Getting Inside Their Heads...

Most days I love my job and have no regrets.  Some days, though, I'm filled with regret and self-doubt.  It's human nature to question yourself, I suppose, but I have a secret trick for my down days:

I think back on my own high school years.  I don't remember every single teacher certainly, but I do remember a fair number of them.  Some I can picture clear as day, standing at the chalkboard, making some clarifying remarks or holding forth on some topic.  Sometimes I just remember the tenor of how they talked and how they ran their classroom.  The point is, they are in my head.  In a way I carry them around with me all the time.

Then I think, others must also be walking around with some of their high school teachers in their heads too, right?  Now that I've been teaching for 18 years, that's like 1600 students that have spend a fair chunk of their youth in my class (some fools even sign up for a second year of Rideout in AP Physics or Astronomy!)  That means at least some of them have me in their heads for the rest of their lives, right?

After, having used this secret trick, I go back the next day into the classroom and do my thing.  And, guess what, that regret and self-doubt gets to take a hike for a while...