"You feel a little bit like a nuisance all day long"

Wow. I just read a blog post by a high school learning coach. He shadowed a student for two days, and came away with some pretty big insights. The first two are not new to me, since drama lends itself to students being up and doing. My classes tend to be very active. But the third insight hit me like a ton of bricks.

"You feel a little bit like a nuisance all day long." This is so sad, but probably very true. Students probably feel like problem causers because we see them that way. Sometimes I think about being good at my job in spite of my students. But that doesn't really make sense. My students are the point of my job. I do my job for them, not around them. I need to stop seeing my students as an obstacle to my job. I don't want them to feel like they are a nuisance. I feel like seeing my students that way will lead to burn out and bitterness. I don't want to be that teacher.