Teaching is… not the plan.

My dream job, to support myself as a novelist, is copy editor. Getting the job you want, though, is impossible if you don’t network. I don’t network. I don’t do it. So I’m an English teacher. At least I’m proving myself in an organizational setting—that has to count for something on the resume—and pushing my expertise forward in a new way. You’ve probably heard this famous quote from John C. Maxwell: “You never really know something until you teach it to someone else.” Or this one from Albert Einstein: “If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.” Teaching English has forced me to fill in every last gap in my thinking about foundational elements like parts of speech, clauses, and sentence variety. I understood these things, but it takes an even deeper understanding to explain them to 6th graders. That deeper understanding is useful as a writer and editor as well.

Teaching is… complicated.

You have to communicate with multiple groups of students, parents, coworkers, and supervisors. You have to prepare lesson plans, make assignments (my favorite part), and grade assignments (my least favorite part). You have to learn and follow handbooks of laws and procedures. It is one of the most complicated jobs in a society. The new teacher hump is really. I got over it faster than most by pulling very long hours (that’s a big part of why I disappeared), but I still have a lot to learn.

Teaching is… emotional.

It’s amazing when you see a concept click for a student, and hard when you’ve poured your heart into a lesson and all anyone wants is to get out of your class. I’ve had students tell me that I’m their favorite teacher, and I’ve had them tell me that English is their least favorite class. And then there are the moments when you can speak into a student’s life beyond the subject matter, and you know you’ve made a difference.
 
Check out last week's post for more about what's been going on over the last six months.