Welcome to the Teachers Need Teachers podcast, where we help new and beginning teachers
navigate through those crazy first years of teaching so you can maintain your sanity and
personal life. Here's your host, him Lapree. Welcome to the Teachers Need
Teachers Podcast, the podcast for teachers who don't want to just survive teaching but
actually thrive. Today, I'm discussing what's led me to this point where I
kind of want to quit, to be honest, and pretty much the only
thing that I feel like I can do about it at this point. You
know that I am trying to save teachers from quitting and that it's really a
passion and a mission of mine. But I'm at the point where I want
to quit, and it's something that has crept up on me because I didn't
want to quit until probably like this last semester. But I'm really at a
breaking point and I'm losing my damn mind. I'm not even kidding, like
I feel like I'm losing my mind. So up until this point, I've
actually been generally happy with teaching, even during the pandemic. I know that
a lot of teachers were suffering during the pandemic, and they hated teaching online,
and I can imagine that if you had to teach kindergarteners and this was
like their first time going to official school and you had to do it online,
I can imagine how upsetting and traumatic that can be. And if you
had to teach students who didn't even participate ever when you were teaching online,
I can see why you hated teaching during the pandemic. But for me,
I was able to get my students so at least participate in the chat,
and even though they didn't show their cameras, they still were there with me.
And even when we came back to school, I was just so excited
to see these kids and I felt like I got back into my groove.
And I was still really happy when we came back. And I know that
again some teachers they were faced with less than ideal conditions and they weren't happy.
But I was able to maintain my life for teaching and all of that
when we came back, and things are fine until this past semester, and
I'm still trying to put my finger on it, but things just really started
to get to me. So it got to the point where I would overreact
to little things. I would definitely overreact to emails. We did have a
lot of shuffling with our administration, and so we had a lot of different
assistant principles in the past couple of years. So there was definitely that instability
in my school, and that was something that just really started to get to
me. I'm also someone who's really sensitive to tone in emails and things like
that, and I just really felt like my administration did not have a hold
on what was going on, and they didn't have control of what was happening
in the school, and so that kind of created this sense of chaos,
not just among the teachers, but definitely with the students, and it really
was just getting to me. Now. I am someone who worked really really
hard to not get upset about things that are out of my control, but
it just started to creep in and it started to get under my skin,
and I just became really overreactive and just not a really good person in general.
I mean, we're talking about sending passive, aggressive emails and being really
snarky and just jumping on little things that people were saying, and I don't
know, just being the person that I don't like, being the kind of
teacher that I don't like and don't appreciate. I have become that person.
I'm not gonna lie like I don't like how I am right now. I
don't even know if I'd want to be my own colleague or my own student
at this point, and I dread coming to school. I used to love
going to my school. I love my school, I love teaching, and
I love my students, but just all of these things have just really started
to get to me, and I don't want to teach anymore. I just
I really don't now. Another aspect of school that also would probably want to
make you quit too, is that the kids are different right now now.
I saw this coming before the pandemic, that the kids were starting to just
act up more than they had in the past, but definitely when we came
back from being in lockdown. Now, for me, I'm still connecting with
my students and they are participating and you know, doing their best. But
I see how the other students are in my school, the other students,
and these students they don't care about authority. Have you had this happen at
your school too, Like they don't care that a teacher is walking down the
hallway, and you know that doesn't make them stock from doing whatever Shenanigan said
they're doing. They just really don't care. At my school, they're trashing
the bathrooms, like not just vandalizing them, but just doing some really nasty
stuff. And I don't know if this is happening at your school, but
the kids at my school they just have no respect for it. They don't
care, and there are any consequences either, so why should they care?
And I know that the parents, you know, we can blame the parents
for this, but I know that for a lot of them, the parents
also don't know what to do about them. It's not like you can just
tell the parents you need to discipline your child more a lot of them have
tried just tell them that they need to beat the crap out of their kid
to get them into shape, because that's not necessarily going to solve the problem.
There's something up with these kids, and it's something that no one is
really solved yet, and so we as teachers and the custodians and the administrators,
we have to deal with this for the duration of a school day,
and there's just no consequences for it, because no matter what you do,
it doesn't matter. And another aspect that makes a lot of us want to
quit is that, you know, the teachers are different too. We're not
the same. Teachers have been burnt out ever since we came back from the
pandemic. Like, yeah, there's always teacher burnout, but it's been really
bad. I hear and read about it all the time. That's one of
the many reasons why teachers are leaving in droves from the profession and why people
aren't really going into teacher preparation programs to become teachers because they're hearing about how
horrible it is. I know that a lot of teachers miss how it used
to be before the pandemic, and so they have the sense of nostalgia,
and so they're comparing the students pre pandemic to the student's post pandemic, and
it's kind of a disconnect there because these kids aren't the same. We have
to remember that the kids are different because of what happened to them. They
were robbed of two years of their childhood. They didn't learn good coping strategies,
and they were shown unhelpful and probably destructive coping strategies, and they've brought
that to school. And the thing is is that if we continue to teach
the way that we've always taught and then we're met with these students, it's
just not connecting how we taught and how they react. It's just not connecting
anymore. And so now we're resenting the kids. It's like a lot of
times we were wondering, why do we even want to be here? If
the kids are going to be this way, If they're going to talk back,
if they're going to get up and walk across the room and talk back
to us when we tell them to sit down, if they're going to go
to the bathroom and vape in the bathroom and trash the bathroom, like why
should we care? Right? And so this is leading to yet another reason
why a lot of us want to quit is that the kids don't even see
the point of trying. They don't see the point of even being at school.
So remember during that year and a half to two years, depending on
what it was like in your state, the kids didn't have any structure,
and a lot of them were just able to do whatever they wanted to do.
I know of quite a few students who would just sign into their class
and then go make themselves a sandwich, and they totally told me about that
too. They admitted that. So the kids had this lack of structure and
then they had to go back to school and go back to all of that
structure, and they were like, I hate this, And that's one of
the reasons why the kids are acting up because they don't want to have to
put up with school students also don't see the point of what we're teaching them.
Before they would just go to school and learn science in English and math
because that's what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to go to school and
learn these things and then, like you know, eventually go to college.
But now the kids are like, I don't see the point of this.
I think this is dumb, and they're very vocal about it. And they
also think that authority is dumb and irrelevant because they know that nothing really bad
is going to happen to them. When you think about it, let's say
that we give them detention. They might skipped attention or they'll go and who
cares. But let's say that they skipped attention. Then what they skipped attention,
and then maybe they get a referral and have to talk to these sistand
principle who just might send them back to class with a lollipop. Let's say
that is escalated to something like a suspension. Now they get to stay at
home. That's kind of a reward for them. What's the worst that's going
to happen to them? Maybe their parents take away their fallen or they get
hassled by their parents, but that's it. They see no consequences for their
behavior. A lot of these kids are at this emotional state, They're at
this tipping point where they just don't see the point in anything. They don't
see the point in trying. So how are we supposed to control them when
they just don't care? And this makes me wonder what is the point?
What is the point of getting an education? And I know that this is
like, of course, Kim, you're supposed to be educated because then you
can be, you know, a good citizen and contribute to society and go
to college. But these kids don't care about that, even the ones who
are about to graduate, they don't care about contributing to society. They see
how stupid adults act, They see how we are when it comes to politics,
and how there's also a lot of times no consequences for adults doing things
that they're not supposed to do, So why should they care. And we
have to stop assuming that they all want to go to college or that college
is even the best solution for them to have a bright future. Think about
it. Look at what's happening with millennials. They have college educations, and
the way that the world is right now, most of them can't even buy
a house. So what our students are seeing, for this gen Z generation
is seeing is that they don't have to go to college and take on this
debt, and a lot of times the people that they know with a college
degree aren't even working in jobs that have anything to do with that degree,
so it was a waste of time and a waste of money. At least
that's what they see. Which gen Z wants to do, is they want
the easy way. They want to become entrepreneurs, which right now there's so
much information online that they probably could do that successfully, or just want to
become influencers and exploit themselves and show up all of their private lives on the
internet. So we have students with this mentality and we expect compliance from them,
and you Guys, you and I both know this. We're not getting
that and it's really really frustrating. So what's the solution. I know when
you're saying just quit teaching, Okay, yeah, I said it. You
could quit teaching. The alternative is to do something different that isn't quitting.
So the last two times that I felt this way in terms of being frustrated
with teaching and ready to quit, I did two pretty drastic things. The
first time, I was teaching band and I decided to switch over to English
because I wanted something different. I was so fed up with the way that
it was in terms of teaching band and having to always fight for students because
I was just an elective, I wasn't getting full classes, so I switched
over to English. The second time that I got really frustrated and I started
to become this mean, snarky, sarcastic teacher who is just always mad at
the world. I switch schools. Now here's the thing. I don't want
to switch schools. I love my school right now. I love where I'm
at. I love a lot of the people there. I'm not going to
lie and say that I love everyone there, but I love a lot of
the people there, not necessarily you know all of my administration, but I
love most of the people there. But doing those two things for you,
guys, if you can you wrap your brains around it, and it sounds
like a good idea, Switching schools and switching subjects would be amazing options for
you. Another thing that I could do is change the way that I teach.
So I used to just do a lot of lecturing and students filling out
worksheets and students taking notes. I don't do it that way as much anymore,
although I do still do some lecture, but the lectures aren't as long.
But now I'm wondering, maybe I need to change things up. I
know that a lot of other teachers that are having problems with students staying focused
and with students participating and not causing trouble, they're going to need to change
up the way that they teach because what they were doing before, or the
way that they've always done is not working. That's not holding the attention and
interests of these students, and that's why they're acting up. And it doesn't
mean that you have to become like an entertainer. It doesn't mean that you
have to do a dog and pony show. But what it does mean is
that you have to teach with the intent of not just delivering information but also
being engaging. But I'm also wondering about how and what I teach. I'm
really considering that I need to rethink that I've always done the same stories and
the same lessons and the same projects and all of that for quite some time,
and I'm wondering if that's effective anymore. And I'm wondering if that's also
part of the reason why I just don't love teaching as much as I used
to, because I'm just kind of going on automatic and I'm just kind of
going on autopilot. I've been really considering about teaching writing in a way that
is useful for the students that will prepare them for the futures. So this
does mean teaching them how to be content creators. Someday they might have blogs
or YouTube channels, and just teaching them how to communicate better and most likely
they're going to be using AI, so also teaching them how to use something
like chat GPT in a productive way, not so that they can cheat,
but so that they can also be better communicators. Considering what the future is
going to be like for them. I'm not saying that it's not valid to
do something like teach them poetry or analyzing reading and passages and grammar and things
like that, framing in a way that will make it meaningful to them,
and not just you're learning this because you're supposed to understand this, not just
teaching them the Pythagorean theorem because that's what everyone has always done, but showing
them why it's useful to them, because now they're wondering what's the point of
all of this, And it's kind of up to us at this point.
If we really want compliance, if we really want them to participate and engage
and not be troublemakers, we have to show them the point of all of
the snow we do. We have to rethink education in a big way because
the kids are different, and they're going to be different. Until the kids
that started in kindergarten during the pandemic have graduated through that's a long time.
Are you going to be able to survive that long if you keep teaching the
way that you've always done, or if you're teaching the way that you were
taught? So am I going to quit. No, I want to,
but I'm not going to quit. I'm just going to reconsider what I'm doing
next year. I'm spending the rest of this time rethinking how I'm going to
approach teaching next year. I'm going to keep my head down. I'm just
going to ignore everyone, Ignore all the emails, stop reading into them.
I'm going to stop replying with snarky responses just so I can have my say
and have the last word. I'm done with that. I'm done with the
negativity because it doesn't matter, doesn't change anything, and it definitely doesn't make
me feel better. So that's my plan for right now, is just to
power through through the end of this year and have my reset over the summer.
So I don't know if you guys have experience varience what I described in
today's episode, but if you have, just know I'm here for you.
And if you are thinking about quitting, be sure to check out the two
episodes that I mentioned, the one that's Ten Uncomfortable Truths about quitting teaching and
also five alternatives to quitting teaching, and I'll link those in the show notes
so that you can check those out. Thanks for hanging out with me.
Today you guys, and I will see you next time. Thanks for listening
to the Teachers Need Teachers podcast. Love this episode, head over to Apple
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