Experience of being a high school teacher?

[my worst enemy]

Im planning to study to become a high school teacher this fall in Sweden. Im thinking social science, history, religion etc.

Are you or have you been studying this? Have you worked as a teacher for students aged 14-17? Let me know. Where was it and what's your take on this occupation?

Sober posts please, i know the kids are gonna be a pain in the ass some days, no need to remind me. But so are the colleagues right?

 

[my worst enemy]

Im gonna have to bump this in hope that there are some teachers on this forum.

 

[aanallein]

I've been teaching high school math for 5 years now and really enjoy it. Helping kids understand difficult concepts and watching them grow as individuals is an awesome experience. I had many jobs before teaching and couldn't help but feel the dread of going to work each day. I don't feel that as a teacher. I get up and am excited to go in and help my students learn and we have a great time together.

There's been those occasional students that are very difficult but the easiest way to approach it is to simply understand that they aren't mad at you. They are mad about other things going on in their life and the only way they know how to deal with that is to vent at the closest and most accessible target and that just happens to be their teachers.

I've had so many awesome experiences as a teacher but one of the best was a student I was having a tough time with last year. I had begun to dread having to deal with him on a day to day basis and one day I had to send him to the assistant principal to talk to him about his behavior. I talked to the assistant principal later and she had had a real heart to heart with him and had asked him why he was getting sent out of my class and that he knows that if he's getting sent by me then something is really going on because I never send kids out. He broke down and told her his entire story and why he was feeling the need to challenge male authority at school.

I resolved to forgive that student when I heard that story and to not let our conflict that day color our relationship going forward. I really dwelled on it that afternoon and then the next morning I was walking around the corner at 7:30 in the morning and who do I run into? That student. I gave him a big hello and asked him how he was doing and our eyes met and I don't know how to explain it but our eyes met and we both knew. He knew that I had forgiven him and that I wasn't going to hold the day before against him and I wanted the best for him. And in that moment I saw him take a deep breath and then I saw forgiveness for me sort of pass over his face.

I don't know how to express that moment but it was powerful because I learned how important forgiveness is and how big a role a teacher has in a student's life when they look up to you as I know that student does to me.

This year he has another math teacher but he has an A in all his classes. I saw him in the hall as he was on his way to the academic rally for students with a 3.5 or better GPA and its the first time he's ever been invited. I told him how proud I was of him and it really made my day to see how proud he was of himself too.

It's stuff like that.. those moments and connections with other people that have really made this job a wonderful experience for me and I wouldn't trade anything for it.

 

[my worst enemy]

Thanks Aanallein. That was really inspirational stuff. Appreciate you sharing.

Are you teaching something besides math? For how long did you have to study and how did you find the studies? Im a bit worried cus here in sweden you have to study for at least 4 years and learn 3 different subjects. And i have never studied at college before, Ive been doin drugs. And lots of it. But Im motivated and my friends say I would make a great teacher, so Im gonna give it a shot. A big shot.

 

[aanallein]

I did 4 years undergrad for my Bacchelors and then 3 years post graduate work while simultaneously teaching. College wasn't that difficult usually. There were a few classes that were a little tough but nothing major. The school I went to for Highschool prepared me really well though. The key was self discipline and just sticking to it. Working while in college also helped me stay focused and not goof off too much.

 

[Alex007]

I had begun to dread having to deal with him on a day to day basis and one day I had to send him to the assistant principal to talk to him about his behavior. I talked to the assistant principal later and she had had a real heart to heart with him and had asked him why he was getting sent out of my class and that he knows that if he's getting sent by me then something is really going on because I never send kids out. He broke down and told her his entire story and why he was feeling the need to challenge male authority at school.

Why didn't YOU make the effort to engage in that heart to heart discussion with the student in order to better understand him, instead of sending him to the principal's office for the principal to deal with it. This is the primary problem with our teachers these days, they want the student to learn and understand what they're teaching but they don't want to learn to understand the student.

 

[my worst enemy]

^^ Dude, look at the whole picture. Its obvious he made the decision to send him out based on good grounds, although there is no need for details.

..he knows that if he's getting sent by me then something is really going on because I never send kids out.

 

[ugly]

I taught high school English for five years in a little suburb of L.A. The layoffs started about then, and I found a job teaching in Compton, where I was able to teach English 9-12 grades for a year. They laid off the new people first, obviously so I was really over a barrel when pink slips showed up in Compton.

Enemy, the kids will adjust to you quickly. Especially if you remember that they are struggling between grade school and adulthood. I love being in a classroom full of kids having a big discussion. I love reading their journals and getting to know the students personally. That goes a long way to help you "sell" your lesson plans every day.

Enemy, it was not the students that bothered me, as much as the teachers who would sit in the teacher lounge and say hateful things about their students. I teach in California so there must be a lot of differences between teachers. But I was horrified the first time I heard teachers talking about what a bunch of little shitheads their students were. And after lunch go in and teach those "shitheads" like the teacher didn't secretly wish the kids would all fall dead on the floor.

I sincerely hope it is not like that for you.

Now, my very first class is home from college and from the war, everything. They call me, FB me, take to meet their families, come over and have dinner with my husband and I. Our year in the classroom together bonded us.

Meanwhile I do not have any teacher friends and if one of the THOSE come over to my house I grab my keys and say I was just leaving. Teachers are by and large impatient, hateful, spiteful and the worst gossips ever.

American Education system. #fail

 

[aanallein]

Why didn't YOU make the effort to engage in that heart to heart discussion with the student in order to better understand him, instead of sending him to the principal's office for the principal to deal with it. This is the primary problem with our teachers these days, they want the student to learn and understand what they're teaching but they don't want to learn to understand the student.

I actually had made the effort, thanks. I go way out of my way to learn to understand my students and the students love me for that. I get told daily how I'm different than all their other teachers because I actually care about them.

But it's easier to make an assumption about a person without reading the entire post. Did you bother to read the part where even the AP was shocked because I never send kids out? Sometimes you still have to send them out. Ultimately there are 34 other students in the room and their education is valuable and protected by the law. Were I NOT to send a student out who is interfering with others' ability to learn, then I'd be legally in trouble.

 

[aanallein]

Teachers are by and large impatient, hateful, spiteful and the worst gossips ever.

American Education system. #fail

I think maybe their spitefulness might have rubbed off on you and you might have just run into a bad group.

We're both seeing education from opposite ends of the spectrum but at the school I work at teachers are a pretty solid group. There are occasions when they get into bitch mode and start talking about this or that and I do it from time to time as well (particularly at the long stretches without break - like now). But you would find that at practically EVERY job. Expecting it to be different for teachers simply because they work with young people isn't realistic.

You have to understand that the job wears on you like any other. The way I feel about the passage of time with the students has evolved over time and the years compile and stresses in outside life compound on that.

Granted there are those that I can't stand - the one's who simply assign work, don't take their duties seriously, and are huge lazy piles of crap. But outside of those few, you get the ones who are obviously overworked, maybe not the most adept or savy at the craft, or whatever.. but not everybody is going to be dream-teacher. If you want that to happen you've gotta redesign the system from the ground up. You repeat layoff people, force them through stupid internship/teaching programs where they have to do a ton of repetitive Bloom's taxonomy discussions and then underpay them and give them too many students and you're not going to see the brightest and best going into education..

But even given all of that I'd still say that most of the teachers I've met (like 80+ % ) are courteous, respectful, and do a decent to good job teaching the material they are supposed to teach and their effort is appreciated by their students.