I was reading Are We Doing Anything Today and she wrote about the frequent problem of when we say "yes" too much, talking about all the work she puts into being the cheerleading coach. A pre-service teacher responded with a comment:

As a current methods student, the semester before student teaching, I am placed with a teacher in a local school. I go to my high school everyday with high expectations, and everyday I am let down. I usually begin my morning listening to my teacher complain about how much she has to do…all of which is volunteer work- as in NOT part of her job. This spills over into the 1st block class where students usually end up sitting in their desks twiddling their thumbs, acting a fool, or doing some pointless grammar worksheet. These students NEED instruction. So my question is: Why do teachers sacrifice their REAL purpose, to teach, to be on some technology board or sponsor some squad?

I felt the need to respond with the following…

So much of what teachers do that makes a difference happens outside the classroom. Whether it is the clubs we run, the sports we coach or even just the time we make to talk to kids one on one, often those are the moments that give a student an insight into our shared humanity in our schools.

The instruction in the classroom is, obviously, incredibly important, but without the other pieces of the community in place, we will lose so many kids who don’t see school as a compelling part of their lives.

(Now, if we are talking about all the added paperwork that NCLB has created — on top of all the paperwork so many of our schools already have, then yes, that is the stuff that keeps us from really teaching, either inside the classroom or not.)

And yes, compensation is a HUGE piece of the puzzle. Few teachers I have ever met — and few schools I have ever visited — get every hour of extra compensation they deserve. We all work two or three hours for every hour of overtime we work, but smart administrators make sure that teachers get enough money to feel valuable and not taken advantage of. Most of the teachers I know — and all the teachers at SLA — understand the financial situation in our school (and especially in our urban schools), so they know that they won’t get every hour they work paid. But it’s my job to make sure that I can set aside enough money to pay them enough so they know I respect and value the work they do.

The thing I forgot to write was that if we find activities outside our classrooms that we love, those activities can re-energize us (the same way they re-energize students) and teach us valuable lessons about ourselves as teachers. After all, Grant Wiggins was inspired to write Understanding By Design after thinking about difference between the way he coached and taught. I know for me the hardest part of being a principal is that I don’t coach anymore. My favorite part of every day was 6:30 – 8:00 am, when it was my athletes, me and a shared sense of purpose. I think I was a very good English teacher, but I’m pretty sure my best teaching happened on the practice field and practice court. And I know coaching made me a better teacher.

So now I’m curious — what’s the most rewarding this you’ve done as a teacher that wasn’t teaching your classes?