52. Best & Worst Days / Years of Teaching

Ellie 0:02

Welcome to the teaching Toolbox Podcast. I'm Ellie, and I'm here with Brittany.

Brittany 0:08

Hello!

Ellie 0:02

And today we have a real treat for you. We have not one, not two, but three guests to share with you today as we talk about our first, best, and worst years of teaching. We have Andrea Annis from North Carolina, and she was a high school teacher for eight years teaching social studies. She's the owner and operator of history gal on TPT. Bridgid Dober joins us from New York, with some years of middle school and some years of high school teaching under her belt. The creator of doodle notes, owns math giraffe on TPT. Last, but definitely not least, is Leah Cleary, living and teaching in Georgia with 23 years of experience at both the middle and high school level, Leah teaches the social studies, including AP level and psychology her store, Leah Cleary, is also on TPT. All of these stores will be available in the show notes if you want to check them out. So let's get started.

Brittany 1:09

So what was your first year of teaching like? Who wants to go first?

Ellie 1:18

I can tell you a little bit about my dungeon classroom, if you'd like to hear

Brittany 1:24

All right, go ahead.

Ellie 1:25

So my first school was almost 80 years old, and it had been the high school for the school district way back. And you would enter and go down to the basement, and then farther down a ramp, and down there was the entrance to the gym, which was even like lower down you went into the bleachers and my room, and that was the only classroom in that hallway. And it was so bad that when you would push against the paneling along the wall, like mold spores would pop out of the room. It was so bad and there were really no bulletin boards, so I just kind of made my own on the walls. Just kind of put up butcher paper wherever I felt like it, and staple into the walls because they were in such bad shape. It didn't matter, anyway. So that was, that was my classroom. I was lonely.

Brittany 2:25

No windows,

Ellie 2:27

Yeah, but you could only see people's feet because it was in the basement. So there's nothing really good to go look outside at. You know, it was actually the parking lot as well. So you could see the tires of the cars and and people's feet.

Leah 2:40

That could be a fun writing activity.

Ellie 2:43

Yeah, might have even had, like, grates on it.

Andrea 2:50

I was in a trailer. That was bad, like in my own little isolated trailer, so it felt very lonely. There wasn't much collaboration.

Ellie 3:07

For sure, we had some of those in our districts, but I never had to be in one. But did it also give you a little like, a little sense of just being able to do whatever you want because you were kind of by yourself, nobody was around?

Andrea 3:22

a little bit, yeah, I could it. Could set your own thermometer so you could, I could actually turn the heat on, or the AC on, I needed to. So that was good. But mostly just remember first exhausting,

Leah 3:40

That's where you came up with some of those, those really fun lessons you have, right? Like the fall --- can you stop the fall of Rome?

Andrea 3:48

Those all came later - , keeping my head above the ground, of trying to figure out how to fill my time and how to teach and, yeah, it was very I was in a new town. New everything, and so it was difficult.

Ellie 4:11

What did you teach that first year of social studies, like

Andrea 4:15

I taught all of us history. So it was good. I had those US History is what I wanted and I taught I had five preps, I think a couple were honors, and a couple were standard so it was mostly the same content, but it was eons ago. So it was before real technology. We had computers, but basically you just had to take your little floppy disk from one computer to the other

Ellie 4:40

Oh yeah!

Andrea 4:44

And it was creating everything from scratch. And so it was just keeping, like one day, but I was, you know, I was teaching, and then I was one day ahead.

Ellie 4:59

And then if you had to be sick or something, then you were really scrambling. Probably

Andrea 5:05

I got the flu.

Ellie 5:07

Oh, no,

Andrea 5:07

I remember I put my head down on my desk, and it was crying because I felt so bad, and I had a nervous breakdown. And then when I did, I thought I was gone.

Ellie 5:21

Oh no, she's never coming back.

Ellie 5:27

Would you say that was your worst year or your best year or neither?

Andrea 5:33

It is probably the worst year I had. Several years later, I had the worst class I've ever had, but overall, I was in a much better school, and I was teaching in the same school my husband was really fun.

Ellie 5:51

Oh, nice.

Andrea 5:52

But the first year it was in, yeah, it was just bad.

Brittany 5:59

What about you? Brigid?

Brigid 6:03

I had, I'm trying to remember if it was six or seven preps my first year we got was super overwhelming, because you want to do the fun stuff. But of course, at that point, like, even if you can plan one fun activity per week per prep like, even that was almost impossible. And so then for them, it just feels like boring book work every day, like it you're you feel like you're trying so hard to make that happen, and yet it's still can never happen. So it's too much of the boring, yeah, and that was really frustrating. I mean, for me and for them, I feel like that was really frustrating, because you're just so overwhelmed.

Ellie 6:38

Was that middle school or high school?

Brigid 6:38

It was middle and then they're split by ability level, so you have the different, yeah, you know, and then eighth grade homeroom, which has all the extra stuff of, you know, graduation prep and all these just all different things they had to apply for high schools because, you know, the private schools all the application process in the winter, and then all the stuff in the spring. And so it was just very, yeah, very overwhelming.

Brittany 7:07

What about you Leah?

Leah 7:08

Oh, man. So my first year was probably also my my worst year, and my first year was really a half a year, so I was in grad school, and I didn't go to like my Bachelor's, I didn't go to be a teacher, and so I did for grad school, and I knew I had to student teach, but I also had to work, and I had been waiting tables while I was in grad school, but they told me that I couldn't do that while I was student teaching, so against the wishes of the like powers that be in the program that I was in, I went and got a job. But the job I got was at a struggling school that, let's see, they had fired the teacher at midyear for a lot of different things. I mean, there had been like, fire set in his classroom, all kinds of stuff. I mean, you know, there was a gang problem at the school. It was, it was a rough school. We weren't allowed to stay past like 4pm we had to get out. It was, it was rough. You know, it's kind of trial by fire, because I didn't student teach. I just went in and was kind of dropped into it. I learned a lot. Yeah, I wouldn't trade it or change it, but it was difficult. I remember, like, Andrea, crying, like putting my head down. I didn't have the flu. I didn't have that excuse, but like putting my head down on my desk and just sobbing, I probably really was having a nervous breakdown. And later, the assistant principal told me that she hired me because I had described myself. She asked for an adjective, and I said, Oh, tenacity. And yeah, so I used that word, and so she hired me, even though I had no experience and then, and I stuck with it, but so I did not go back the next year. Went to a different school in a different county, middle school, and I did that for two years, and then went back to high school.

Ellie 9:28

Brittany, how about your first year?

Brittany 9:33

It was rough, just like everybody's. I was hired a week into training because the returning sixth grade teacher decided to quit, and so I missed the first week of training, which was a two week long training, so I didn't understand anything of what they were doing, and I had to have somebody else come in and teach my spelling and grammar, because I didn't understand the program until, like halfway through the year. In October, my husband and I went to see the leaves change colors, and I was trying to get different colored leaves to give to my kids and laminate for them and make little bookmarks for all of them. And I accidentally picked poison sumac and got it all over my face, and my eyes swelled shut, and it took the dermatologist and the doctor three weeks to even figure out what it was. And so from like middle of October until the end of November, my face was all itchy, swollen, puffy, red.

Leah: 10:55

I think you won. Brittany,

Brittany: 10:59

And then in November, I got mono from one of the kids or something, and so then I was out most of November and early December, and then I came back for a week, and then we had a wedding to go to in California, and there were only, like 12 people invited to the wedding, so it was very like intimate close affair, and my husband was the best man, and so we couldn't miss it. So we went to the wedding, and that led right into Christmas break, and then I came back, and I had pneumonia in January, and then I was great for February and March. And then in April, we went bowling as a as a class, and I went past the the mark, the line, and fell and broke my thumb in three places. Oh my gosh. And they had to do a nuclear scan to even find the break, because it was so like, fine. But then I had my whole hand, like, up to the fingertips in a cast, and I had, and this is back when we had to, like, hand write report cards.

Ellie: 12:19

Oh, yeah.

Brittany: 12:20

And so then I had to handwrite my report card in triplicate with a pen jabbed up my cast.

Ellie: 12:31

It's a wonder you ever went back. Wow. But how are the kids that year?

Brittany: 12:37

The kid was awesome. The kids were awesome. I had two kelseys, two britneys, two Jesse's.

Ellie: 12:45

Wow you remember that that's awesome.

Brittany: 12:47

Yeah, yeah. But the kids were good. Oh, and I had a mom, another teacher in the school, complain that I said, like, I messed something up. And I said to the kids, I'm sorry I screwed up. And she complained to the board of directors that I said the words screwed to the kids.

Ellie: 13:08

Wow,

Leah: 13:09

times have changed.

Brittany: 13:12

So that was fun. That was not my worst year, though.

Ellie: 13:16

Oh, my goodness.

Leah: 13:19

Oh no. I thought you were gonna say that was your worst year. Now, I'm scared because, like, literally, that was my worst year, my first year, and it wasn't even a full year, thanks goodness.

Brittany: 13:32

So whose first year was their worst year? Andrea's and Leah's, okay, so.

Leah: 13:40

And it wasn't a full year. See, it was half a year.

Brigid: 13:43

My second is probably a little worse, only because they added one more prep, since I didn't have enough, but it was there were, there were no more times in the schedule. So it was two different classes in the same room at the same time, one pre algebra one, algebra one. And I was supposed to magically teach, teach both at once, two completely different courses in the same room at the same time at different levels, and split them and kind of bounce back, which is impossible with seventh graders. And there were, I think, probably almost 30 kids total. So it wasn't even like two small groups in the same room at the same time. It was completely impossible.

Ellie: 14:31

That reminds me of one of my years, like I have trouble thinking of the worst, and it's probably because my memory is not great. But you saying that reminds me that when I one of the years that I taught fourth grade, we were starting fourth grade in that building, there was no fifth grade, and there were advanced math students, and so I had the high group, and I was supposed to teach fourth grade and fifth. Grade math in the same like it was probably an hour, so there was a little more time. And I think I ended up having them split into three groups. And it was like juggling those three groups to like at the fourth grade level, one at the fifth grade level, and trying, and it was probably 25 to 30 kids like that, and and trying to figure out every single day how, how to manage all that and get them all where they needed to be with everything that they needed. That was really tough. Yeah, planning wise, for sure, that might have been my worst planning year. The kids were good, but the planning was hard because I also taught social studies and language arts that year too.

Leah: 15:44

That's a lot

Ellie: 15:45

Elementary School.

Leah: 15:46

And you know when I say that my worst year was that first year. It was just so traumatic, but I have blocked, I think the most traumatic, and that was that was 2020.

Brittany: 16:02

Makes sense.

Leah: 16:03

That was covid. But yeah, I don't like to think about it, so I don't

Ellie: 16:08

it's not even there

Leah: 16:10

it was. It was bad. Yeah, I think I really have blocked that out. The whole time that we were on Zoom was miserable, and then going back to the classroom for the 2020, 2021, school year, when we did the hybrid learning - that was that was not fun, just, you know, having to, like, teach the kids virtually while you're teaching the kids in person. It was nowhere near what Brigid was talking about. You know, you didn't have like, two separate subjects that you were teaching, but it just, it was a lot, you know. So any teacher who made it through that, I think would prob, most of us would probably say that was our that was our hardest.

Brittany: 16:59

Definitely. Mine was in 2008 to 2009 and I was, I had been a sixth grade lead for 10 years, and the principal had changed to a female who happened to just be very threatened by other females. And the year prior to this, she had run the whole entire fifth grade out of the school. They all quit and left because she was just so over them constantly, you know, monitoring everything they did, critiquing them constantly. Well, then the next year she did that to sixth grade, and she just, she did not like us, because we were just really strong, capable women, and we felt very confident, and she especially did not like me, and so the kids were awesome that year, but she spent most of that year finding every little possible way to give me a reprimand that she could and It would be like somebody down the hall could do something and then I could do the exact same thing, but I'd get a reprimand, and they wouldn't and it was just it. It became mind numbingly just insane. I actually have PTSD from her because of how stressful it became.

Ellie: 18:41

Did she leave after that? Or did you leave after that?

Brittany: 18:44

I left after that because I could see the writing on the wall. I wasn't going to be asked back. You know, they were going to reprimand me until they considered me unfit to be a teacher. And so I left. She ended up sticking around for about two more years, and then her husband got stationed in Georgia, oh, and so she went to Georgia, and then he only stayed in the military for about two more years, and then they moved back here, and the school refused to hire her back.

Ellie: 19:21

Oh, wow.

Brittany: 19:21

And that was kind of my like, karma moment, like, Thank God, you know,

Leah: 19:28

and Brittany, that really is miserable. And that's legitimate. PTSD, I've seen that happen to friends of mine at schools where I've worked, where, fortunately, I've had, like, a strong department chair who's protected me and the rest of the department, but when they do that, you really it's almost impossible to do your job, and you're just you're on edge all the time. You feel like you're walking on eggshells. I'm sorry you went through that. That's terrible.

Brittany: 19:56

Yeah, I was the department chair, so I was trying to protect the other, the other four in the group, but all of them decided to leave that year as well, except for one tutor. One tutor stayed behind, and she actually just retired this year from that school.

Ellie: 20:15

Oh, wow.

Brittany: 20:16

She stayed this long.

Leah: 20:17

It's a little scary that one administrator can have that impact.

Andrea: 20:21

Yeah, that was an administrator is one reason why my first year was is my worst, and it's because there's stuff going on in the background. But because I was a new teacher, you get lots of evaluations, and every single evaluation, it was like I was getting beat down about all kinds of things, about how horrible I was doing. And so it was just like, tiny, yeah, everything else. But it was, I mean, the the reason that there was a social studies teacher who was a football coach who lost his football coach position because of some inappropriate things that he did, which wasn't illegal then, but now is is now illegal. And so they needed to hire a new football coach, and they the last one hired and wanted as a social studies teacher. So you need to have a reason to move somebody out, to move somebody else in. But it was like a something that they knew that was going to be doing, and it was just like they were building evidence as why they weren't gonna hire me back. So yeah, I resigned, and we actually moved to different states and substitute teaching for a while. And I was like, wow substitute teaching there's like, no stress. Class is bad. You'd be like, You know what? I'm back. But going into a long term sub position, I found a county that was great. I found long term sub position was great. I was like, wow, this is what it's supposed to be like. You have an administration that's actually, like, supportive, and you have colleagues who are actually helpful, and you feel like you're in a community. You're not just by yourself. And then transition to a job for I guess I started in January to finish out here, and that's why World History position, I hate world history, and then I started teaching it. I was like, oh, world history is kind of fun!

Ellie: 22:37

Leah, looks shocked that you're like, you hate it.

Leah: 22:42

It's my favorite. It's my favorite. Sorry, I'm I'm department chair in at my high school for social studies, and nobody ever wants to teach World History, but it's my absolute favorite. And so I'm just, I don't understand that. I'm like, why don't you want to teach World History?

Ellie: 23:00

But now you love it,

Andrea: 23:01

Teachers who helped me learn to love it. And then, yeah, I ended up not staying in Virginia, except for that time we moved back to North Carolina, but just having, like, a total opposite experience, and realizing that that where you are, as make or to but like the community, that culture of the school and the admin makes a huge difference.

Brittany: 23:32

It does, it does.

Leah: 23:35

It really does - a bad admin can just, I mean, the teacher teacher attrition is a problem, and so like, if you've got really high numbers, they really need to look at the admin.

Brittany: 23:49

Yeah, yep. So let's end on a high note. What was your best year? Your Favorite Year? What's the one you look back at most fondly bridged? How about you?

Brigid: 24:05

Okay, my favorite was teaching high school geometry in an all girls school, surprisingly. And I was surprised how much I love it because I have all brothers and I, you know, I really like enjoy, you know, teaching boys, it is fun, but it was just so easy with only girls, and that was, like, shocking. And high school was just so much easier than grade school. And I love geometry. It was like my jam, like teaching proofs and logic is my absolute favorite. But the crazy thing about it was the best thing was it was a block schedule, and I only had two blocks, so I did not have to show up until 11 o'clock unless I wanted to, like cover other I did, like a long term sub in the morning blocks for, you know, like a film class, like things like that, and then they would pay me extra. But it was unbelievable, because I showed up at 11 o'clock. Had an easier job. Only one prep taught it twice, and. And my paychecks were the same as when I was maybe even more I'm trying to remember as when I was having the incredibly stressful, you know, seven preps, and so I was just like, mind blown. It's not always that rough. And so that was cool, very nice.

Leah: 25:18

Well, I'll jump in and say that I've had a lot of really good years. And so I can say that the first best I remember was my fifth year teaching. That was the first best, because that was the first year that I had had the same prep two years in a row. And it was multiple preps, but Brigid it wasn't seven. I mean, it was like two preps, right? And I had taught it for two years in a row, and I just felt really relaxed. It was high school, it was the block schedule, and it was English, of all things, because I've taught, you know, I've spent the majority of my career teaching social studies. And so I just remember just having fun and just really enjoying it that year, the five years, it was magical. And then I'd say I also remember 2017 when I went over to the school where I'm teaching now, and all day long, I was teaching world history, and that was so much fun for me, because I love world history. So.

Brittany: 26:29

I would say my second best year was the year before I got all the reprimands. I had an awesome group of kids. We actually got moved at Thanksgiving because of mold, and so we got moved to a different school in the district that just had extra room. And my kids were so good about like packing up the classroom and moving us and everything, and I had just a wonderful group of kids who were so supportive. I had one kid who was as low as first grade, and he just, he worked so hard, and now he's a pilot. Oh, wow. Just, I love that group of kids and it and then I had my tutor's daughter in that class, and I just, I love that family. And so it just, it was just a really special year, but my all time favorite year was actually my second year. I was pregnant with my daughter, Reagan, and she was giving me round ligament syndrome, which is where as your belly expands, one of your ligaments twists, and it causes immense pain, just periodically, randomly, when they when the baby moves. And so I would get so much pain, I would almost pass out from I would get so dizzy and stuff, and so I would get up and teach my kids like a grammar lesson, and then I would lay on the floor behind my desk with my feet up so I wouldn't pass out while they practiced their grammar or did their homework or did a pair, share, repair or whatever, and they were so well behaved, they didn't goof around or anything. And if someone came in the room and was like, Where's Mrs. Naujok you they'd be like, she's lying on the floor behind her desk. And I, before I got before I got pregnant, we would play football together at recess and stuff. They it would it was a perfect year. I love that group. What about you, Ellie?

Ellie: 28:51

There are so many things that can make a year good that it's hard to choose just like one year. Like I'm thinking I remember the first year that I taught, when we would get ready for Field Day, I would race the kids, because I could run fast. Then I was young, you know, but like, fun things like that. We built a Halloween float that year. One of the parents wanted to get us in the Halloween parade, and they got all the supplies and the truck and everything, and we built this Halloween float to go in the Halloween parade, you know. And then other years, the team that you teach with is so great that even if other things aren't great, they carry you through and they, you know, they make the years great. And so I think one of the best years teaching wise, was a year in middle school where they were trying something with having really low math class sizes, and I had classes of 12 and 15, and that was such a fun teaching year because we could do so many things. And you know be out of their seats so much and write on the boards in different places, and do stuff on whiteboards, and I could be so close to them and see so well what they were doing and what they were understanding, that kind of thing, that I think as far as teaching wise, that was one of my favorite years. But yeah, there's so many things that can make a year good. It's hard to choose just one.

Andrea: 30:25

My very favorite year I got to a different high school, I ended up teaching us history and world history. And I don't know if y'all have had this experience where you have coworkers that everything just kind of gels, and you have a really good group of people to teach with and belong with. My husband was actually teaching at that school too, which was really cool, but just had really fun colleagues, where we could bounce ideas off of each other and do things together, that had other world history colleagues, and we came up with really fun things. We did a kickball game to simulate World War One, which was fun. They did all kinds of just really fun things. And then, you know, the next year, some people leave, and then more people, new people came in, and it just wasn't quite the same after that. It was kind of like the all star cast, all of all the teachers who kind of we all really, worked really well together.

Brittany: 31:25

Oh, great. Thank you.

Ellie: 31:27

So whether it is bad straight out of the gate and you're questioning your life choices, or you love it immediately, and you know it's your calling, someone else has been there before you and is probably there right now. Breathe deep, give yourself grace, celebrate your wins, love on your students, and teach them the best you can and remember to do things you love as well. Teaching is a long game. It involves lots of learning, growing, failing, and succeeding along the way.

Brittany: 31:58

We hope by hearing these stories, you have realized you're not alone no matter where you are in your teacher journey. Grab the tools you need and add them to your toolbox, and then share this episode with a friend. We'll talk to you soon.

Ellie: 32:13

Bye.