The answer

Some time ago, I used this blog as a place to vent some bile about a nasty teaching experience. And within that post was the oft asked question, 'Why do you want to teach?'

This question has been raised and answered so often in the positive in the last few weeks.

I had my first ever Pracky (trans: Practicum teacher - student teacher, trainee teacher). And she was BRILLIANT. The kind of person who walked into the classroom with confidence, with enthusiasm, with drive to make the next hour of the students' lives engaging, rewarding and productive. Having a Pracky can be a bit draining, can be a bit disheartening. But this Pracky inspired me to reinvigorate my teaching, to reinvent the way I look at texts and learning.

Plus this has also been the season for letting go of the big kids - Year 12 have done their English papers and are beginning to pack up and leave The Boy Factory for good. Seeing the fellas that I have been teaching since they were in Year 10 finally get the idea of how to write an intro, finally let the penny drop about what anthropomorphism is (and how to spell it), and finally drop the facade and ask for help with drafting a practice response... Let's just say it is Rewarding.

I teach because I love it. I'm not in it for the big bucks (HA!), and I am not in it "for the power" as one of my not-so-wise students last year thought it might be. I don't do it for the 11 weeks of holidays (though I was told yesterday that part of our IR agreement takes into account the fact that only 4 of these is considered annual leave - the rest is meant for prep and time in lieu for all the out of hours marking/reporting etc). I don't do it for the cruisey hours - I've done 9-5 and it is far far cruisier.

I actually love building a relationship with my students. I like the fostering of mutual trust. I love the idea that I can trust them (I rarely lock my door, despite living on site with 400 teenage hoodlums) and I like that they can trust me enough to bring me their crises and their deeper questions.

I am going to try to remember to re-read this post the next time one of them hurls a choice four-letter word at me. Or the next time a parent accuses me of being incompetent or unapproachable. Or the next time some doofus (whose only experience of school is hating it when he/she went there) slags off the laziness or the fiscal demands of teachers. Or when I feel like I am drowning in the marking/report writing/prep, and am in serious need of a snorkel.

Hooray for loving my job!!!