First Year Sacrifices

Once upon a time, a first year teacher had grand ideas that she would be able to keep a daily journal of all things teaching, and then she would reflect and share her learnings through a personal blog. Oh, how she was wrong! 

One of the first lessons in teaching is to know your priorities. As a first year with four different classes to prep for, I quickly learned that I didn't have time for daily reflection, through writing anyway.

As a newbie, my first priority was my students. Now, I know there are veteran teachers out there who may be throwing their hands up and screaming, "No!" quickly followed by things such as family or personal health. I'd heard that before. My principal actually said to put family first at new teacher training. My cooperating teacher during my final semester told me that I can't teach if I'm not healthy: physically, emotionally, and mentally. At the time, I nodded my head in agreement with these amazing people who were only trying to help me, but I wasn't truly listening.

Make time for important people! My goddaughters loved this play area!

You see, I've always been a stubborn person. Being obstinate often means that I require to learn several of life's lessons the hard way. The order of my priorities and sacrifices during the first year of teaching was something many, many great people (who I respected) tried to warn me about, but it didn't sink in. I was determined that everything that affected my students was my #1 priority. It's not as simple as it sounds.

Looking back on my blog, I made two posts during the school year. One in September and one in October. Not bad, if I'd been able to consistently post once a month. But I didn't. You might ask, "Why? Surely writing a blog once a month doesn't take too much time." You're right, the blog post doesn't take a lot of time, but I sacrificed a lot of my life that first year. Sometimes it was an okay activity to give up, some I gave up and realized that I needed, and some I fully regret.

I did keep a reflection journal on teaching, and eventually it also grew to be a source of how teaching affects my personal life, both the good and the bad. Unfortunately, it was not a daily journal. Or even weekly. I wrote when I felt like I had the time. Occasionally I wrote late at night, I wrote on the basketball and track buses, I wrote from my couch on the weekend. Not once did I write while in my classroom. 




For me, my classroom quickly became the place for organizing and preparation. I rarely sit. I had difficulty even focusing on writing my lesson plans on the computer when I had several activities to prepare or clean up. This is where my first and most significant sacrifice came in to play. I sacrificed my personal time. Hundreds of hours of personal time.

Since I couldn't focus sitting at my computer in my busy classroom, I took my lesson planning books home with me and wrote them from my couch on Sunday evenings. What about all that grading? Well, I couldn't sit still long enough in my classroom to accomplish a significant amount of grading either. That's what I did Saturday mornings. 

After giving up most of my weekends, I learned that I couldn't keep going like this. Spending a daily ten hours at school and then adding another ten hours on the weekend was damaging other parts of my life. I needed to take back my personal time.

Pizza counts as healthy meal planning, right?

Thankfully, I was already keeping up with working out for 45 minutes when I came home, but this isn't enough. I needed to start cooking healthy meals again. My diet was another sacrifice. In college I prided myself on my homecooked meals and eating healthy. My worst year of food decisions was this year, my first year teaching. I was too exhausted to cook and ate so fast that I didn't care what it tasted like. I didn't take this part of my life back until nearly the end of the year, and I've continued it into the summer by attempting to create a meal planning system that works for me that continues into the school year.

One of my sacrifices that I haven't given back yet is playing guitar. My mother started hauling me to lessons in first grade until I eventually became a guitar teacher myself prior to high school graduation. (It's one of the ways I knew I wanted to become a teacher.) This meant I spent a lot of time playing. During this first school year, I played my guitar three times. That's once every three months. This is a sacrifice that I have yet to claim back, and I hate that I haven't yet. 

In my October post, I briefly touched on some of the sacrifices I made regarding relationships. After a week in school, I'm too exhausted to go out. I wanted to curl up on the couch and watch Netflix. I was too tired to even read a book. (This is terrible coming from an English Teacher!) This meant my personal relationships suffered. I have two beautiful goddaughters who I only saw three times during the school year. I spent even less time with their mother, one of my dearest friends.

My relationship with my boyfriend became strained. He became frustrated that I was always tired. He wanted my attention just as much as my students, but instead I would briefly nod my head as I wrote lesson plans from the other room. Thankfully, he and my friends have been patient with me. I've learned that balancing all relationships, not just those in school, are necessary for my health. I need to spend time with them, and be there physically, emotionally, and mentally to benefit all of us.

An encouraging note from a grateful student.

If you're a new teacher or coming upon your student teaching, please don't be as obstinate as I was. Really listen to those who care about you. Ask yourself if the sacrifices you make to be a teacher are healthy. If they're not, talk to those around you and find a way that supports you. Some of my teacher friends went through this too; we all do. Some no longer bring any work home. I set timers for how long I'm allowed to work on grading and lessons away from my desk. Find a way for you that's balanced.

This career is challenging, but our students make it worth the tears, laughter, frustration, and epiphanies. Be healthy and happy for it!