It's so easy for me to fall in the trap of complaining and it happens to the best of us. I don't know why I still have a Facebook account because it only angers me when people teacher-bash on there. But I have to remember that I have had years of training to be a teacher, while parents have no training to be parents. So, when parents become over-sensitive and blind to the child's actions and tall tales, I need to keep this training in mind.
Recently there was a post from one of my friends on Facebook totally putting her daughter's teacher in a bad light, without a whole lot of proof to back it up other than her daughter's word. This morning I started writing a blog post quoting this person and all the awful comments that followed. Then I deleted it before going public, because that's not what this blog is about. There will always be some haters out there, but for each hater there are 100 supporters. So I looked to my teaching scrapbook for inspiration and a pick-me-up.
If you don't have a teaching scrapbook, you should start one. It's a place where I keep all the nice notes from my students and parents. It helps remind me why I'm here.
I've been a teacher for 13 years, so looking back on these many years of 'love' notes, I feel confident again. I have inspired a student to major in engineering. Just this past week a previous student and her husband came into school to see me, me! Seniors gave me shout-outs in the school newspaper for their good bye letters. A student told her parents that I never make her feel dumb, she said it so often that the parents felt a need to email and pass this information on to me. And of course for some students there are no words, just a connection.
So yes, we teachers have some haters, but we also have a lot of supporters. If for some reason you have lost your way, send a positive message home to a parent or two. You'll soon see how readily they'll compliment and thank you. Print out those emails, put them in a page protector and a three-ring binder. Next time you run into a teacher-basher, bite your tongue, and re-read your scrapbook.
Recently there was a post from one of my friends on Facebook totally putting her daughter's teacher in a bad light, without a whole lot of proof to back it up other than her daughter's word. This morning I started writing a blog post quoting this person and all the awful comments that followed. Then I deleted it before going public, because that's not what this blog is about. There will always be some haters out there, but for each hater there are 100 supporters. So I looked to my teaching scrapbook for inspiration and a pick-me-up.
If you don't have a teaching scrapbook, you should start one. It's a place where I keep all the nice notes from my students and parents. It helps remind me why I'm here.
I've been a teacher for 13 years, so looking back on these many years of 'love' notes, I feel confident again. I have inspired a student to major in engineering. Just this past week a previous student and her husband came into school to see me, me! Seniors gave me shout-outs in the school newspaper for their good bye letters. A student told her parents that I never make her feel dumb, she said it so often that the parents felt a need to email and pass this information on to me. And of course for some students there are no words, just a connection.
So yes, we teachers have some haters, but we also have a lot of supporters. If for some reason you have lost your way, send a positive message home to a parent or two. You'll soon see how readily they'll compliment and thank you. Print out those emails, put them in a page protector and a three-ring binder. Next time you run into a teacher-basher, bite your tongue, and re-read your scrapbook.
I keep a binder labeled "Encouragement" for reasons similar to yours. I need to remember to actually look through it more often to remind me about the good things when everything seems to be going badly.
ReplyDeleteThat is funny you should post this. Just this morning our principal stopped me on the way in. He wanted to let me know about a parent who at first was not very fond of trying out our standards based grading system (PARLO). After getting to know how the grades are actually calculated, he really likes it! He also had great things to say about me as a teacher, and his daughter really enjoys my class and is learning a ton. I know we don't teach for the complements, but it makes us feel good!
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