Should I be a teacher?

Having had a rotten week, I found myself contemplating (for maybe the hundredth thousandth time) - is this job the job for me?

This question made me reflect back to when I started training and whether I should have just plain and simply asked the question - should I be a teacher?

So before I give yet another weekend away to merciless planning, assessing and grading...I thought I'd ask the wise and wonderful one that is - Google.

I simply typed in Google - Should I be a teacher?

And even Google couldn't give me an answer... he's probably still scratching his head.
The only results I could find were quizzes...so it seems that a load of questions will determine whether this is the career for me.

Feeling like I wanted answers, I chose the Guardian one...Which happened to be a very bizarre list of questions which was hard to bag yourself into the right category as there are three options - a typical Ms Trunchbull, Miss Honey or the IDGAF category (work out that initialism for yourself).  The response was...

Could you be a good teacher?

Idealist teacher 

You are an idealist and still have faith in the capacity of teachers to be the midwives of dreams. But is there still a place for you amid the expediency and management-speak of education today?

And luckily ...THIS SCREAMS ME!

For whatever reason I joined the teaching profession (and I'm guessing it's something related to helping the young minds of today make progress...) it's still plagued by management.  

Damn you management for stripping apart education and making it a battlefield!

If you were to ask me the question...it would be a resounding - no.  But with an exception.  If you can deal with the red tape, the lies, the manipulation, the control, the no time to do anything and people telling you to jump off a cliff right now but make sure you've done this....then go for it.

If not...steer well clear and perhaps consider teaching assistant...(though not sure if that's such a good idea either...).

Another holiday down

This time last year I was counting down the days until leaving this profession.  Now I'm counting down the days until summer.

Always counting.
Counting down to the end of the day. Counting down to the end of the week.
Counting down to summer.

It's sitting there wishing life would flash by. 
And I'll be counting on until retirement.

But there's more to life than that.  There's houses and babies and good times but most importantly LOVE.

It's only today that I've brushed that cloak of depression off and realised how sunny life can be.

Let's hope the feeling lasts...