Has the experience been easier or harder than you expected?

     I’m already annoying myself with this answer, but it has been both easier and harder. As far as the harder is concerned, this has definitely been one of the biggest, if not the biggest, challenges of my life. I remember being in high school and thinking that being a high school teacher was a very attractive occupation. Though I wouldn’t exactly be able to live like a king, I would have summers off and I thought that teaching really looked like a lot of fun and would be easy. That’s a big reason why I joined MTC. I truly believe that a person cannot be happy unless they do something that they enjoy. I’m sure it’s nice when that coincides with being paid a ton of money, but even so, teaching always felt like something that I would be good at and would enjoy. Even with close friends who had gone through similar situations, I came in naive and unprepared for what awaited me. After a year of tutoring and essentially no responsibility, simply waking up early enough in the morning was a challenge in itself at first. Then there were/are the classes, lesson plans, evaluations, role plays, classroom management... oh and the actual teaching; let’s not forget about that little facet of this job. All of these things will surely remain a great challenge in my life for at least the next two years. There is no room in this program for cowards, there is no room for backing down, there is no room for giving up, there is no room for stagnation. There is only room for improvement, and constant improvement is really hard work. 

     Now that I look back on it, of course, my high school-aged point-of-view of high school teachers seems like it must’ve manifested itself from pure idiocy. The beginning of getting used to all of my responsibilities has been very hard, and I feel that I was especially tried during the summer training. That having been said, here’s where the easier-than-expected portion of this blog comes in to play. I look at other teachers’ situations in my class and even other teachers’ situations in my own school and I am thankful that I have less of a burden than they do. I only have two preps, one of which meets only one time per day and half of the time doesn’t meet at all because there are only 2 students that have showed up thus far and they chronically miss school. This class meets after my planning period, and it’s become so bad that I almost get annoyed if I don’t have a second planning period in a row. Also making my life easier is the “infallible” Ms. Sharpe. I really have no idea where I’d be without her and she makes my life infinitely easier.

     OK, time for the cheesy, yet sincere conclusion. There are things I can complain about and things that I can thank God about, but in the end, I still have a Brobdingnagian amount of work to do, but will do it because I know that within me lies the potential to be a great teacher.