Why Did I Start This Blog?

 

    When I was younger, I was told two things about my future career:

    1: You're so caring; you should be a hairdresser.

    2: You're so organized; you should be a teacher.

    For some reasons that are between my therapist and me, I chose to be a teacher over a hairdresser. At a VERY young age, I started my journey as a teacher. I played school with my dolls and the neighborhood kids. My mom bought me a date stamp, like the ones the librarians used. For hours on end, I pretended to be a teacher.

    When I was in high school, seniors had to complete a project (creatively dubbed, "Senior Project"). I shadowed my old 1st grade teacher. I got my real first taste of what it would be like as a teacher. The desks, paper, pencils, posters, crayons, crafts, bulletin boards, different colored chalk, and themed days all spoke to my heart. I even took a Child Development course my senior year instead of a fourth year of science.

    I went to West Virginia University, attending a 5-year program to get my Bachelor's and Master's in Elementary Education. I slayed that program, graduating with Magna Cum Laude.

    I was that bright-eyed, rose-colored, woman with a dual certificate, thinking, "I'm going to change the lives of little kids."

    For 12 years, I taught in classrooms from Ohio, to the Bronx, and finally to Manhattan. I taught sweet little 1st graders and kindergarten how to read, add, subtract, and write sentences. I cared for those "problem children", becoming the teacher that always had them in her classroom. (Honestly, I loved those kids that no one wanted to teach. I ran a strict environment that they thrived in and they improved, receiving constant praise from other teachers.)

    However, around year 7, the wool was pulled from my eyes. Admin constantly changed the expectations and looked for "gotcha" moments. Parents perceived me as a glorified babysitter who wasn't doing enough to get their child on grade level. (NEWS FLASH: it's the work ethic that is established at home that helps a child succeed in school 😉)

    I'll never forget this one time my principal popped in while I was teaching phonics (FUNdations for my teachers). I was showing the kiddos how to blend the letters of a small word (mop) using your fingers. The phonic program uses the first three fingers for each letter and then you combine the fingers to read the word wholly. Well...apparently instead of just pinching the fingers closed, you're supposed to swipe your thumb around to blend the sounds. So, my principal watched, I'm not kidding, 2 minutes of my lesson and left me a post-it that said, "You're supposed to swipe your thumb to blend."

    I'll let that sink in... Nothing about whether the kids were reading the word correctly. Nothing about engagement. Just a correction on something so arbitrary. I started looking for classrooms beyond the classroom that day after crying in the bathroom.

    Jump forward 5 more years and COVID hit, changing and exposing the cracks in the education system that sent me into an existential tailspin. NO ONE took the good stuff from traditional teaching and virtual, combining them into a better system. Parents' appreciation for teachers during lockdown immediately reverted back to blame and disregard.

    I did what EVERY OTHER person in a profession would do, I quit, like most teachers are doing these days. Man, though, the shame, the guilt, the happiness, the ability to go to the bathroom whenever I wanted was insane.

    It was very tough but very rewarding. I thought about those "problem children" that would be lost in the system because I wasn't teaching anymore. I felt like all the accolades I had earned while teaching meant nothing. I couldn't find a job outside of the classroom. Not enough skill here. No higher education experience. No business knowledge. I did become a much better mother to my own kids and was able to start my mental health journey.

    So, I decided to become an author. Here we are.

    I'm going to use my expertise to shed light on the educational system: the good, the bad, and the ugly. With shared stories from former and current teachers, behind-the-scenes of the classroom, a day in the life of a teacher, and other posts, I hope to help parents, former students, and society see that being a teacher is so much more than the summers off and playing with kids all day.