Ten things that I miss about teaching, and ten things that I don't

And the organisation of thoughts

She must know that you NEVER smile before Christmas, right? Photo by ThisisEngineering on Unsplash

I like making lists.

Lists help me carve up the broad strokes about a topic that is playing on my mind. Plus, when I write things down in this format, some points can act as cues, where thoughts piggy-back onto one another.

It’s been nearly one year since I said goodbye to my full-time teaching job, and I finally feel as though some of the feelings that I had about the profession, and about my own career are almost untangled.

Since leaving the role, I have been doing some supply/substitute teaching and while this has afforded me with some flexibility during the working week, it has also helped remind me about some of the joys of being in the classroom. An added benefit is that supply teaching also removes some of the other aspects that I found less joyful e.g., meetings, and mountains of admin. But then I recently surprised myself by feeling a little excited when I saw a full-time temporary teaching role at a nearby school.

I wasn’t sure what this feeling of excitement meant. Was I ready to return to the classroom? Did it mean that I wanted to be a teacher again?

So, to help organise my thoughts, I made two lists.

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What I miss about teaching

1. Being in the classroom with students, and the accompanying buzz when a lesson goes well

2. Connection with students and colleagues

3. Steady salary and benefits

4. Teaching my subject

5. Evidence-based research that supports teaching and learning

6. Routine

7. The camaraderie that comes with working in a good team

8. The satisfaction that can come from ‘making a difference’

9. Some professional development

10. That I was a good teacher

What I don’t miss about teaching

1. Pointless meetings

2. Multiple systems that don’t often ‘talk to one another’ e.g., registers, software for data collection

3. Pointless and irrelevant emails (and ones that start with ‘A gentle/friendly reminder…’)

4. Routine and lack of flexibility in the working day/week

5. Behaviour management strategies that don’t support you or the students, or the absence of clear behaviour management policies to begin with

6. When teaching and learning strategies are implemented that do not make any sense/lack evidence e.g., learning styles (visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic) need to go and die!

7. The apathy and disengagement that is felt when working in a ‘stressed/time-poor/colleagues who don’t care’ team

8. Feeling exhausted by the end of the working day/week, and still feeling exhausted during the weekend/holidays

9. Colleagues referring to ‘hump days’ and ‘TGIF’ - it was like they were wishing their lives away

10. ‘Nepotism’ among senior management

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My original lists kept on going! But for brevity, I decided to cap it at ten for each. And eagle-eyed readers may have spotted that I did not include the holidays. There was a good reason for this.

Yes, the holidays that teachers receive are great. But the holidays afforded to teachers feel politically loaded. I have had some friends and even family members berate me, as if I speak for the profession and the (UK) government about the generous holidays that come with teaching. It has sometimes felt as though it is a personal affront to them - why do you deserve that number of days/weeks ‘off’ a year compared to other professions?

I am not going to go into detail about this subject here, but what I will say is that many teachers do some work during the holidays. Plus, many teachers around the world don’t get paid during the longer breaks like the summer - this was the case for one international school that I worked in.

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There is bound to be a lot of nuance missed from making lists such as this, as certain points may carry more weight than others. Nevertheless, it was a helpful exercise.

Does anyone else do this to help organise your thoughts? I’d love to hear what you think, or do when making some decisions in the comments.

Ps - I did submit an application for the temporary teaching role. I’ll keep you posted on what comes from this.

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