What you don't know about teachers!

I don't talk about my job often, I don't talk about what I do for a living because it's so a part of my life that I feel it's obvious what I do. However I recently had a reality check as of yesterday that there are so many people who misunderstand what it is to be a teacher. They make their jokes about teachers having it easy because we get summers off and holidays all the time, but in reality they have no idea what we are doing with that time, or the impact that our jobs have on us. Just like I would never assume I know what it's like to be a doctor, construction worker, or police officer, I would hope that people don't assume they know what it's like to be a teacher. I had someone yesterday make a remark and while it was in a conversation that was light and I don't think directly meaning to offend it did offend me and it stuck with me for quite a while, and the more I sat and thought about it the more it made me really steamed. Now though I am over the steamy anger and more so realize it's for a lack of education on what being a teacher really is.

I don't defend myself to strangers because they have no business making assumptions about me and if they do then that's on them, but I do have a defense when it comes to my profession that I pour everything into. Though I may be part time, my job is anything but part time.

Things you don't know about me the teacher:

1. When I meet my students each for the first time I take the time to know the face, the name, the family, I take as much time as I can to get to know their hopes and dreams. 
2. A lot of my time while teaching is spent encouraging students who are discouraged in every aspect of their life and have no self esteem or think they have nothing to offer this world.
3. Every day when I come home from work, I have to pray and listen to the Lord's guidance for each student that I have interacted with for that day because I can sense the hurts and mistrust they have gone through but I am limited to what I can do, I have a few hours each week to get as much encouragement, guidance and direction poured into their lives that will hopefully carry them till the next time that I see them. 
4. When it comes to my curriculum it is never set in stone, as a teacher they don't give you a book with the lessons laid out and exactly how it should be taught, no that's my job to find the sources, the activities, the discussions to have and it's always changing because the world is always offering us new things to learn. 
5. When I am home on vacation, I am not always vacationing, I am reworking curriculum, I'm going over papers, tests, books, and seeing where do I have weakness showing and where are strengths showing. I am constantly trying to improve the path of education. 
6. I am not paid some gigantic salary, I'm not even a salaried teacher. A lot of times I purchase things for my lessons that come out of my pocket, and while yes I could find something else to do with students it wouldn't be as effective and it wouldn't be near as impacting. 
7. I wear many hats, I am not just a teacher, I'm and encourager, counselor, nurse, career adviser, college application counselor, sometimes even cook because some of our students are hungry and maybe didn't bring something to eat or have something to eat. Yes I know I am to educate these students however I also have to see that they aren't just students their humans with needs other than an education. 
8. No matter how hard my life may be at home, or what I may be going through I still have to get up put a smile on and go into work because I could very well be the only person they see today with a smile and a positive attitude. 
9. Many people who aren't teachers or who aren't close in the education field picture students sitting quietly at desks working, that's almost NEVER the case. We deal with kids who have come in with a bad night out, or bad family time, parents not hands on, parents who are hands on but are nothing but negative to their child, and parents who are so positive they refuse to see where there may be errors occurring or where their child may be struggling. 
10. I love my job and wouldn't trade what I do for anything in the world. Yes I deal with harsh realities that I may or may not have experienced in my life, I come face to face with the affects of drug addictions, teenage pregnancies, depression and anxiety, abusive homes, I see them and I see the product of them, but the best part is I also see the light, the glimmer of hope that these kids hold onto in hopes that their life will be different, that they have a chance at being something other than what society expects them to be. I get to help them find that hope when their sealed off in darkness. 

So my reply to you sir is, No I don't get paid to sit and do nothing, I may just be so good at my job that your observing someone who needs no effort, but let me tell you every night there's a battle in my heart and every morning I wake up with a new found strength to make this day worth it for these kids.