Working hard for something we don't care about: stress. Working hard for something we DO care about: passion.

"What the heck do I want to do with my life?" has been a pretty common thought lately.

 The other day, I was having a conversation with an old friend about what’s been going on in our lives. I’ve known her since birth, and we’ve always been really close, despite seeing each other less and less as we get older. She graduated last year with a degree in geological engineering and was working in a job in her field in Toronto for a while. But now she’s back in Kingston, and instead of her fancy job in Toronto, she’s working at a yoga studio. So naturally, I asked her if it was because she couldn’t find work in her area. She told me that it wasn’t that, it’s that she realized she wasn’t passionate about what she was doing, and didn’t see herself doing it for the rest of her life. So she’s taking some time to figure out what she wants to do, and working somewhere close to home so she can still make money.  And then she said something that caught me a little off guard. “Are you really passionate about teaching?” It was a pretty forward question, but that's something that has made us such great friends. Sometimes you need someone to ask you the questions you don't want to ask yourself. 

So I really thought about it, which is something I don’t think I’ve done in a while. Is this what I want to do with the rest of my life? Have I been telling myself yes just because I’ve put all this time and money into becoming qualified to be a teacher?  My roommate recently told me he’s excited for me to be back at placement, because I was always in a good mood then. Now, this could mean that I’ve just been a huge grump lately. Or, it could indicate that teaching makes me genuinely happy. I think it’s the latter. Teaching is what I want to do. But I think the aspect of it that I’m really passionate about is working with kids, and the relationship that you have the opportunity to make with these people. That’s what I love. I think it is so important to do something you love. As they say, “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life”
...(because they aren’t hiring in that field.) Just kidding, I’m still hopeful.

I’ve also come to realize that teaching grade 7 and 8 sounds like something that is totally up my alley. While I love physics and math, I took classes in a variety of subjects while in my undergrad (one of the benefits of the extra year, and enjoyed a lot of them, and was more successful than most of them than I ever was in my physics class. And I’ll be honest, I love crafts, and would love the opportunity to do that with students. I love the idea of having the opportunity to teach students more than just science and math, and interacting with them in other ways. Moreover, spending more time with students, and having chances to take them on field trips just means getting to know them even better as individuals. Having  all these guest speakers in has been a great experience. I love their honesty about the job, and the passion for it is so evident in the way that some of them speak. I did a 3 week placement in a grade 7 class in my third year, and that is by far the placement that I had the most fun at. Maybe it was just that they were such a great group of students, but it was a blast, and I can honestly say I learned so much from them. I know some say it’s more work, without the benefit of better pay. But let’s be real, is anyone really in teaching for the money?

I’m looking forward to the next couple of weeks at McArthur, and then back to Frontenac. I’ve recently found out I’ll be teaching grade 9 and 10 science, and a senior math class. I was really hoping for a physics placement (4 placements so far, and I’ve never had one in physics somehow), but the science will be a good experience, and will definitely challenge me. Plus, it makes the unit plans we’re currently working on super applicable! 

Life After B.Ed

Once again, life has astounded me with how fast time is moving these days. I must admit that I took a substantial amount of time off over the break (aka pushed school to the back of my mind and hung out with my family.) While it was great for my sanity, and I don't regret it, coming back to Queens I feel like I've been busier than ever. There's the usual school work of course, which for some reason seems to be more considerable in this block, but then there's job fairs and seminars on how to write resumes, and interviews. I feel like the pressure to find a job and find it now is on. I almost wish I had a break from school stuff to figure out my career. But I know life doesn't work that way.

I't's also caused me to think a lot lately about what I want to do when I finish here in April (which by the way is only 3 months away, which is terrifying.) I think my main issue is deciding where I want to teach. I love Ontario, but I'm not super tied to it. I love BC. I love new experiences. Do I want to go abroad? The decision-making and contemplating my future feels too much like "adulthood." It's pretty overwhelming at the moment.

We had a discussion in class recently where we all shared what our plans were for after our time here at Queens. I was looking forward to this discussion, because I'm genuinely interested in what my classmates plans are (especially those who don't plan on teaching in a traditional classroom.) However, the conversation to me at times seemed to be pretty dismal. It seemed to me like several people were feeling pretty disheartened by the current job market for teachers. I understand it isn't great, but there ARE jobs out there. I took an extra year doing my undergrad at Trent, so all the people I was originally in Concurrent Ed with have graduated already and are out in the real world. I've kept in touch with many of them, and what most have told me is that it's not as bad as they thought it would be. I know so many of them have teaching jobs (even a few around here!) So despite all the negative things we hear about getting a teaching job, and how "we shouldn't expect one for the next 5 years," I remain optimistic. I like to think that as a bunch of people who majored in physics, we don't fear a bit of a challenge. I'm a firm believer that we grow a lot more when we are challenged than when things are easy. So bring it on real world.