A day in the life of a teacher

By Antonio Cooke

News Reporter

CMHS students discuss the life of a teacher and the steps teachers take, including things like how their day goes, how they think, and how they view students.

Mr. Zawacki stands outside his classroom at B114, where he talked about how it is to be a teacher. Photo by Laron Mccollum.

People define students as good or bad by their learning abilities or by being disruptive during classes, or because they don’t find the lesson interesting, leading some to believe they're a lost cause.

“I do not view students as good or bad; instead, I view them as areas of strength vs. areas that need improvement. If behavior and class disruptions are common from a student, it is an area that we will work on compared to a student,” Mr. Zawacki said. 

People wanting to become teachers are becoming fewer and fewer because people are thinking that the pay isn’t worth going to school for or isn’t worth dealing with kids that are disruptive, making where fewer people become teachers. 

“As the school year gets underway, a national teacher shortage has K-12 districts scrambling and job boards lengthening. The president of the National Education Association called the lack of teachers in the classroom a five-alarm crisis, reporter Liam Knox from Inside Higher Ed said.

Something teachers have to go over every day is lesson plans: deciding what they’re going to do for the day, what students are to do after they finish the work that was assigned to them, and how to make the lesson fit into the class schedule. “I figure out what fits best in the story I am trying to teach my students,” Mr. Zawacki said

When in school for teaching, you need to have certain subjects that you want to do in mind because that subject will be what you're stuck with doing your whole career, making it important to study the subject you find most interesting. 

“I love history, and for me, it was an easy choice for this career because I love spending time with others to ensure they are able to grow and reach the goals that they set for themselves. The way for me to achieve that was to focus on history and connect it to present-day issues and what I really enjoy about social studies.” Mr. Zawacki said

An important thing for teaching is trying to help your students build good habits that can help with classes and mental health.

“Showing up to class on time, meeting deadlines, finding an area that is not a strength, and working towards making it one of the positive habits that students should develop because it’s applicable to the real world," Mr. Zawacki said.

When teaching, teachers try their best to lead students away from bad habits that can affect them in the future. If they keep up with things like not getting enough sleep at night or cheating on exams instead of studying, it can lead to students developing a habit of doing this as they get older.

“Not prioritizing growth and focusing on the negatives of a learning situation are habits that I would like to work on more with students,” Mr. Zawacki said. 

Teaching is one of the most important jobs someone could have, as they’re teaching the future generation of kids, and depending on how the school or teacher teaches, it impacts how much students want to learn and grow.

“I try to put myself in their shoes and think whether this is something they can use in the real world and actually apply. I learned more in my first 6 months in my first job than I did in the last 2 years of university. I try to make my classes as similar as possible to what it’s like working in a real design agency. I remember some of the harsh but true comments I got from my first boss that got my work from being studenty to being a professional. LLC Managing member James Eccleson said.