Anyone who is an educator (or even anyone who has been a student) has seen a teacher burn out. The teacher who is angry, given up, does the bare minimum and is just "coasting" till retirement. I can't imagine that mentality. Yes, I'm only 10 years in to my 30+ year career, but I also can't imagine keeping things stagnant for long enough for it to get boring.
It's hard. I'm a mom of two young kids; one with special needs. I have a house that needs tending to, a husband, and extended family that all demand my time. There will always be somewhere I have to be or something I have to do in my personal life. Even though family comes first, I made a promise when I went in to the field of education. I am not standing in an assembly line in a factory, my 'product' are human beings. These are other people's children; their first priorities. It is my duty as a piece in their educational puzzle to give them the best that I can so they can prepare their future the best they can.
It makes me so angry when I see teachers give up. We may not be doing emergency surgery, but we have direct impact on young lives everyday. We are important and every word, smile, or gesture could make a difference in someone else's life. If a teacher is "coasting" or ready to give up they need to put their own gluttonous behavior aside and get out of the classroom. You can't just collect a check here and have summer off, you are robbing a child of their entitlement.
I loved my job with minimal technology, but the more technology I have available to me the more I get to try out new ways of engaging students. It helps with any dullness to my workload, it lets me be creative. I also love helping to convince those teachers who are skeptical about using new tools and, in some cases, watching their love of teaching become revived.
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