School Boost Online

Teaching is not a cookie cutter bake sale; it’s an EXTREME sport with blood, sweat, tears, and headaches.  I’ve said before that I do not work in a quiet, cushy office. 

My job is perceived through rose-colored glasses by society as this idyllic, Mary Poppins scenario where I flutter in wearing a summer dress, blocky heels, and a clean apron, hands clasped together with a smile at my sweet little darlings as they come into the classroom.

(Cute. Hilarious, even.)

Now for the reality:  they bang on the door, barge in, pelt you with endless questions, run circles around your head, and laugh at each other (and at you) – all before the bell rings. 

My hair starts off neat and ends up a bird’s nest by 4.  I never sit down.  I laugh, cry, facepalm, take deep yoga breaths – I’ve even been known to break out in a yoga tree pose right in the middle of class when the kids are just being too extra.

(FYI: my tree pose is balancing on one foot with the other leg crossed over due to my shoes, hands clasped in prayer, eyes closed.  If only I were joking.)

Kids have started to breathe with me, which makes me laugh.

As a teacher, I judge myself very harshly because this is such an important job.  In fact, it’s more than a job – it’s an identity.  The way you are perceived and judged by others changes immediately once people find out you’re a teacher.  I’d never forgive myself if I ever found out I’d led a child the wrong way or discouraged someone. 

As part of the package, though, it’s so easy to fall into the trap of thinking you need to be perfect all the time.  

When I first started my career as a teacher, I had a really hard time wrapping my head around lesson plans, Common Core, and the legion of expectations and responsibilities that were suddenly on my shoulders.  I often felt like I was not qualified at all and even suffered from imposter syndrome – no matter how many times people had come to me for proofreading during my ENTIRE school career (including elementary), how many perfect scores I earned during my Residency, or even the fact that I won a poetry contest once, I still had this nagging doubt.  My own mind would torment me – there’s no way you’re good enough.  YOU?  Teaching students?  Are you sure you know enough?

There are days where there is really no way to know if your efforts are in vain or actually helping.  There are even days where you feel like an utter flop.  Then your students do something or say something that makes you realize that you have made an impact, and your resolve is renewed again.  Kids have a funny way of draining your soul and filling it all at once.  That’s how it happens for me in the classroom, anyway. 

Even when my students age me 10 years in 10 seconds, I still love them and want to make sure they have their best chance at success.  If you’re reading this as a teacher, parent, or guardian, you’re doing the best you can for your kids, and that’s amazing.

If you never hear this, you’re doing a GREAT job, and your kids pick up more than you know – they see you being present and doing your best, and it DOES make an impact.  

A study conducted by the National PTA (Parent-Teacher Association) determined that “the most accurate predictors of student achievement in school are not family income or social status, but the extent to which the family creates a home environment that encourages learning, communicates high yet reasonable expectations for the child’s achievement, and becomes involved in the child’s education at school.”

I can say that this easily translates to the classroom: even if you don’t have the highest standardized test scores in the state or the most perfectly detailed lesson plans that hit all the research and theory buzzwords, you can still cultivate an atmosphere of excellence within your classroom and hold your students accountable to that norm. The best way to do this, in my experience, is to lead by example and with love.

The short version is: if you care, so will they.  Just be real with your students, even if that means letting them see you’re imperfect (they actually respect that more).

If you know and love your kids, then you are the best person for the job of teaching them. 

I’ll share a secret with you – nobody has all the information on every single academic subject perfectly and readily available in their heads.   There are plenty of times I have to go back into my books and research to find an answer, too.

Booker T. Washington once said that it’s not about having everything memorized; it’s much more valuable to know where to find information when you need it.

“Education is not what a person is able to hold in his head, so much as it is what a person is able to find. I believe it was Daniel Webster who said that the truly educated man was not the one who had all knowledge in his head, but the one who knew where to look for information upon any subject upon which at any time he might want information.”

– Booker T. Washington, “Two Sides of Life”

One thing I’ve learned is that you’re never perfectly ready to enter the classroom – just jumping in and learning as you go is the best way to start filling those shoes.

Now go be awesome. ❤

-Natalie Wilkinson, 8th grade teacher

Works Cited:
National PTA. 2000. Building Successful Partnerships: A Guide for Developing Parent and Family Involvement Programs. Bloomington, Indiana: National Education Service, 11–12.

Washington, Booker T. Character Building Being Addresses Delivered on Sunday Evenings to the Students of Tuskegee Institute. Project Gutenberg, 13 Oct. 2019, http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60484. Accessed 27 July 2022.