I know what many of you teachers–both former and current–are thinking. You don’t miss–or would not miss–anything about teaching.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t miss getting up at 5:30 every day and getting to work so early. I don’t miss lesson plans (well, I really didn’t mind them once I learned how to do them), grading papers, useless in-service sessions (yes, I said it for you, teachers–most were not that beneficial, right?), and dealing with discipline issues. I’m glad I can take my time in the mornings.
But when 9:00 arrives, I am ready to do something productive. And I think about my days in education.
It will soon be seven years since I was forced to retire because of vision loss. I didn’t intend to retire at that age. I was in my most fun year of teaching I’d had my entire career. I had one class of French 2, two classes of French 1, two theater arts classes, and one study hall. My classes were no more than 20 students.
I was also the Drama Club sponsor. Give that assignment to the gal who was in plays in high school and even a play entirely in Spanish in college who always wished she had the time to participate in community theater, and you’ve made one gal very happy.
I loved the flexibility of teaching theater arts. Yes, there were standards, but they were very broad. So my class looked like this: Mondays: instruction and activities from a chapter in the book; Tuesdays–Tech Tuesdays when we went to the lab and researched things related to theater and performing or created something connected to what we were learning; Writing Wednesdays: the students were in groups and each Wednesday worked on a writing project. They had to write a short play the first semester, which they performed at the end of the semester, and they had to write a short movie the second semester which they recorded, and I played them for the class: Throwback Thursdays: review and quiz or test day; Fun Fridays–anything from improv to acting games to whatever.
Yes, an artsy theater teacher’s dream job.
But I had many other great years. I know some people cringe at the thought of teaching high school, but I loved high school students. Well, I did after the first couple of horrible years during which I had to learn what I was doing (I apologize to those students for my lack of experience). And, yes, occasionally there was that student who was disrespectful or hated me or hated my class or whatever, but the vast majority of students were well-behaved, respectful, and fun to teach.
It often makes my day to encounter a former student and catch up on what’s going on in their lives. I loved it when I stood in the hall during class changes and students spoke to me as they walked past or even stopped to chat. The words, “Hey, Mrs. Harris!” were always music to my ears. And it is gratifying to see how many have gone on to become successful, productive adults who are now seeing to my needs in the medical field and other areas.
So what do I miss about teaching? Planning lessons (see, I changed my mind from the beginning of this post) is one, although I did get tired of teaching the same thing year after year when I was teaching just Spanish or just French. I like variety. Working with other teachers and enjoying conversations with them is another.
But #1 is the students. They kept me busy, kept me laughing, sometimes kept me tutoring or even counseling, and kept me busy focusing on someone else rather than myself.
No, I don’t want to go back to the classroom, even if I could. I’m too old now to relate to them, and the truth is, I’d be so much older than most of my co-workers, I wouldn’t have a lot in common with them.
But I cherish the memories of the good times in education while conveniently forgetting the more difficult ones. So, to my former students, thank you for your part in enriching my life.And if you see me at Walmart or anywhere and I don’t see you, please say “Hey, Mrs. Harris!” It’s still music to my ears.
Life As I know it 