My bio on our institution's website even starts off this way: "I love to teach! ..." I figure I might as well let people know right from the get-go. I believe I'm called to this work, and that I've been equipped for it, and as a vocation teaching gives me deep joy.
Don't get me wrong...there are definitely joys and concerns. There are very real challenges in this profession. And the demands and expectations always seem to be growing, year-by-year. But overall, the joys outweigh the concerns, for me at least.
Sometimes I need a reminder about this though. I have my moments when the work starts to pile up, and the meetings start adding up, and the stack of things to read starts towering...and the distraction of this gets to me.
And then, somehow, I always seem to get a moment of encouragement, a word from a student, an affirmation from a colleague, something that reminds me, "I get to do this!"
I had one of those moments recently. I was up to my eyebrows in the thick of planning and grading and keeping up with email, and--honestly--losing some of the joy that I typically feel in my work.
I took a Twitter break.
In my notifications? A tweet I was tagged in: "You know @d_mulder, so it should have been obvious."
Clearly a response to someone else's tweet, so I clicked through to see the original that prompted the response. That tweet? "WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME BEING A TEACHER IS SO FUN?"
I think my heart grew three sizes, just from reading this exchange.
These tweeters are two of my former students--both professional educators now. And I'm confident that they are both excellent teachers in their own right, and finding the joy in their own classrooms.
But this was a moment that just reminded me of what I'm doing, and why I'm doing it. And if some of the future teachers I have the privilege to serve begin to catch a vision for just how much joy there can be from serving students? Well, I can't ask for more than that!
When I reach the day that I can not agree with your note, I need to find a different job. God has us doing this job for a reason. Some days are brutal, but all it takes is that one moment, most of the time unexpected and out of the blue, and I am reminded why God put me where I am.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that, my friend!
DeleteOur conversations this year have shifted from 'I have to...' to 'I get to...' What a powerful difference switching that one word makes. With that in mind, I get to teach this year. I am so enjoying it (and so are my students).
ReplyDeleteYES! "I get to..." is so powerful! And I think the students really do notice.
DeleteYou know they really should put a like, or love button on Blogger :)
ReplyDelete