Why be a teacher?

I didn't always want to be a teacher. In fact, I always very strongly opposed it. Even when I was in the major in college, I was in denial that I would ever actually teach someday. Growing up, I was always told I could be a great teacher, but I just laughed in their faces and went along my merry way. 

That is, until I got to college and had absolutely no idea what to do with my life.

My second semester of undeclared major-ness, I took a "career development" class that I hoped would give me some guidance. I took quite a few personality and career tests that all just led to more confusion. 

Then I got the results to this one career test that I will never forget. This was a real career test, not some Facebook thing (did I even have a Facebook back then?), and it told me that my top 3 career options were as followes:

1. Magician
2. Talk Show Host
3. Teacher

Call me crazy, but of those three, I thought "teacher" was the most reasonable, though I still do sometimes wish I could be a talk show host. I could be good. (Jimmy Fallon, call me!)

And that's when I finally decided to declare teaching as my major. I started in Elementary Education. Bad idea. I quickly realized that I liked my classes because I got to finger paint, eat snacks, and learn how to walk like a bear all day long, but as soon as they started talking about teaching those things to actual little kids, I got bored and checked out. No bueno.

So I switched to Secondary Education in Social Sciences and there I felt a lot more at home. 

Well, at least I felt at home in the History and Geography classes because there I was interested in the subject matter. The Education classes were still a struggle for me. I don't do fluff, ok? And in those classes, quite frequently the professors tended to demonstrate their teaching methods by treating us like teenagers and making us act out the class scenarios. Oh my gosh, kill me. Don't make me work in partners and draw posters of what my experiences during puberty were like! I hated it, so I thought I hated teaching. But by this point I felt like I was too far in to change majors, so I just stuck it out until the end. Luckily.

Student teaching was painful. There were so many hoops to jump through (teacher work samples are the devil's assignment), and the bad attitude of the teachers I was working with scared the crap out of me. They taught me a lot of valuable things. They were great teachers, but I didn't want to grow up to be like them, all bitter and quite frankly, lonely.

It wasn't until after graduation when I landed a real teaching job (as a last resort) at a middle school that is seriously the most positive and friendly school I have ever been too, that I realized I enjoyed teaching. 

Not only is teaching fun, but FUNNY. And that is my purpose for this blog. I want to share my funny stories from my few shorts years worth of experience teaching middle school. You can't be around that many awkward teenagers without witnessing some hilarious situations, so here they are. I hope you enjoy!