I just want to be a Teacher.

I am mentally wrung out today.

I am tired of going to professional development meetings that expect me to be a first responder, a mental health counselor, and a therapist alongside someone who can individualize all my lessons, someone who knows my students extracurricular activities and homelife, and someone who always knows the right thing to say to the right person at the right time.

I can’t be all those things. I just want to be a teacher.

Now, I love helping kids through their issues, being a listening ear. I enjoying making connections with them over pop culture, movies, and books. I root for them at their games. I email home to make those bridges with their families.

I’m not here to lay fault at some else’s feet; there is not just one person to “blame” for teacher burnout. It’s all of us.

Every person who congratulates a teacher who stays late. It’s their fault for celebrating teachers staying away from their own families to serve others.

Every person who thinks teachers get all summer break off. It’s their fault I feel pressured to work on lesson plans and go to professional developments to “make-up” for my extended unpaid “vacation.”

It’s all of our fault. Yours, mine, & society’s for expecting the impossible of underpaid, overworked human beings who love spending a ridiculous amount of hours with your children.

I just want to be a teacher. #stopteacherguilt

JMF