“I'm feeling more and more every year that it's a career that's structured in a way that works really well for me (…) It doesn't have anything to do with the actual content of what I do every day, but the school I teach at is [a short] walk from my house. Today we had daycare issues, so between classes I ran over to daycare, took [my son] out, brought him home to [my partner], and ran back and got to my next class on time. These are things that I really appreciate. It's not why I became a teacher, but it's a job that's structured in a way that fits in really well with what I need right now. Also, a lot of the staff and most of the students live in the neighborhood. So I run into students before school, after school—I'm constantly seeing them. I'm never sure if I like that or not. Actually, that's a little complicated. In that sense there's a sort of 24-7 side to it, as well—that the school is this community that I'm part of all the time, even when I'm not at work.”
“It makes it meaningful in a way. For me, that became much stronger a little over a year (…) ago. Our principal was killed in Gaza and after that the school community became in many ways much more of a community. It sort of pulled everyone together. There were a couple of weeks where we didn't actually teach anything. We just came to school just to be with the kids. And I think certainly for the staff, that was something we all went through together.”
“It can be a little claustrophobic. But these are powerful connections, right?”