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Originally Posted by usurp
i just need to know, this is normal right? no one here likes their jobs right? I am not the only one who is stuck in a job for the money and the convenience right??? please say right..
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Hi usurp. I am on a year's leave (sabbatical) from teaching right now. I saved up to be able to take this leave. I'll tell you how I feel about 'my' job.
I love my students and the act and art of teaching. I love having an impact on my students' lives (they're age 13). I know that I have changed some of their lives in vast and significant ways, because the parents tell me so! I can't begin to tell you what a fantastic feeling that is.
BUT...the "out of classroom" aspect of teaching is very stressful. It is a relentless grind that never lets up - the constant deadlines, the *UNBELIEVABLE* amounts of paperwork. By the third day of school in September, I feel (and actually AM!) three weeks behind.
And the worst part is that a *huge* amount of the paperwork and the endless, time-consuming hoops teachers need to jump through are just a bunch of useless CYA stuff for people at the district office, who constantly need to have documented evidence that good things are going on in the schools.
If only all that time and energy could be spent on lesson plans and strategies that have a direct bearing on teaching in the classroom. But instead, it's all a bunch of show-and-tell paperwork for the bureaucrats. I SO resented having my precious time wasted on that stuff, when I desperately needed those hours for work directly related to my students.
Anyway, though I dearly love teaching jr. high, I don't want to go back. I'd rather teach in jr. college, where the students are paying to be there, are interested in learning, and where the teacher's time isn't wasted on paperwork and meetings for the district office's show-and-tell binder.
You need to start putting money aside and planning ways to extricate yourself from your current dilemma. I guarantee, no one else will do it for you.