Teaching is hard...because it matters.

Teaching is hard. This week has been incredibly hard. It wasn’t one identifiable thing, but the culmination of lots of little things. My job, as an instructional coach, is to work with teachers on reaching their goals, both individually as a teacher and as a part of their team. In essence, I am still a teacher, a teacher of teachers. Just as a classroom teacher, I do not claim to be an expert or have all the answers. I just do the best I can with what I know and have experienced, and hope that the teachers I work with do the best they can. 

This week, I sat down with a teacher who was struggling to figure out how to squeeze six days of curriculum into four days of instruction. Another teacher had the opposite problem, nine days to teach a unit and only six days of good materials. After observing a lesson, I helped a teacher set new goals for herself on instructional strategies she wanted to improve upon. I worked with a team developing new lessons because what they had wasn’t making sense or connecting to what they had just taught. I coached a teacher who was feeling helpless and nearly in tears trying to get a group of kids to grasp a difficult concept, not knowing what else to do to help them. I worked with teams who spent hours pouring over materials and plans for interventions. I spoke with a teacher brainstorming ideas for her kids to get more involved in the school community. I worked with a team leader creating an agenda for an upcoming meeting, ensuring they were making the best of their time to meet campus and team goals. Teaching is hard. Although all of those teachers had a different question and a different problem, they all had one thing in common. They all know that every decision matters, each solution and each answer matters. Everything we do, every interaction, every lesson, it all matters. 

This week was hard because it mattered. Amidst all the problems, there were solutions. We waded through the questions and found answers. Curriculum was laid out. Lessons were created. Strategies were practiced and implemented. Agendas and plans were written. This week mattered.

That’s why teaching is so rewarding. We know it matters but deep down we live for those lightbulb moments, the whispered “thank you”, the first passing test grade. Oh, how I miss those moments. My principal told me the hardest part of leaving the classroom is missing the kids. I vowed to spend as much time as possible in classrooms, and I do, but it’s still not enough. I want more of those moments, the small reminders that what I do each day matters. 

Today, I got my 'because it matters' moments. I put my to-do list aside and spent most of my day in classrooms. Offering suggestions to teachers was my main objective but I took advantage of the opportunity to steal 'because it matters' moments while I was there. I even helped a student after school who spotted me walking down the hall. I don’t even know her name, but I helped her one day while observing her teacher, and that interaction mattered. My title says instructional coach, but I’m still a teacher at heart. Today I explained multiplying binomials. I helped students sort through data using clues to solve a mystery. I taught simplifying radicals. I got lightbulb moments, I got the whispered "thank you", I celebrated a first passing test grade. Walking out of the building today, I received an email from a teacher just saying thank you for my help and support. Teaching is hard, because it matters.