Frustration

I can not describe how frustrated I have been feeling with the teaching profession this year. I feel myself shutting down these last couple of weeks. I no longer feel any desire to look at the news or go on facebook, for fear of seeing somebody else who has no idea how the field of education works say something stupid about education.

In addition to the frustration with society, I am feeling frustrated with school. We've added about six new (HUGE) initiatives and changes this year, and it seems like the administration just expects us to automatically be able to make these changes with no extra support, time... I've been working 14+ hours daily, plus several hours on the weekends, and still not catching up with everything I'm supposed to do. Grad class certainly isn't helping, of course, but I think I would be overwhelmed this year even without it.

I am seriously starting to wonder if I might want to change professions at some point in time. This thought terrifies me, because I never really wanted to do anything besides teaching. Despite this, I feel how constantly tense and stressed out I am during the school year, how I can never truly relax because there is always more work I need to be doing, and I wonder if it's worth it. Maybe it would be nice to have a job where all the work I'm doing is actually considered work. (Since the 8 hours a day I am teaching does not give me nearly enough time to do all the grading, planning, interventions, phone calls, etc. that I am supposed to do, but somehow, according to society, that's the only time I'm actually working). I am quite sure that there are jobs out there where I would be paid more than I am currently making for less stress.

This idea makes me really sad, though. I do truly like teaching. I like connecting with kids. I like explaining something and having the students get it. I like the opportunity to come up with new and creative lesson plans. I like it when students come back and visit me after they're no longer my students because I made an impact on them. I like every day is different, and every lesson is different - even if it's a lesson I've taught before. So yes, I like teaching. I just don't like what it's becoming.