I begin my adventure in blogging with the topic of teacher guilt, because it is the reason for the blog. As stated on the page, “About this Blog,” at the end of every term, I feel that time has run out before I was able to teach my students all they need to learn on the subject of the class and that I have more stories to tell. This semester, as we near the end of the term, I mentioned it to a class one night when teaching educational technology. My students named my sentiment, teacher guilt, and suggested that I continue to relate information and stories to them through a blog. I have never been particularly good at keeping diaries and journals or participating in social media on a regular basis. However, teacher guilt might just be the impetus I need to improve this situation. The fact that I am a tech queen might also be helpful. I have some kind of device with me at all times, and I enjoy, immensely, hearing from previous students who send me email messages with stories about their teaching. This blog might provide a forum for me to remain in contact with them as well as current students to share thoughts and ideas beyond what we can accomplish within the confines of the academic semester.
Teachers can manage to feel guilt about many things. Lesson planning, timely grading and feedback; connecting with every student everyday; paperwork deadlines; student performance; and personal work/life balance can all be sources of anxiety for teachers. There never seems to be enough time to get to everything, and like laundry, it is never done. When one thing has been taught, it is time to move on to something else. Teachers feel guilty when they stay home from school due to illness and they feel guilty if they go to school and spread the illness to students and staff. They can experience guilty feelings if they take time for physical fitness and they can feel guilty if they do not. I think you get the picture. We plant the seeds of guilt all by ourselves with out the help of others.
Though I have been in the teaching business a long time, I still do not have a “cure” for teacher guilt. However, I have come to realize that I DO get a lot done each term and that my students learn much of what they need to know to become good teachers. It is important for the students and for me to look back at the beginning of the semester and reflect on what they know and can do now that they did not know and could not do then. At this time I think about what I have learned from working with this group of students, as I always learn from teaching. Based on my experiences with the students I have had this term, I will make adjustments in the my courses in the future. Maybe that is a positive result of teacher guilt. Some of what I didn’t get to this year, will be included next time I teach these courses, because of lessons learned this year. This should diminish the amount of guilt I impose upon myself at the end of each term. I’m going to give it a try this spring.
I look forward to hearing from any readers who read this blog and relate to the conversations presented here. Please join in with no feelings of guilt for taking time to think and write about your own feelings.
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