Just as an introduction...

When I think of teachers, I think of the two categories highlighted in Roald Dahl's 'Matilda'. Firstly, there is the wonderful Miss Honey.

Full of smiles and care, with an empathetic glance at every child, and a nurturing teaching style which puts today's teachers against high competition. Clearly Miss Honey did not work in a low social-economic area, and her only fear was our next comparison: Miss Trunchbull.

Miss Trunchbull is the villain we all loathe - from her stout posture to her blatant disregard for the needs of the children in her school, she marches around school putting the fear into every child, or teacher, she encounters. When I grow up, I thought wistfully, aged 10, reading my battered copy for the umpteenth time, I am going to be just like Miss Honey! And so, the dream was dreamt, the seed was planted, etc, etc..

14 years later however, as I look at the pile of books wedged between the piles of reports, levels, assessments and sheets that need sticking in god-knows -where, I feel slightly less like Miss Honey and a lot more like Miss Trunchbull. Dear GOD!!!! I moan to no one in particular as my Growing Green highlighter is whipped out, I sat with you to do this! I LITERALLY SAT NEXT TO YOU TO DO THIS!! Why have you not understood? And therein lies the problem.

I love teaching. I do. I wake up on a morning in September and skip to my bathroom, singing like Snow White to all of the spiders behind my toilet, jump in my car, drive 40 minutes, and get myself to school for 7:30am. Everything is prepared, my classroom is beautiful, the world is good. Come on in children, Wow, love the haircut, looking nice and smart this morning, brilliant, get those bookbags away and have a look at your morning work...tralalalala! The children are excited, the lessons are good, and the day goes quickly. I am home by 5:40pm, just in time to cook some dinner and mark the first pieces of work.

By October, I could cry when my alarm goes off. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE TEACHING! I love working with children, I love the look on a child's face when they finally understand something that you have worked for weeks on. I love it. I honestly don't know of another career where this level of gratification is so profound. Apart from maybe being a nurse or a doctor, but I digress. But, it is not the teaching that is hard. I could teach for days, weeks, months, years, without having a break. I am talking about the stress of teaching. Oh, here she goes! I hear you sigh.

I know I'm not the first. By now, I'm probably not even in the first 100,000! But teaching is great. That is the main message of this. Not Teaching is shit and everyone who says otherwise is a great big fat liar, and that includes you who thinks that we work 9am-3pm! Don't you know anything?! It's not! It is fab and I am so lucky!

But this is a place to rant, rave, laugh, and (hopefully not) cry over what it really means to work in the public sector, with children, families, councils, social services, child services, and perhaps most importantly, colleagues.

My opinions are mine, and if you don't share the same experiences, that's fine. I hope you enjoy!

Love and kisses,
Not Just A Teacher xx