don't forget to show your students your human side. Sometimes they think we are robots that live at school. (Well, some of us feel like we do live at school.) Let them know when you are having a bad day or a headache–they care and will show you how much. Like when you have that student that tries to hush the rest of the class or stands up for you when you are being disrespected and says, “Hey wait a minute, Mrs. Williams isn't feeling well, let's get quiet and just do our work.” 

Keep in mind, these same students told me they didn’t do this for all of their other teachers because they didn’t feel loved or respected by them.

Ask students how they are, what their favorites are, how their weekend/break/summer was. Go to their games/meets/productions. Show them the support and love they need. Show them that they matter to you and how much they matter to you. 

The truest saying about teaching that I can confirm from experience, is: 'Students don't care how much you know until they know how much you care'.

Then if you're really lucky, those students will come back and tell you the same thing. How much you mattered in their life. How much you kept them sane. How important it was that you were always there for them. How you pushed them to do their best. How you showed them it was possible for them to achieve their dreams. Or even, how you kept them alive when things got dark (yes, that has happened a few times😔)

At those moments, you will know without a doubt that you ARE an amazing teacher. Maybe you didn’t get 100% of your students to ace their achievement test, or have all of your students make straight A's on the last report card. But you will know that the students who came through your classroom learned how to be loved and supported and how to love and support others. Isn't that what matters anyway? Don't we need to be producing students who know how to treat other people rather than knowing how to write the perfect geometric proof?

Being loving and respectful to your students does not mean letting them get away with things. You can still hold them to high standards. You can be friendly without being their friend. After several years in the classroom, I finally learned that it is completely possible and not that hard to be respectful, loving, and real (my students words, not mine 😄) and still be firm. Students need boundaries and they respect you more for having those boundaries. Those boundaries give them structure. Those boundaries keep them safe.

For new teachers fresh out of college who are questioning if they made the right choice, for teachers who have put in their 5-10 years and are ready to quit, for teachers who have chosen education as their second profession and are thinking what have I done, or even teachers who are so close to retirement…the one piece of advice is…don’t give up because IT WAS ALL WORTH IT!