Thinking of quitting teaching?

So I'm finally on summer break, hooray! If you've only just finished for the summer too, I'd like to give you a virtual high five for making it through to the end of term! (If you're reading this any other time, high five for getting through another day!)

At the start of the holidays I often find myself reflecting on the year just finished. So here are my musings with a bit of an inspirational pick me up if you feel like you have had enough and need talking off the ledge!

This was quite a challenging year for me, as I and many of my colleagues, are really starting to feel the strain of further budget cuts in the state system: less staff, larger class sizes and smaller budgets = *insert frazzled emoji here*. More and more is becoming expected of teachers as money gets squeezed even tighter, and don't get me started on extremely limited SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) support for students who are really desperate for it. It's so sad watching the school system fall apart and it's really hard to work in it too.

So, what do we do? Change schools? Stick it out? Change careers? Wait and hope it gets better? Go private? 
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It's tempting to throw in the towel and give it all up sometimes, but often we need to just have a little rest to recover and remember why we got into this profession in the first place. Teaching is not for everyone, but if you've made it past the 5 year mark, chances are you are good at what you do and love it (even if circumstances make it really hard sometimes). And if you've not met that mark yet, it might be worth sticking it out a little longer: circumstances might not always get easier, but you get so much better at managing them! So, if deep down you know you want to stick it out and continue working on the front line with the kids, then this might help you. 

We need to remember that there is no strength without struggle. It's the struggles you go through that make you strong and enable you to cope with the challenges that teaching, and life, will inevitably throw at you.

There are so many examples of this found in nature, and here are some of my favourites:

It's clear from these that struggle, pain and time are what it takes to bring out the amazingness within you. Sure, we'd all rather go through our jobs and lives with no adversities or struggles, but it is only when you look back you realise that those tough times are what made you strong, skilled, resourceful and resilient. They hurt while you're going through them, but you NEED them in order to make you strong. If you help break open a butterfly's cocoon, it will never develop the strength it needs to be able to fly. The struggle is necessary and we need to learn to love it!

Whatever you are going through, know that as horrible as it might be, you need the struggle to build up the strength to bring out the best in you.
Here's a little story. My first school was so challenging, that behaviour management had to be my priority above actual teaching when I first started! After all, it's only once you have control of the class that you can actually teach them. Behaviour management isn't something they really train you well in at University; you need to learn it on the job and it can be HARD, especially in "rough" schools like the one I worked in. I'd be willing to bet this is one of the things that puts most new teachers off within the first few years of their career. But if you just keep going, keep struggling and keep learning, you will become that butterfly, that diamond, that beautiful lotus. Looking back on my career, those horrid, horrid experiences I had to struggle through have made behaviour management pretty much a breeze for me now - so much so, people actually come to me for advice!? I would never had dreamed I would come this far, but I'm so glad I kept going all those years - it really makes me ponder what else is ahead for me if I continue to push through my current struggles too...! 

As teachers, we need to try and find ways to be resourceful to get the job done right (now more than ever with all these budget cuts!). It's easy to make excuses and say "I can't do this without x, y or z", but Tony Robbins puts it excellently: "It's not resources, but resourcefulness that ultimately makes the difference". Let's take this challenge as an opportunity to make the most of what we have already got: not for the government or even for the school (for they can both be quick to take advantage), but for the students because they deserve the best education from us.

Some ideas for developing resourcefulness are as simple as finding new strategies. For example, check out my ideas on how to manage marking workload, the ultimate to do list method for teachers or how to organise your classroom with £1 products! You never know, you might find a system that saves you time and sanity and can then help teachers all over the world!

Finally, I recommend displaying positive quotes like these - put them in the staffroom, in the toilets, in your office, on your planner, in your classroom - everywhere! Rotate them up frequently to make sure you keep noticing them. You could also use spend time relaxing with these positive quote colouring pages too! Remember why you want this, why you continue to do this and what this struggle is going to develop within you! 

I've gone through a lot of struggles in my teaching career so far: from difficult students, difficult parents, colleague conflicts, paperwork overload, being micro-managed, difficult bosses, managing other staff, job interviews, curriculum changes, inspections and so on! But even though it's hard, I continue to overcome them and each one has developed something profound within me. So, if you're finding teaching hard and ever need a friendly chat or vent, my inbox is always open. Feel free to drop me an email at [email protected]: I'm always here to listen and help if you need someone!

Have you ever come close to quitting teaching? What makes you hold on another day longer? Drop me a note in the comments below!

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