"When we learn how to teach, we must also consider what it will feel like to teach."
Chapter 1
Guiding readers to understand that our teaching jobs may not be what we anticipate when we start teaching, chapter 1 shares how teachers feel soon after they begin teaching when they feel the pains from teaching and the hurt from teaching. This chapter offers information about “The Great Teacher Escape,” what policy makers are doing to try and combat this problem, and that the real problem is a need for teacher emotional support. This chapter teaches what is meant by the concept of “Both/And” in relationship to teaching, and why teachers need to understand themselves on an intrapersonal level to help them navigate the emotional pains of teaching.
Questions:
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When you think back to your first year of teaching, what did that first year feel like for you? What day of the week was most difficult and why? What month in that school year was most difficult and why?
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When you think about yourself as a both/and teacher, what words describe your version of both/and? Why?
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If you could help school leaders better support teachers’ emotional strength, what would be your top three suggestions for these leaders? What do you think teachers would gain from this support?
Resources:
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Teacher Burnout Statistics: Why Teachers Quit in 2024 »
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No More Teachers: The Epic Crisis Facing Education In 2024 »
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Quotes:
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“Teachers entering the profession—and those already in the profession—are wholly unprepared for the emotional provocations and stresses that are frequently presented to them one after another from multiple places.”
“It is not so much that school districts have a staffing problem. What they have is a teacher emotional support problem.”
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“While learning to teach, the focus is on the physical components of the job, and because there are so many of these, it leaves little time for teachers to learn how teaching will impact them emotionally and what they can do about it.”
