I wish they had told me…
“Your perception of the teacher job description is completely incorrect. You will need to be a jack of all trades, you need to dabble in everything, if you don’t have knowledge in an area you better know how to find it. You will be an analyst. You will turn data into lessons and lessons into projects and projects into something measurable to access more data. You will gather your findings and put them into something useful. You’ll be someone’s mother. You’ll be someone’s only hope. You’ll be someone’s worst enemy, but you’ll put up with the constant battle because you want to see results. You’ll worry. You will worry constantly that you’re not doing enough for your students. You will worry that you’re not reaching them. You’ll worry that you need to be more. You will make sacrifices. Sacrifices that others do not understand. Sacrifices that other professions would never have to face. Your friends will have a love/hate relationship with your teaching stories. You will make next to nothing for the work that you do. Yet, somehow, someway, you’ll still be happy. You’ll be satisfied.”
