Do you know who I have respect for? Teachers.I am one week into this school year...not even that...I'm four days in, and I do not understand how people do this for 30 years. I speak only of the physical toll it takes of course. Four days and I am exhausted. My voice is gone, my legs ache, and I panic a bit at the thought of needing lesson plans for thirty-seven more weeks.
There's no doubt, this job is tough. I teach kindergarten (age 4-5) and first-seventh grade with an average of five periods a day. I never realized how much patience and talent it takes to instruct the younger ones. It is a struggle to get their attention, and it is impossible to have everyone at one time. I'm also teaching them English at the same time they're really picking up Spanish.
The second-fifth graders are as hyperactive as you would expect 6-to-11-year-olds to be. I can manage to gather them long enough if I promise to show them one of my two magic tricks when we get the alphabet cards in order.
The sixth and seventh graders are going to be the most fun, I think. I've got them in a unit right now learning the vocabulary of Michael Jackson's Thriller. They adore his music and know songs that I had to download just so my music knowledge could be as vast as theirs. Jacko is HUGE here! Little Martin will be teaching us the dance.
Each group seems to offer its own challenges, and I simply cannot wrap my head around the amount of perseverance retired elementary teachers like my mother must have had, not to mention that she was raising a rug-rat like me.
As I said, I only mean to speak about the physical stresses. I'm already finding this job to be quite rewarding. Some students have already touched me with their courteousness toward me and each other.
I think if I can be as patient with my students as my Spanish-speaking counterparts have been with me, I will be alright.
If patience is a virtue, than teachers are the most virtuous creatures on God's green earth.