Why I Started Teaching: The Real

This profession has a storytelling problem. We tell the story of teaching the way we wish it were, not the way it actually is.

It starts before we even get in the classroom

In undergraduate teacher preparation programs, we create classroom management plans as assignments. We work through carefully constructed scenarios designed to prepare us for the realities ahead. And those scenarios are well-intentioned. But even the most challenging ones can pale in comparison to what many of us walk into on day one.

The gap between what we are taught and what we actually face is wide. And nobody warns us about it.

Our curricula — handed down from well-meaning people who are not in the building every day — are built around what should be happening in classrooms, not what actually is. The most beautifully researched, expertly designed curriculum becomes a completely different animal when half the class is reading below grade level. And yet, we are expected to implement it with fidelity and produce results.

The people closest to us cannot always help

Sometimes we cannot even turn to the people around us for the real truth. School leadership is navigating its own pressures. Parents are seeing a completely different child than the one sitting in our classroom. Our family and friends love us, but they are not in the trenches. They cannot fully grasp what we mean when we say it was a hard day, because their version of a hard day and our version are not the same thing.

So we carry it. Quietly. Professionally. Often alone.

Why I launched Teaching: The Real

I launched The Real because I am in the trenches.

I launched it because the new teacher needs to hear a word from someone who has been exactly where she is standing.

I launched it because the veteran teacher, so close to retirement, needs someone to help her reclaim her why.

I launched it because the teacher midway through his career needs to be reminded that he is not alone.

I launched it because we are human. And as humans, we are allowed to say out loud: I am tired. I do not know how to do this. I need someone to show me, not just tell me. I need a day where the pacing guide takes a back seat and I focus on building something real with the young people in front of me.

I launched it because some days what a teacher needs most is not a professional development session or a new strategy. Sometimes it is a laugh. A moment to breathe. The quiet relief of reading something and thinking, finally, someone said it.

I launched Teaching: The Real because I am stepping into year twenty-one and I am still learning, and I needed a space where that was not just acceptable — it was celebrated.

This is that space. Pull up a chair.

💜💚Teaching: The Real — Real texts. Real topics. Real thinking.