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A Failed Kindergarten Teacher

How I Proved the Haters Wrong

By Kayla BloomPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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Juggling Schoolwork, Teaching, and Life

Continuing on in the face of obstacles, I guess you could say, has never been my strong suit. I try not be a quitter, but so often that backfires in a whirlwind of regret and embarrassment. However, my recent decision to defer after two semesters of graduate school has proven to be anything but a hasty, rash decision. Let me provide a little background.

I knew ever since I was little that I wanted to be a teacher. After graduating High School, I took this idea and went directly into a teaching preparation program at Sonoma State University. It proved to be a lovely campus and I adjusted quickly to the two-hour distance from my family. However, when it came close to graduation, I struggled with the choice of getting my teaching credential or continuing on to a Master’s degree. I choose the latter. And no sooner had I done this than my sister moved from Sacramento, California to Portland, Oregon. It was decided; I would apply to graduate schools in Portland. Of course, I applied to dream schools as well, Brown University and the University of Oxford, but they were long shots all along. So by June of 2017, I found myself accepted to the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program and moving to Portland!

The MAT program is a 10-month, intensive program jammed with both your Master's degree and teaching credential. The summer session went by smoothly, but the fall seemed to drag on. I realized during my student teaching in a kindergarten classroom in SE Portland that a career in teaching elementary school was probably not the best fit for me. There was so much I still wanted to do that being in a classroom all day every day started to get me down. Things like writing, traveling, cooking, and learning German was going to have to be put aside, even while I was still young. So despite my family’s objections, I took the plunge and decided to defer for at least a year.

Everyone thought I was making a terrible decision and quitting.

“After all,” they said. “You only have 6 months left. You should just finish.”

I was quitting not just because I was too stressed and overwhelmed writing my masters thesis, lesson plans and assessments while teaching 27 five-year-olds, not too mention all the personal stuff I was experiencing. I took a long, hard look at the life of a teacher and the life I saw for myself and they did not match. The travel bug has bitten me hard, I must admit, and the last 17 years of school has left me all too eager to be done. After all, I was still not making money, which meant no credit card to handle and thus no credit, and endless tasks around the dorm to finish.

Is it really worth it to make myself miserable?

Grad school is tough enough without feeling isolated and unable to talk to anyone really. It's so specialized many people wouldn't understand. And most employees in my student teaching placement aren't around my age, which makes it easier to connect and form friendships.

And anyways, I am more experienced with and have more of a desire to focus on child development.

So in my cramped, dark dorm room all alone, staring at a blank homework document, I applied for preschool teaching jobs. I contacted my advisors and initiated a meeting to discuss my options. I had never felt so proud of my decision, so certain I was making the right choice for not only my future but my mental health. I had not quit. I simply evaluated my path and tweaked the direction. It is my life after all. And it should be a great one. Maybe I will be seen as a failed kindergarten teacher, but I'm sure I will be a successful preschool teacher.

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About the Creator

Kayla Bloom

Just a writer, teacher, sister, and woman taking things one day at a time in a fast-paced world. Don’t forget to live your dreams.

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