Still Really Sad!

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Still Really Sad!
By Missing my point

I do love teaching. That's why I'm still here. And I do know that part of it is the tough school in which I am working. I hate for people to get the idea that I am a negative, whiney, complaining teacher. I have had several
"experienced" teachers tell me that I am one of the best teachers that they have ever worked with, and I am only in my third year. I get this praise because I work VERY HARD. My students do feel safe and loved and happy in my classroom. My students do learn and feel good about themselves. But my complaint is that when I do all of these great things, all anyone ever seems to want

is more. My third graders are writing awesome paragraphs with examples and descriptions and amazing vocabulary. So instead of saying "keep up the good work," I hear "maybe they need to be writing multi-paragraph reports." And I do know that I should keep raising the bar and challenging them, but there reaches a point when the more I have to do to push them, the less happy and secure and wonderful my classroom feels because I am so cranky and worn out. There's just not a lot of rewards or perks to teaching, except for the wonderful ONE of seeing a student grow under your care. My point in the first post was that I wish that education was not always what is blamed AND what is expected to make it all better. I want to make a difference, and I will always work hard at whatever I'm doing. I'm not one of these negative, cynical people that many of us know and work with. I am just really disillusioned that this is what it is to be a teacher. And even if I leave my school and go to la-la land or just another place where I am needed, I will know that schools like the one I am in now exist everywhere and some poor soul is feeling what I feel right now, all over the country. I am just really sad about it all.