it gets easier

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Home : 2004 : November : 26

it gets easier
By Mary

The first year of teaching is every bit as bad as they told you it would be in college. If you're sleeping very little, working impossibly long hours, and your husband is talking about how much he misses you, then it's going
just about the way it should.
It gets easier, though. The second year is like a whole different job. Hopefully, you are saving all the rubrics, assignments, and handouts you make this year. Next year, you can just pull the stuff out when you need it, and you will appreciate it so much!
I'm in my third year now, and I feel as though I really belong in this profession, and I am

so happy I chose it! It's a very self-directed job. I love that I don't have anyone telling me what I have to accomplish today, or what tomorrow will look like for me. I get to decide everything: when we're studying what, and in what order, how I'm going to present the material, how I will evaluate it. I get to decide where people sit, how the desks are arranged, even the temperature in the room. If I find myself drowning in essays (happens a few times a year; I teach language arts) I can pop in a video for the day and give myself a work day, to get caught up. I can decide to extend a unit, if I see the kids are loving it. I never knew what a control freak I was till I began teaching. I could never go back to a job where I'm told what to do, or what my assignment is. I try out lots of different ways to teach kids, and learn all the time.