Exhilaration over Exhaustion

There is no tired quite like teacher tired. You stay up late getting your lesson plans just right. Then you spend seven hours trying to engage your students in the lessons that you are now emotionally attached to due to the time spent working on them. You exhaust yourself with how many times a day you have to switch gears and transition how you deliver the content because some of your students aren't getting it. Let's not even get into how many times you have to re-gain your focus as your lesson is interrupted by office calls, pass runners, and students who really need to use the restroom. You get fifty minutes during the day to grade papers, reply to emails, and prep for future lessons and upcoming meetings. Then, because there doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day you work through your thirty minute lunch break. Honestly, at the end of the day, sometimes exhaustion doesn't even feel like a strong enough word for how you feel. The exhilaration makes up for it though. When you see the lightbulbs go on in the students minds as they make a new connection. The excitement in their voices when they explain their project idea to you. How they approached you with apprehension to try a new media or approach but with your support they are now taking that leap. When they thank you and tell you that your class is the reason they come to school each day. These items are exhilarating. They fill my emotional cup right up, and they keep me returning to work each day with joy in my heart and a lightness in my step. Is teaching easy? Nope, not even close. But getting to inspire young minds to think in new ways and to have faith in themselves, that makes it all worthwhile.

The relationships students build in my class is obvious from this photo. Pictured are AP Studio 2D/Drawing students who collaborated on a final project.