‘YOU’VE GOT TO PUSH THROUGH’
"If you love children, and if you love that thing that education is—that sharing of knowledge—you've got to push through (….) It's going to be a mountain and you've got to climb it because it's so worth it.”
“There are just as many of those small little nuggets. When a kid comes in and brings you this hideous thing that they made—but it's a gnome and they know you love gnomes. And it’s been filled with chocolate, which I also love (…) The rare time a kid comes in and says they loved the book I recommended. That actually happened today, and my heart exploded because there are so few readers these days.”
“I think the first five years of teaching, if you're not wholly committed and sucked into it, if you can't live with that level of commitment, maybe this isn't the career for you. It's hardcore. It's not until year five that felt like, ‘Okay, I have got this. I've got my bag of tricks (…) I know what to do. If the class ends ten minutes early, there's no more stress about that anymore.’ But it's five years of just writing lesson plans and then going home and rewriting the lesson plans, and then next year rethinking the whole unit.”
“You have to go into it knowing it's going to be an uphill climb and you've got to be okay with saying, ‘These first few years are going to be a struggle.’ But if you really love children and the idea of what you're doing as an educator, you've got to push through it, and it's worth it in the end.
‘TURN OFF THE NOISE’
"You [have to] be self-aware enough to not become part of the toxic environment. Because I've watched that happen here and I've watched teachers come and go because they got sucked into it (…) You totally know that there's the toxic group of teachers and there's the happy teachers. And there's the ones that have their foot out the door because retirement's five minutes away. But if you get sucked into that toxic group, you're not going to make it, and you're not going to be filled with joy anymore. Whatever good thing drew you to this field will go away if you get sucked into that (…) You’ve got to turn off the noise and focus on (…) 'Why are you here?'”
“Find a life raft, whatever that is—if it's a teacher in your building that has a great attitude and is always there, or if it's that swim in the pool after school that's going to get you through the day. You’ve got to find that one thing that you can hang on to every day that will get you through. Sometimes for me it's a piece of chocolate.”