Never Let the Fear of Striking Out Keep You From Playing The Game

Lets talk about fears, there’s a lot of fear in the unknown, the fear of the “what ifs.” There are many fears that as a person we have to face in our everyday life. As a new teacher that list of fear continues to grow. The typical fears of what if a lesson doesn’t go right, what if my students don’t grasp the concept, and the list could go on. Over the last several weeks I have been facing the many fears of the unknown in teaching by taking them head on. Student teaching has given me the chance to try out new ideas in the classroom with little fear as I always have my cooperating teachers, university supervisor, and mentors there to ensure me that regardless of the outcome of that specific lesson it will be okay. Coming into the profession there is one BIG fear that i’m still unsure of and i’ll have to figure it out for myself, the fear of making the life and work balance happen.

Over the last several years at Penn State we have had some great opportunities to meet some of the BEST agriculture teachers from all corners of the country. Some who have chose to focus their entire life on being an agriculture teacher and some who have chose to make balance happen while still rocking the teacher game. I am still in awe of how some of these teachers are super involved in their programs, professional development, and still some how manage to dedicate time family and their own passions. As I’ve been questioning on how to make this all happen over the last several weeks I had a friend share on Facebook the exact answer I was looking for. She said something along the line of “some days I rock at being a teacher and lack in the parent area, some days I have a not so good lesson but manage to feed my kids 3 nutritious meals and read them a bedtime story, some days I manage to rock both parts of my life, and other days I fall short on both ends. It’s about acceptance and trying your best at whatever you do with an understanding that every day isn’t going to be perfect but it will all be worth it.”

The life of an agriculture teacher can be stressful at times, yet it is ever so rewarding. Even in the past 12 weeks, I have spent student teaching I have experienced those rewards. Some may be small like a student finally remembering to bring their own pencil to class, while others will be big like a parent or the vice principle telling you that they heard about an awesome lesson that you had, or sharing the excitement with students as they have gotten accepted in college or governor school. The rewards will always outweigh the challenges. I’ve found that in the craziness of the last several weeks you can only give your best self to your students when you are your best self. For me that means maybe catching some extra zzz’s during my after school power nap or getting my nails done, on those nights I give myself extra attention, I also feel myself giving it in my all in the classroom.

Twelve weeks later and I have found my balance, for the mean time that is. My life is about to hit a lot of milestones in the next several months throwing my whole balance out of wack. However, I am ready to continue to take my fear of making the life/work balance head on as I head into the beginning of the rest of my life. I'll leave you with one of my all time favorite quotes "Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game." I'm going to keep playing my best teacher game for the next 3 weeks and for years to come.