Today, I had lunch with a teacher friend down my hall. She teaches my kids math, so we had a lot we could talk about. Our whole conversation was focused on our kids, actually. We discussed the funny, the sad, and the frustrating. It's what we do. We are teachers. We talked about what we could do to implement better lessons and have stronger engagement from our kiddos. We talked about discipline issues and shared tried and true methods to dealing with them. We vented to each other for the duration of the lunch period. At the end we had laughed quite a lot and left with a higher morale that would stay with us the rest of the day. Let's be honest, our day was made much better because of that 30 minute lunch with each other.
Tonight, I will be meeting two of my friends from college for dinner. They are also student teaching as I am, but we are at different schools. Undoubtedly, our conversation will steer toward our classrooms and our kids. We will discuss management options we have tried, days we nearly cried, kids that made us smile, and kids that made our heads spin. We will discuss the differences in our mentor teachers and share new ideas we have learned along the way. It is something we all need. We need this time together to vent and talk through our time in the classroom. We will all be made better by tonight and will boost our spirits high enough to finish out this last week before spring break. These teacher relationships are imperative to surviving as a teacher. But we need more.
Teachers MUST have non-teacher friends. We need friends that don't understand terms like ARD, IEP, ESL, or 504. We need friends that don't search for the perfect fold-able or jump for joy when there is no line at the copier. We need friends that couldn't care less if that paper was laminated perfectly or that expo markers are on sale. We need friends that remind us that we are not just teachers. We are humans first, then teachers. It is so easy for teachers to lose all identity other than teacher. It is crucial that we have friends that can enjoy a sporting event, symphony, concert, or travel without talking about a classroom. These friends are more important to the teacher than they will ever know. These are the friends that will help their teacher friend keep his/her sanity and not hit teacher burn out.
I recently realized how important these relationships are. Spending so much time in the classroom and then hours outside the classroom planning lessons was easily overwhelming me. Luckily, I got the opportunity to spend time with a non-teacher friend. We honestly did nothing except eat and watch tv, but it boosted my morale more than anything I could have done elsewhere. My life is made so much better by my teacher friends, but my non-teacher friends are just as important to my mental health as anyone.
So, teacher friends, please make friends with your co-workers. Always have amazing teacher friends. You NEED them. But please, also make sure to keep your non-teacher friends near and dear. They are a gold mine.
Sincerely,
Miss
