It’s easy to list qualities of a good teacher. An effective educator is able to interact with and engage their students. They also have a desire for lifelong learning. But for the majority of teachers, just having an interest in education isn’t enough. Perhaps more important than anything else is the ability to maintain their passion and keep that flame burning, even in the face of challenges. But the circumstances in education today make teachers susceptible to losing that flame.
At the 2023 Educators Rising National Conference, student delegates decided that, for the next three years, we would focus on sharing the good in education. As essential as it is to share the good things happening in our schools, it’s also important to highlight the difficulties teachers have gone through in the classroom environment — and describe how they have overcome these challenges. Persistence, even when things are rough or overwhelming, is incredibly helpful for a teacher to have.
I learned about the value of persistence from a teacher who had trouble getting students to engage in discussion in class. The curriculum was built around student discussion, but the students wouldn’t participate. They would rather sit on their phones and take tests instead of truly engaging in the class and learning something important. You could see the physical and mental toll it took on my teacher. You could tell he was no longer excited to come to our class. He wasn’t excited to teach. Students began to skip class. He knew that something needed to change.
So he changed his approach. He planned different activities that required students to share their ideas and talk. For example, during a class discussion on race, instead of just asking us questions, he pushed us to elaborate on our answers and made sure our answers had value within the larger class conversation — and that we understood what that value was. In discussions like this, it is so important for students, especially those from diverse backgrounds, to be heard and share their experiences. It can be an uncomfortable discussion, but this class proved that students can discuss their ideas in a respectful manner, learn more about each other, and value the discussion.
Similarly, it showed how persistent teachers can overcome challenges. After my teacher changed his tactics, essentially forcing engagement, the students started to turn in valuable work, share their ideas, and demonstrate their learning. Initially, the students had been conditioned to the idea that being on their phones was OK, even though it wasn’t. A new approach prompted a change in the students. They learned the course content as well as what it takes to participate in a discussion-based class.
I could see why the shift my teacher made was important because my favorite classes as a student have always been small, discussion-based courses. Community in the classroom is everything, and in discussion-based classes you are basically forced to become friends with everyone. These classes don’t work unless students are actively engaged. When students are in a class where they feel comfortable, they are able to more accurately express themselves and their feelings and opinions. These opportunities to be known, in turn, help students regulate their emotions.
Providing such opportunities is important. Students deserve them. But helping students regulate their emotions can be incredibly difficult. Teacher stress levels are rising, with more and more things being added to their schedules. Student attendance can negatively affect learning, an issue that teachers are expected to fix themselves, taking more of their free time and sometimes causing the attendance of teachers themselves to dip. The impact these situations have had on my teachers is exponential.
On top of the heavy demands during the school day, many teachers host after-school activities, have second jobs, tutor, and take on extra duties. The extra expectations can easily cause teachers to go into a state of burnout, but teachers can be prepared to combat it and deal with the demands of the job in a safe, controlled way. Effective teachers need to retain a sense of balance and a passion for educating students and continually learning themselves.
Teachers need support from their administration, as well as their own coping strategies, to tackle the profession’s often overwhelming demands. Administrators and districts can implement procedures to help teachers deal with burnout and initiative-fatigue. And teachers can also prepare themselves. They can adjust. They can plan. And by caring for themselves first, they can protect their passion.