If you feel overwhelmed as a teacher, I think I know the reason. Teaching isn’t one job. It’s three jobs. At least. And no one is good at or enjoys all three. In fact, one of those three jobs is probably draining the life from you.
The Three Jobs
Here are the three jobs within teaching that I came up with:
- Planning lessons.
- Interacting with students.
- Organizing.
Now, I’d bet that one of those jobs popped out as your favorite thing about teaching. It’s the reason you get up in the morning. It’s what keeps you going as the school year drags into months six and seven. It brings you joy.
Then, I’d imagine that one of the jobs makes you recoil in terror. That job sucks away your energy. You might feel like you’re never quite doing it right.
And one job is perhaps so-so. Or maybe you enjoy two of the three. But I don’t think anyone loves them all or is naturally good at them all.
The Pattern I’ve Noticed
I’ve spoken to quite a few teachers about this three-job breakdown. And, except for a tiny handful of folks, every teacher picks “interacting with students” as their joy. It makes sense! Most teachers go into teaching because, well, they like working with students.
But I also noticed that almost nobody picks planning lessons as their favorite thing.
Many people see “organizing” as something they don’t really like, but they have learned to deal with it. And, of course, some people live for organizing.
Ok. I Guess I’m An Oddball.
This pattern was a complete surprise to me because, well, I’m the exact opposite!
Interacting with people sucks the life out of me. Designing lessons brings me joy! Now, it’s not that I dislike children. I love being around kids. But, like, once a week. The constant, daily interactions left me dried out like a husk. It’s honestly why I had to leave teaching. I’m just too introverted to run a classroom.
But I adore designing lessons. I loved it even back as a student teacher. (When I was a student teacher, the real teachers would pay me to write differentiated math units for them! No joke! I don’t think I realized how unusual this was at the time.) An interest in pedagogy was the reason I went into teaching.
Focus On What You’re Good At
Our instinct is to try to improve the thing that we’re worst at. But, that’s the road to burnout! If you spend your energy working on something that you aren’t naturally good at (and also have no interest in), you are not going to be a happy person. No amount of grit or growth mindset will make you enjoy something that just doesn’t fit with your personality and preferences.
So, if you’re great at interacting with students, then keep getting better at interacting with students! And just copy as much as you can from someone who is really good at the thing you’re worst at. Don’t try to reinvent any wheels. Leverage your friends who are good at what you don’t like doing.
My colleagues Mrs. Joo and Ms. Chan were fantastic at interacting with students. They’d get invited to former students’ high-school graduations, birthday parties, and even weddings. They’d have middle schoolers appear in summer and help them set up their classrooms. So I learned to just copy these teachers. I’d mimic how they greeted their students and how they enthusiastically listened to a kid ranting about a favorite video game.
I’m not a natural organizer, but I reached “good enough” status by observing the most-organized teachers on campus. I copied their systems. I attended an event put on by Rick Morris. I implemented his class cards system. Boom. My organization was a solid 6 out of 10 and I never really needed to spend any more effort on it.
My energy is better spent on what I’m good at and enjoy doing.
The Problem
Now, folks who enjoy designing lessons make the same mistake. They want to tell people how to design lessons. I used to do this. I’d give talks detailing things like the difference between inductive and deductive thinking. Conferences are packed with these kinds of abstract talks.
But that’s like going to a restaurant where the chef comes out and (rather than bringing fully-cooked food) explains to the customers how to make each dish. Yeah, that’s not what I need when I go to a restaurant. I just want the food, man!
Teachers who don’t really like writing lessons do not need an explanation about how to write lessons! They need fully-cooked, ready-to-use lessons.
So that’s what I do now. I try to write lots and lots of lessons that teachers can just use. I don’t give talks or lead workshops. You’ll find the most fully-cooked versions of those lessons at Byrdseed.TV.