I enjoy conducting professional development, particularly when I’m commissioned to present on teacher wellbeing. I take the audience on a journey of various challenges a teacher faces during different stages of a 30 year career. Because I logged 34 years in a public school classroom, I have plenty of material. I enjoy describing my struggles at various junctures. Generally, I recreate a challenge that was unique to a phase I was navigating. Rarely in these stories, am I the hero. I love to talk about learning valuable lessons–that I often learned the hard way.
One such lesson happened 7 years into teaching. I call it my 7-year-itch lesson. I was 32, and I felt stymied. All the incentives in education were internal. Your compensation was based on experience and education level. There were darned few avenues of advancement. You could become an administrator, or a head coach, but neither of those options appealed to me. I felt trapped. So I left teaching and went into the private sector where I’d be compensated based on what I did, not who I was.
I have a good skill set for being successful in sales. But just because one has potential, does not mean one should select a certain career path. I had no idea how much I’d miss my students. The interactions I had with sales clients could not compare. These interactions were highly transactional and sometimes confrontational. I desperately missed my students and went hightailing it back.
This experience was immensely valuable, because I learned that my love for the relationships that blossomed between students and me far out shadowed frustrations I had with the job. My sabbatical, consequently, was hugely beneficial to my wellbeing.
I bring this up, because today I’ll interview a teacher that took such a similar hyattus. This episode is also special because Dora Riggs used to be my student. She not only left a cushy teaching gig in an affluent suburban high school, but she returned to an urban district. Her students and the community where she now teaches, while only 10 miles from her previous school, could not be more different. Dora will talk about her teacher gap year–and more interestingly how it and her new surroundings have impacted her. She loves her new school. She’s become a trauma informed teacher and a disciple of restorative practices. She’s a different teacher–a more empathetic teacher. Dora is going to explain why and how.
Dora Riggs
Episode Template
The Problem:
Empathy is hard.
The Solution:
Embrace that empathy does not equate to enabling.
What you can do Tomorrow:
- Make a list of instances where you experienced aggravation with a student behavior and you were unsatisfied with how you handled the situation.
- Record how you reacted and why it was counterproductive.
- Speculate as to why you reacted the way.
- Speculate as to why the student chose the course of action which inspired the confrontation.
- Would you have responded differently if you’d been aware of this motivation? Is so, how?
- How could this exercise influence future interactions with kids?
Practicing empathy will inspire students to look at you as a mentor. It will also help you realize that teaching is a magnificent calling.
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