As students we don't know what happens once we leave school and now we do...
A little risky business…
“After the kids go home I take my shoes off and run down the halls and slide in my socks.” Source
War
“In my last school, war between the teaching staff and the administration. Both loathed one another. The teachers saw it as desperately trying to do their job despite constant interference. The administration saw it as the teachers being resistant to change.” Source
Supporting the students
“The amount of time I spend on weekends texting/emailing with my grade level team about how to reach special needs students, how to anticipate any potential issues kids might have, who is having a rough week, which kids are celebrating something over the weekend, and which kids we need to keep an eye out for is astounding. As a team, we joke around a lot while at work, but we really do spend a lot of our non-work time focused on making sure our students are supported.” Source
Going the extra mile
“That kid that always acts up in class, who’s always in and out of trouble with the principal and the school’s resident cop(s), comes in late every day and doesn’t seem to care about his education? He almost cried when he found out he might not graduate. His home life is less than stellar, and he’s terrified of being just another statistic. He might spend hours one on one with a few of the teachers he trusts, trying to learn how to do the assignments that come easy to others or that require technology he doesn’t understand or have access to at home. When his peers were done with their work, his teachers stayed late with him over and over again, to give him the teaching that he missed, and they bent over backwards to make sure that he had the opportunity to learn what he needed, so he could graduate and make a better life for himself in the future.” Source
After hour tears
“We cry a lot more than we let on.” Source
Endless meetings
“Meetings. Lots and lots of meetings. In my district, we have meetings scheduled for 2x/week – Learning Team, PBIS, Staff meetings, district Professional Development, etc…. There is no time to have regular grade level meetings, so we have to have those on our own time. There are meetings that are after school, after we stop being paid for the day as well. And the meetings that happen during the day! IEP meetings, 504 meetings…… having to meet with the principal because a parent is unhappy with you… meeting with your evaluator to go over your Educator Effectiveness portfolio and observations…. So many of these could just be in an email and be done with it to give us more time to actually prep for the day, or to get meaningful work done before/after school.” Source
Party animals
“I talk about my students to their other teachers every day… What’s going on, what I’ve overheard, what their demeanour was, things I think we need to watch out for… And they do the same. We talk about your kids to make sure we’re all on the same page with who that child is and what they need to be successful… Sometimes to outsiders it sounds like gossip, but that’s not why we’re doing it… I couldn’t care less that so and so’s parents are getting a divorce, but as a teaching team we need to share it with each other because we care about how this is going to affect the student and what we can do to support them
After school, a lot of teachers are some of the raunchiest, heavy drinking good time party people you can imagine… We have to be ‘on’ and perfect around kids all day so when we blow off steam all that pent up stuff just comes spilling out lol” Source
Drinking buddies
“We drink together on the weekends. A LOT. We judge each other, and ourselves, as woefully inadequate. We have work best buds and work crushes. Most of us are married. Reputations follow us around longer than our students. (Such and such is a hard worker but gives in to parents too easily. Did you hear so and so had a DUI a few years back?) Special educators are seen as not teachers (I’m a special educator). We feel isolated often.” Source
Deadlines aren’t just for students…
“We turn our work in late, too.” Source
The heartbreak
“You know what? It’s paperwork. Lots and lots of ridiculous paperwork. And worrying. And feeling like a failure. And wishing you could change things that are impossible to change. And wondering if you’re doing enough. And knowing that you’re not. And deciding which part of your job you’re going to choose not to do so you can eventually go home and spend time with your family/TV/dog/whatever. I think it’s the heartbreak and the grind that most people don’t really see.” Source
Trash talk
“We either politely, or unashamedly trash talk students depending on who they are, and what teachers are in the room talking about them. We mainly do it the same kind of way that doctors have gallows humor, if we didn’t we might snap a lot sooner than people think. Teachers are strung out pretty bad.” Source
The Social Hierarchy
“Currently student teaching at a middle school to get my MAT and the teachers act exactly like middle schoolers. They gossip, have their own drama, and there’s a ranking of ‘popular’ teachers and ‘unpopular’ teachers. There’s also a split at my school of teachers with families and kids and teachers who are recently divorced. They stay in their own groups so new moms can talk about their baby’s progress and the divorcees can talk about their crazy weekends. These divorced women don’t play! Several of them juggle a few guys at a time and have a few ‘benched’ guys. I find both groups entertaining. But as for what they talk about, you better believe they talk about students! That embarrassing thing that happened in class? Everyone knows. Hilariously wrong test answer? It’s been passed around. It’s all in good fun though. Nothing too terrible is said about you. We mostly just judge your parents for raising you that way.” Source
Cliques aren’t just for students…
“Behind closed doors teachers behave pretty much the same as students. They form cliques: there is bullying and pranking; b*tching and moaning about the principal and other authority figures; there are crushes, kisses and sometimes even successful relationships. Best I can figure out from my 10 years teaching is that a lot of people become teachers because they did reasonably well at school themselves, but not so much in the ‘proper’ grown up world of work.” Source