Showing posts with label jobs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jobs. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 10, 2020

Why I Quit Teaching/Going Back to Grad School Was The Biggest Mistake of My Life

  • It started with a dream...however the dream is not the reality. 
    • You can't teach what you want.
      • For example, sex education is scripted, and you can't veer from it despite sex education being one of the most important and applicable things you can learn in school.
    • Kids don't know how to make goals outside of what they've been taught (e.g. career, passing standardized tests, etc.).
    • They don't have metacognitive awareness to say what they want to learn because they've never been asked that question before. 
      • I wanted kids to know that learning is lifelong and not just a thing that exclusively happens in school. I wanted them to know that they can learn to do anything at any age like how I learned to ride a bike and swim as an adult. That was what I saw in my dream. However, when I posed this topic to kids in real life, all I got were blank stares.
  • Why I wanted to quit originally (Fall 2017-my first semester of grad school)
    • I hated what I saw in the classroom.
      • Kids' needs not being met
        • Students visibly upset because she couldn't copy what the teacher was writing fast enough
        • Fights between students
        • An extremely needy student who hung onto me
      • Inattentive teachers not trying to help you, a new teacher
        • Waiting for you to fail
        • Not wanting to develop relationships with you
        • Using you to watch her students during recess while she pumped milk
      • A teacher going off a student simply for refusing to put on his coat when the weather wasn't even severe
      • Worksheet after worksheet
        • One student wanted to break the teacher's printer to stop the worksheets.
      • Bored students
    • Grad school was boring.
        • All the "best practices" videos we watched were of well-behaved children
        • The elementary curriculum was so easy for me. I didn't understand why my classmates were so confused about everything.
        • I spent the majority of my first semester in class doodling.
  • Why I changed my mind (Spring 2018-second semester of grad school)
    • I finally opened up to my advisor and professors about my struggles and started making peer connections in the program.
    • As a result, I was paired with a great teacher with 40+ years experience. In addition, I had another student teacher with me. However, the placement was at a practically all-white school with richer students, meaning there were way less challenges. I wanted to work with more diverse students. 
  • What I learned in student teaching (Fall 2018)
    • You have to scare kids into submission, and I was not respected by students.
    • While the students were challenging, I had amazing coworkers. They were super supportive and friendly. 
    • You can watch the video below for more information.

Thursday, April 27, 2017

5 Signs It's Time To Leave Your Job


  1. You're stressed out over something you're not passionate about.
  2. You're tired of doing the same thing over and over again.
  3. You don't want to get out of bed and go to work.
  4. You start disagreeing with your bosses.
  5. You've done all you can with the company.