20 Best Things About Being a Teacher | That Teacher Life Ep 63

[Music] welcome back to my channel I'm going to start off this video by thanking every single one of you because with your help I have somehow been able to surpass 20000 subscribers when I started this channel I was hoping to reach like best-case-scenario a thousand subscribers if I did a thousand like I was killing it for me to start my youtube channel less than a year ago and then now have twenty thousand subscribers absolutely blows my mind and I'm so thankful to have all of you guys following me on this journey you won't keep me going on a daily basis and honestly you guys have helped me get through the school year I am just so thankful for the teaching community and all the support you guys have shown me so thank you so much from the bottom of my heart so in spirit of breaking 20000 subscribers I decided to film a video on the 20 best things about teaching now I know that it's being close to summer and I know that some of you guys are anxiously awaiting a video on the end of the school year originally my plan was to film that video this weekend I swear but with the combination of breaking 20000 subscribers and all of the behavior challenges I'll put it that I've been facing the past couple of weeks I decided to change it up a little bit while prepping at the end of the year is important you want to make sure you get ready for the next school year you want to make sure everything runs smoothly with all the events going on that will never be as important as your mental sanity as a teacher the end of the school year is stressful and it's exhausting there is no tired like end-of-the-year teacher tired you're dealing with increased behavior problems and honestly you're just ready for a break but what I think is the most important thing to do if at times is to surround yourself with motivation you have to surround yourself with all the positive aspects of teaching these if you don't you're going to drown in all of the negatives so be honest about how tired you are be honest with the challenges that you're facing but then find a way to overcome them I hope that this video is to provide you with some motivation to finish out the school year with a smile on your face because we all know what teaching is really hard but it is so worth it so these are in my opinion it'd be 20 best things about being a teacher number one you get to develop relationships with your students ironically this morning I actually set in the Loire which I usually do not do on Saturdays but I got up early so that I can attend a karate belt hosting for one of my former students she was one of those girls that I just formed such a good relationship with and I connected with her so well love her to death I always will her nickname was actually hot mess because that was the best description for her like she was just such a unique kid and I love her for that like I have never met a kid like her and I will never meet another kid like her again I'm so thankful that I had the opportunity to be her teacher and I know that she's one of those kids that I plan on keeping up with five years ten years from now because I can't wait to see what she goes on to do in the world I know she's going to do incredible things I actually told her grandmother when we were talking today like save me a ticket to her high school graduation because I guarantee you if I can be there I will be and at the very end when I went to walk to my car her grandmother gave me a hug and she said you have been such an angel in her life and there is no feeling that compares to that number two you have old students come back and visit you I'm going to tell us my story for this one because it is the easiest way for me to kind of sum this up I had a student my first year of teaching low girl who was very very very difficult I tried so hard to break through a wall but I felt like I just couldn't I felt like she hated me she had so much anger she would have these violent outbursts and she would throw everything at her desk and she was violent towards the other kids and I felt like I tried everything and I just couldn't get through to her then in the spring probably well March I found out that she was moving and I'll be completely honest there was a part of me that was very happy about that because she had been so disrespectful to me and I felt like I just never broke through a wall and I knew that was going to make my life a lot easier as a first year teacher with a rough group of kids one less behavior issue as bad as it sounds was going to make my life a lot easier so she moved and it was a couple months later it was right at the end of the school year I got a call from the office one day and they said so is always here to see you she had moved to North Carolina and she had came back and she was just visiting for a couple of days with her mom and she came to the school to see me and I remember walking up to the office and I came around the corner try not to tear up as soon as she saw me she ran up and hugged me and as soon as she grabbed ahold of me she just started bawling and she did not let go of me for like ten minutes and that made all of those hard times that I had to do is completely worth it because I realized that I did impact her even if she didn't show it to me at the time when she was actually in my class her coming back a couple months later just reassured me that you know what I did the best I could with her and obviously it was enough for her and I haven't seen her since then but that one moment is one of those moments I will never forget and as been one of the best moments of my teaching career so far number three you get to see your students grow as much as I don't like data and I don't think that kids should be represented as these numbers I will say that it is so rewarding to see your students grow as much as I take that testing because it is a pain in the butt it takes a lot of time I absolutely love sitting down with my kids in the spring reading with them and seeing what graphic made throughout the school year having it come to you working towards level and then leave on level or above level is such a good feeling and it just makes it feel like you actually are making an impact and even though day by day you may not see many changes when you look back on it you see that your students have made so much growth and it's because of you I feel like this is time to do it's just going to be me telling stories so buckle in is going to be a long ride but my first year of teaching I had a little boy who had just moved to the United States from Haiti a couple months before the start of the school year he knew no English I think he knew the word hello and he could write his name but he did not know the alphabet in order he didn't know any of the sound so letters made he could not read any English he could not speak much English besides like hello and that was it by the end of the school year he was reading at a level a four bass and I remember the first time he was able to read the book by himself all the way through I brought him up in the front of the classroom and had him read it in from the class and he put onto the document camera and as soon as he finished the entire class just burst out and applause but I will never forget the look on his face because he was so happy and you could tell he was so proud of himself and it was just so incredible to witness number four you get love notes from students let me just clarify when I say love notes I just mean those little letters that they write you and the little notes they give you and the little pictures that they draw for you I don't mean like actual love notes I definitely recommend you in some kind of memory box just to keep all those little notes from your students because they are definitely things you're going to want to look back on mine is just a box that I got from Michaels and actually just earlier today I went through the entire box and looked at everything and read every note because I needed motivation like it's been about two weeks I needed something to make me feel passionate again because I've kind of lost that after having several rough days and I'm so happy that I did so I'm just going to show you some of the things that I pulled out from the box this is one of my favorite things in the entire world my favorite animal is a sloth and I had a suit of my pre-shared seating I think this was for teacher appreciation week he made me an entire card front and back just like covered in sloth pictures and I thought it's the cutest thing and it must have taken a lot of time and there's more on the inside and it's just one of those things where I look at it and I just smiled and like this kid knew that I loved claws and he took his time to make an entire card decorated in flaws and it's just the cutest thing ever the next thing that I have is a thank-you card that I got from one of my students parents this year and it was for Teacher Appreciation Week and it said happy teacher appreciation week thank you so much for everything that you have done this year for our son he loves her class and is thriving we need more teachers like you thank you for going out of your way to make your classroom an amazing place to be the next thing I pulled out is a letter and I'm not gonna show it to you guys just because it has the parents names on it and I keep it in a page protector because it is that important to me little bit of backstory my first year of teaching which actually guys can tell was very eventful I had a little girl who I love to death she was another one of those girls that I just warm to such a good relationship with she did not know her father he just wasn't involved in our life but suddenly at the start of second grade so she's like seven years old he decided he wanted to be in her life and she didn't know him and suddenly had to start going and visiting him on the weekend and she was so upset about it she did not like going she would cry like on Thursday just knowing that it was coming and it was so rough for so many months and then in the spring like March or April he actually won custody of her full custody and he was living up in New Jersey so she had suddenly leave it was a Friday right before spring break and we kind of do like the court case was coming and all that but we didn't know what the result was going to be we thought there was no way he was going to win custody and she had no warning her mom basically found out that Friday picked her up from school and told her like they had to leave tomorrow to go up there and she brought her back into my classroom it was after school so my kids had left and it was the most heart-wrenching moment because she again just like the other girl ran up and just hugged me involved and even my principal at the time said like he had never seen a kid like react like that and oh gosh so long story short she had to go up there but she still got to come back here for one weekend like once a month and the first weekend she came back I had had my kids I'll record a video for her and I edited all play together and I had that on the CD and I just made her like a goody bag with all of her favorite things just to kind of cheer her up whenever her house like late one night and gave it to her and just had some time to visit with her and the following week her mom brought this letter to me and I'm just going to read like the first paragraph because the rest of it kind of goes into details but it said thank you for your visit this past Friday she was so surprised in caught off guard by your outpouring of love and appreciation for her as a student and individual when she left she spoke of how much she's going to miss her smile your ride not sure what that means but she giggled telling us the memories that she is taking with her our lifelong memories you and your class under your direction love has made her life her unsettled life a little less chaotic she will have that sense of protection forever and it will serve her well so I actually have not seen her since that night and I have ran into her grandmother who was basically raising her so it was like her mom I ran into her a couple times at the grocery store and actually still have her number so I'll still text her from time to time and say how is she doing which means one of those girls that I loved so so much and it completely broke my heart to see her go through that but that letter is something that I treasure very very dearly and I still read it from time to time obviously so makes me emotional but you just don't realize how big of an impact you have on these kids lives number five you get to experience life all the moments you guys know to me when I say lightbulb moments those are the moments where a student has been so lost and has not understood the concept at all and then suddenly you teach it a different way or you weren't in a different way or you just give them extra practice and all of a sudden it clicks and they understand it and you can just see it on their face it is such an amazing thing to experience and it will happen several times a year and it happens every year I guarantee you and it is such an incredible thing number six you get to be a positive role model in your students lives this one is huge for me teaching a title in school my students do not have the best home lives and they go home to broken homes they go home to parents who are incarcerated they go home to family members who have abandoned them and aren't there anymore and they deal with so much outside of school that I want to make sure for those few hours that I have them there in my classroom that I am the best possible positive role model I get to show them what love is I get to show them what respect is and I get to create a love of learning that hopefully will last them a lifetime and all of that combined hopefully will make them a better person when they leave my classroom that when they entered it number seven you get to win over the students who hate you now obviously I don't think they actually hate me and I don't think they ever actually hate any of their teachers but you know what I need those students who are just kind of more difficult and they don't open up as easily and they don't really show you that they care about you in the ways that we are used to but when you finally do get those students to open up it's such a good feeling and obviously knucles comes to mind for this because he's kind of been at that one that I really had to work on this year and I will say hey that the past several weeks every single day before he leaves he comes up and he gives me a hug even if he's on the opposite side of the room and he's been dismissed he will come over and he will give me a hug and I'm like I have made it number eight your students teaching you just as much as you teach them now obviously they teach us dances like the whip in the Nene and they teach us how to dab and they teach us how to use fidget centers and all that nonsense but they also teach us patience they teach us how to overcome obstacles when they are dealing with more in their seven years of life and I will ever deal with in my entire life ever single-year I feel like I am a better teacher because of the students I've had in my class and I'm so grateful for them for that number nine you get to collaborate with other teachers like I said I'm so thankful for the teaching community that is out there on social media and in Braille like meetups that have gone to it's so incredible getting to collaborate with other teachers share ideas and just generally support each other because we know that all of our jobs are hard and supporting each other just makes it that much easier it's not about comparing who has a rougher group of kids or who's doing the fancier lessons or who's spending more money in their classroom it's about recognizing that our struggles are all the same when it really comes down to it and helping each other when we need it and just being there to support each other number 10 no two days are ever the same I feel like this is especially true for the primary grades your students will always keep you on your toes you never know what you're going to experience with them but it keeps things interesting another story I had a student last year and actually it was the girl and I visited earlier today so one day decided to bring in her mother's engagement ring and give it to another point in the class thankfully one of the people in the cafeteria found out and saw it and they gave it to the principal and he's actually her next-door neighbor so he was able to return it to her mom but it was just a hot mess number 11 you get to start over fresh every day no matter how many rough days he's had no matter how many times you have yelled at your class even though you swore you would never do that you get to come in every single day and start over you can have the roughest day with a student and you can yell at them and you can have to give them consequences and they can be mad at you and I guarantee you they're going to come in the next day they're still going to love you they're still going to give you a hug and they're still going to be willing to try again and I still think there's any other job quite like that where every single day you get to come in you get to hit the reset button and you get to start over any dissipation mistakes number twelve kind of self-explanatory you get summer vacation let's be honest we all love summer vacation but I know at least for me it's not about going to the beach it's not about laying out by the pool it's not about not setting alarms in the morning it's about rejuvenating yourself as a teacher and it's about finding motivation again I guarantee you as rough of a school year you may have had the year for after having a couple weeks off as soon as you see a new back-to-school ed you're going to be excited to get back in the classroom number 13 you get to be a lifelong learner obviously teachers have to do a lot of professional development that kind of goes along with the summer vacation most the time it's not really a vacation because you were reading boats and attending seminars and all of that to help yourself learn more and I love that about teachers teachers are always willing to learn more to give the newest and best information and make sure that they are going to be the best possible teacher that they can be for their students number 14 you get to laugh every single day this kind of goes without saying - I'm just going to share a couple of small things that have really made me laugh over the years that have stuck with me I remember my first year teaching I had this one student we were learning about weather and especially extreme weather and you're talking about tsunamis and he kept calling it salami and I corrected him every time I was like sweetheart it's tsunami not salami but he couldn't stop things along me and it just cracked me up every single time also my first year of teaching I was doing a lesson where my students were going to debate each other so we had just read the story mrs. Brown went to town and my students were going to debate whether or not the animals were right to move into her house while she was going I started the lesson by asking the class what a debate was and I had this real eager student race in his hand because he was so excited to answer so I said tell me what's the debate I swear I'm not exaggerating he said debate is what you used to catch the fish this I also had a student my first year of teaching which sidenote you guys I think know by now from seeing my blogs I have a cat named Luna and she does not have a tail she is a mixed cat she is tailless I had a student my first year of teaching who brought in I want to say this was for like Christmas or something he brought in like a costume tail that you would wear for like a Halloween costume he brought it in for my gap number 15 it helps you become a better parent now obviously I do not have kids so maybe I'm not the best person to attest to this but I strongly feel that being a teacher will make you a better parent a because you get to see a lot of parents and you get to see what their kids are like and there is a correlation there and just because you get to see what works with kids what doesn't work with kids you learn so many different strategies that you can use and I don't see how it could make you any worse compared I only see the positive number 16 you get to decorate your classroom again I had to include this one in there because I don't know any teachers who hate decorating their classroom like I just never met anyone you guys know that I take a ton of pride in my classroom I love things organized I love things matching and it just makes me very happy to be in there and I absolutely love decorating it and if you are anything like me if you have known that you've wanted to be a teacher your entire life you have been dreaming of seeing your classroom for the first time since you were like 5 6 7 years old and there is nothing better than walking into your classroom the first time and knowing that it is yours and that you get to decorate it whatever way you want and you get to make it a place that is inviting for you and you get to make it a safe haven for your students number 17 you have a classroom full of helpers I love randomly putting my coffee down somewhere in my room but forgetting where it is asking my class and suddenly I have 23 private investigators who are guaranteed to solve the case as one of the reasons I love elementary students they still like to help you they love to sweep the floor they love to wipe down tables they love the findings for you they love to run errands and obviously it's one of those things that just kind of never gets old number 18 you get to celebrate a lot of student birthdays and kind of by default that means you get to eat a lot of cupcakes number 19 it keeps you grounded this kind of goes back to what I was saying about student home life when you see what some of your students are dealing with day in and day out it will help you become so humble so fast because some of these kids deal with more things in their entire life more challenges more struggles than I will ever face and could ever even dream of facing and it's just part of their lives and they have to overcome it every single day when they come to school to be able to put it aside to be able to focus when they're hungry when they're not bathed when they feel like no one at home loves them or is even there for them it makes you so appreciative of your family life growing up and it makes you so appreciative of everything you have but it also makes you so it've that you have the opportunity to be there for them number 20 you're making the world a better place we all know that there are not many people out there who have what it takes to be a teacher they don't have the patience they don't have the work ethic they don't have the personality but you do you're one of the few people out there who have what it takes and you're damn good at what you do you get to influence the lives of students every single day and that will always be the best thing about being a teacher so those are my 20 things obviously I should have kept going for a really long time because as long as you're looking for it there are infinite things out there that make teaching the best job in the entire world but I'm sure there's plenty more that you guys will think of so please feel free to leave them down in the comments I would love to read them and I'm sure my other subscribers would too if this video helped motivate you for the end of the school year or if it helped solidify your decision to become a teacher please give it a thumbs up share it out with other teacher friends or people you think might enjoy it subscribe to me if you haven't already because you don't want to miss any of my future videos thank you so much for subscribing for helping me reach 20,000 subscribers for commenting and supporting me every single day in this journey I appreciate you all so much thank you for watching and I will catch you in my next video thank you so much for watching all the way to the end of this video and for supporting my youtube channel if you want to check out any my older videos you can use the two links right down here if you want to subscribe to me so you don't miss any future videos you can easily read up here in the description box you will find links to all of my social media sites mighty tricity teacher store in my amazon store and I will catch you guys in the next one [Music]

Channel: Pocketful of Primary

Views: 64,589

Rating: 4.9294505 out of 5

Keywords: teacher, classroom, vlog, 2nd grade, teacherspayteachers, teachers pay teachers, tpt, pocketful of primary, tips for new teachers, tips for teachers, new teacher tips, teacher tips, classroom vlog, vlogger, teacher vlog, teacher vlogger, classroom tour, a day in the life of a teacher, a week in the life of a teacher, best thing about being a teacher, teacher motivation

Id: SDXt6BqeI4E

Length: 21min 31sec (1291 seconds)

Published: Sun May 21 2017