Missed Blog: Why Teach?

        

       Teachers are underpaid. Teachers have to bring their work home with them. Teachers deal with large groups of young children all day, every day. Teachers often need to buy their own supplies for their classroom. Teachers are often overworked. These are all reasons why  being a teacher can be hard at times.

        I’m a teacher at a daycare center.  I make minimum wage and work 40+ hours a week. I spend my entire day with children under the age of 3. I always end up buying things like markers, glue, construction paper, and sometimes even baby wipes and diapers when my boss doesn’t buy them for us. It’s stressful and really hard sometimes. But through my experience I’ve realized some amazing things about being a teacher, that outweigh all those negative things, and make it all worth it.

1. Children are hilarious. They do and say funny things all the time. There have been times when I’m just so stressed and overworked and burnt out that I just want to walk out, come home, and cry. But then, one of my kids will say something funny or do something silly and I’ll smile and regain my perspective.

2. Children care. When they see other kids get boo-boos, then come over and hug the child.  They always give us hugs. There have been times when I’ve had a rough day, and one of my kids will come over and sit on my lap, play with hair, and say ‘Miss Jenna, you’re my favorite teacher!”. It’s like they can tell how we feel, and it makes you feel so much better when things like that happen.

3. Parents do appreciate us. The parents of our kids send us Christmas card picture of their kids and stick little thank you notes in their child's lunch boxes for us when we do something extra for them. The days of the hurricane a few weeks ago, we stayed open while all the public school closed, and we even stayed open an hour later than usual, for parents who got stuck in traffic and couldn’t get there by 530. The next day, one of the mom’s came in with Dunkin Donuts gift cards for all of us. She said “After your long day yesterday, I figured you could all use some coffee.” 

4. People say laughter is the best medicine. I laugh all day at work. Whether it’s my kids or my co-workers, we’re always cracking up. Either the kids do or say something that makes us laugh, or we’re all just so overtired and overworked that we start doing and saying sill things ourselves. Either way, we’re always laughing and having fun.

5. It’s the most rewarding job in the world. Teaching can be a hard job, but it’s with out a doubt the most rewarding career I could imagine. When you struggle to teach a child something for a while, and then they finally understand it, and you can see it click with them, and you know it’s because of you, it’s the best feeling in the world.