Step one: Be
cocky as hell. Think you know it all.
Start out the semester excited and pumped and so energetic that people
who are already teachers will say “Kids are going to eat you alive.” Ignore these snide comments as you continue
to be confident and positive, and think to yourself, “I WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE
YOU HEARTLESS, RUDE, WASHED UP, PESSIMISTIC, SORRY EXCUSES FOR TEACHERS.”
Step two: Slowly
begin to realize that student teaching is not as enchanting and magical as you
had thought it would be. Come to terms
with the fact that all of the people who said that you were naïve and “too
innocent” were, unfortunately, right. Curse their names under your breath and
vow to live out a quote you saw somewhere on Pinterest that tells you to not
let this world make you hardened and calloused.
Still try your hardest and think the world of your students, even when
they ask you to call them “Big Daddy” or when they talk to their friend as you
try to provide the assistance they had just asked for two seconds ago. Still believe that you can make a difference.
Step three:
Disregard the first Pinterest quote you referred to in your desperate need for
inspiration…because it is not working. You are undeniably becoming hardened and
calloused. And all of the other things
that you vowed you would never be. You
are beginning to question your initial belief that every student truly can
learn, and instead wondering “What is the point?” You’re beginning to empathize
with the heartless, rude, washed up, pessimistic, sorry excuses for teachers
and seeing how it may have been a little extreme to prematurely judge them that
harshly. But mostly, you are beginning
to feel scared. Like maybe you aren’t cut out for this. Like maybe you should
switch your major and be a counselor or heck maybe even an accountant or
something (you’ve always gotten a weird satisfaction from Type-A work). Ultimately decide that accounting would
probably make you more depressed than teaching and resort one more time to
Pinterest. This time the quote is
“Whenever you feel like giving up, remember why you started.” Hope this is the
quote that will initiate the turning point in your slump.
Step four: Experience a new low in your slump and cry. So
much. All the time. Throw a huge pity
party and only invite yourself because you love being dramatic. Be upset that you aren’t a stellar teacher
right off the bat. Be bitter that you’re way better at writing lesson plans
then actually executing them. Feel like the biggest fraud in the world. Spiral
into despair and begin to wonder how any students learn anything ever. Decide
that middle school should just be classified as the wasted years.
Step five: Grow
up and stop being a baby. It’s as simple as that. Stop playing the victim and become
a problem solver. Talk to your professor about classroom management and learn
how to empower yourself instead of sitting back and letting problems escalate. Also,
understand that becoming a stellar teacher requires experience, and that you
may have had a tad bit too high of expectations for yourself. Reevaluate who you want to be stellar for.
Realize you wanted to be stellar due to vanity and not for the students…who are
what this whole shin dig is about. Promise
to make it about the students from here on out.
Step six: Give
up on referencing Pinterest, and remember one of your favorite quotes that your
dad shared with you, in order to get re-inspired.
“What would you
attempt if you knew you could not fail?”
Ask yourself the
answer to this question. Really ponder it.
Step seven:
Decide the answer is obviously that you would pour your heart and soul into
your work, and give your students your all, even if they never stop acting like
total punks. Decide that you are done doubting whether you were made for this
profession. Recognize that you have strengths and attributes that are unique to
you alone, and vow to put these to good use.
Realize that the
Pinterest quotes you abandoned may still hold some truth, and…
Start to attempt
to do the things you want to do, without fear of failure.
Start to
remember the reasons why you began this ridiculous journey of becoming a
teacher.
Start to become
less hardened and calloused, and more like the optimistic individual you were
in the beginning.
And instead of
teachers saying “These kids are going to eat you alive,” start hearing “You’re
gonna be alright.”
