Mrs. G-J

6th Grade teacher, Mrs. G-J has been teaching at Day Creek ever since it opened, 18 years, and had many experiences along the way. What is the most exciting part of being a teacher? 

“[It’s] finding that key for kids and turning [things] around. Certain kids have never had good grades. I have sat in parent conferences and we share the report card. I’ve had kids start crying when they see it, not because it’s bad, but because it’s good. I’m like ‘Hon, you know those are good grades right?’ and they’re like, ‘I KNOW!’ They are crying because they are so proud of themselves, and that’s very emotional for me to know that they finally feel that feeling of ‘I accomplished that’ and ‘I can do things better than I ever thought I could.’ There’s nothing like that,” Mrs. G-J said. 

While teachers celebrate the victories of their students improving throughout the year, the pressure to unlock student success has the potential to add more stress to a teacher’s job. 

“You think as a new teacher, ‘If I could just help one kid,’ but when you become a teacher you feel like, ‘Why am I able to help everybody, but that one kid?!’ and so it can be challenging sometimes. Sometimes, it has nothing to do with you as the teacher. It has to do with stuff that is out of your control. If you care about what you do, the highs are really high and the lows can sometimes be really low,” said Mrs. G-J.

As Mrs. G-J and other teachers work to develop connection and rapport with their students, the weight of the job can move beyond campus and affect homelife. How do teachers handle it?

“I usually talk to fellow teachers that are retired, like friends, [or] Mr. G-J, my husband, and unload. [I] try to have somebody give a different perspective sometimes to help me see it differently or at least get it off my chest,” said Mrs. G-J.

Though there are hard times during teaching, it all pays off when teachers run into their former students at Starbucks or Victoria Gardens.

“When you run across these people that are all grown up and the young men have beards and the women are wearing makeup, they remember you and they say how much you made a difference for them. To me, that’s a success, that I was able to make a difference for somebody in a positive way, where they could still remember me even though I was their 4th, 6th, 7th, or 8th-grade teacher,” said Mrs. G-J.