The Size of a Cow

*Disclaimer before I get into trouble with people I work with, this is not about anyone or any work place in specific!*

Got that? Good lets continue.

Just to remind you, not about anyone or any place.

OK?

Ace.

The reason why I need to make sure is because I want to tackle a fairly controversial thing. I have no answers nor do I claim to have this sorted myself. However here goes.

Teachers have a habit of making their issues seem more than they are - building up our problems to the size of a cow, if you will.

Now we teachers are in a curious position, everyone (in most cases) has been to school so think they have an idea what we do and how we should do it. Especially politicians it would seem. We seem to get little sympathy from outsiders owing to our holiday durations it is only when people see the work we do first hand and the students we often have to deal with that they begin to understand the size of the task before us.

I am not though going to complain that the world doesn't understand us. In fact I am not going to complain at all. I am sick of complaints.

Instead I am going to challenge teachers to stop complaining as well.

I have done my usual case of writing and rewriting the next paragraph over and over and I don't have the words to explain why.

The way I see it separating you from the teacher is impossible. It is a vocation and every day we get a little more emotionally involved in our job. However if we focus on the negative and allow that emotion to purely be negative then the job will eat us, I know I have been there.

However if you can shift your focus to the positive, to face each challenge in a positive way then the job gets that little bit more enjoyable and easier.

It is hard, but nothing worth doing is ever easy and yes there will be days where you feel back to square one but we can’t quit. We can’t allow ourselves to be beaten by it.

We may have issues and problems that are the size of a cow and it make me standing on our foot. However we are better than this, we are stronger and more able than we give ourselves credit for.

Personally my way of looking at this is that I know what a good lesson is and how to deliver it. I know how to track my student’s progress and improve it. Everything else in my job is window dressing and likely to change.

The basics, like all core principles however stay the same.

Is that not what we should focus on?

(Yes I realise my blog wandered all over the place, don't complain about it though!)