Teaching is a Love/Hate Relationship

Teaching is a love/hate relationship. Teaching is a passionate love/hate relationship. Let’s talk about it.

Teaching is a Relationship

Why? Teachers are absolutely passionate about their careers, their gift, and most importantly their students. After all, once a student enters a teacher’s room, that teacher holds claim to them. Forever. They will always be “my student.”  This passion is one characteristic that makes teachers so great! So caring!
So effective. But the balance of life means that teachers have deep LOVE and HATE in the Teaching Relationship.

Let’s break down the relationships of teaching starting with What we LOVE about Teaching.

What we LOVE about Teaching

1. The children- We love the little people in our classrooms. We love their smiles, their laughs, and their messes. Yes, even their messes, especially their messes when they are making a spectacular work of art or creating a special project. We love seeing their haircuts, like the ones they have to get because they cut a chunk of their own hair and the ones that make them look like young ladies and young gentlemen. We love seeing them looking their best on picture day and we love comforting them when they are looking their worst when they are sick.
2. Their eyes when that idea “clicks” in their heads. These moments are exactly why we became teachers. They are full of blood, sweat, and sometimes tears of pride when we see the students achieving their goals. After countless hours of lesson plans, curriculum breakdowns, and activity preparation most will never see, these moments are the reason we cut lamination until 1 am to make a game and search Pinterest for a great new activity. Once that “ah-ha” moment happens, the celebration commences. You have never seen a Wild Thing’s Wild Rumpus until you have lived through an eye-opening, light bulb moment in a Kindergarten classroom. We cheer, we dance, we clap, we CELEBRATE because these are the EXACT moments we {students and teachers} work so hard for.
3. Recess… yes we really love recess. No, we don’t like it because it is a “break” from our students because we are still teaching and in control during recess. We are watching. We are learning who likes to play with who, what they are playing, and how the students are problem-solving the situations as they occur. The students are getting a well-deserved break from hearing my voice, but they are always in my sight. Playing is HARD WORK for students. And every teacher knows the truth is told on the playground. We learn exactly who isn’t a good friend, who is actually shy or outgoing, and who doesn’t know how to pump their legs on the swings. And yes, teachers have shoe-tying lessons, swing-pumping demos, and reviews of the actual, real rules for playing tag and where the “base” actually is!
4. Playing to learn and playing with them to learn. Teachers KNOW students need play time to learn. We spend our own money on hands-on, engaging materials so they can play to learn. Those road-themed carpets are actually maps in disguise and who doesn’t tie in learning positional words while they are racing around? I really love to color or work on a puzzle with my students to dedicate my time and attention to them. I listen to them, ask them open-ended questions, and get to know them more. Playing to learn isn’t just a little kid’s skill set either. BIG kids need BIG time play too.
5. Seeing their progress. Kindergarten is this magical year of exploration, discovery, and huge educational growth. They learn number sense. THEY LEARN TO READ. They learn to write so others can understand. They learn how to stand in line, wait their turn, listen to their teacher, and most importantly they learn how to be a good friend. I take a picture of each of my students in August and then another picture in May. I love seeing how much they physically grow and how special that is! And we know their educational gains are huge as well. Each school year holds its own magic and wonder. And teach teacher loves to see the progress of each student for their grade level.
6. Seeing “life” through the eyes of a child. It is fun to read a book. But it is MAGICAL to read a book through the eyes of a child. Limericks of a song seem easy for adults but try to listen to a child sing a song from the radio and hear how many misspoken words they sing. And try not to laugh while they are doing it. Christmas is fun. But Christmas times 22 students is pure joy. Birthdays, national holidays, fun holidays, and even made-up days are more enjoyable for a child to share the experience with. Teachers never know the words that will come out of their students’ mouths… but man it is amusing.

Truthfully there are also things teachers HATE.

The things we love make our professions worth it, but we just can’t love everything about the job because teaching is a love/hate relationship.

1. Meetings. There is always a meeting. There is usually a meeting to discuss the meeting. Then there is an email to discuss the meeting to discuss the meeting. And the meetings always run over.
2. Paperwork. The amount of documentation and justification to teach is ridiculous. We spend a huge chunk of time proving we are doing our jobs and documenting when, how, and why we are doing our jobs that sometimes, guess what we don’t have time to do? Our jobs. Teachers bring home a HUGE pile of papers every day. Once their own kids are in bed, they open their bags and keep working. And most of our paperwork sits in a binder on a shelf or in a virtual folder on a virtual site in the hope that “if it is needed or asked about, we can grab it.” We hate it.
3. The things teachers don’t control but have to be responsible for. Teachers don’t choose their class size, rosters, standards, or assessment tools. We don’t like those long standardized tests either. We don’t like 15-minute recess when we know they need at least 30 minutes. We don’t like cutting back on their school lunch calories when we should be providing them with physical education daily to burn those extra calories in a healthy way. And truthfully, we don’t like writing students up for their behaviors. But these are all things we don’t choose but have to abide by regardless. And guess what we also hate… HOMEWORK.
4. The gross stuff. We think lice are gross. But we will read s student the book Bugs in My Hair to help explain why their head is so itchy. We don’t like snot pickers and sleeve wipers. But we will teach you to use a tissue and wash your hands. Taking care of a student with a stomach bug or bloody nose is not what we enjoy doing, but it is part of taking care of a student. We help a child aim for the trashcan and hold their hair. We tie those mysteriously wet shoelaces while praying it is just from the playground and not from their mouths or the bathroom floor. We pull those super loose teeth and lend them a special tooth fairy pillow or book to make their night better.
5. The money we spend on everything that isn’t provided. When you walk into a new classroom, a teacher gets a teacher desk, tables or student desks, student chairs, a few shelves, and maybe a filing cabinet. Every decoration, book, resource, game, math manipulative, pocket chart, or other material is 99% of the time purchased by the actual classroom teacher. Every science experiment, special art project, and more is funded by… you know it… the teacher. Many times we don’t have funds left over for our own families because we spend so much on our own classrooms.
6. The stories of our students. Every teacher has a student they think about each night. Many pray for their students daily. I simply do not know any teacher who has NOT gone to the store to buy socks, underwear, clothing, jackets, Christmas presents, AND food for a student in their classroom at some point. I know teachers who pay for students’ field trips and school lunches as needed. Why? We know what no one else needs to know about these students’ lives. We know we can do without something so that students can have something they need. And we know that sometimes we don’t KNOW so we always listen, we always watch, we always protect. 

Does the LOVE outweigh the HATE in the teaching relationship? Most days YES. Absolutely.

Does the HATE outweigh the LOVE in the teaching relationship? Some days YES. Absolutely.

But the bad days remind us how good the good days are. And when we see THAT student smile, THAT light bulb moment, THAT need met for that student, THAT laughter. We know without a doubt why teaching is the best profession on Earth for us. Teachers… what is on your love/hate list?