There is a social media post going around Facebook asking people about their unbucket list. I am very familiar with the term “bucket” list but had no idea what an unbucket list was. Being my curious little self, I clicked the link to learn that an unbucket list is a list of things you would NEVER do again. So, after pondering my life’s unbucket list of getting a sunburn, dying my hair blonde (yes, I did that once, unfortunately), and drinking wa-a-a-y to much wine at a friend’s wedding, I wondered what this list would look like if I applied it to my teaching life. Here is my list of 3 things I promise to NEVER DO AGAIN in regards to my teaching.
#1. Spend tons of money on my classroom
There was a time when I was all about trying to be a Pinterest Teachergrammer and went out and bought all the things I thought would make my classroom look cute and Instagram worthy. I tried to emulate all the teachers out there whose classrooms were works of decorative art. Don’t get me wrong, I applaud those teachers who have a knack for decor and have the financial capability to decorate as they please. In hindsight, I have spent way too many years and way too much of my own money trying to get my classroom to look good all under the guise that an aesthetically pleasing classroom equals being a good teacher. It has only been the past few years that I have realized that spending all that time setting up and decorating my classroom would have been better spent preparing materials and lessons in order to beat the inevitable rush of trying to prepare lessons, photocopy materials, correct work, and evaluate students — and not to mention the financial hit to my wallet at the beginning of each school year.
#2. Prepare students for university
You may be wondering why this would be on my unbucket list since I teach third grade. Well, the answer is quite simple yet quite complicated. It started when I was a student myself. Growing up, I was a figure skating, and a pretty good one at that. My dream was to audition for Disney on Ice to be able to perform around the world. When I brought this up to my mother, she immediately made it known that I was never going to be living out of a suitcase and that I was to get my post secondary education first. And that is exactly what I did.
Flash forward to the high school years of my eldest daughter. When it came time to choose her options for math and science, she told me that she didn’t want to take the high science and math courses because she wasn’t planning on going to university. I was dumbstruck at her declaration. How could she NOT want to go on to further her education? As my mother before me, my opinion had forced her to do something she didn’t want to do, she chose the courses she didn’t want to take, and she wound up going on to post secondary studies – even though she despised every minute of it. She despised it so much, in fact, that she dropped out before getting her CEGEP diploma.
My daughter left CEGEP to go after her dream of becoming a flight attendant. She moved away from home and took her training more seriously than I had ever seen her take any of her academic classes in high school and CEPGEP. And you know what, she flourished! She was successful! And she didn’t need the high math, high science, or the CEGEP diploma to achieve all that.
Don’t get me wrong… I am still a supporter of higher education — but just not the conventional kind anymore. I make it a point to introduce my students to all different kind of job opportunities in their future. I no longer push the “you need to go university” ideal. I now push the “when you get your high school diploma you can do great things” ideal. All students, just like my daughter, will find their way out into the world – and when they find what makes them tick, they will do great things!
#3. Letting parents walk all over me.
Earlier in my career, I did whatever it took to avoid confrontations with parents. When a parent spoke badly to me or about me, I always took it straight to the heart. I agonized over their words and found myself buckling to their unreasonable demands. That’s not to say that I look forward to dealing with overly demanding or unreasonable parents now, but I do stand up and defend myself, my actions, and my words when I have a parent who is unhappy with a decision I have made or something I have done in my classroom. At the beginning of each school year, I inform the parents that I conduct 99.9% of all my communications with them through email so that there is always a physical copy of the interaction. I make sure that when I am having Zoom meetings with parents that the meetings are recorded for our mutual protection. It is sad to think that as teachers we need to do things like this to protect ourselves but sadly, many parents lack objectivity and clarity when it comes to the progress or behaviour of their children. Setting these boundaries with parents has really taken a weight off of my shoulders and lets parents know that I am not going to be a pushover when it comes to the way I run things in my classroom.
Please let me know what you would include on your teaching unbucket list in the comments below!
Leave a Reply