Welcome to ‘Classroom Confessions: The Good, Bad, and Ugly’.

In this series, I am going to discuss the good, the bad and the ugly of teaching as a career sprinkled with hilarious and truthful stories from my teaching career. It’ll make you laugh, want to read on and wonder how the hell teachers do it every day!

This is the first blog post in the series and we are starting strong with a good ol fashioned rant! So in case you don’t know me, I’m Olivia and I was a teacher for 10 years but I’ve recently left the profession. I still work in education but I no longer teach in the classroom and like most teachers, I love a rant.

SO let’s chat about the reasons why I left teaching (and reasons why I miss it!)

Some people are just meant to be teachers and I was one of them. Being a teacher was the most challenging, exhausting and tough years of my life, but I loved it.

HOWEVER

Teaching as a career has changed and now encompasses many, MANY roles and responsibilities. It’s less about the students and more about results, rankings and reputation of the school. A lot of pressure is put on teachers whilst they also juggle planning, marking, behaviour, teaching and learning, OH AND making sure their students are nurtured, fed and emotionally, physically and mentally looked after. It’s a lot. All of this pressure takes a toll, resulting in 40,000 teachers leaving the profession in the UK last year. Unfortunately, I’m part of that statistic.

Post-Pandemic Culture Change

When I first started teaching, if a student misbehaved, others would sit and watch what was going to happen (or in some cases, another student would just tell them to sit down, shut up and get on with it!). However, in recent years, I have found the bandwagon effect to be much more present than it was. Students are now more likely to actively join in and encourage bad behaviour with little to no consideration or respect for the teacher. My job is to teach, not to crowd control. Do office workers find themselves being told to F off by a 12-year-old? I don’t think so.

No time for anything

Every second is accounted for in a teaching day so you are constantly looking at the clock thinking about how much time you have left to complete an activity, or if you have time to print something before your next lesson, or if you can quickly go to the toilet or eat a snack (yes, sometimes there isn’t time for basic human needs!). The workload of a teacher is growing and becoming unmanageable. But because most teachers are caring, hard-working perfectionists, we spread ourselves thin to try to get it all done. This unfortunately has long-term effects on our physical and mental health. From the moment we get into work (often way before the students- I used to start at 6:45am) to the moment we leave work (again way after the students have left, often 5/6/7pm- not counting those evenings we have to stay until 9pm for parents evening!) we are flat out working. This isn’t sustainable and often leads to burnout…which is exactly where I found myself.

Stresssssssssssssssssss!

I lived at a constant level of stress when I was teaching. Why isn’t this student making progress? When am I going to find time to re-write the scheme of work? Who left all the lids off of the highlighters? Where are their class books? How did they manage to spill water over their book, the table and themselves? Why are they sitting there staring into space? How can I support this student when 11 other students have their hand up? Where is another adult so I can have a rant? When is it the end of the day? How is it that time already? When am I going to phone these parents? What should I set for homework? Where am I going to buy the resources needed for next lesson? Did I leave the worksheets in the printer? What am I teaching today? When was the last time I went to the toilet?

I was stressed just writing that out, reliving the daily stress that comes with teaching. Imagine all of those questions going through your head like a record to the melody of your name on a loop “Miss Cole! Miss Cole! Miss Cole!”. A constant, never-ending cycle of stress.

positives

And breath! I’m not negative person so, although I like a good rant, I do always try to look on the bright side of life. Let’s put on our rose-tinted glasses for a second and remember the positives of teaching.

• The students (they are funny, bright and such characters!).
• Teacher friends (you won’t get through a term without the support only a teacher friend can provide!).
• Actually teaching (the feeling of imparting knowledge or helping someone develop a skill is hands down the best feeling in the world!).

Stay tuned for a whole blog post on the positives because it’s all about balance.