Three Jobs of Teaching

If you feel overwhelmed as a teacher, I think I know the reason.

Teaching isn’t one job. It’s three jobs. At least.

And no one is good at or enjoys all three jobs.

In fact, one of those three jobs probably drains life from you!

The Three Jobs

Here are the three jobs that I came up with:

1. Planning lessons.
2. Interacting with students.
3. Organizing.

Now, I’d bet that one of those jobs popped out as your favorite thing about teaching.

And I’d imagine that one of the jobs makes you recoil in terror. That job sucks away your energy. You might feel like you’re never quite doing it right.

And one job is perhaps so-so. Or maybe you enjoy two of the three. But I’ve never met anyone who loves them all or feels confident at all three.

The Pattern

I’ve spoken to many teachers about these three jobs. Except for a tiny handful of folks, every teacher picks “interacting with students” as their joy.

It makes sense! Most teachers go into teaching because, well, they like working with students.

I also noticed that almost nobody picks planning lessons as their favorite thing.

Many people see “organizing” as something they don’t really like, but they have learned to deal with it. (But, of course, some people live for organizing!)

Ok. So I’m An Oddball.

This pattern was a complete surprise to me because, well, I’m the exact opposite!

Interacting with people drains life from me while designing lessons brings me joy.

Now, it’s not that I dislike children. I love being around kids. But, like, once a week.

The constant, daily interactions left me dried out like a husk. It’s honestly why I had to leave teaching. I’m just too introverted to work with so many people every minute of the day.

But I adore designing lessons. I loved it even back as a student teacher.

In fact, as a student teacher, the real teachers would pay me to write differentiated math units for them! No joke. I don’t think I realized how unusual this was at the time.

An interest in pedagogy was the reason I went into teaching. And why I moved to Byrdseed.TV as my full-time job.

Focus On What You’re Good At

Our instinct is to try to improve the thing that we’re worst at.

But, that’s the road to burnout!

If you spend your energy working on something that you aren’t naturally good at – and don’t enjoy, you are not going to be a happy person.

No amount of grit or growth mindset will make you enjoy something that just doesn’t fit with your personality and preferences.

So, if you’re great at interacting with students, then keep getting better at interacting with students! Then, copy as much as you can from someone who is really good at the thing you’re worst at.

Don’t try to reinvent wheels. Leverage your friends who are good at what you don’t like doing.

I Copied

My colleagues Mrs. Joo and Ms. Chan were fantastic at interacting with students.

They’d get invited to former students’ high-school graduations, birthday parties, and even weddings. They’d have middle schoolers appear in summer and help them set up their classrooms.

So I learned to just copy these teachers. I’d mimic how they greeted their students and how they enthusiastically listened to a kid ranting about a favorite video game.

I’m not a natural organizer, but I reached “good enough” status by observing the most-organized teachers on campus. I copied their systems. I attended an event put on by Rick Morris. I implemented his class cards system.

Boom. My organization was a solid 6 out of 10 and I never really needed to spend any more effort on it.

My energy is better spent on what I’m good at and enjoy doing.

The Problem

Now, folks who enjoy designing lessons make the same mistake. They want to tell people how to design lessons. But most teachers DO NOT want to write their own curriculum.

I used to do this.

I’d give talks detailing the difference between inductive and deductive thinking. I’d explain how to write a concept attainment lesson. Conferences are packed with these kinds of “how to design your own curriculum” sessions.

But that’s like going to a restaurant where the chef comes out and (rather than bringing fully-cooked food) explains to the customers how to make each dish.

Yeah, that’s not what I need when I go to a restaurant. I just want the food, man!

Teachers who don’t want to design curriculum do not need an explanation about how to write lessons!

They need fully-cooked, ready-to-use lessons.

So that’s what I do now. I try to write lots and lots of lessons that teachers can just use.

You’ll find the most fully-cooked versions of those lessons at Byrdseed.TV.

And, yes, I did eventually get invited to a former student’s wedding and also employ another former student, so I guess copying Mrs. Joo and Ms. Chan worked, haha!