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Teachers

 


Once upon a time I was going to become a teacher. I did all the training and earned a teaching certificate, but other than some stints as a substitute teacher, I did not use it. I had a hard time getting a full-time job, and by the time my certificate had expired, I had moved on to other things.

Every teacher has undergone the transition from student to teacher. I did my student teaching at Highland High School in Pocatello Idaho. All in all, not a bad school to be doing your student teaching. I remember that I was not much older than the kids I was teaching, but to them, it was like I was from another planet. I was an adult. I was “Mister Branchfield.” I had never heard myself referred to as that. I had to stop myself from laughing the first few times I heard it. It’s like somebody was joking, only they weren’t joking. I was going to be forever Mr. Branchfield from that point on.

Teachers remember what it was like to be sitting in the students’ shoes, but I doubt students ever try to put themselves in their teacher’s shoes. This makes for an uneven gulf.  But I think it is important for teachers to remember being a student, otherwise they would just treat the students like robots.

As a student teacher, I had students that were a joy to teach but other students that made my life hell. Maybe they saw it as their duty to give the teacher a hard time. And being a student teacher, I was an easy mark. My master teacher (the real teacher) gave me some suggestions and we worked through it. But I have to tell you, there were days when I found myself in the restroom with horrible stomach pain, and I thought, this must be what getting an ulcer feels like. I was never diagnosed with an ulcer, but the stress was real. Even though I had some good ideas and some great lesson plans, I don’t think I was ever really cut out to be a teacher.

Which is why I have enormous respect for the people who are cut out to be teachers. Teachers not only have to be educated in the subject they are teaching. They have to be creative in planning lessons. They have to have improvisational skills. They have to be able to read the emotional state of their students, that includes knowing what’s going on in popular teen or preteen culture. They have to be able to maintain control of their classes. They have to recognize crises and act appropriately. They have to deal with whatever restrictions and requirements that have been dumped on them by politicians. And they have to deal with parents.

It takes a special person to be a teacher.

Star Liner

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