Fighting the Good Fight

Oh what a long and winding road this school year has been. Each year you would think things would get easier and some ways they go, but not quite the way I envisioned. As much as I like my job, there are so many hurdles that keep me and my fellow teachers from doing our best and loving it here. Space is an issue at every school, but it is a particularly sore subject with my department. The homerooms must take priority, which leaves us specialists in the lurch. Our music, pe, and art departments all have their own spaces (pretty nice ones actually). However, our English department get whatever is leftover. We've made things work in spite of this, but have been informed that we will be "traveling teachers" next year. Basically, we will teach each grade level by sharing a space with a homeroom teacher from that grade. Can you feel my excitement?


I have kept the hope alive and have tried to be positive about the changes and expectations that come down the pike, but I'm nearing my limit. I still truly enjoy my work there and in spite of the myriad of other obstacles we face, not having a space to call my own is a bitter pill to swallow. The job market doesn't give me the luxury to be picky, so I may have no choice but to keep fighting the good fight.


I just keep wondering how patient we have to be before the powers that be realize how far backwards we are backsliding. We already have more content than we can possibly fit into an hour of instruction for each grade level, so get very creative. We already have an major lack of resources from which to draw from, yet we persevere. We already have faced as disturbing turnover rate in years past. However, our current team is longest any previous teachers have stayed in our department. Myself and the other teachers have literally built our program from scratch in spite of everything.


Report card season is a particularly brutal time. It is a race against time to input the large volume of grades and individualized comments required (for all 57 of my students) each semester. I have worked just as hard at other jobs before teaching, but this profession drains me mentally and physically in ways I never expected. Don't get me wrong, I love it. Just need to occasionally vent. Every great job will inevitably carry unpleasant aspects that we don't look forward to, but we are all entitled to blow off steam as needed.


Patience, flexibility, and perseverance are the skills I will most definitely take away from this school when my time to move on arrives. When that will be, only time will tell. Until then, I will keep on keeping on.