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Message: [QUOTE="Purple Stein, post: 3051203, member: 8205"] I've been where you are. When I started out as a teacher, I put my whole life, my whole everything into that job. The challenges were insurmountable, and it often seemed like I made absolutely no impact or difference, no matter what I tried. It wore me out, it burned me out. After one particularly horrible day, I came home and I mailed out a ton of resumes and cover letters. I just couldn't do it anymore. Three months later, I was in a new teaching gig in a new school. The situations I was facing were less intractable, and I made a fresh start for myself, limiting how much of myself I'd put into my job. Basically, I started treating teaching as my job and not my life. I'm ten years into that gig now and I love my job and my life. But to make it work, I had to sacrifice some of my ideals. I'll tell you what's really interesting, though. When I left that school ten years ago (it was a last-stop school for kids before expulsion), I had to have a meeting with the 50ish kids to tell them that I was leaving. Day in and day out it seemed like I made NO difference in the lives of those kids, but when I told them I was leaving, the looks on their faces said everything. I still look back at that meeting and cringe with guilt -- which is my way of saying to you that the energy you're investing in these kids, in their school, and in their families [B]is[/B] having an impact, even though you may not see it or feel it. That's not going to make you any less tired, and you probably need to teach or work somewhere else. But if my experience teaches anything, well, at least you're tired for a meaningful reason. [/QUOTE]

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