First-grade teacher Carol Fernandez uses her online platform to share teaching ideas, classroom management strategies, and other educational resources. Teachers and parents alike love her clear, confident approach to teaching, but even the best teachers have days that break them.
Fernandez shared a vulnerable video in which she tearfully tried to explain how exhausting teaching is. She teaches 34 students in her classroom, which would even be a lot if they were older kids. It’s an absolutely bonkers number of little kids in one room.
“I was nervous about posting it because I love being a teacher so much, and I never want people to misunderstand that,” Fernandez tells Upworthy. “Teaching truly feels like a calling for me, but the reality is that it can also be incredibly exhausting and heartbreaking. I’ve been feeling a little down lately, and I think I reached a point where I needed to be honest about that side of teaching, too.”
‘This job is exhausting’
Unless you’ve experienced it, it’s hard to describe what it takes to be a teacher. Academics are a fraction of what teaching entails, and even just being around dozens of children all day is enough to drain most people.
“To be a teacher, you have to come here and like, you’re giving so much energy,” Fernandez explained. “It’s exhausting. I’m not feeling well today, and it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter how I feel. It’s almost like you gotta come in here and just shove everything, all your thoughts and all your problems, to the side, and you just have to pour into these kids. And it’s exhausting. I’m exhausted.”
“It breaks my heart because there are so many kids that are really struggling academically, and it hurts me because I care so much,” she said. She explained that they’re doing sight words now, as required, and she’s been doing everything she can in the classroom. But parents clearly aren’t doing any work with them at home. Only one student out of 34 kids in her class passed the assessment.
“When you’re in the front line as an educator, it’s almost scary…and then you start questioning yourself, like, is it me? I’m exhausted. Today, I’m at a zero. I just want to do my job, and I just want to go home. For the last two months, I’ve been go go go, and today, my body’s like, ‘Carol, you need to stop. You need to…I don’t know…’”
Lots of jobs are hard. But teaching is truly on another level than most.
People don’t understand what teaching takes
It doesn’t help when people question and criticize, but teachers deal with that, too.
Fernandez shared that a commenter had asked her why she’s so tired when all of her videos show her sitting down. As if a few-minute video of her sitting for a lesson is reflective of her full day in a classroom full of 6 and 7-year-olds?
‘Be so for real…” she said. “This is exhausting. Emotionally, physically, spiritually, it’s exhausting.”
Others have told her she’s “too loud” and “doing too much” with her students.
“Do you know how hard it is to keep 34 little kids engaged all day?” she responded. “I have to project, I have to move, I have to change my voice and lower my voice. And like, there’s some days I like doing it, but man, to do that every single day, it’s exhausting.”
As a former teacher myself, I can concur. I taught older kids, but I substitute taught in a first-grade classroom for two days shortly after graduating from college. Halfway through the first day, I was completely wiped out. The sheer energy it takes to teach little ones is unreal.
Other teachers chimed in with support
Fernandez received support from other teachers in the comments who understood exactly how she’s feeling:
“As a fellow teacher, this is NOT an exaggeration. I go home exhausted every day.”
“It is SO exhausting. We have to use all of our mental and physical energy.”
“Worked in education as a para, teacher’s aide, behavioral aide 1:1. I literally cared too much and couldn’t take it. I HAD to leave.”
“I had to quit. I ended up in an inpatient unit in September due to poor mental health. 30 beds…5 of us were teachers. This is nuts.”
“I’m two years out from retiring early. I’m still healing from the anxiety on both my mind and body. It’s very dangerous to a person’s well-being.”
“I taught for 26 years, then traveled, rested, took a nice break. Now I sub a few hours a day in grade levels I want, however many days a week of my choosing. Even after two hours, sometimes I need a fat nap. Take care of yourself.”
One way we can ease the burden a bit
Sharing struggles like this is so important. It’s one thing to be told teaching is hard; it’s another to see a teacher’s tears on a particularly hard day.
“I think it’s important for people to understand that you can love what you do deeply and still struggle with the weight of it,” Fernandez tells Upworthy. “Both things can be true, and I hope sharing that helps other teachers feel a little less alone.”
Teachers need support, not just in the form of encouraging comments, but practical, material support. In reality, teachers deserve exponentially higher wages, but since we don’t hold that checkbook, we can help them get the things they need to make their classrooms ideal learning spaces.
Fernandez has an Amazon classroom wishlist here, and you can have items you purchase sent straight to her. Helping with classroom supplies won’t fix the overall issue of teacher exhaustion, but it’s a small way of showing some love to an educator who could use it. (You can also find her PayPal at this link if you want to buy her a coffee or a massage.)
Here’s to all the teachers doing all they can to be there for their students, day in and day out. We see you.
You can follow Ms. Fernandez on TikTok.
