Elementary School Teacher

What I wish I knew 26 years ago when I started this. I wish I knew that it was okay to not know everything. I wish I knew that it was okay that I had a bad day. I wish that I knew that I didn't have to work till seven o'clock every night. That I was going to be okay and my students were going to be okay if I did not work until midnight. You cannot do everything. You have to stop. You have to take care of yourself because if you don't take care of yourself, there's no way you're going to be a good teacher because you're going to stress yourself out. You're going to not be at your best and you're going to feel bad and you're going to be sick even more. It's okay to stop and take care of yourself and be a little selfish sometimes.

What I wish I had known was how strongly opinionated most people are about education. I had no idea that because everybody's had experiences with schools that they think that they know what we do. I went to a meeting a couple years ago where they were discussing a possible split of my district and there was a man going on and on about Title I funds. At that point, I had taught in Title I schools for more than 20 years. So I said to the man, hey, what do you do for a living? And he said, I work at FedEx. So I was like, I've worked at Title I. This is how it works. And he said, no, that's not how the Title I funding works. And it was just fascinating how he was lecturing this whole room of people, including me, how Title I funds work. And he had no idea. And that kind of stuff is common.

I wish I knew how tired I would be. I did not know how tired teachers can feel, not only at the end of the day, but there's no tired, like teacher tired, the first month of school, and then during May and June at the end. It's exhausting getting ready, but even more so wrapping the school year up. I just had no idea. Also, I wish I knew how stressful this job could be. Trying to meet all of the demands of administrators and parents and these sweet little kids, it's more than just coming and teaching kids. There's a lot of paperwork. There's a lot of meetings. It can become a very stressful environment very quickly. So I just have to make sure that I am balancing my time and my energy correctly so that I don't experience burnout because it's very real and very easy, very quickly.

Number one, I wish I had known how much paperwork was involved. That was not apparent to me. Secondly, parents, the student's parents, they come in with all of their own histories. Everybody has their own history, their own baggage, and I don't say that in a bad way. Just understand that when a family or a child comes in, there's a whole history there that you are not aware of. So take that with a grain of salt. And then the third thing I wish I had known was how important self-care was. You have to be willing to be flexible and take care of yourself physically, emotionally, mentally.

This is something I wish I knew my first year of teaching. Every year I strive to make the next year easier. So I was like, hey, I'm going to laminate this poster. I'm going to do this and I'm going to save it for next year. So next year I'm just going to pull it all out and it's going to be super easy peasy and I'm going to go on autopilot. And that never happened because every year I get a new group of kiddos with different needs and I have to meet them right where they're at or we get a new curriculum or our team changes and we have a new team member and our workload increases to be able to help that member out until they get on their feet and are able to kind of take on some tasks of their own on our team. So once I just accepted that this job is never ending, it's exhausting, but I get to set boundaries around where I choose to my time and energy. It became so much easier.

Something I wish I had known sooner as an elementary school teacher is to not spend too much time going above and beyond. Keeping things simple and not overdoing it, focusing on your mental health and your mental sanity as far as balancing your home life and your school life. Do not work over contract hour times and what I mean is if you're allowed to go home at 3.15, go home at 3.15. Do not stay longer to make things extra flashy or do extra things that you didn't have time to do during the normal teaching day. They'll still be there the next day.

I'm so thankful that I started teaching in the early 2000s because Pinterest didn't exist and social media and I wish I knew then and I'm thinking of new teachers that all the exterior stuff and your bulletin boards and that kind of stuff, they don't make you an amazing teacher. Do what you need to in your classroom to make it feel warm and cozy and your home away from home so you enjoy wanting to be there. Don't do it for anyone else because when you feel comfortable and you love coming to work every day, the kids are going to feel that energy and they're going to match that energy and they're going to want to be magnets towards you. So I wish I knew that when my first couple years I was spending time on these bulletin boards and also stressing out about new curriculum and this and that. So decorate for you and make it your space and lighting is super duper important.

I think the biggest thing I wish I knew before entering the teaching profession is how little time I spend teaching and how much time I spend classroom management. More than anything, especially with the younger grades, you are their mom. So your job is to help them to turn into wonderful, excellent, amazing little humans who are kind and good people and make good choices. The ABCs and 123s often have to go on the back burner. So I think I spend so much time with organization and management and discipline that sometimes teaching isn't my number one job. And I wish I had known that beforehand.