I'm getting personal on the podcast today and sharing some of the hardest moments of my teaching career. These teachable moments help us grow and create connections with other teachers. If you're going through a hard time as a teacher, know you aren't alone.
Episode Highlights
Why I became a teacher
My student teaching experience
Toxic workplace environments that felt like high school drama
Hurricane Harvey
My sudden move to 5th grade
COVID
Being suddenly transferred to another school in my 3rd trimester
Season 3 of The Social Studies Teacher Podcast is coming this June with a brand-new format — video episodes! Every other week, you’ll be able to watch face-to-camera episodes on YouTube where I’ll share practical tips and engaging strategies for teaching upper elementary social studies. Prefer audio? You’ll still get biweekly episodes right in your podcast feed!
Social Studies Guided Curriculum
Easy-to-follow lesson plans and activities for social studies - just print and teach! The complete bundles for Communities, Texas History, and U.S. History are available. Click the link to learn more!
This is the social studies teacher podcast, a show for busy elementary teachers looking for fun and engaging ways to easily add social studies into their classroom schedule without feeling overwhelmed or pressed for time. I'm curious to know the southern teach an educator and mom who is passionate about all things, social studies, I love sharing ideas and strategies that are low prep and easy to implement. So let's dive in together.
program. So this was back in:
icane Harvey. And this was in:
annot go without saying COVID:
And but it was kind of nice to work in pajamas. And you know, you'll you're only on for a while. And the lesson I guess I would learn from that is to definitely make sure you make sure your students know they are appreciated. And like, you know, give them a handshake, hug high five every single day as much as you can, because you never know when you're not going to be able to see all of them again, and just relish those moments, even the good, bad and ugly. I know even with the students who had a major behavior problems where like, admin was involved almost every day, I still would have liked to see them and just wish them well and as much as I can to help support them. But it is just something that you could have never predicted. And it's not something that I hope would happen again, I wouldn't wish it on anybody. I think it's just really hard, honestly, and just making sure your students know that you they're appreciated. And that, you know, supporting them in any way possible. Because I will say there were some students I was really worried about, you know, they wouldn't log on to zooms and I wanted to I was trying to check in with them to make sure they were okay. And I was you know, it was hard for a lot of kids and I know that they liked school was their home base, it was something that they really needed. Because their home life wasn't that great. And so I feel felt deeply for a lot of those students who, you know, school was their home base, and I hope now that they're doing okay, and that they are, you know, getting the support they need. All right, my very last memorable moment is towards the end of before I left the classroom before my son was born. And we were moving to a new city, new school, really excited about it. I was excited, I got a job in a really great district. And I was also very pregnant. I was in my third trimester. And we were starting the school year, I remember just getting excited to work in this really new school was like, brand spanking new school, it was like yes, a week, again, a nice little spot on the second floor. And then I get told that they don't have enough teachers, or it was just this really weird situation where they had to shuffle around teachers. And this is in the middle of the pandemic. There were some schools that they lost a lot of teachers and there were some schools that hired too many teachers. And so my school happened to be the one that hired too many teachers and they were trying to like allocate those teachers to other schools. Because I was last hired. I say that in quotation marks because I'm pretty sure I was not last hired. I was first to go to another school. And it was about to be another school that was way out of the ways of where I'm I go to school, I was able to negotiate with, you know, the principal to go to a closer school to where I was actually living. And it was just like, it was so I was like, Is this a joke? I am literally like, how is this happening? I'm very pregnant, about to go on maternity leave in two months. And I'm being told a week before school starts that I have to go to another school that I didn't even plan on, like attending, like, I had no idea that was even a thing. You could just do that to people a week before school starts. And so I was very stressed, very sad, like emotional. I had already started moving my stuff in that classroom. And I essentially had to move it all out of my classroom and to a new school. And because there was no communication, it was not connected with Tater. Well, I was being told that, basically, they're like, Yeah, we're moving you over right now. Or, you know, tomorrow, like, I was basically like, it was just the weirdest thing. And it got to the point, I was like, I have no idea what to do. So I'm no longer going to PD. So I'm just going to take my stuff out of this classroom. And I went to the district office, and like, I went up and talked to a specific person hire up to, like, let them know the situation. And they're like, yeah, no, this was not had, this is not how it's supposed to go, you're supposed to get a paper saying that you can be transferred over I'm so sorry. But it's like, you know, everything you're saying it's null and void. We are, it's what you know, like, bridges are burnt. I'm moving my stuff out of there, like we're good. And I ended up liking the school that I ended up that it was just the stress of moving right before school started. And it was not anticipated. Of course, you would think, you know, I could take unexpected things in stride. But there was another different scenario, it was just like, just the way it was handle. I don't, I really was really upset about the situation. And so, a lesson I guess I could share from this being suddenly transferred to a completely different school. I ended up liking the school, I think it was really great. I, I enjoyed the fact that it was, you know, the principal was very chill hands off. Like, like, they let you do what you needed to do. They're not trying to interfere, they're just trying to help other you know, they're just trying to like, especially because it was a new principal of the new school. And I wasn't the only one. So it was nice to have another team member who also had the same experience, like she was at her dream school. And then all of a sudden, she's saying, they're saying, Oh, we got to put you in another school. And we kind of like commiserated on that together. And so I had a buddy with me. And so just like trying your best to take unexpected things in stride as much as you can. And, you know, rely on a support system of a spouse or a family member to help you through it. And it may be just like, you know, suddenly being moved to a different grade level, you may end up liking the school better than the other school you might have initially better. So I ended up liking the school initially than the one that I was hired for. But then, of course, you know, circumstances as far as we did, we were on a waitlist for the nursery. And so I had to stay at home and for the remainder of the year. So I didn't get to finish that school year, just because we did not have a spot in the daycare. And so we kind of was like, you know, not by choice, but just kind of how the cards were laid out. But it was definitely memorable. Like, just really interesting how that transpired. But this is a really long episode, and just wanted to kind of share with you some memorable moments in my teaching career. If you have connections to it, or you want to share a memorable moment and what you might have learned or like maybe you had an aha moment, just from what I was sharing, feel free to DM me on Instagram at the southern teach, I'd love to talk with you. Just you're kind of like all these, these seemingly like, least crazy stories, I guess now thinking back and it's like, Did this really happen? It's just things are unexpected sometimes, and you don't have things on your bingo card. But number one, I feel like you know, teachers need to be paid so much more than just like, based off of all these experiences. I feel like I've lived a lifetime of just, you know, really interesting, stressful moments in teaching. But just despite what might seem really, really stressful and upsetting at first could end up really helping you in the long run or at least helping you with a trajectory of what could be even better than you expected. Not trying to like downplay anything because I definitely was in my feelings with things and I was not happy I was angry. I have been sad. I've been just a set and so feel those feelings but also think about possible opportunities that might come from negatives. This is not just in education, this is in life this this there's so many life things that happen to us and being in the classroom being a teacher is not an exception. So hopefully this episode has made you feel heard and seen like, you know, you're not alone. And just wanted to kind of share these experiences with others just so that they can also kind of learn from what I've learned. All right. Hopefully you have a wonderful rest of your week and I will talk to you again next week. Thanks for listening to the social studies teacher podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, hit that subscribe button and leave a review. I would love to hear your thoughts. You can also find me on Instagram at the southern teach. I can't wait for you to join me in the next episode. For more teacher tips and strategies
