Return to Carey-Webb Home Page Suggestions for Overworked New Teachers: An Email Exchange Subject:Are you there Date:Fri, 20 Nov 1998 06:35:49 -0500 (EST) From:JJoh817194@aol.com To:allen.careywebb@wmich.edu Dear Allen, I hope you haven't forgotten me! Jackie Johnson. (Tall, confused black girl!) :) I intern taught at Loy Norrix High School? Yeah, me! How are you? I'm not doing so well. I'm down here in Greensboro, North Carolina, teaching at Lincoln Middle School. I have seventh graders. I teach Language Arts and Social Studies (yes, they stuck me with an area I know absolutely nothing about!). I got my wish...I'm teaching in the inner city. The school is in one of the worst areas in the city. Our students population is 97% minority. The faculty is 98% minority. I enjoy working with my students and I love my colleagues. The principal, Mr. Hash, is okay. He's a push-over, but he loves people... especially our "exceptional" children at Lincoln. Despite the fact that I enjoy living here in the south where it's nice and warm, I hate teaching. I don't like using that word but I do feel that strongly about my career choice. It's too much work. I was not prepared for this workload. I'm up late every night grading papers and getting lesson plans together. Then I'm up early the next morning meeting with parents before school. Then there are the boring, pointless staff meetings, which are really "bitch sessions." I have no time for myself. I realize I'm overwhelmed since it's my first year teaching, but my mentor teacher, Joyce, who has been teaching for eleven years now, says my situation may or may not change, depending on how much I put into my career. She told me she hasn't read a book or written in her journal in ten years! | |
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