The art of teaching

I'm going to go another route and not be so general but talk about an activity I think about all the time except in the summertime...my job.

I am a teacher.  I love the interactions I have with the students - seeing them learn, hearing about their dreams, having students come back and tell about their pursuits and really trying to get them to think about their futures in general.  I enjoy my extracurricular activities as an academic coach.  I enjoyed (and even miss a tiny bit) coaching athletics as well.  It's the getting to know your students and athletes that made the day go by so much smoother.  Summer breaks don't hurt either....

The amount of work is tough though.  I really struggle with how much to put into my teaching.  I probably put as much work in 190 days of work as a regular worker does in a whole year.  I struggle with lessons I teach - too boring one day, too much talking another, not enough assessing of a student's knowledge with the next lesson or some other issue (like the once a year Holocaust lesson that numbs and depresses me to no end).  Grading work is painful and is my least favorite part of this job.  I don't get it back to my students soon enough. This is my 6th year on the job and I still feel like a newbie or maybe I'm just a perfectionist (which I would never recommend as a teacher...then you would never leave for home which I did as a 1st year teacher - regular time at home was 10 pm my first year - I was a mess).

There are 19 days of school left...the light is at the end of the tunnel and it's all downhill from here.